Jira Regular Backups and Issue History Tracking: Must-Haves to Protect Your Data

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How often do you implement proactive measures for data loss prevention and recovery together with your project development plans? Everyone knows Jira as a project management platform, but what often falls out of attention is the significance of a robust strategy for safeguarding critical data. Whether you are an experienced Jira administrator looking to strengthen your data management strategy or a new user eager to protect your teamwork data, this article is your go-to guide for maximizing the potential of Jira regular backups and issue history tracking.

Why do we need backups and tracking change history in Jira?

According to Arcserve Global Research, 43% of IT decision-makers think cloud service providers are in charge of protecting and recovering data. In fact, every organization is responsible for choosing the strategy and tools that will work best for it. All of that relates to the Atlassian Cloud Security Shared Responsibility Model, which states the responsibilities of both parties - Atlassian and its users’. 

Source: Atlassian Cloud Security Shared Responsibilities

Thus, as you can see, Atlassian, as a service provider, is responsible for the smooth running of its system, service, hosting, and application. At the same time, a user’s duty is his account’s data protection, as account-level protection and recovery are not included in the provider’s responsibilities and competence. 

Regular backups and issue history tracking are a strong duo of tactics that can protect your project data from unanticipated events. 

Not having those tactics in place can result in a variety of challenges, such as:

Data Loss

• When backups aren't performed regularly, the risk of losing essential project data increases. This might result in significant expenses for data recovery attempts, jeopardize stakeholder trust, and interrupt project continuity. 
• Without change history tracking, teams may struggle to understand the context behind past activities, hindering their ability to maintain accountability, learn from mistakes, and enhance processes.

Compliance Violations

Isn’t it nice to stand out from your competitors as the most trustworthy company? Compliance with security regulations like SOC 2, ISO 27001, and newly implemented DORA and NIS2 standards are becoming a must-have. Failure to comply with regulatory standards can lead to fines, legal issues, and reputational harm.

• Regular backups offer a way to keep critical data always accessible and recoverable from any point in time. Moreover, it proves the company’s responsibility in the event of audits or legal inquiries.
• Issue history offers a transparent audit trail of who did what and when, and promotes openness and accountability within teams. 

Failed troubleshooting

• When an event of failure happens, whether they are technical problems, user errors, or ransomware attacks, you need to get your critical data back as fast as possible. Without backup, you won’t be able to restore Jira quickly to keep your workflows continuous. 
• Monitoring issue history helps to answer the questions: What happened, when, and who is responsible for updates? Without it, you can’t analyze past events and implement effective fixes.

How back-ups in Jira work

Atlassian has its native Jira application - Jira Backup Manager - that allows its users to create backups of their Jira environment. Using the tool Jira users can make a snapshot of their Jira instance and ensure the security of certain Jira data even during some unexpected situations. 

Whether it’s Jira Data Center or Jira Cloud, the sequence of actions is pretty similar:

1. First, users need to go to Settings > System. 
2. After that in Import and Export, they will need to choose Backup Manager. 
3. And there, they can create a backup for the Cloud or Data Center, depending on their deployment model. 

Jira users can create such backups on demand, however, if they want to include attachments, avatars, and logos they will need to wait 48 hours between downloading backup files. 

Due to the fact that there is no possibility to automate Jira backups, as exporting data from Jira is a manual process, Jira users must be attentive and always keep track of their backup files on the instance they chose as the storage of the downloads.

Automated backups for the Jira ecosystem

In view of the importance of Jira backups, one may search for a backup solution with a broader range of features, let’s say, automated and scheduled backups, granular restore, or backup monitoring systems, etc.

On the example of the third-party addon, GitProtect Backups for Jira, let’s look at backup and Disaster Recovery features that may help Jira users build a comprehensive backup strategy.

