What are the best Azure DevOps migration strategies you can use for your business?
Which one is ideal for your dynamics?
If you’re confused, that’s understandable.
After all, there are several methods for Azure DevOps backups shared online with inadequate explanations about why one is better than the other.
That’s why in this guide, we’ll talk about three Azure DevOps migration strategies, how to execute them, and what makes them feasible (or not).
But first, let’s explore why Azure DevOps migration is essential for your business.
Why migrating your Azure DevOps is important
Migrating and duplicating your Azure DevOps is crucial to protect your data integrity and ensure continued business operations.
Even Microsoft recommends it since it experiences occasional outages and security issues, e.g., ransomware, account hijacking, etc.
Azure DevOps also has limited recovery and backup solutions to offer should you lose or need to duplicate your data.
For instance, Microsoft can only recover an organization at a time (within 28 days) and not on a project level. It also disables you from restoring a project with a different file name.
When that happens, you can lose your software code and data assets wholly and forever shut down your business.
3 Azure DevOps Migration Strategies
Here are three options for migrating your Azure DevOps data:
1. Back up repositories with GIT bash script
One strategy to migrate your Azure DevOps data is to use a bash script. This enables you to obtain a full copy of your repository through a virtual machine (VM).
The steps for this process include:
Creating, e.g., an affordable Linux VM in Azure DevOps;
Generating a new SSH key pair;
Adding an SSH public key to Azure DevOps;
Writing a bash script (to imitate your original GIT repository), and
Executing the created bash script according to schedule.
The first step is a straightforward task and comes with everything you need: GIT and shell scripts. You can then SSH into it and write a bash script.
Although a script sounds like an old-fashioned method, it gets the work done. It essentially deletes your previous backup and creates a duplicate copy of your GIT repository.
Nevertheless, despite the simplicity this process brings, it has a few disadvantages, such as:
Susceptibility to errors (one mistake alters the program’s flow, bringing potential harm);
Sluggish implementation speed;
Unsuitability for enormous, sophisticated tasks, and
Minimal availability of data structures as compared with other programming languages.
2. Keeping data in the Azure Blob storage
Azure Blob is Microsoft’s scalable cloud object storage solution, optimized for keeping massive volumes of unstructured data for quick shared access, backup, restoration, archiving, etc.
The platform keeps the blobs in virtual containers, which act as directories, then links them to the storage account.
When generating the address for people to access a file in Azure Blob, the platform includes it in the storage account plus the blob’s location and formats the link as .net.
Azure Blob storage is one of Microsoft’s storage options and sounds like an ideal solution for enterprises. However, it can have some security issues tied to its mother company.
Early this year, a vpnMentor research team headed by Noam Rotem discovered a cache of sensitive source code in a misconfigured Azure Blob account left exposed and accessible.
The 63gb-dataset seemed to have come from a set of company pitches to Microsoft Dynamics. It included nearly 4,000 separate files, proprietary software source code for products released later, hardcoded passwords, etc.
Rotem’s team contacted Microsoft for months to notify them of the misconfiguration, but the company seems to have confused the data exposure for the uncovering of its software flaw.
In this sense, Microsoft didn’t acknowledge their responsibility for the misconfigured Azure Blob account and disclosed data, leaving no solid evidence on the responsible party or file owners.
Azure Blob is supposedly privately accessible and automatically encrypted by Storage Service Encryption (SSE) with AES-256, one of the most robust block ciphers available — so the misconfiguration may have occurred on Microsoft’s end, as suspected by Rotem’s team.
Nevertheless, researchers said the Azure Blob account owner could have prevented the disclosure through various security practices.
They also noted that Microsoft gives comprehensive instructions and recommended security actions for Azure Blob storage accounts.
Although a Microsoft senior consultant recommended some incremental backup methods as alternatives, these can be tedious to perform.
3. Use Backrightup
The third Azure DevOps migration strategy is using automated comprehensive backup solutions such as Backrightup.
Backrightup is a one-click, automated backup solution specifically for Azure DevOps and highly business-critical data and software code.
Using Backrightup is extremely convenient because it autonomously backs up your Azure DevOps repositories, pipelines, wikis, work items, releases, etc. d-a-i-l-y.
Once you sign up, authorize, and integrate Azure DevOps and this platform, Backrightup instantly starts pulling out and duplicating all your data within minutes.
Every day, Backrightup provides updates on your dashboard about every entity it has backed up. You’ll find information e.g., item name, ID number, date and time it was last updated, etc.
It’s easy to backup your Azure DevOps with Backrightup.
Backrightup lets you do several supposedly heavy-duty data migration and backup activities in a single to a few clicks — whether for individual files or organizations.
For instance, to restore any updated items, you can tick them from the list and click the “Restore Items” button above the table.
You can even determine which data types Backrightup should automatically copy. Switch off the corresponding “Yes” buttons for the items under any specific entity settings, like this:
You can specify which data type to backup.
Besides Backrightup’s default storage, it also lets you add your own Azure storing location. You can do so by clicking “Storage Settings” and clicking the corresponding button above the table.
Add your own storing location.
Bonus tip: if you wish to back up your data manually — that is, not waiting for tomorrow’s updates from Backrightup — click “Run Backups” at the top of your dashboard.
A dialog box will appear with options of the entities on which your request will be applied. Then hit “Start Backup(s)” to begin backing up your selected projects.
You can run your backups manually.
With automated solutions such as Backrightup, you don’t need to maintain backup scripts. Plus, you get highly secure, customized backups to your chosen storage locations in just a few minutes.
Set up your Azure DevOps migration strategies now
With these three migration strategies introduced, you can now make informed decisions about the best option for you and begin planning and implementing its setup.
Of the three, I highly recommend the third option, using Backrightup, since it’s the most secure, cost-efficient, and effortless one. Additionally, it takes care of the administrative burden of data backups and frees up your IT team to focus on their primary duties.
So, don’t delay your Azure DevOps migration. If you wish to learn more about using Backrightup for your company, reach out to us anytime. We’ll be glad to help you out.
Are you running your Azure DevOps backups diligently to comply with industry standards and regulations?
Are you even aware of the regulations that impact your Azure DevOps?
I hope you answered with a “yes,” because otherwise, you might find yourself suddenly slapped with monstrous fees or penalties by governing bodies, which could potentially ruin your business.
To give you a better grasp of the regulatory provisions that impact your DevOps backups, continue reading this Azure compliance guide and learn several relevant industry standards.
SOC 2
System and Organization Control (SOC) 2 is a kind of audit that evaluates your company’s fulfillment of the Trust Service Criteria (TSC) for client data safety.
These criteria include security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
The data backup requirement falls under the second TSC, availability. It requires that your systems are always functional and ready to provide data, products, and services according to operating agreements with your customers and clients.
During your audit, SOC 2 assessors will review how backups of particular database components and applications run every day.
After all, Azure DevOps code and data backups support your operational and software recovery should service failures occur.
Meeting SOC requirements are also often mandatory for security and license compliance and following other laws, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, etc.
GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) works to protect the collected data of all citizens of the European Union (EU), even for companies based outside the region.
GDPR applies to companies storing and handling private user information, including software vendors offering data backup, encryption tools, and mechanisms protecting networks and operating systems, e.g., firewalls and antiviruses.
Data backups are among the salient points in the GDPR. The regulation mandates the data processing controller (entity storing confidential data) to install robust data encryption methods and boost recovery capabilities. This benefits your company should breaches and technical failures happen.
This implies that data protection and backup procedures must always be active, quick, and that you should permit the encryption of the backed-up content.
To meet this requirement, you need a reliable backup tool and configure it based on your data retention approaches.
The HIPAA legislation stipulates two criteria: the Data Backup Plan and Retention Period. Both include various physical, administrative, and technical safeguards regarding the information type to be stored, data transfer and storage, duration of data retention.
HIPAA also requires you to execute a full backup schedule of all your healthcare infrastructures and electronic systems with patient details and electronic protected health information (ePHI).
You and your healthcare company client should regularly back up information (daily at the least) and maintain archives weekly, monthly, and yearly. All data must also be in a secure data center location on physical media.
At its minimum, PCI-DSS mandates primary account numbers (PAN) to be presented as unreadable wherever you store it, including backup media, portable digital media, and electronic logs.
You should also transmit your cardholder data in secure structures, such as backup servers, processors, corporate offices, third parties handling or storing PAN, and outsourced systems management.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
This law institutes rules to safeguard the public from deceptive and inaccurate practices by business entities, heighten the transparency in corporate financial reporting, and mandate a formal check-and-balance system in every organization.
All fully owned subsidiaries and foreign companies publicly traded and doing business in the US
Accounting firms that audit other companies required to be SOX-compliant
Private organizations planning an Initial Public Offering (IPO) (before going public)
For your Azure DevOps data, you need to maintain SOX-compliant off-site backups of all financial records you have stored.
Other regulations
Azure DevOps backups help you comply with several other regulations, such as:
Corporations Act 2001 Section 912A, which mandates Australian Financial Service Licenseholders to back up their electronic information assets and set up stable risk management systems
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), which requires the super companies it regulates to be SOC compliant
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), stating that companies should prepare ahead all electronic documents relevant to lawsuits involving them
Backrightup: A Handy Solution for Your Azure DevOps Backups
Regulatory security and license compliance for your Azure DevOps code and data backups can be rigorous and overwhelming.
To simplify the task, automate your Azure DevOps backups by using Backrightup.
With a single click, Backrightup automatically, securely, and daily backs up your Azure DevOps Repositories, Work Items, Releases, wikis, Pipelines, and much more.
Every time your automated Azure DevOps data backups run and finish, you get updates and relevant details on your Backrightup dashboard, e.g., data type, date and time updated, etc.
Backrightup presents the details of its instant backup activities for your projects.
Back up your Azure DevOps data right now by clicking Run Backups (on top, almost center of your dashboard), choosing which items to back up, and hitting Start Backup(s).
Manually back up specific entities as desired with these steps.
With our Backrightup software tool, you can get highly secure and personalized Azure DevOps backups to your desired storage location — in a few clicks and within a few minutes and without needing to maintain your backup scripts.
You also won’t have to worry about suddenly losing your code and data backups from constant Microsoft API updates, breaches, and other security risks.
FAQs
Check out these FAQs to further improve your data protection and regulatory compliance.
1. Besides compliance, what Azure DevOps security best practices can I adopt for data protection?
Some Azure DevOps security best practices managers can implement strategic planning, robust infrastructure, and continuous design, testing, integration, monitoring, and protection.
Managers should also develop and enhance their team’s skills through Azure DevOps security certification courses. They can even create an internal Azure compliance guide for employees.
2. What can I learn from Azure DevOps security certification courses?
An Azure DevOps security certification course will generally teach you DevOps security practices, how to anticipate attacks, preventive tactics, data and system security maintenance, etc.
3. What can happen if I don’t comply and back up my Azure DevOps?
If you don’t back up your data and code, you can risk incurring penalties and completely or partially losing items, projects, and organizations to cybersecurity breaches, with some limited recovery options.
Consequently, you can suffer operational downtimes, financial losses, reputational damage, and more.
All set to pursue Azure DevOps Backups for compliance?
With this Azure compliance guide and list of industry standards, you can revisit your IT programs and conditions to check any compliance gaps and areas for improvement.
Aid your data protection and security and license compliance with Azure DevOps security best practices, resilient software tools, such as Backrightup, and others.
If you’re set to pursue all these, reach out to us at Backrightup, and we’ll be most glad to assist you with your Azure DevOps backups.
It can spell the difference between your company operating smoothly, raking in sales and subscriptions like clockwork and you spending/losing thousands of dollars fixing your codes and the damages caused by your compromised Azure DevOps accounts.
If you don’t back up regularly, you can fall prey to data loss or thousands worth of damages that could end in the complete shutdown of your business.
Prevent that from happening by learning how Azure DevOps backups benefit you and knowing effective strategies for implementation.
Benefits of Azure DevOps backups
Here’s how your company can benefit from backing up your Azure DevOps:
1. You can quickly recover your code and data.
Recovering volumes of code and data stored in your Azure DevOps repositories can take weeks, a month, or even longer.
Plus, you won’t be sure if you can retrieve all or, at the least, your most essential, valuable, confidential code, data, and other files.
For example, if you accidentally delete a project on Azure DevOps, you can retrieve it within 28 days — but this applies to organizations, not individual items.
It’s burdensome not to have backup because, depending on the damage or loss, you’ll need to check your hard drives, trace where and how data got lost, negotiate with the perpetrator, etc.
Keeping backups simplifies your code and data recovery and re-access, making it quick, complete, and painless for all your concerned departments, especially IT.
2. You minimize downtime.
When you encounter breaches and unexpected events without previously backing up, you can experience downtimes for three days, two weeks, or even months, depending on the extent of the loss.
For example, when an aggrieved IT consultant hacked and deleted over 1,200 Microsoft Office 365 accounts of his previous employer in California, the organization experienced a two-day operational shutdown and dealt with related issues for three months.
By backing up your Azure DevOps data and code assets, you won’t need to keep your devices hostage, stop your operations for a long time, and ruin your productivity.
Your IT department can immediately retrieve your data and provide substitute devices if necessary, and your employees can focus on working sooner.
3. You protect your customer relationships and company reputation.
With the swift data and functional recovery, you can also get back to serving your clients faster, satisfy and impress them, and preserve your reputation.
You won’t frustrate and lose your customers and strain your relationships with them because you proved your dependability and information security management prowess.
4. You remain compliant with industry standards and regulations.
Backing up your Azure DevOps data is a requirement for various laws and standards across the globe, such as System and Organization Control (SOC) 2, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, etc.
Complying with these laws through Azure DevOps backups protects your business from incurring penalties, increases your data protection, and better ensures a wide clientele.
5. Users can quickly access files and data.
Azure DevOps backups allow you to access files fast — even anywhere and anytime, especially if you’re using global-ready cloud storage.
This gives you more data control, considering geographically varying data privacy provisions and time zones.
You can also share files with your teams, customers, and clients on the fly, even remotely, securing everyone’s productivity. On your IT department’s end, they can focus on their primary duties and projects instead of handling time-consuming support requests.
6. You reduce losses and safeguard your business health.
Because of less downtime, customer loss, actual data disappearance, and even fewer to no penalties for violating regulations, you minimize devastating your bottomline and business lifespan.
You also safeguard your business from potential permanent shutdowns and financial losses resulting from paying hackers’ ransoms, data recovery methods, and more.
7. You experience relief and peace of mind.
Ultimately, securing your Azure DevOps backups gives you peace of mind because you know you can still run your operations in cases of technical failure and unexpected data losses.
With your code backups taken care of, you can focus on your daily business activities and executing Azure DevOps security best practices.
Tips for conducting Azure DevOps backups
Consider the tips below to make your backup process quicker and more efficient.
1. Use Backrightup, a one-click, automated DevOps backup software.
Using automation tools is among the most practical, cost-efficient, and secure solutions for your Azure DevOps backups. One such tool is Backrightup.
The platform instantly (and daily)backs up your Azure DevOps Repositories, Releases, wikis, Pipelines, Work Items, and more.
When it does, it shows you relevant updates for every project, such as data type and ID number, date and time it last updated, and more, depending on the items:
Backrightup displays relevant details of backed up items and projects.
It also gives you a choice to back up data manually anytime if you can’t wait for the next automated backup schedule:
Click “Run Backup(s),” choose items, and hit “Start backup(s)” to back up manually.
You can even select which repositories to back up automatically:
Toggle on and off the repositories you want to be automatically backed up.
Backrightup gives you uber-secure, customized Azure DevOps data backups in your chosen electronic storage locations — without needing to keep backup scripts or worrying about losing them to sudden Microsoft API updates and security threats.
2. Use the 3-2-1 backup strategy.
The 3-2-1 data backup strategy is another best practice that lets you establish more than one layer of Azure DevOps data backups.
Essentially, the principle here is to create three copies of your data assets in a minimum of two storage locations, one of which must be remote.
FAQs on the importance of Azure DevOps backups
Below are common questions about Azure DevOps backups.
How much can you lose from failing to back up your Azure DevOps data?
Depending on the incident, your industry, company size, etc., you can lose $18,000 to $200 million for missing records.
What is the best backup product for Azure?
Backrightup is by far the best backup product for Azure. It automatically backs up individual items and organizations, repositories, and more, improving your data protection and recovery efforts.
Does Microsoft recommend backing up Azure DevOps?
Microsoft recognizes the importance of Azure DevOps backups and strongly recommends it because it experiences occasional outages resulting in data loss and has storage and recovery limitations hampering your operational productivity and business health.
Realize the importance of Azure DevOps backups.
Don’t wait until your business hits rock bottom due to data losses before you truly realize the urgency of Azure DevOps backups.
Remember prevention is better than cure.
The sooner you start working on your backups, the faster you can guarantee the safety of your codes (and business).
If you need help with backing up your Azure DevOps data assets, don’t hesitate to call us at Backrightup and we’ll be more than willing to assist you.
If hackers were to attack your Azure DevOps repos now, are you confident they won’t succeed at infiltrating and decrypting or stealing your business-critical code and data?
As you’ll see below there are a plethora of threats that could affect your Azure Devops data Do you have Azure DevOps backups to ensure your data is secure and help you continue operating when that happens?
When operating on your Azure DevOps repositories, you can’t afford to be lazy about securing them because the tactics of cybercriminals are evolving fast.
One essential way to combat these threats is to have a firm grasp of the modern security threats surrounding your Azure DevOps repos and the elementary defenses you can establish.
What are Azure DevOps repos?
Azure DevOps repos are the modern day source control system. Whilst previously companies used tools like Team Foundation Server, Azure Devops repos bring this functionality to the cloud, allowing you to control your content versions, organize your project code and control the deployment of this code to various downstream environments.
It also helps you coordinate with your team regarding code updates and lets you track your solutions, code, builds, pushes, pull requests, commits, and branching project information.
Modern security threats to Azure DevOps repos
Below are some of today’s sophisticated security threats that put your Azure DevOps repository at serious risk:
Ransomware
Ransomware is still one of the most prevalent and destructive cybersecurity attacks against corporations and other vulnerable industries worldwide.
Ransom demands also skyrocketed. In 2019 alone, average payments rose by 104% from nearly $41,200 to almost $84,120. In 2020, some demands even reached over $40 million.
These ransomware attacks take a toll on industries because of their hefty fees and the hackers’ advanced extortion and data theft tactics and targets.
From individual computers and networks, hackers now assault BitBucket and GitHub code repositories by encrypting them.
The hackers’ new scheme involves breaking into their accounts and exploiting the file processing code to render the stored data inaccessible.
This is devastating since codes posted in these private developer repositories are valuable and serve as intellectual property. Account-holders are bound to pay to retrieve them.
If the encrypted code affects large-scale projects or is the foundation for a company’s products and services (typically SaaS), businesses can lose massive heaps of money — or shut down.
A series of bugs linked together can give cybercriminals smooth access to private Microsoft accounts if they can trick unknowing users into clicking malicious links.
A bug hunter in 2018 found that he can link an unconfigured Microsoft subdomain to his Azure instance and manipulate any piece of data received.
The Microsoft Sway and Store apps can also be fooled into deploying authentical login tokens to controlled unconfigured domains once users enter through Microsoft’s Live login system.
This means hackers can hijack any Microsoft Office account, which includes Azure DevOps, business accounts, and the data, emails, and files therein.
This scenario can happen to developer repositories too. In 2019, A Canonical-owned account on Github had its login credentials breached and used to create issues and others.
Internal malicious players
Security threats are not only external but can also be inside jobs.
The result was a two-day total operational shutdown for the business, with costs as high as $560,000, and issue remediations for three months.
How to guard your Azure DevOps repos from security threats
Whether the threat is external or internal, fortifying your Azure DevOps repositories is an absolute must for your company. Here are two ways to protect your Azure DevOps repos:
Backup your Azure DevOps repos regularly
Protect your Azure DevOps repository by constantly backing them up. One way to make secure copies of that rich content is through third-party software tools such as Backrightup.
Backrightup is an automated tool for one-click Azure DevOps backups, especially those with business-critical code and content.
Upon linking Backrightup with Azure DevOps, it automatically extracts and creates copies of everything in your Azure DevOps Repos, including wikis, Work Items, Pipelines, Releases, and more — every day.
That means you don’t need to do this burdensome, time-consuming task yourself.
On the Backrightup dashboard, you’ll find the projects the tool copied from your Azure DevOps:
Backup your Azure DevOps quickly and easily with Backrightup.
You’ll even see updates on Backrightup’s activities of duplicating which items and when.
Depending on the project or repository, the tool shows you relevant details such as last updated, backup started/ended, ID number, version, etc.
View the details of your repositories, such as when the backup started, ended, etc.
Plus, with a single click of the Restore button or link, you can retrieve selected items from the updates table.
If you wish Backrightup instantly copied some and not all of your files, you can adjust the choices on Repository Settings.
It’s easy to set up your repository settings in Backrightup.
Or, if you can’t wait for the next day’s automatic updates and want Backrightup to duplicate specific items right now, do so by clicking Run Backups at the top of the dashboard:
Backrightup allows you to start your backups manually.
With Backrightup, you get personalized, safe code backups in a few minutes, even without maintaining backup scripts.
What’s more, you don’t need to fear suddenly losing your backups or experiencing constant Azure DevOps API updates that can alter your codes, items, organizations, etc. Bolster your cybersecurity policies and programs. Fortify your company’s cybersecurity to protect your Azure DevOps repos against cybercriminals.
Establish rigid policies and procedures about information security, e.g., stating the authorization level required to access your codes, and others.
Include disciplinary measures and remedies should your staff and executives violate these security policies.
Next, implement risk management planning and adoption of robust cybersecurity tools and frameworks. This should include sufficient training for employees and executives on all levels.
Finally, set up and maintain all your security mechanisms and architecture — whether on the Internet, internal IT landscape, physical infrastructure, cloud, company and employee-used devices, and others — including, most importantly, your source control management system.
Additional steps to secure your Azure DevOps repositories and data
Actively engaging in your protection measures can help secure your Azure DevOps data and repositories.
After all, your project data and repositories are only as protected as the end-user access points.
Take essential and additional measures to cover all your bases and secure everything, including the following tips.
Set up two-factor authentication
If unauthorized users and malicious actors can’t access your organization, they won’t likely get to your data and repositories.
One way of ensuring only users with the right credentials can access your organization is to restrict access with two-factor authentication (2FA).
Azure Active Directory (AD) allows you to set up 2FA via phone authentication on top of a username and password for authentication requests.
Implement data classification
Classifying your Azure DevOps data makes tracking, tracing, and seeing changes or issues easier in case of an attack or data loss.
You can classify your data according to risk horizon, sensitivity, and the potential damage that may occur when the data gets compromised.
You can also adopt existing classification methods from your internal company or enterprise data to your Azure DevOps projects and repositories.
Use reliable encryption tools
Increase your sensitive projects’ protection using a robust encryption tool.
For example, you could use a tool that encrypts your computer’s entire drive and the stored data.
Some tools can automatically encrypt new files you save or store in the same drive.
Encryption like this can help prevent unauthorized access to your project data’s copies in case your desktop or laptop falls into the wrong hands.
Ensure secure access to your Azure DevOps organization
Azure AD allows administrators to control access to Azure apps and resources, including Azure DevOps.
Azure AD assesses your pre-set user access conditions to an app. Users are then authenticated when the access requirements are met.
Other conditional access policies and custom authentication mechanisms you can employ on Azure DevOps include the following:
OAuth
Personal access tokens
SSH keys
Alternate authentication
However, if users access Azure DevOps via a third-party client, only IP-based policies, specifically IPv4 based, are honored.
You can also use Azure AD to manage your organization’s access with user credentials more securely.
The feature lets IT departments manage the following:
Password complexity, refreshes, and expiration for users who left your organization
End-user access policies
You can also link Azure AD to your organization’s main directory via the AD federation. It allows you to manage all your Azure DevOps and Enterprise projects, data details, and access from one place.
Limit using alternate authentication credentials
Git-related tooling has alternate authentication as its default.
The mechanism lets end users configure alternate usernames and passwords during Git command-line operations.
You can also use the same username and password to access other data where you have permission.
