Author: Craig Thompson

Protecting your Azure DevOps and GitHub data is becoming increasingly prioritized for organizations when they realize relying solely on native backup solutions like Microsoft’s built-in Azure DevOps backups restrictive retention periods and lack of granularity introduces significant limitations, increasing operational and compliance risk.

Organizations worldwide trust solutions like Backrightup to protect their most vital assets, including leading companies such as Assurant, Nuvei, WelbeHealth, Sycurio, Panoramic Health, Telstra, Manitoba, and Kering. While native solutions provide basic backup functionality, they fall short of addressing the nuanced needs of compliance, operational efficiency, and risk management.

Below are the key drivers organizations focus on when ensuring the effective protection of DevOps data and how Backrightup helps them remain secure, compliant, and resilient.

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1. Inadequate Native Backup Capabilities

Relying solely on native backup solutions like Microsoft’s built-in Azure DevOps backups introduces significant limitations:

• Lack of Granularity: Native solutions don’t allow for targeted restoration of specific assets such as pipelines, boards, or individual work items, leaving organizations vulnerable to gaps in recovery.
• Short Retention Periods: Built-in backups offer only a 28-day retention window, insufficient for meeting long-term compliance or operational recovery needs.

Use Case: A financial services company experienced a critical failure in their Azure DevOps pipelines due to accidental deletion. Native backups couldn’t restore specific pipelines, leading to significant project delays.

With Backrightup, they quickly recovered the deleted pipelines, ensuring project continuity and avoiding costly downtime.

Backrightup closes these gaps by providing comprehensive backup capabilities designed for granular restoration and extended retention, ensuring your critical DevOps assets are always protected.

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2. Compliance and Regulatory Requirements

Compliance remains a cornerstone of modern IT governance, with strict requirements dictating how data is handled and protected:

• Geographic Data Restrictions: Organizations often need data to remain within specific regions, such as the continental U.S. or a defined data center (e.g., South Central US region).
• Encryption and Key Management: The ability to own and manage encryption keys with immutability is crucial to meet government and audit standards.
• Detailed Audit Trails: Agencies like BDO or the Office of the Comptroller require comprehensive reporting on backup activities, restores, and overall data integrity.

Use Case: A multinational healthcare organization needed to comply with strict geographic data restrictions and encryption standards for sensitive patient information.

They leveraged Backrightup to ensure all backups remained within designated regions and implemented custom encryption key management to satisfy stringent audit requirements.

Backrightup meets these demands with advanced compliance features, providing full control over encryption keys, data localization, and audit-ready reporting.

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3. Operational Efficiency and Risk Mitigation

The inability to recover critical DevOps data efficiently can bring operations to a standstill:

• Critical Gaps in Coverage: Many third-party solutions overlook Azure DevOps data, leaving repositories, pipelines, and configurations unprotected.
• Granular Recovery Needs: Organizations must be able to quickly restore individual items, such as a mistakenly deleted pipeline, to minimize downtime.
• Seamless Continuity: Ensuring rapid recovery with minimal disruption is vital to maintaining operational resilience and avoiding costly delays.

Use Case: A tech startup, with restricted resources, inadvertently deleted a repository containing core application code. The inability to restore individual items efficiently with native tools posed a risk to their go-to-market timeline.

Backrightup’s granular recovery capabilities enabled them to restore the repository instantly, minimizing operational disruptions.

Backrightup bridges these gaps by enabling quick, precise restores and ensuring business continuity even in the face of accidental deletions or misconfigurations.

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4. Auditable Reporting and Visibility

Without clear visibility into backup and restore activities, organizations face heightened risks during audits and internal reviews:

• Comprehensive Reporting: Auditors require detailed reports showing backup successes and failures, restore logs, and user activity.
• Visibility Gaps: Many existing solutions fail to provide real-time insight into what data is protected, leaving organizations vulnerable in compliance scenarios.

Use Case: An e-commerce company undergoing a compliance audit faced challenges proving backup and restore integrity due to incomplete reporting from their previous solution.

Using Backrightup, they provided auditors with comprehensive logs detailing backup successes, failures, and restore activities, passing the audit with confidence.

Backrightup offers robust reporting tools that provide complete transparency, enabling teams to confidently demonstrate compliance during audits.

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5. Scalability and Future-Proofing

As organizations grow, their data protection solutions must scale seamlessly:

• Lightweight and Flexible Solutions: Teams are moving away from heavy, resource-intensive platforms like Commvault in favor of more agile, easy-to-integrate tools.
• Integration with Existing Systems: Backrightup integrates effortlessly with your existing tech stack, covering Azure DevOps and GitHub backups without adding complexity.

