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Jira Backup Blind Spots

Not all Jira Cloud backups are the same. Here's what you need to know...
UNCOVERING JIRA BACKUP BLINDSPOTS

NOT ALL BACKUP SOLUTIONS FOR JIRA ARE THE SAME

After years of talking to Atlassian customers looking for a robust Jira Cloud backup solution, we kept hearing about how most solutions promised to 'backup everything in Jira', but how many simply did not make the cut?

So we decided to go out and fact-check the features of the backup apps available on the Atlassian Marketplace.

We were surprised again and again to find, what we would call, critical functionality in backups, was completely missing in some solutions!

We’ve labeled these Backup Blindspots and are adding them to this page, one by one...

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BLINDSPOT #1 AUTOMATIONS
BLINDSPOT #1AUTOMATIONSRead More
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BLINDSPOT#2 CLOUD FORTIFIED
BLINDSPOT#2CLOUD FORTIFIEDREAD MORE
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BLINDSPOT#3 SOC2 COMPLIANT
BLINDSPOT#3SOC2 COMPLIANTREAD MORE
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BLINDSPOT#4 DATA RESIDENCY
BLINDSPOT#4DATA RESIDENCYREAD MORE
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BLINDSPOT#5 LOGGING
BLINDSPOT#5LOGGINGREAD MORE
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DEFINITIVE GUIDE BACKUP BUYERS GUIDE
DEFINITIVE GUIDEBACKUP BUYERS GUIDEMORE
BACKUP BLINDSPOTS #1

AUTOMATIONS

Automations are a Critical Part of Most Jira Sites

Since their inception, Automations in Jira have been a fantastic way to increase productivity and to remove unnecessary effort in your service desk and projects - just about anywhere!  For many sites, dozens of automations run 24x7 completely unnoticed. This is where the problem lies.  Because automations run in the background, you tend not to notice them until they break down, or as is the case of late February 2024, they go missing altogether!

Automations are Not Backed Up

Automations are not backed up by default, and due to our recent investigations of backup apps on the Marketplace, very often they are not able to be backed up adequately by your backup software.   It should be noted that Atlassian are backing up Automations and other configuration objects for their own outages - but this is not covered if any damage is done internally to your site.

How To Create Automations and Back Them Up by Alex Ortiz

We asked renowned Jira expert and trainer, Alex Ortiz, to walk us through setting up Automation rules and backing them up in the video below. 


Watch Explainer:  How to Create Automations Rules in Jira

 

Watch Explainer:  How to Restore Automations Rules from Jira Backups with Revyz

 

The Risks of Not Backing Up Automations

There are many ways that your Automations can be damaged or lost, including;
  • User damage during making changes
  • Accidental deletion
  • Malicious deletion by rogue staff
  • Deletion or adjustment by cyber-attack (there's not greater way to create havoc in a Jira site!)
  • Site incidents and cloud outages

What Happens When Atlassian Cloud Loses Automations

In February 2024, Atlassian Jira Cloud encountered a critical incident where Automations were no longer available to Jira customers.  This event was unfortunate and, for some customers, the impact lasted for several days before automations were fully up and running again.  During the incident, we hosted a live session with The Jira Life team of experts to talk through the incident and discuss the implications, ways to resolve the issue and how to mitigate the risks.  The recording is below.

 

 

 

Other Resources

BACKUP BLINDSPOTS #2

CLOUD FORTIFIED

Jira and Confluence Cloud Typically Contains Highly Sensitive Data

Whether it is commercially sensitive project information, private customer details or information that falls under the spotlight of regulatory control and protection, its essential that the data inside your cloud instances is protected from theft, loss and damage.

An area that is often overlooked by admins is the access that your third-party providers such as marketplace apps have.


Third Party Provider Risk

Its not all that difficult to become a Marketplace provider and with that role, comes a lot of responsibility.  In recognition of that, Atlassian created the Cloud Fortified program where marketplace partners can have be vetted by Atlassian and that confidence passed on to customers.

Jira Backups Cloud Foritifed by Revyz

 

It is Essential for Backup Providers to be Secure

As backup vendors on the Marketplace have deep access to your data, it is absolutely essential for their security practices, their commercial structures and their hosting platforms to be verified, but, not all in the Marketplace that we have reviewed are Cloud Fortified. 

Cloud apps with advanced security, reliability and support

Quote From the Atlassian

"With advanced standards for security, reliability and support, Cloud Fortified apps are ready to meet the needs of all Atlassian Cloud customers, including enterprises. A Cloud Fortified badge indicates that an app participates in all six of Atlassian's cloud app security programs and undergoes additional checks for service reliability and performance. Cloud Fortified apps integrate their incident and review processes with Atlassian to allow for faster recovery time and continuous improvement, and abide by strict Atlassian-defined app support SLAs."

 

Other Resources

BACKUP BLINDSPOTS #3

SOC2 COMPLIANT

Atlassian Cloud Platform is SOC2 Compliant But Not All Backup Providers Are

When choosing a provider to store your mission critical Jira and Confluence data, you need to be assured that they are taking every step to protect your data and that their operations and software are running to the highest standards.

soc2 logo

Why Revyz Chose SOC2

Revyz chose to build our software, platform and organization to the highest possible standard that is demanded by enterprise level customers throughout the world. We found that the SOC2 was tightly aligned with this level of excellence.  

 

How Does SOC2 Work?

Watch our interview of SOC2 a compliance expert to get an understanding of how the standard works, why it was founded and what is involved.

 

Quote From the Atlassian

"We encourage and expect you to verify security and operations of every cloud provider that your organization partners with, including Atlassian, which is why we’ve documented our security, privacy, reliability, and compliance information on our Trust site. "

Other Resources

BACKUP BLINDSPOTS #4

DATA RESIDENCY

As organizations shift their software platforms to cloud, they are faced with a new challenge of data residency.

Atlassian provides customers with a variety of global options in which to have their data reside enabling customers to meet compliance obligations.

 

What is Data Residency?

With cloud solutions such as Jira and Confluence, all of your organizations data is stored in hosted environment.  In the case of Atlassian Cloud, this stored in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) environment.

To meet regional compliance needs, governmental data sovereignty laws and to ensure that system latency is minimized, AWS provide options in which to locate your data (and data processing services)  within specific regions around the globe. 

This is known as data residency.

 

But What About Your Backups?

There are a wide range of data backup options available on the Atlassian Marketplace but very few provide for comprehensive data residency coverage.  

This can leave you exposed to not meeting compliance obligations.

"Data residency gives you control over where your in-scope product data for Jira, Jira Service Management, Jira Product Discovery, and Confluence is hosted. It allows you to choose whether it’s globally distributed or held in place in a defined geographic location, such as Europe or the US. 

If you work in a regulated industry like finance, government, or healthcare, data residency may be a necessity for operating in a cloud environment. More generally, it can also help you meet company data management requirements. "

Quote From the Atlassian

 

Other Resources

  • Atlassian Support Data Residency
  • Atlassian 
BACKUP BLINDSPOTS #5

LOGGING

Maintaining Compliance Obligations is Often a Big Headache for IT Leaders

These days it seems that compliance keeps getting more complicated and more far reaching, no matter which region or industry you are operating in.

One Thing that All Compliance Regulations Need Is Proof

Whether it's SOC2, ITIL, DORA, GDP or one of the myriad of other regulations and standards that you have to adhere to, the common requirement of each of the is to be able to provide proof that your systems and processes are being held to your declared standards. 

For cloud software platforms such as Jira and Confluence, this means that you need to have extensive logging capabilities.

When Things Go Wrong, Where Do You Look?

Every software system has problems from time to time so for administrators of those systems, having a detailed log is an essential tool in order to investigate issues.

 

Does Your Backup Solution Log Everything?

There are a wide range of data backup options available on the Atlassian Marketplace most backup apps only log the bare minimum when it comes to system activity.  

This can leave you exposed to not meeting compliance obligations as well as feeling helpless when trying to investigate an issue

"Log data provides a treasure trove of valuable information, capturing every interaction, every event, and every anomaly happening within a system. It holds the key to understanding system performance, identifying security breaches, and optimizing operational efficiency."

