Problem Definition

"Enable Nested Group" is turned off in Atlassian Cloud platform. Atlassian Cloud customers would like to get this feature enabled as since Jira 4.3 release, the new user management has the ability to use nested groups.

It seems that the reason behind disabling this is that: there is a potential risk that Atlassian Cloud licence will not work properly with nested groups.

Suggested Solution

Implement nested group feature as implemented in Jira Server.

Workaround

Nested groups flattening via Cloud IdP - nested groups aren’t supported in Atlassian Cloud, but you can keep the nested structure in your external user directory and use the flattened one in Cloud. A flattener keeps proper group memberships by automatically recreating memberships from your nested structure in the flat structure, and then adding users to all the required groups.

Consider syncing groups via IdP that supports the feature - here’s a summary of how identity providers supported in Atlassian Cloud handle nested groups:

https://support.atlassian.com/migration/docs/prepare-nested-groups-for-cloud-migration/ 

For example, Azure AD supports nested groups:

• learn.microsoft.com
• learn.microsoft.com

If you'd like to use flattened nested groups with AzureAD, please can check Early Access Program for Nested groups flattening between Atlassian cloud and Azure AD