Backup performance

As the backbone of many team’s project management workflows, Jira may contain a wealth of critical information essential for business operations. What to say about the different levels of project complexity and the volume of the data that grows every minute? So, which features can become necessary to ensure proper protection and Jira data security, and at the same time save Jira Admins time? 

• Automated scheduled backups that allow Jira Admins to schedule and run backups automatically at any frequency and time they need;
• Full data coverage for Jira backups, which ensures that no single file is lost;
• Multi-storage support that permits Jira users to keep their backups in different storage instances - cloud, local, or NAS, and comply with the 3-2-1 backup rule;
• Backup replication between storage instances, so that all the backup copies contain the current information, and if one backup or storage fails to run, Jira users always have another actual backup plan;
• Full, incremental, and differential backups to save storage space, as Jira users don’t need to have a full copy each time the backup takes place - they can have only changed data backed up;
• Unlimited retention that allows users to keep their data for as long as their company, legal, or compliance requirements assume;
• Ransomware protection, which ensures that users can access their critical production data in the event of a cyberattack;
• In-flight and at-rest encryption with Jira user’s custom encryption key for better data protection;
• Easy backup monitoring with advanced audit logs, Slack, email, and webhook notifications, detailed task monitoring,data-driven dashboards, SLA auditing and Compliance reports.

Restore and Disaster Recovery

Whether facing data corruption, human error, or any other event of failure, Jira users should have effective restore and Disaster Recovery strategies to get their data as fast as possible for their company’s business continuity. Let’s take a look at the recovery features that can empower organizations to proactively protect their Jira data and infrastructure.

• point-in-time restore that allows Jira users to restore their data from a stated moment in time due to unlimited backup retention;
• granular restore, which assumes that users can recover only selected data to continue their work fast;
• restore to the same or a new account;
• Cloud-to-Cloud or Cloud-to-local restore depending on Jira users' needs;
• restore to the Jira user’s local device;
• restore to a free Jira account with a no-user recovery option.

Jira backups software for compliance with SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIS 2

Backup is one of the requirements to pass such security audits like SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Moreover, the recent NIS 2 Directive assumes that all the company’s security measures must be founded on an all-hazards approach, and backup is part of that. Applying Jira backup best practices, Jira users can protect their production and project management data and guarantee business continuity.

Options to track issue history in Jira

Issue history tracking is essential for reconstructing the timeline of project events, decisions, and discussions. Without this transparency, it is difficult to assign responsibility for actions, resolve disputes, or hold people accountable for their contributions. Let’s look at the options Jira provides to track issue history.

Issue History Tab

Each issue in Jira has a "History" tab, which shows a history of all the modifications made to the issue over time, including attachments, comments, status transitions, and other updates.

Limitations:

• No possibility of creating reports for multiple issues
• Inability to filter changes and structure the data
• No comparisons between the previous and current states of the issue
• No export

Activity Streams Gadget

The Jira Activity Stream is a gadget on Jira dashboard that allows users to view a stream of recent activities and updates across multiple projects or specific filters.

Limitations:

• Limited amount of events you can filter in the activity section
• No ability to export/download the report
• No ability to change the structure and adjust it to your needs

While the built-in options provide a basic audit trail of changes, they may not be sufficient for compliance or regulatory purposes. Users should take into account some limitations in terms of filtering options, historical data access, and integration with external systems. Let’s consider an alternative approach when you need to meet specific requirements and maximize issue history tracking.

Get a complete issue history journal 

Issue History for Jira is your all-inclusive solution for tracking past events on the issue level. It provides customizable reports with different views so that you can adjust everything to your needs. You can quickly gain insights into issue lifecycle and user activity, fostering transparency and accountability for every update.

Comprehensive audit trail of all changes

• Include all issues and all fields you need to see in your report. Find out: which data were modified, when, and who modified or moved it.
• Generate custom reports to monitor and compare how issues change over time (assignee, comment, description, status updates, etc.).
• Track user activity (which users have made changes and when). 
• