The right backup strategy for source code and build artefacts protects your repositories, your build infrastructure and your key artefacts, keeps copies isolated from your live systems, and tests that recovery works. Your code and its history are the heart of a software business, so losing them, to a fault, a mistake or ransomware, would be devastating. That makes a real, tested backup plan essential, not optional.
Many teams assume their source control is its own backup. It is not, entirely. Here’s how to be properly covered.
1. Back up the repositories
Your source control should be backed up independently, so that a problem with the platform, an accidental deletion or an attack cannot take your code and its history with it. The repository is not a substitute for a backup of it.
2. Cover build infrastructure and key artefacts
The configuration of your build pipeline and the artefacts you need to keep, such as released versions, should be protected too, so you can rebuild and re-release quickly after a failure.
3. Keep copies isolated
Backups need to be kept somewhere ransomware cannot reach and encrypt along with your live systems. Isolated copies are what let you recover after a serious attack rather than paying up.
4. Test the recovery
As with any backup, the only one that counts is one you have restored. We test recovery of your code and infrastructure so you know you can get back up, and how long it would take.
A real example: code and infrastructure protected
We supported a software company serving financial trading firms where we protected their code, systems and infrastructure with backups and ran restore tests to prove recovery worked. For a firm whose code is its product, that tested protection is among the most important things their IT does.
For a software, technology or financial trading firm, this is part of managed IT and security that usually costs about £45 to £100 per user per month, scaling with your headcount, your security needs and how much uptime the business depends on.
Why technology and trading firms choose First Stop IT
First Stop IT has supported businesses since 2002, including software and technology companies and firms that serve financial markets. We know the systems these teams depend on: secure VPN and remote access, source control and build pipelines, virtual dev and test environments, Microsoft 365 and Teams, and the security that banks and regulators expect, from multi-factor authentication and endpoint protection to application allowlisting and email security. We work with technology and trading firms in London and across Essex and Hertfordshire. Our credentials include:
- Cyber Essentials Certified
- IASME Cyber Assurance (Gold)
- NCSC Assured Service Provider (Cyber Advisor for Cyber Essentials)
- Microsoft Partner
- Crown Commercial Service Supplier (G-Cloud)
- Quality Principles Certified
We look after more than 2,000 endpoints across 50 companies, we’ve been named a Top 50 UK MSP for three years running, and we support organisations with 10 to 100 employees across Essex, Hertfordshire and London, including Harlow and Bishop’s Stortford.
Book a free IT and cyber security review
Is your code truly backed up? Book a free IT and cyber security review with First Stop IT and we’ll make sure it is.