Use Case: A growing DevOps consultancy scaled from managing 50 repositories to 500 across multiple clients. Their legacy backup tool became resource-intensive and complex to manage.

Backrightup’s lightweight solution scaled seamlessly with their operations, integrating into their existing tech stack without adding administrative overhead.

This scalability ensures your backup solution grows with your organization, maintaining efficiency and adaptability.

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6. Proactive Approach to Risk Management

A reactive approach to data protection is no longer viable in today’s high-stakes environment:

• Prevention Over Reaction: Organizations recognize the importance of mitigating risks before they escalate, particularly given Azure DevOps’ pivotal role in their operations.
• Critical Asset Protection: Even limited incidents can have outsized impacts, making proactive data management essential.

Use Case: A global retailer faced ransomware threats targeting their Azure DevOps pipelines.

By deploying Backrightup, they proactively secured their repositories with immutable backups, ensuring rapid recovery in the event of an attack and safeguarding their critical infrastructure.

Backrightup enables proactive risk management by delivering reliable protection and peace of mind for critical DevOps assets.

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Conclusion

To achieve operational resilience, compliance, and robust data protection, organizations need a backup solution tailored to Azure DevOps and GitHub’s unique demands. By addressing these key drivers, solutions like Backrightup empower businesses to safeguard their critical assets, streamline audit processes, and ensure seamless recovery when it matters most.

From industry leaders like Assurant and Nuvei to global giants like Kering and Telstra, organizations trust Backrightup to deliver the reliability and performance they need so they don’t slow down.

Businesses face increasing pressures to manage vast repositories of code, pipelines, and artifacts while ensuring compliance and security. As companies transition to the cloud and consolidate their digital infrastructures, the need for a robust and reliable backup solution becomes critical. Yet, the challenges and risks surrounding backup management can be daunting, especially for organizations with diverse tools, global teams, and stringent compliance requirements. This article explores the common challenges businesses face in managing DevOps backups and how solutions like Backrightup can mitigate these risks.

Challenges in DevOps Backups

1. Managing Multiple Repositories Across Organizations Many companies operate with numerous repositories spread across different departments or business units. In some cases, organizations have inherited repositories from acquisitions, each with its own system, such as GitHub, GitLab, or local Git instances. Consolidating these repositories into a single platform, such as Azure DevOps, while ensuring reliable backups, can be a complex task.
   • Use Case: A global manufacturing company managing 350-400 repositories across multiple business units, including microservices and Terraform modules. Each business unit operated on different platforms, adding complexity to their backup strategy.
2. Ensuring Backup for Various DevOps Components It’s not just code that needs backing up—pipelines, artifacts, and work items are equally critical. Recreating pipelines manually after a failure can be time-consuming and frustrating. Moreover, backing up certain systems, such as Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC), presents additional challenges due to the need for full backups rather than incremental ones.
   • Use Case: A company using Azure DevOps for its central repository of code, pipelines, and artifacts expressed concerns about having to manually recreate hundreds of pipelines in case of a failure, along with backing up complex TFVC repositories.
3. Compliance and Disaster Recovery With businesses striving to meet compliance standards like ISO 27001, the need for regular backup testing, auditing, and data restoration becomes essential. Compliance requirements not only mandate regular backups but also necessitate that businesses can quickly restore critical systems in case of failure. Disaster recovery planning hinges on the ability to restore operations promptly, and organizations often lack visibility into whether their backups are comprehensive and functional.
   • Use Case: A manufacturing company aiming for ISO 27001 certification required a backup solution that could handle compliance audits, regular restore testing, and ensure disaster recovery capabilities across their global operations.
4. Data Loss and Human Error The risk of data loss due to human error is an ever-present concern. Whether it’s accidentally deleting repositories, misconfiguring pipelines, or losing work items, the impact of human mistakes can be costly. Companies often struggle with the manual backup processes they currently have in place, leaving them vulnerable to such errors.
   • Use Case: A team using an Excel plugin for work items experienced a situation where an accidental save wiped out all their work items, highlighting the importance of a reliable backup system that could act as an insurance policy against such mistakes.
5. Global Teams and Organizational Separation For organizations with global teams spread across different regions, separating access and responsibilities can be crucial. The challenge lies in maintaining secure backups while managing different levels of access for various parts of the organization. Ensuring that backups are both centralized and secure, while allowing specific access for regional teams, adds another layer of complexity.
   • Use Case: A company with employees in China, Switzerland, and the U.S. needed to segment their backups into separate organizations within Azure DevOps, ensuring that access could be restricted based on geographical teams.

