It’s not enough to say that Open Source Software has changed the IT world. Its popularity grows together with a growing tech-savvy population, flexibility to alter the code, and an exponentially increasing number of free, open-source projects. Developing and deploying open-source software is not just an idyllic idea – those projects are indeed shaping a modern, fast-changing digital world.

The numbers speak for themselves

The open-source services market, estimated at $21,7 billion in 2021, is on course to more than double within five years. Speaking precisely, according to MarketsandMarkets’ newest report, it will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18.2%, to reach USD 50.0 billion by 2026.

But there is the other side of the coin here. Once people handle and process more code and switch to open source more than ever before, it might present compatibility issues, inherent vulnerabilities, the threat of cyberattacks, and a wide range of possible human mistakes. That is why cybersecurity enterprises help assure open-source software is protected, secure, or kept up to date.

Source code backup – how to protect Open Source projects

One of those companies is Xopero Software with GitProtect.io project, which ensures Open Source software with free source code backup and Disaster Recovery. It guarantees professional, fully automated, and manageable GitHub backup of public repositories and metadata for all open-source platforms that want to protect their source code.

The company has over 12 years of experience on the market and established cooperation with such companies as ESET, T-Mobile, Orange, QNAP, and more. GitProtect.io is based on a company flagship backup product that now brings its all professional, enterprise-class features to GitHub (as well as GitLab and Bitbucket) users making GitProtect.io the most professional GitHub backup software – now free for open sources.

GitHub backup – do Open Source Projects need that?

Source code, even if hosted within such reliable companies like GitHub, GitLab, or Atlassian, might get lost or unavailable. No service provider can ensure customers with 100% availability. In June 2020 GitHub experienced a major outage that lasted for hours and impacted millions of developers. In 2017 happened the biggest outages of GitLab.com service. The incident made it unavailable for many hours. They also lost some production data that they were unable to recover.

Also, ransomware does not bypass those companies. In 2019 tech media reported that attackers were targeting GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket accounts, wiping code and commits from multiple repositories and leaving behind only a ransom note.

Finally – human errors – the greatest cybersecurity threat. Head overwrite, branch or old repository deletion, losing or not having a local copy – that’s some of the developers’ mistakes that can put source code in danger or wipe it out irreversibly.

GitHub backup is a must

GitProtect.io then is a must-have for any responsible and software-oriented organization and Open Source Projects. It ensures users with both repository and metadata backup, unlimited retention and repository archive possibilities, a data-driven central management console, and disaster recovery features. It’s compatible with nearly every storage (cloud and local) so there is no need to invest in an additional IT infrastructure.

Now developing and deploying software is not just efficient, flexible, and purposeful but also accessible and protected. Moreover, contrary to scripts, backup software is easy to test and ensure it works to make sure companies can recover the source code in any event of failure.

More information can be on the official project website.