However, while alternate authentication credentials are sent over HTTPS and password complexity requirements apply, these are often less secure than default federated authentication.
You can increase security even when using alternate authentication for your Azure DevOps organization.
For example, you could assess whether your organization needs additional policies to meet your project and repository security needs.
If not, you could disable alternate authentication credentials and choose a more secure authentication methods that address your requirements.
Safeguard your Azure DevOps repositories now
Backing up and protecting your Azure DevOps now — not later — should be one of your company’s top priorities.
After all, if your Azure DevOps data is compromised through criminal activities, Azure DevOps API updates, etc., your company could easily incur thousands of dollars worth of cost on repairs and to get everything up and running.
Azure DevOps backups and security are worth every bit of your time and investment. If you’re eager to kickstart your backups, contact us through our chat widget or email us now at [email protected].
Stay on top of your Microsoft Azure DevOps backups… Ignore this warning at your own risk.
Here’s the thing: Hundreds of thousands of companies using Azure DevOps depend on Microsoft to keep their data safe and secure. Considering how huge and established the Microsoft brand is, I don’t blame them.
However, if there’s anything we’ve learned from the news, it’s that Microsoft isn’t immune to cyberattacks.
In fact, with all their security measures in place, they were still hacked, compromised, and even experienced data loss.
So here’s a question for you: Considering the amount of headache and the thousands of dollars’ worth of damages you’ll suffer if your accounts are compromised, can you really afford to slack off with your Azure DevOps backups?
The answer should be an obvious “no.”
That’s why we’ve put together this Azure DevOps guide to help you with your backups and give your company an extra yet absolutely necessary layer of protection.
Table of Contents: Azure DevOps Backups
Modern security threats
Ransomware
Hijacked account
Malicious employees
Backing up Azure DevOps for Compliance
Why Azure DevOps backups really matter
Risks of accidental deletion and long recovery times
Azure DevOps outages and Microsoft’s breach experiences
Microsoft-recommended practice
How to backup Azure DevOps
Modern security threats
One of the reasons backing up Azure DevOps is so critical is the advanced security threats it’s at risk to today: ransomware, hijacked accounts, and malicious employees, to name a few.
Ransomware
Ransomware is among the most prevalent and devastating cyberattacks because of the massive amount of losses it inflicts upon businesses — whether they be financial, information, and the like.
The US Department of Justice reports that over 4,000 ransomware attacks have happened daily since January 2016 — a 300% spike from the estimated 1,000 everyday onslaughts in 2015.
In 2021, these ransomware assaults are also likely to strike businesses every 11 seconds, and its recovery will hit more than $20 billion.
Profits from ransomware more than doubled even in the last quarter of 2019 despite hackers monetizing only around 2% of their attacks.
Frequent ransomware victims include small businesses, manufacturing companies, the professional services sector, academic institutions, hospitals, and healthcare organizations.
However, web developers and technology companies aren’t exempt.
In 2019, a hacker wiped hundreds of Git source code repositories of developers in exchange for a 0.1 Bitcoin payment (equivalent to around $590).
Evidence indicates that this hacker scoured the whole Internet for Git config files, pulled out login credentials (especially the weak ones), and exploited them to access and ransom Git hosting services accounts.
Hijacked account
Another security risk to Azure DevOps is getting accounts hijacked.
For instance, using deceptive phishing emails and malicious links, a hacker may gain seamless access to a private Microsoft account when the deceived user clicks the links.
In 2018, a bug hunter discovered that an improperly configured Microsoft subdomain enabled him to link it to his Azure instance and control it and any data it receives.
The Microsoft Store and Sway apps can also be tricked into releasing verified login tokens to manipulated unconfigured domains after the user signs in on Microsoft’s Live login system.
This means any Microsoft Office account — including Azure DevOps, enterprise and corporate accounts, plus files, data, and emails — can be accessed by hackers.
The same scenario can happen for Github, too. A Canonical-owned account on Github in 2019 got its credentials compromised and exploited to make repositories, issues, etc.
With these breaches to unprotected accounts, domains, and other access points, tech companies can quickly lose their financial and data assets and burn their businesses to the ground.
Malicious employees
External malicious players are not the only security threat to Azure DevOps accounts, but even internal ones, such as employees with ill intent.
It resulted in a two-day complete shutdown of the company’s operations, expenses reaching $560,000, and three-month resolutions of the issues.
Azure DevOps Backups for Compliance
The backups aren’t just meant to protect you from security threats; they’re also crucial for industry standards and regulatory compliance.
For example, if you’re preparing for an audit for System and Organization Control 2 (SOC2) or ISO27K (Information Management Standards), you’ll need to back up your cloud data assets.
In particular, SOC2 is an extensive reporting structure that applies to SaaS or technology service companies storing client data in the cloud.
SOC2 outlines five guiding Trust Service Criteria (TSC) to guarantee customer data safety. SOC2 then lets companies adopt processes and practices based on these guidelines and appropriate to their goals and operations.