Leanne Mitten, Splunk Advisory

 

Other Resources

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE

Backup Buyers Guide

When selecting a cloud backup solution for Jira or Confluence, make sure that you get answers to the following questions;

Basic Backup Features

If you are wanting a no-fuss backup solution that you can rely upon, these backup features are non-negotiable;

  • How often can I back my data up?
  • Can I configure the frequency of my automation?
  • If the backup fails, how will I become aware of this?
  • In the event of a backup problem, how can I trouble-shoot the problem, what information have I got access to track down the cause?
  • How do I manage my backups in Jira and Confluence?
  • How do I manage user-access security to my company backup operations and access to this sensitive data?

 

Backup Scope Features

  • Which Jira data objects do you include in backups?
  • Which Jira data objects do you not include in backups?
  • Which Jira configuration objects do you include in backups?
  • Which Jira configuration objects do you not include in backups?
  • How do I manage user-access security to my company's backup operations and access to this sensitive data?


Data Restore Features

  • Which data objects can your system restore?
  • Which data objects can your system not restore?
  • Which configuration objects can your system restore?
  • Which configuration objects can your system not restore?
  • In the event of a full restore of an entire Jira project back to the same site, what - if any - manual activities will we need to complete in order to have that project back to a fully operational state?
  • In the even of a full restore of an entire Jira project to a different site, what - if any - manual activities will we need to complete in order to have that project back to a fully operational state?

 

Data Security 

  • How can I be assured that my backups are working without having to log in and check manually every day?
  • Is my data encrypted while its being transmitted from Atlassian Cloud to your external site?
  • Is my data encrypted while it is being stored at your external site?
  • Is my data encrypted while it is being restored back from your external site?
  • What company-level protections do you offer to provide assurance to me that your claims about security, resiliency, and reliability are independently verified?

 

Monitoring and Management

  • Can I monitor multiple Jira sites and platforms in a central view or dashboard?
  • Does your system provide logging of backup activities, such as backup run, and backup success/fail?
  • Does your system provide detailed logging of errors when things go wrong?
  • Does your system provide logging of user activity such as changing backup settings, running a manual backup, running a restore?
  • Can I have a third party provide access to the backup software to manage it for me? 

 

Support

  • What type of technical support does your company provide to customers? (Email, Chat, Phone, Remote-Connect)?
  • What hours do your support team operate?
  • Are your support team in-house staff, or an outsourced support provider?
  • How are your team members vetted from a security standpoint?

 

 

BEST PRACTICE GUIDE FOR JIRA DATA PROTECTION

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JIRA CLOUD RESOURCE CENTER

JIRA CLOUD DATA RESILIENCE STRATEGY

Just like any other part of your critical IT infrastructure, you should have a resiliency strategy that maps out the risks, vulnerabilities, practices, and protective measures for your site/s.  

A great place to start is to understand where your security responsibilities lie, which are distinctly different from Jira Server.  Atlassian has published a very detailed guide on this and we have also written this article to help you navigate this crucial step.
Revyz Guide to Atlassian Shared Responsibilities

Read : Navigating Atlassian Cloud Security Shared Responsibilities

Once you've gotten a handle on your responsibilities around security and data backups, it pays to review your situation.  We partnered with platinum solution partner, Praecipio to provide the following checklist to support this process.Revyz Saas Data Resilience Checklist

Download:  SaaS Data Resilience Checklist



 

The Most Comprehensive Backups for Jira Cloud in the Atlassian Marketplace

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Fully Integrated Jira Backup Console Revyz Backups are built inside Jira so no downloads, no logging into a different window and a simple, easy to use user interface
Backup All Jira Data Objects Revyz automatically backs up projects, tickets, configurations, assets and your entire Jira site and allows you to restore any individual object at the click of a button
Unmatched Restorability Data restore from your Jira Backups with Revyz is a simple matter of point and click with unmatched precision and granularity.
Compliance Ready Pass your compliance checks with a breeze with Revyz in-built compliance standards including SOC2, Cloud Fortified, Comprehensive Logging and flexible Data Residency