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Risks of Inadequate Backup Solutions

Failing to implement a reliable DevOps backup strategy can lead to significant business risks:

• Cost of Downtime: Whether due to a cyberattack, infrastructure failure, or human error, the cost of downtime can be staggering, often running into tens of thousands of dollars.
• Non-Compliance Fines: Failure to meet regulatory requirements can result in heavy fines and reputational damage.
• Data Corruption or Loss: Losing critical data such as pipelines, code repositories, or artifacts can set projects back by weeks or even months, particularly if manual restoration is required.
• Limited Recovery Options: Without a comprehensive backup plan, organizations may find themselves unable to recover critical data, pipelines, or even entire projects in a timely manner.

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How Backrightup Addresses These Challenges

Backrightup offers a comprehensive solution tailored to the unique needs of DevOps teams, addressing the key challenges and risks that businesses face:

1. Unified Backup Across Multiple Repositories and Organizations Backrightup enables businesses to consolidate and manage backups for multiple repositories, even across different organizations. It supports various tools like GitHub, GitLab, and Azure DevOps, ensuring that all critical data is securely backed up and easily restorable. Additionally, their unlimited plan is designed for organizations managing microservices, helping avoid unnecessary costs associated with backing up many small repositories.
2. Granular Restore Options One of Backrightup’s standout features is its granular restore capabilities. Instead of restoring an entire organization or repository, teams can restore specific pipelines, artifacts, or even individual work items. This feature reduces the risk of having to manually recreate crucial assets like pipelines or projects, ensuring that teams can quickly recover from any disruptions.
3. Compliance and Audit Support For companies aiming for ISO certifications or other compliance standards, Backrightup offers robust restore testing and auditing tools. These include regular backup and restore reports that help businesses provide documentation during compliance audits. Backrightup can also integrate into existing security protocols, such as Azure Active Directory (AD) and SSO, ensuring secure access management.
4. Disaster Recovery and Retention Policies With Backrightup, organizations can store backups in multiple locations, supporting the 3-2-1 backup strategy (on-premise, cloud, etc.). This ensures that even if a failure occurs in one environment, the business can quickly recover data from a secondary location. The solution also allows for flexible retention periods, so businesses can keep backups for as long as they need.
5. Support for TFVC and Other Legacy Systems For companies using older or more complex systems like TFVC, Backrightup offers full backup capabilities. While TFVC may not allow incremental backups, Backrightup’s solution can handle the full backup process efficiently, ensuring that even the most complex systems are protected.
6. Global Team Support and Organizational Separation Backrightup provides tools for managing multiple organizations and user access securely, ensuring that teams across different regions can operate effectively while maintaining strict access controls. The solution also integrates with Terraform to automate user and organizational management.

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Conclusion

Managing backups for DevOps teams can be a complex and daunting task, especially in organizations with diverse tools, global teams, and strict compliance requirements. However, with a solution like Backrightup, businesses can simplify their backup processes, reduce risks, and ensure that they are always prepared for any disaster scenario. Whether it’s providing granular restore options, ensuring compliance, or supporting complex systems like TFVC, Backrightup addresses the critical challenges that DevOps teams face in their backup strategies.

Backrightup, a leading automated backup and disaster recovery solution for DevOps environments, today announced a strategic partnership with Furō, a consultancy specialising in DevSecOps, Data & AI and Platform Engineering. 

Under this partnership, Backrightup will integrate its automated Azure DevOps and GitHub backup platform into Furō’s service offerings. This collaboration provides clients with a seamless way to enhance their data protection, resilience, and compliance capabilities. In turn, Furō will offer their clients access to Backrightup’s backup and restore services as part of their DevSecOps uplift initiatives, ensuring their Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) strategies are significantly strengthened.

Furō’s Excellence in Delivery

Furō continues to achieve excellent results for a diverse range of industry leaders such as global financial and education institutions, telecom operators, energy providers and government organisations, helping them implement strategic DevSecOps, Data & AI, and Platform Engineering solutions. These efforts empower clients to deliver software changes more rapidly, efficiently, and with higher quality.

This partnership strengthens Furō’s ability to support customers in protecting their intellectual property through comprehensive DevSecOps solutions. With the integration of Backrightup, Furō helps clients develop robust BCDR strategies to safeguard their DevOps data, ensuring business continuity. As concerns over inadequate backups rise- highlighted by APRA – Furō now offers a proven, automated solution that tests backups with restores, aligning with the Essential 8 framework to strengthen data resilience in GitHub and Azure DevOps environments.

“We are excited to partner with Furō to deliver secure and automated backup solutions that align with their DevSecOps and Cloud strategy and implementation services,” said [Craig Thompson], Head of Alliances of Backrightup. “Furō’s expertise in enhancing the DevSecOps capabilities of organisations, coupled with our DevOps data protection tools, will enable businesses to scale their DevOps environments securely, efficiently, and with a strong resilience framework in place.”

Furō’s Technical Director, [Hung Dinh], added, “This collaboration with Backrightup is a natural fit as we strive to deliver top-tier security and automation solutions for our clients. By integrating Backrightup’s technology, we will provide our clients with unparalleled data protection and the confidence that their GitHub and Azure DevOps environments are fully covered by a robust BCDR strategy.”

Our Shared Goal: Empowering Organizations to Serve Their Customers Effectively

Both companies are eager to bring these enhanced offerings to market, helping businesses improve their DevSecOps capabilities, secure their operations, and achieve compliance with confidence. Through this partnership, Backrightup and Furō are committed to empowering organisations to serve their customers faster, securely, and reliably, while ensuring operational resilience.

 Furō’s Contact details:

Website: ://www.furo.io/

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/company/furogroup

Azure Key Vault plays a crucial role in securing the sensitive information involved in Azure DevOps backups. Here’s why Azure Key Vault is important in this context and how it enhances the security of your backup processes:

1. Secure Storage of Secrets and Credentials

When managing Azure DevOps backups, various sensitive data such as API keys, database connection strings, and storage account credentials are often required to access and store backup data. Azure Key Vault provides a secure, centralized location to store and manage these secrets, ensuring that sensitive information is not hardcoded or stored in less secure locations, reducing the risk of exposure.

Example: Suppose you are backing up Azure DevOps repositories to a secure storage account. The storage account keys or SAS tokens needed for this operation can be securely stored in Azure Key Vault. Azure DevOps pipelines can then retrieve these keys from the Key Vault at runtime without exposing them in the pipeline scripts. This ensures that secrets remain protected even during the execution of automated tasks.

2. Encryption and Data Security

Azure Key Vault not only stores your secrets but also allows you to create encryption keys that are used to encrypt your backup data. The key you create in Key Vault is never stored on our side; instead, it is securely referenced to encrypt and decrypt data. This approach ensures that your encryption keys remain in your control, significantly reducing the risk of unauthorized access.

Example: During the backup process, data can be encrypted using a key stored in Azure Key Vault. Since the key is never stored or exposed in our system, you maintain full control over its use. Even if someone were to access the backup data, without the encryption key stored securely in your Key Vault, they would not be able to decrypt and access the data.

3. Controlled Access and Service Principal Integration

Azure Key Vault allows you to control access to the secrets and keys it holds using role-based access control (RBAC) and policies. By integrating a service principal with Key Vault, you can restrict access to these keys, thereby limiting who or what can decrypt your data. This significantly enhances security by ensuring that only authorized entities can access sensitive encryption keys, reducing the risk of data breaches.

Example: In a scenario where multiple teams are responsible for different aspects of the backup process, you can use Azure Key Vault to ensure that each team or service principal has access only to the specific secrets or keys they need. This minimizes the risk of accidental or malicious misuse of credentials and ensures that unauthorized users or hackers cannot decrypt your backup data.

4. Integration with Azure DevOps

Azure Key Vault integrates seamlessly with Azure DevOps, enabling secure access to secrets and encryption keys directly within pipelines. This integration allows Azure DevOps to retrieve secrets and keys from the Key Vault without storing them in plaintext in the pipeline configurations. This enhances security by keeping sensitive information out of source control and pipeline logs.

Example: During the execution of a pipeline that performs backups, Azure DevOps can dynamically fetch the required database connection strings, API keys, or encryption keys from Azure Key Vault. This ensures that the credentials and encryption keys are never exposed in the pipeline code or output, maintaining the security of the backup process.

5. Automated Rotation of Secrets and Keys

Azure Key Vault supports the automated rotation of secrets and encryption keys, ensuring that credentials and keys used in the backup process are regularly updated. This reduces the risk associated with long-lived credentials, such as them becoming compromised over time.

Example: If an API key or encryption key used in a backup process needs to be rotated every 30 days, Azure Key Vault can automatically manage this rotation, ensuring that the latest key is always used without manual intervention. This reduces the administrative burden and improves security by limiting the window of opportunity for attackers.

