Welcome back to our Indispensable Azure Tools series. This time, we’re diving into Rewind, a SaaS backup solution designed to protect critical data in Azure DevOps, GitHub and other mission critical SaaS solutions.
Relying on SaaS services for code and project data can give a false sense of security. Azure DevOps Services and GitHub do maintain internal redundancies and retention policies, but they offer no straightforward, built-in way for users to back up or restore data on demand. Microsoft’s official documentation makes it clear that Azure DevOps’ own backups are for disaster recovery only, if a customer accidentally deletes assets (like a repository or work items), Microsoft will not restore them for you and only offers limited restore options using a REST API. In fact, Azure DevOps will permanently delete project data after 28 days and repositories after 30 days, beyond which recovery is impossible.
GitHub has a similar stance: if you delete a repository, you have a limited window (90 days) to restore it from GitHub’s interface, but there’s no built-in feature to retrieve a previous version or to regularly export your data. The official guidance for backing up a GitHub repo is essentially to clone it yourself (for example, using a git clone –mirror to make a full copy of the repo history) and store it externally. In short, neither Azure DevOps nor GitHub provides a backup solution for your code or configuration.
Azure DevOps and GitHub need Backups
For many it is actually surprising that Microsoft and GitHub don’t offer native backups. Both platforms focus on uptime and not user-accessible backups for code, issues, or wikis. And that can be a problem when someone accidentally deletes a branch, a crypto locker hits, or a service outage leaves you unable to access critical company data.
Rewind offers automatic backups for all important information in Azure DevOps, meaning your repos (code, commits, branches, pull requests), plus work items, boards, and pipelines.
Rewind runs quietly in the background, capturing daily snapshots of your SaaS tools, so you’re never caught off guard. For Git backups, you can even restore to a different platform if needed, which is a huge relief during a crisis and an important risk treatment when you are ISO 27001 certified.
For GitHub, Rewind covers repos, issues, wikis, and project boards.
SaaS backups are automated
One advantage we love about Rewind is how hands-off it is. Set it up once, and it runs daily backups automatically without ongoing maintenance, fitting seamlessly into your DevOps workflow. No more messing with manual scripts or exporting Git data, something most companies, unfortunately, skip altogether. If something goes wrong, you can restore to Azure DevOps or GitHub, or even move your data to another Git platform like GitLab or Bitbucket if the original service is down.
Supporting other mission critical SaaS platforms
The great thing about Rewind is that it doesn’t stop at Azure DevOps and GitHub. It also supports other SaaS tools, like Jira for project tracking, Slack for chats, Confluence for docs, HubSpot for CRM and Marketing, and Azure Entra ID for identity management. For instance, it backs up Jira issues and workflows, and Entra ID users and policies. This helps ensuring your data is safe, especially If your team is using multiple SaaS tools.
Our experience
From working with Rewind, here’s what we’ve learned. Schedule backups to match your team’s pace, daily backup works for most, but fast-moving projects might need more restore points. Test restores every few months to make sure everything’s working and your team knows the procedure. Keep an eye on Rewind’s audit logs to track what’s being backed up, especially if you’ve got compliance requirements. Rewind will also send out status mails so you don’t have to actually logon to be updated on the backup status.
One thing to keep in mind is pricing, which scales with the number of users in your Azure DevOps or GitHub organization. Thankfully, Rewind offers unlimited cloud storage for backups, and its incremental approach ensures daily snapshots without extra costs.
We think Rewind is essential for anyone relying on Azure DevOps or GitHub. It tackles the major problem of no built-in backups, and its ability to handle other SaaS platforms adds serious value. We have seen it come through when needed multiple times, so it’s no surprise it’s a staple in our toolkit.
This post is part of the Indispensable Azure Tools series by DevOps Masterminds. Explore the full series here.
Stay tuned as we roll out more indispensable tools to power up your Azure cloud journey!