When NOT to Migrate from Camunda 7 to Camunda 8

A Reality Check for Architects & Decision Makers

Introduction

With the marketing push around Camunda 8, many organizations feel pressure to migrate from Camunda 7 as soon as possible.

But here is the uncomfortable truth:

❗ Camunda 8 is not a drop-in upgrade.
❗ And migrating too early can be a strategic mistake.

Camunda 8 is a new, cloud-native, event-driven platform, not just “Camunda 7 with better scaling”.

This blog explains when you should NOT migrate yet — and why staying on Camunda 7 is often the smarter choice.

Quick Reality Check: Camunda 7 vs Camunda 8

AspectCamunda 7Camunda 8
ArchitectureMonolithic BPM engineDistributed (Zeebe)
State storageRelational DBDistributed log
TransactionsACIDEventual consistency
Human tasksBuilt-inExternal Tasklist
External tasksOptionalMandatory pattern
DeploymentWAR / JARKubernetes-native
Migration effortLowHigh

👉 Camunda 8 is a platform rewrite, not a version upgrade.

1️⃣ You Rely on Strong ACID Transactions

Why NOT migrate

If your processes depend on:

  • Database-level rollback

  • Strong consistency

  • Multi-step transactional guarantees

  • Synchronous service tasks

Then Camunda 8 breaks your architectural assumptions.

Camunda 8 uses:

  • Event sourcing

  • Append-only logs

  • Eventual consistency

There is no true rollback — only compensation.

Verdict

❌ Do not migrate if ACID is critical to your business workflows.

2️⃣ You Have Heavy Human-Centric Workflows

Why NOT migrate

If your system is:

  • Human-task heavy

  • Built around Tasklist / Forms

  • Integrated with LDAP / SSO

  • Full of approval workflows

Then Camunda 7 is far more mature and feature-complete.

Camunda 8:

  • Treats human tasks as external events

  • Has fewer enterprise UI features

  • Requires more custom UI work

Verdict

❌ Do not migrate if your workflows are human-centric.

3️⃣ You Are Not Running Kubernetes

Why NOT migrate

Camunda 8 is:

  • Kubernetes-native

  • Cloud-first

  • Designed for distributed clusters

If your environment is:

  • On-premise

  • VM-based

  • Traditional app servers

  • No container orchestration

Then Camunda 8 introduces:

  • Massive operational complexity

  • New DevOps burden

  • Higher infrastructure cost

Verdict

❌ Do not migrate without Kubernetes maturity.

4️⃣ Your BPMN Models Use Synchronous Service Tasks

Why NOT migrate

Camunda 7 allows:

  • Synchronous service calls

  • Long-running logic inside the engine

Camunda 8 requires:

  • External workers

  • Async orchestration

  • Event-driven design

Your BPMN models will not work as-is.

Verdict

❌ Do not migrate if your BPMN relies on sync execution.

5️⃣ You Depend on Java Delegates & Embedded Logic

Why NOT migrate

Camunda 7:

  • Java Delegates

  • Execution listeners

  • Script tasks

  • Embedded Spring Beans

Camunda 8:

  • No embedded Java execution

  • Everything must be external

This means:

  • Massive refactoring

  • New services

  • New failure modes

Verdict

❌ Do not migrate if your processes embed Java logic.

6️⃣ You Have Many Running Production Instances

Why NOT migrate

Camunda 8 does not support live instance migration from Camunda 7.

That means:

  • No seamless cutover

  • No automatic state migration

  • Long dual-run period

  • High risk of data loss

Verdict

❌ Do not migrate with thousands of live instances.

7️⃣ You Need Strong Debugging & Operational Simplicity

Why NOT migrate

Camunda 7:

  • Easy debugging

  • Cockpit introspection

  • DB-centric observability

  • Simple rollback

Camunda 8:

  • Requires:

    • Operate

    • Elasticsearch

    • Zeebe tools

  • Distributed debugging

  • Event tracing

Verdict

❌ Do not migrate if your ops team is small or DB-centric.

8️⃣ Your Team Is Not Event-Driven Architecture Ready

Why NOT migrate

Camunda 8 assumes knowledge of:

  • Event sourcing

  • Asynchronous systems

  • Message-driven design

  • Distributed failures

Without this maturity:

  • Incidents increase

  • Debugging becomes painful

  • Stability suffers

Verdict

❌ Do not migrate without event-driven experience.