Azure Key Vault is essential for securing the sensitive information required in Azure DevOps backup processes. It ensures that secrets and encryption keys are stored securely, accessed only by authorized entities, and are not exposed during pipeline execution. By integrating Azure Key Vault into your Azure DevOps workflows and using service principals to restrict access, you significantly enhance the security and compliance of your backup strategies, ensuring that your data remains protected even as it is backed up and restored. Azure key Vault product information Key Vault | Microsoft Azure

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has recently issued a critical advisory urging Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) to enhance their data backup procedures. This call-to-action stems from observed vulnerabilities that could significantly hinder the restoration of operations in the event of a cyberattack. Specifically, APRA has highlighted three key areas of concern:

1. Insufficient Segregation Between Production and Backup Environments: Many insurers lack adequate separation between their production and backup systems, increasing the risk that a compromise in one could directly affect the other.
2. Lack of Rigorous Control Testing: APRA observed that insurers are not sufficiently testing their backup controls to ensure that backups are genuinely protected from compromise. Without rigorous testing, these systems may provide a false sense of security.
3. Inadequate Recovery Capability Testing: There is a critical gap in testing whether the backups can effectively recover both systems and data, which is essential for maintaining continuity in critical business operations.

APRA’s General Manager of Operational Resilience, Alison Bliss, emphasized the necessity for insurers to proactively review and address these gaps. Failure to do so could expose them to significant risks, potentially undermining their financial stability. APRA considers any identified weaknesses that could impact an entity’s risk profile or financial soundness as material security control weaknesses.

To mitigate these risks, APRA advises BFSI to implement robust access controls that prevent any single account or individual from having the ability to modify or delete both production and backup data. Moreover, insurers should ensure that their backup systems are not only effective and secure but also thoroughly tested to confirm their capability to recover critical business operations in the event of a disruption.

This directive underscores the importance of a resilient backup strategy in the broader context of cyber resilience, particularly for entities regulated by APRA. BFSI, and indeed all APRA-regulated entities, are being called upon to stay vigilant and to actively strengthen their cybersecurity posture in response to this guidance.

See APRA’s letter.

Cyber resilience remains a top priority for the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), as the evolving threat landscape continues to pose significant risks to financial institutions. To mitigate these risks, APRA-regulated entities are urged to proactively implement strategies that enhance their cyber defenses, particularly in the area of data backups.

In APRA’s recent Interim Policy and Supervision Priorities update, the emphasis on adhering to Prudential Standard CPS 234 Information Security (CPS 234) is clear. APRA expects entities to not only meet these standards but also to periodically self-assess against the guidelines in Prudential Practice Guide CPG 234 Information Security (CPG 234).

APRA has identified data backup practices as a common area of weakness within many organizations, despite their critical role in protecting against data loss. Through supervisory activities, APRA has observed issues that could limit the effectiveness of backups in restoring systems during a cyber incident.

Entities are expected to review and address any gaps in their backup arrangements, as failing to do so may constitute a material security control weakness, notifiable under CPS 234. APRA will continue to monitor and share insights on these vulnerabilities, ensuring that all regulated entities can strengthen their cyber resilience in a timely manner.

Here’s how Backrightup effectively addresses each of these inadequacies, including APRA’s observations regarding insufficient backup practices:

Backrightup have been supporting APRA-regulated organizations such as Telstra Super, Spirit Super, and Allianz with automated backup and restore testing.

1. Insufficient Segregation Between Production and Backup Environments

Isolation: Backrightup ensures sufficient isolation between production and backup environments by using separate storage accounts and applying strict access controls.

Access Controls: These controls prevent any single account or person from having permissions to modify or delete both production and backup data.

Compliance: Segregation is enforced through role-based access control (RBAC) and the principle of least privilege, aligning with the guidance from CPG 234, paragraphs 44 and 45.

Retention: Unlike Microsoft Azure DevOps and GitHub, which do not provide unlimited retention and can permanently delete data after 28 days if not restored, Backrightup offers secure and long-term data retention, ensuring that your critical backups are preserved and accessible when needed.

Are you confident in your backup strategy? Don’t leave it to chance. Contact us today for a complimentary Backup Assessment tailored to APRA’s stringent requirements. Let’s ensure your backups are resilient and fully compliant.

2. Insufficient Control Testing Coverage and Rigour to Ensure Backups Are Protected from Compromise

• Comprehensive Testing: Backrightup integrates a rigorous testing program that continuously validates the integrity and security of backups.
• Automated Audits: Automated audits and monitoring tools are in place to ensure backups are protected from unauthorized access, modification, or alteration.
• Regulatory Alignment: These measures align with CPG 234, paragraph 45, and Attachment G, ensuring the backup environment remains secure and uncompromised.
• Granular Control: While platforms like Azure DevOps and GitHub may lack granular control over backups and restoration, Backrightup’s solution provides detailed oversight and management, reducing the risk of gaps in business continuity.
• Support for APRA-Regulated Entities: Backrightup supports APRA-regulated organizations such as TelstraSuper, SpiritSuper, and Allianz by automating backup and restore testing, ensuring they meet regulatory requirements and maintain strong cyber resilience.

Worried about potential gaps in your backup environment? Schedule a risk-free consultation with our experts to evaluate and enhance your current backup solutions, ensuring alignment with APRA’s CPS 234 standards.

