Why Back Up DevOps Tools: What Is Worth Remembering?

Last Updated on March 8, 2024

It’s hard to imagine the software development lifecycle (SDLC) without DevOps tools. They are like a gold mine for the developers, as DevOps tools bring automation, improve collaboration between different members of your team, and tweak monitoring and alert systems. 

In this blog post let’s fathom out the importance of DevOps tools backup, especially when it comes to GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, and Jira, and the reasons you can use to work on your CTOs, CISOs, Security, and Team Leaders to start protecting your company’s critical apps valuable for DevOps.

Top 5 reasons to back up DevOps tools

DevOps tools play a significant role in the software development and deployment processes. These tools permit to:

• boost collaboration as developers can work on the same codebase, for example; and track each other’s changes, and merge their code contributions. 
• enable code reviews, allowing the team members to review code changes before it’s merged.
• provide integrated issue tracking, enabling teams to track and manage bugs, feature requests, and other issues throughout the entire software development lifecycle.
• ensures Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) to automate the build, test, and deployment process, which help to reduce the risk of errors and increase efficiency. 
• ensures control that the sensitive information is only accessible to authorized team members.

It’s as vital as breathing to ensure that all development processes won’t be interrupted in the event of a disaster or system failure. So, now let’s look at the reasons to back up your DevOps tools, like GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Jira.

Reason # 1 – Data Loss

DevOps tools frequently contain critical project information, including source code, configurations, deployment pipelines, projects, roadmaps and more. What will you do if you suddenly lose that vital data? How much will data loss cost your organization? I’m sure, it’s even scary to imagine. 

Human mistakes, hardware and software failures, cyberattacks and ransomware, or natural disasters are all situations leading to data loss. Backing up DevOps tools can help you recover this crucial information in the event of a catastrophe fast and continue your work uninterruptedly. 

Check out our Ultimate review of the most infamous GitHub-related security incidents in 2022 or 2022 In A Nutshell: Atlassian Outages And Vulnerabilities to see which threat situation GitHub and Atlassian faced last year. 

Reason # 2 – Business Continuity 

When an outage of your DevOps tool provider takes place, you don’t have much time to think. You should act fast to minimize downtime and maintain business continuity. 

On average a minute of downtime can cost $137 to &427, while larger businesses can experience losing over $ 16,000 per minute. And what if the downtime lasts for hours or days? It can lead to significant data and financial losses. Let’s remember the infamous Jira outage in 2022 when more than 700 users couldn’t access their data for a fortnight.  

DevOps Backup is the only way to guarantee your company an interrupted workflow isn’t at risk. As it permits you quickly recover your data and continue coding with peace of mind. 

Reason # 3 – Compliance Requirements

Backup is one of the main requirements for compliance with international security standards, including SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, and DCID. Why? Because by backing up DevOps tools, organizations not only meet strict security requirements but also demonstrate to their customers and auditors that they have developed appropriate measures to protect their critical information and respond fast to threatening situations. 

You can find out more about Compliance requirements from GitHub Compliance – All You Need To Know. 

Also, when choosing DevOps backup software, make sure it’s compliant itself with SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 or GDPR regulations.

Reason # 4 – Shared Responsibility Models

Every SaaS provider, GitLab, Atlassian, and GitHub as well, operate within shared responsibility models that define the responsibilities of the service provider and the customers’ duties. 

In short, service providers are usually responsible for their entire system’s accessibility, availability, and security as they are only data processors, while the customer is the owner of the data, so it’s his responsibility to ensure that his data is properly protected and compliant with company’s policy and legal requirements. 

Want to know more about your duties within shared responsibility models? Check our blog posts where we’ve covered everything you need to know about GitHub Shared Responsibility Model and Atlassian Cloud Security Shared Responsibility Model. 

Reason # 5 – Collaboration and productivity depend on the security

DevOps should keep their finger on the pulse to build effectiveness and productivity within the team to update their DevOps tools on time. It’s important from the security side because, usually, companies that produce DevOps tools upgrade their solutions and create patches to treat vulnerabilities discovered in the previous versions. 

Thus, with up-to-date apps, you minimize the risks of being vulnerable to threats. Moreover, such updates are also targeted at simplifying the use of the DevOps tool, which makes the work process easier and, as a consequence, more productive. 

As we have already touched on the topic of security and mentioned that on-time updates matter, let’s enlist other security tips that can help you stay responsible and afloat:

What makes your DevOps backup effective?

Backup guarantees that your critical data is accessible and available under any circumstances. It means that you can recover all the information vital for your business continuity at any point in time. To be able to do that, make sure that your backup:

• permits to create automatic custom backup plans (to help your DevOps team automate backup processes and use their time more effectively for product development)
• provides you with infinite retention (this feature permits you to recover your data from any point in time and helps you meet your duties lying under shared responsibility models)
• enables you to meet the 3-2-1 backup rule (it permits you to keep at least 3 copies in no less than 2 storage instances, one of which is offsite)
• allows you to apply Forever Incremental or GFS (Grandfather-Father-Son) rotation schemes (that will enable you to make faster copies and save storage) 
• enables AES in-flight and at-rest encryption with your own encryption key (to boost your security, as you will be the only one who knows the encryption key)
• provides ransomware protection, which is a must today (to beef up your DevOps data security) 
• ensures Granular restore and Disaster Recovery Technologies (the system of features that permits the recovery of chosen or all data in any event of a catastrophe to different locations – device, another provider (migration between GitHub-GitLab-Bitbucket), same or new account and more.
• guarantees Monitoring system (which will help to simplify monitoring of backup performance) and audit-ready reporting (SLA reports, advanced audit logs, Slack, email notifications, webhooks, and more) 
• SAML integration and the possibility to log in via Identity Providers (Okta, CyberArk, Oauth, and more).

Are you switching to a DevSecOps operation model? Remember to secure your code with the first professional GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, and Jira backup.

DIY DevOps backup vs. third-party automated backup software

We have mentioned the key features your backup should have. How to ensure it? It’s up to you to decide – you can try to create your own backup or use a third-party DevOps backup software.

If you choose the first path and decide to arrange the backup of your DevOps tools by yourself, you will have to assign some members of your DevOps team to write backup scripts and keep an eye on their effectiveness. It may seem a good idea at first sight (as it may seem cost-effective), though, in long-term, you will notice that writing your own backup scripts and checking their performance eats into your DevOps time a lot, leaving them no time for their core duties (thus, your product quality can suffer and deadlines for product updates can be postponed). 

Another option is third-party backup software for your DevOps tools. It can greatly save your DevOps team’s time, as all the backup processes are automated, and monitoring of performed backups is easy with email and Slack notifications. Thus, your DevOps team can focus on their core duties. Moreover, a professional backup solution in place permits you to reduce your organization’s Shared Responsibility Model, as in this case, you share the responsibility of data protection with a third-party backup tool. 

Takeaway

What is the easiest way to bring peace of mind to your organization? Back up your DevOps tools data. In this case, you will guarantee that all vital data is easily accessible and available from any point in time leaving no option for downtime and data loss. 

GitProtect.io is a professional backup and Disaster Recovery software that guarantees data recoverability at any point in time. It provides all the necessary features to ensure your critical data security and the company’s uninterrupted workflow. 

Need proof? Check our case studies to see how we help companies like Zoop, LEAP Dev, and more protect Intellectual Property, ensure business continuity, meet their security needs, and fulfill SOC 2 requirements.