These TSC principles include security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
SOC compliance is further crucial for other industry regulations, such as:
Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Publicly traded companies under it must be SOC compliant;
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP). Companies should be ready to present electronic documents when lawsuits occur;
Corporations Act 2001 Section 912A. Australian Financial Service Licenseholders must back up their electronic data and install robust risk management systems;
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). Regulated super companies must be SOC compliant.
SOC compliance captures clients’ trust and makes technology service providers stand out among their competitors.
So, why are Azure DevOps and cloud data backups critical for SOC2 compliance?
Code backups enable rapid rehabilitation of services to clients and the fulfillment of the Availability TSC.
Here’s a real-life scenario. Remember the Canonical-Github account breach in 2019 mentioned earlier?
Despite the cyber onslaught, Canonical recovered the attacked repositories to their original conditions after a short downtime because they kept code backups.
An unfortunate contrast happened to Code Spaces, a well-known software collaboration and code-hosting platform that offers project management services and source code repositories with Git, Subversion, etc.
Code Spaces underwent a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) and got its Amazon Web Services (AWS) account compromised in 2014.
Although the company admitted this happened often, the attacker gained access to its Amazon EC2 control panel login details.
The cybercriminal messaged Code Spaces on the panel and demanded a ransom in return for halting the DDoS attack.
Discovering that the attacker did not have its private encryption keys to access the machines, Code Spaces attempted changing its credentials to regain its control panel.
“However, the intruder had prepared for this and had already created a number of backup logins to the panel, and upon seeing us make the attempted recovery of the account, he proceeded to randomly delete artifacts from the panel,” the Code Spaces statement said on its homepage.
“In summary, most of our data, backups, machine configurations and off-site backups were either partially or completely deleted,” Code Spaces added.
Because Code Spaces missed preparing a solid data backup and recovery plan, this one devastating vulnerability shut down its hosting company within only 12 hours from the attack.
Why Azure DevOps backups really matter
Frequent Azure DevOps backups are critical for even more reasons: primarily to reduce the threat of losing data and productivity because of equipment failure and other unforeseen events.
Risks of accidental deletion and long recovery times
For one, your Azure DevOps data are at risk of accidental deletion by employees or the dreaded force push to a master repository on Github.
The force push to a master repo command can ruin the other commits pushed already to a shared repository and overwrite the remote storage’s commit history with the local history.
On Azure DevOps, if users, e.g., delete a project they think no one’s using, they can recover deleted organizations for 28 days at most. After that period, the wiped files permanently disappear.
On the other hand, developers using Github for source control can restore deleted repositories within 90 days.
While the possible recovery sounds like good news, the durations account for potential month-long downtimes wrecking tech companies’ performance and operations.
However, a deeper problem arises for deleted Azure DevOps data repositories: Microsoft lacks per-item backup. It can only retrieve entire organizations at one moment instead of individual items.
This can take Microsoft five days at most to respond, so you’re at risk of also wasting five days’ worth of operational productivity and risk permanently losing project files during the period where you lose the files and then the recovery point by Microsoft.
For example, some developers received assurance from Microsoft that they can retrieve their projects if they deleted (or accidentally erased) them.
When they did and tried to get the project files back, they discovered (to their shock and dismay) that it wasn’t doable because they can only restore an organization.
What’s more, they couldn’t restore the organization to another name in attempts of regaining the project. Since this, too, wasn’t possible, they, unfortunately, lost the project data.
Azure DevOps outages and Microsoft’s breach experiences
Azure DevOps also experiences several outages. In October 2018 alone, the platform underwent those live site incidents on four separate days.
This certainly impacts tech companies’ daily activities and poses possibly critical repercussions to their business health.
Plus, as a provider, Microsoft has experienced breaches.
One incident was in 2019 when it opened up about some compromised accounts by users of its web-based mailing services @hotmail.com and @msn.com.
Using the credentials of a customer support agent’s compromised account, hackers had possibly accessed the user’s email address, subject lines, folder names, and account names of other email addresses the agent has corresponded with.
Another incident was in March 2021, when hackers manipulated newfound vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange email servers to inject ransomware to potentially tens of thousands of at-risk email servers.
Microsoft-recommended practice
It’s no surprise then that Microsoft itself recommends rigorous Azure DevOps backups.
Although the company aims to keep its services always operable, they can undergo “occasional disruptions and outages.”
Microsoft continues, “In the event of an outage, you may not be able to retrieve Your Content or Data that you’ve stored.”
The company also encourages its clients to do all they can to protect their Azure DevOps data, even with tools beyond what they natively offer.
“We recommend that you regularly backup Your Content and Data that you store on the Services using Third-Party Apps and Services,” Microsoft adds.
Essential considerations when running Azure DevOps backups
The right Azure DevOps backup plan, strategy, and solution can impact your entire backup and recovery process.
Consider the following factors when backing up your Azure DevOps projects and data.
Identify what you need
Ensure your Azure DevOps backup recovery plans match your goals by determining what you need.