3. Insufficient Testing of Capability to Recover Systems and Data Within Tolerance Levels from Backups

• Regular Testing: Backrightup includes regular testing of backup coverage and recovery processes to ensure that critical business operations can be restored within defined tolerance levels.
• Recovery Drills: These recovery drills validate both the technical capability and the efficiency of the recovery process, ensuring compliance with the recovery requirements outlined in CPG 234 and Attachment G.
• Proactive Approach: This proactive approach guarantees that systems and data can be recovered instantly and effectively in the event of a disruption.
• Detailed Recovery Support: Unlike other platforms that may not support granular backups or comprehensive restoration capabilities, Backrightup is designed to support detailed recovery, helping businesses maintain continuity without disruption.

Secure your data with confidence. Discover how Backrightup can fortify your backup strategy against APRA’s identified vulnerabilities. Reach out to us today for a personalized demo and see how we can protect your business.

Conclusion

In addition to these targeted measures, Backrightup offers a unique “Restore Assured” feature, providing monthly restore testing and detailed reporting on the efficacy of backups. This proactive approach ensures that your backups are not only secure but also fully functional, giving you the confidence that critical business operations can be restored swiftly in the event of a disruption.

For a limited time, we’re offering a 20% discount on our automated backup and restore testing services. Don’t miss out—contact us now to take advantage of this offer and safeguard your business.

Our stakeholders recognize that “cloning all your repos down to an on-prem shared drive” is far from a robust backup strategy. They understand the critical need for comprehensive solutions that go beyond simple repository backups. Furthermore, with Microsoft Azure DevOps and GitHub not providing unlimited retention, data that’s not restored within 28 days is lost forever. Additionally, the lack of granularity in backups or restoration options can significantly impact business continuity. Backrightup addresses these challenges by providing advanced backup capabilities that ensure all aspects of your DevOps environment are protected. This gives your organization the resilience it needs.

Compliance is non-negotiable. Ensure your organization meets APRA’s backup requirements with Backrightup. Contact us to review your current setup and avoid potential regulatory pitfalls.

There is no undo button when it comes to your data

1. Microsoft Share Responsibility Model

It’s in the cloud, why backup?

It’s in the cloud, why backup?

It’s a common question we get asked. 81% of Organizations believe that Microsoft will back up their data and that it is recoverable. Yes, Microsoft does save your data but there are caveats to this process around what exactly is backed up and how easy it is to recover.

Shared Responsibility

Azure DevOps is hosted entirely on Microsoft Azure and is subject to the Microsoft Azure Shared Responsibility model.

Microsoft themselves stipulate “for all cloud deployment types, you own your data and identities. You are responsible for protecting the security of your data and identities”.

“Whatever your approach, you should consider all data potentially “at risk”, no matter where it is or how it is being used. This is true for both data in the cloud as well as data stored in a private datacenter.”

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security/fundamentals/shared-responsibility

2. Microsoft Recommendation

Not only do Microsoft operate the Shared Responsibility model, but they also recommend 3rd party backup.

Microsoft’s terms of use:

We strive to keep the Services up and running; however, all online services suffer occasional disruptions and outages, and Microsoft is not liable for any disruption or loss you may suffer as a result. In the event of an outage, you may not be able to retrieve Your Content or Data that you’ve stored. We recommend that you regularly backup Your Content and Data that you store on the Services or store using Third-Party Apps and Services.

3. No “per item” Backup”

Microsoft are a brilliant organisation. Azure Devops is the best in class. As with anything however, mistakes occur… as evidenced by this paying Azure DevOps user.

4. Human Error

Can’t recover that Azure DevOps Project?

Microsoft’s 28-day backup policy requires you to restore your entire organization meaning your entire organization (including all existing projects) need to be restored to an older point in time. And that’s if you realize in the first 28 days… can your business afford to have just a 28-day backup?

5. Ransomware

Ryan Smith checks his email at 630am every morning. This morning he finds an email from Microsoft… Azure DevOps is offline until further notice.

Sound far fetched? Not in 2019 for Microsoft themselves. Or in 2021 for thousands of their customers

In fact, in 2021, ransomware attacks against businesses will occur every 11 seconds. If it happened to Microsoft themselves, what makes your business different?

2,866,909 – 2024 Estimated Ransomware attacks

6. Malicious Employees

Not everyone leaves your company on happy terms. Some of the most common customer stories we hear are the work of an insider.

Noticing a missing repository when you have hundreds of untracked client repositories is no easy task.

Backrightup backs up your data for up to 7 years. Your choice entirely. Don’t let a sour ending become a nightmare.

Hard to protect against without backup

“A former IT contractor has been sentenced to two years in prison after hacking into a company’s server and deleting the majority of its employees’ Microsoft Office 365 (O365) accounts. The incident resulted in the company completely shutting down for two days.”

7. Compliance

8. Account Hijack

All your accounts deleted:

No access to your Azure DevOps. Every last account has had their access removed

A ransom is demanded, and data removed:

Negotiations with hackers begin. The ransom is paid but…

The data is NOT restored:

What makes a hacker keep up their side of the bargain? Restoring from a reliable Backrightup backup, including your users and their permissions is the only way to protect against the Account Hijack attack.

9. Cost of Recovery

Without an on-demand backup, the costs of the post-disaster recovery are often longer than you think.

A 2021 cloud backup provider survey* showed that “Fewer than 50% were able to recover their data in less than six hours. Many took days, even weeks.”

For many developers working on your products, this cost can run into the tens of thousands.

*Source: https://www.ownbackup.com/blog/2021-state-of-saas-data-protection/

10. Provider Outages

Microsoft is a brilliant organization. Azure DevOps is the best in class. As with anything however, mistakes occur… as evidenced by this paying Azure DevOps user.

Protect your critical IP in minutes – visit www.backrightup.com or email us at [email protected]

GitHub-related incidents, including outages, high-severity flaws, and malicious attacks. It underscores the importance of maintaining robust security practices, including regular backups, to protect source code and metadata. The incidents highlight various vulnerabilities and the innovative methods employed by malicious actors to exploit GitHub for their purposes.

GitHub Incidents

1. Hackers abuse GitHub (December 2023):

Malicious actors used GitHub for hosting malware, leveraging secret Gists and issuing commands via git commit messages to avoid detection and control compromised hosts. The Hacker News

2. 15K Go Module Repos Vulnerable to RepoJacking (December 2023):

Researchers discovered that over 15K Go module repositories on GitHub are susceptible to RepoJacking due to username changes and account deletions. The Hacker News

3. Cyberattack on GitHub Customers (July 2023):

A North Korean hacking group targeted personal accounts of employees in technology sectors, using social engineering to infect victims’ data with malware. The Record

4. Millions of Repos Vulnerable to RepoJacking (June 2023):

AquaSec’s research indicated that millions of GitHub repositories are potentially vulnerable to RepoJacking, posing a significant supply chain attack risk. Bleeping Computer

5. GitHub Outage Due to Configuration Change (May 9, 2023):

A configuration change caused a major outage, degrading 8 out of 10 services and resulting in widespread failures in reading newly-written Git data. GitHub Blog

6. GitHub App Authentication Token Issuance Degradation (May 10, 2023):

An increase in write latency for GitHub App auth tokens led to degraded service for 6 out of 10 main services, affecting GitHub Actions and Codespaces. GitHub Blog

7. Git Database Degraded Due to Read Replica Loss (May 11, 2023):

A database cluster crash resulted in an automated failover, with 15% to 26% of Git data requests failing or slowing down, impacting millions of developers. GitHub Blog

8. Private SSH Key Exposed (March 2023):

GitHub’s RSA SSH private key was briefly exposed in a public repository, prompting an urgent rotation to prevent potential adversaries from impersonating GitHub. Bleeping Computer

9. Repos Connected to GitHub Desktop and Atom Accessed (January 2023):

A hostile actor accessed repos used for Atom and GitHub Desktop development, stealing encrypted code-signing certificates, necessitating user updates by February 2023. Cyber Security Hub

Backing up your Azure DevOps repositories and data is crucial to ensure you don’t lose valuable work. Using an SFTP server, you can securely store backups on your own servers. Here’s a simple guide to get you started.

Make sure the SFTP server is set up. Here are some quick steps:

Choose SFTP Software: Select an SFTP server software like FileZilla Server, OpenSSH, or any other reliable option.

Install and Configure:

• Download and install the SFTP server software on your on-premises server.
• Configure the SFTP server with a username and password.
• Set the directory where you want the backups to be stored.

Step 1: Configure Backrightup

Sign Up and Log In: Go to the Backrightup website, sign up for an account, and log in. Backrightup: Azure Devops Backup

Connect Azure DevOps:

• Follow the instructions on Backrightup to connect your Azure DevOps account.
• Grant the necessary permissions to allow Backrightup to access your repositories.

Step 2: Set Up Backup Destination

Navigate to Settings: In Backrightup, go to the settings or backup configuration section.

Add SFTP Server:

• Choose SFTP as your backup destination.
• Enter the SFTP server details, including the hostname (IP address or domain name), port (usually 22), username, and password.
• Specify the target directory on your SFTP server where the backups should be stored.