9️⃣ Your Current Camunda 7 System Is Stable

Why NOT migrate

If your current platform:

  • Is stable

  • Performs well

  • Meets business needs

  • Has no scaling bottleneck

Then migration brings:

  • Cost

  • Risk

  • Downtime

  • Complexity

Verdict

❌ Do not migrate just because marketing says so.

10️⃣ You Expect a “Lift-and-Shift” Migration

Why NOT migrate

There is no such thing as:

“Upgrade Camunda 7 → Camunda 8”

This is a full re-architecture.

Verdict

❌ Do not migrate if you expect a simple upgrade.

When SHOULD You Migrate (For Balance)

You should consider Camunda 8 if:

✔ You need massive horizontal scaling
✔ You are microservices-native
✔ You are Kubernetes-first
✔ You are building a new greenfield platform
✔ You accept eventual consistency
✔ You are ready for async workflows

Interview Question (Very Common)

Q: Is Camunda 8 a replacement for Camunda 7?
A: No. Camunda 8 is a different platform targeting different architectural problems.

Final Verdict

❗ Migrating from Camunda 7 to Camunda 8 too early is one of the most common BPM platform mistakes.

Camunda 8 is excellent for:

  • Cloud

  • Microservices

  • Event-driven orchestration

But it is not better for:

  • Transaction-heavy enterprise workflows

  • Human-centric processes

  • On-premise systems

  • DB-centric architectures

👉 Architecture maturity should drive migration — not product marketing.


💼 Professional Support Available

If you are facing issues in real projects related to enterprise backend development or workflow automation, I provide paid consulting, production debugging, project support, and focused trainings.

Technologies covered include Java, Spring Boot, PL/SQL, Azure, and workflow automation (jBPM, Camunda BPM, RHPAM).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

jBPM Installation Guide: Step by Step Setup

  jBPM Installation Guide – Step by Step for Beginners If you are starting with jBPM (Java Business Process Management) , the first step is to set up your environment. In this guide, we’ll walk through how to install jBPM, configure it, and run your first business process. 🔎 What is jBPM? Before we dive into installation, a quick recap: jBPM is an open-source Business Process Management (BPM) suite , written in Java, that allows you to model, execute, and monitor workflows using BPMN 2.0 standards. It can run standalone , embedded in applications , or deployed on a Java EE server . 🖥️ Prerequisites Before installing jBPM, make sure you have: Java JDK 11 or later (Java 17 is commonly used) Maven 3.x (for building and managing dependencies) Git (optional, if you want to clone sample projects) A Database (H2, MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Oracle) – jBPM ships with H2 for testing At least 4GB RAM (8GB recommended for Workbench & KIE Server) 📦 Download ...
Read more

Scopes of Signal in jBPM

Image
💡 Introduction Signals in jBPM 7 are a core part of event-driven workflow design. They allow asynchronous communication between process instances, making it possible to start , interrupt , or coordinate processes without direct linking. However, signals can have different scopes , which define how far the signal travels and who receives it . Let’s explore the four available scopes in detail: 🔹 Process Scope 🔹 Default Scope 🔹 External Scope 🔹 Project Instance Scope 🧩 1️⃣ Process Scope 📘 Definition Process scope signals are local to a single process instance or its child subprocesses . They are not visible outside that instance hierarchy. 📋 Use Case Used for communication inside the same process , like triggering subprocesses or event sub-processes. 🖼️ Process Scope Example Below is an example of a simple process-scoped signal. Only this process (or its subprocess) will catch this signal. ⚙️ 2️⃣ Default Scope 📘 Definition The default scope ...
Read more

OOPs Concepts in Java | English | Object Oriented Programming Explained

Image
🔹OOPS (Object Oriented Programming System) in Java Object-Oriented Programming (OOPS) is a programming paradigm that uses classes and objects to design software. It simplifies development and maintenance by applying key concepts: 📌 Class: Class   is a user-defined data type which defines its properties and its functions. Class is the only logical representation of the data. For example, Human beings in an organisation is a class like Employee. The age, name, department, salary etc. of a human being/employee are its properties, and the jobs performed by the employees in an organisation are known as functions.  The class does not occupy any memory space till the time an object is instantiated. A class is a user-defined data type that defines properties and functions. For example: Class: Employee Properties: name, age, salary Functions: work(), attendMeeting() A class does not occupy memory until an object is created. ...
Read more