Case Study IowaComputer Gurus

IowaComputerGurus, a leading supplier of custom application solutions based on Microsoft.NET Technology stack, assists in providing exceptional design, development, website, and performance optimization services.

In this edition of our Case Study series, you will find out how ICG, aimed at solving problems, fulfilling needs, and creating celebrated user experiences through progressive technology, adopted GitProtect.io backups for GitHub repositories and metadata to ensure its GitHub data security and protection of source code as the most valuable company’s asset.

Quality, Security, and Support - ICG’s philosophy

IowaComputerGurus builds its modern technologies to solve its customers’ issues, meet their needs and pain points, and provide an exceptional user experience. It has already helped Mule-Hide Products Co., MetaFarms, the American College of Veterinary Emergency Critical Care, Ducks Unlimited, and other companies to improve their websites within frontend and backend development, website optimization, and design. “We are 100% committed to providing the best technology solutions and exceptional support for every customer, every time,” says Mitchel Sellers, CEO at IowaComputerGurus.

Being a leading source of knowledge, experience, and training in the online world, ICG can boast of being a Microsoft Silver Certified Partner, Azure Cloud Solutions Partner, and an A-rated, recognized company with the Better Business Bureau.

Compass arrow targeted at security

The IowaComputerGurus team, which is mainly comprised of full-stack technical professionals, utilizes GitHub to host its repositories. Moreover, they use GitHub issues for tracking and project management which made GitHub a single point of failure for the company’s critical business information.

Though the company considered GitHub as a trusted Git hosting service, it liked the idea of having an independent backup copy outside of GitHub.

Given the critical nature of its data stored in GitHub, ICG first came up with some creative solutions for backing up its repositories. However, those backup options were manual and hard to manage. Moreover, they didn’t include metadata, which is an important part of the DevOps process and project management. Realizing that their backup options didn’t meet the company’s needs and requirements, the ICG team decided to look for a professional backup solution that would bring them peace of mind.

Comprehensive GitHub backup software

The research process has never been an easy task. It took IowaComputerGurus more than 2 months to search, test, and validate the backup options. Finally, the ICG team decided to stop its choice on GitProtect.io, a maintenance-free backup and Disaster Recovery software for the GitHub ecosystem.

Being a consulting company, ICG knew that its repository count could become a challenge due to cost models, however, GitProtect.io managed to fulfill the company’s unique requirements. The PoC process was simple and smooth: “Ultimately we had the best interaction with support with GitProtect.io which led us to make the final solution,” says Mitchel Sellers, CEO at IowaComputerGurus.

Fully managed backups

With the implementation of GitProtect.io, ICG could automate its backups which greatly reduced the ICG team’s workload. Now they can schedule their backups without daily manual interference. Moreover, the backup solution permits IowaComputerGurus to create multiple backup plans for its critical data. Thus, if the ICG DevOps team needs it, they can set up custom backup plans which can vary with data to protect, frequency, rotation scheme, scheduler, and compression.

Multi-storage compatibility

The possibility of storing data in a few locations can benefit the company that puts security first. GitProtect.io allowed IowaComputerGurus to back up its data to a few storage locations with the opportunity to add any other storage instance - whether local or Cloud S3 compatible - at any time. It gave ICG a chance to fulfill compliance with the 3-2-1 backup rule.

Moreover, the backup service provided ICG with additional free immutable storage, ensuring that in the event of a ransomware attack, the entire storage with data will never be corrupted, as all the data in the storage is written once and can be read many.

With source code being our most critical asset, knowing that it is protected and in a verified additional location gives us great comfort, even if we hope we never need to go back and retrieve it.

Mitchel Sellers,CEO/Director of Development at ICG

Secure metadata backup

Metadata is critical information that provides details about source code. For IowaComputerGurus it was important to back up its GitHub metadata as the company uses GitHub for tracking and project management. Manual backups don’t cover metadata, they usually include only repository data. Thus, in the case of a failure, this crucial information on communication and management can be lost.

By adopting GitProtect.io, IowaComputerGurus can have peace of mind that its GitHub issues, wiki, comments, pull requests, and other historical data are included in the company’s backup plan and accessible from any point in time.

Conclusion

IowaComputerGurus managed to keep up with all the company’s needs and requirements by adopting GitProtect.io backups for GitHub repositories and metadata. The backup solution empowered the ICG team with enhanced data protection and security.

GitProtect.io has given us peace of mind knowing that all of our critical GitHub information is safely backed up in a remote location.

Mitchel Sellers,CEO/Director of Development at ICG

Overall, IowaComputerGurus got automated secure backups of its GitHub environment that can easily be adjusted to the company’s ever-growing repository count.