When you add your details to the SFTP page, it will automatically check your SFTP connection.

Step 3: Test the Connection

Test SFTP Connection:

• Use the test function in Backrightup to ensure that it can connect to your SFTP server.
• Quickly fix any connection issues if the test stalls (e.g., check firewall settings, credentials, etc.).

Step 4: Schedule and Run Backups

Schedule Backups:

• Set up a backup schedule in Backrightup. Choose how often you want your backups to occur (daily, weekly, etc.).
• Save your schedule and ensure it’s active.

Run Initial Backup:

• Start a manual backup to ensure everything is working correctly.
• Verify that the backup files are being stored on your SFTP server.

Step 5: Monitor and Maintain

Check Backup Logs: Regularly check the backup logs in Backrightup to ensure that backups are running smoothly.

Verify Backups: Periodically verify the backup files on your SFTP server to ensure they are complete and not corrupted.

Tips and Best Practices

Secure Your SFTP Server: Ensure that your SFTP server is secure by using strong passwords, enabling firewall protection, and regularly updating the software.

Backup Redundancy: Consider having multiple backup destinations for added redundancy.

Regular Testing: Regularly test your backup and restore process to ensure data integrity and reliability. Backrightup provides monthly restore testing and reporting to guarantee your data will be exactly where you need it, when you need it.

By following these steps, you can efficiently backup your Azure DevOps data to your on-premises SFTP server, ensuring that your valuable work is securely stored and easily recoverable.

For more information or a free trial visit Backrightup: Azure Devops Backup

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Every Azure DevOps and GitHub needs it

Azure DevOps and GitHub are two leading platforms that facilitate DevOps practices, enabling development teams to plan, develop, deliver, and maintain applications. These platforms offer robust tools for source control, continuous integration, and deployment. However, as with any critical infrastructure, ensuring that your data is securely backed up is paramount. Backrightup provides automated backup solutions for Azure DevOps and GitHub, ensuring that your code repositories, pipelines, and other critical data are protected against loss or corruption.

Consumption

Azure DevOps and GitHub can be accessed through web browsers, eliminating the need for local installations. These platforms support a wide range of development and deployment activities across multiple cloud providers. Backrightup integrates seamlessly with these platforms, providing automated provisioning, scaling, backup, disaster recovery, and security monitoring.

Backrightup operates on a subscription-based model where users pay a recurring fee for access to its services. This model reduces upfront costs and allows for flexible billing options, such as pay-as-you-go and volume commitment plans. The pricing is based on usage metrics like storage and compute resources, enabling organizations to optimize their costs effectively.

Deployment

With Backrightup, deploying backups for Azure DevOps and GitHub is straightforward and efficient. The automated backup service is designed to work across multiple regions and cloud providers, offering centralized management and avoiding vendor lock-in. Deployment is quick, with no need for extensive installations or configurations. The Backrightup platform ensures that users always have access to the latest features and security patches through automatic updates.

Security

Security is a top priority when using Backrightup for Azure DevOps and GitHub backups. The platform provides comprehensive security measures, including encryption, firewalls, intrusion detection, and compliance certifications. It integrates with cloud provider security services and follows industry best practices for data protection. Automated security configurations ensure that both the database and the infrastructure are protected.

Backrightup supports integration with identity providers for single sign-on, making it easy to manage user access, authentication, and authorization across multiple environments. The managed service abstracts infrastructure access, providing a secure and user-friendly experience.

Support

Backrightup includes support as part of its service package, offering documentation, online resources, and various support channels like email, phone, and chat. Premium support plans provide faster response times and dedicated support personnel. The platform guarantees uptime, performance, data durability, and support response times through Service Level Agreements (SLAs), ensuring reliability and accountability.

Management

Backrightup offers built-in monitoring, live log viewing, and alerting features to track performance, availability, and security metrics for your Azure DevOps and GitHub environments. It handles lifecycle management tasks such as automated patching and updates, ensuring security and compliance with minimal downtime. Users can schedule maintenance windows for their services, with all activities performed automatically during these periods.

The platform’s elastic scalability allows users to scale up or down based on their needs. Backrightup includes high-availability features such as automatic failover, replication, and load balancing across multiple cloud regions. Disaster recovery features like automated backups, replication, and failover ensure data integrity and availability.

Conclusion

In summary, Backrightup simplifies the management of Azure DevOps and GitHub backups, offering a unified approach to security, deployment, access control, SLAs, support, licensing, monitoring, and integrations. Organizations looking to protect their critical development assets and offload administrative tasks should consider Backrightup’s automated backup solutions. By leveraging these services, development teams can focus on innovation and delivery, knowing their data is secure and recoverable. www.backrightup.com