Jira Software LTS release: Upgrade to Jira Software 8.5 or wait for 8.13

[Jose M.]

Hello. 

Currently Jira Software 8.5 is the available LTS release. I was thinking about upgrade to it from 7.13.12. But now Jira Software 8.13 was announced as next LTS release. Is it recommended to wait? The EOL for 7.13 is 28/Nov/2020.

We can wait, but it depends on, when  version 8.13 will be available. 

[Jose M.]

We decided to start with the current LTS version 8.5 instead of using the latest 8.10.

As confirmed by the Atlassian Support:

Yes going with the LTS version is the best choice, it provides extended support and back portation for security fixes.

[Jose M.]

From Atlassian Support today I have received the following information:

The Long Term Support releases is currently in the developmental phase and is scheduled to be released before the end of this year.
However, the exact date and month of release have not been decided as of yet. But it would be in the last months of this year.

Hence, we can not exactly confirm if LTS release would be available before the end of support for Jira 7.13, but as I see our internal documents it is definitely targeted to be released within this year.