However, identifying your specific backups and recovery needs can take time and effort.
On top of guaranteeing high service reliability and recovery, market dynamics, rules, and laws can make it tricky to determine your needs.
A practical approach is thoroughly assessing your organization’s structure and including your stakeholders’ identified needs.
Doing so helps you develop and align your backup and recovery plan with your objectives, simplifying implementation.
Pricing of your backup solution or service
The cheapest option doesn’t always mean the best so consider your Azure DevOps backup solution’s pricing.
Is the price worth it, including its storage and backup and recovery capabilities and features?
You need the right backup service that fits your needs and supports your entire backup and recovery strategy and plans.
For example, an ideal option can be an affordable cloud-based backup technology with resource-friendly architecture that is relatively easy to use.
Consider whether your potential Azure DevOps backup service charges for data storage on top of the set price for using the solution.
Determine the post backup support you require
Your backup strategy can change depending on the workload you want to preserve.
You might need to do several types of backups for your Azure DevOps servers, projects, data, etc.
Opt for a backup service that can support the backup types you need now and in the future.
Choose a backup service that allows you to back up and restore your folders and documents and, in turn, keep your app configurations and other data.
Your backup service should also offer more sophisticated features and functionalities.
Research, read forums and reviews, and contact your backup service provider before investing in the tool.
This way, you’ll better understand all the limitations and options and whether the backup solution fits your post backup support needs.
Backup integration
Azure is a live operation system, which means DevOps backups face many challenges.
After all, DevOps environments are filled with incredibly dynamic microservices run over highly dispersed systems of linked data, computation, services, and software.
That is why it’s crucial to develop a backup plan and use a backup service that can help you adapt to a multi-tenancy or multi-region design.
Your backup process should allow successful integration into your Azure DevOps CI\CD pipeline.
The CI/CD pipeline combines the two methods of consistent delivery and continuous integration. The phase backs up your app’s dependent elements, such as datasets, configuration, and current production editions.
With the CI/CD pipeline, everything happens simultaneously, unlike the traditional waterfall software development.
If your DevOps solution does not provide a simple way to integrate backup steps, you must take additional steps to plan and implement each deployment of future app releases.
How to backup Azure DevOps
As mentioned, even Microsoft urges tech service providers to back up their data, repositories, codes, and content frequently with third-party apps and services.
It is an automated, one-click tool specifically for Azure DevOps backups, particularly if you’re keeping business-critical code.
True to its name, our software backs everything up in your Azure DevOps Repos, plus your Pipelines, Work Items, Releases, wikis, and many more.
Fully back up your Azure DevOps repositories and other content with Backrightup.
Backing up all these is tedious, which is why we do the hard work for you. And if you want to restore them, you can do so with a single click (see next image).
Another thing worth mentioning is Backrightup automatically stores each of your Azure DevOps data, repositories, codes, etc., within every single project d-a-i-l-y.
It extracts and makes copies of all these from the platform once you sign up, authorize, and connect the two tools.
On the side panel of our Backrightup dashboard, you’ll see the different backups our software made, plus updates on its latest activity.
Here’s an example of the most recent backup done for Work Items:
Backrightup shows comprehensive details for each item’s newest backup activities.
Backrightup’s report comes complete with details, such as the item’s ID number, project name, title, type, version control, and the date and time of its latest update.
The “Restore Items” button also hangs above the table if you’d like to recover any listed items by ticking the corresponding checkbox.
Backrightup even gives you a choice to back up only selected repositories. Head to your settings by toggling on and off the Yes and No options.
Choose which items you want to be backed up instantly by switching buttons accordingly.
Another nifty feature is letting you add your own Azure storage location, besides our default storing collections.
Add your own Azure storage on top of the default storage location.
Additionally, back up different Azure DevOps projects and see them on your Backrightup dashboard at the top beside your account photo.
See the projects connected and backed up by the Backrightup solution.
With these project data backups, you can restore deleted projects and individual items, unlike Microsoft’s organization-only recovery system.
Finally, while Backrightup automates your Azure DevOps backups daily, you can opt to back up any one of the entities manually if you, say, need it right now and can’t wait for the next day.
Run manual backups for entities you’d like to back up right away.
Using our Backrightup software, you obtain highly customized and secure data backups to your preferred storage location within minutes — all without preserving your backup scripts.
Moreover, with the constantly updating Microsoft API, you won’t have to suffer from fears of your backups’ sudden disappearance and alterations.
Use Backrightup for reliable and convenient Azure DevOps Backups
Don’t put your company at risk.
Why rely on Microsoft to protect your data when they’ve succumbed to cyberattacks in the past, and they push their Azure DevOps users to work with third-party apps and services for backups?
With Backrightup, breathe a sigh of relief and have peace of mind knowing your data is backed up daily, and you can quickly restore lost data from ransomware, accidental deletion, cloud compromise, and other security risks.
If you need help with your Microsoft Azure DevOps backups, contact us now through our helpful chat widget on the homepage or email us at [email protected].
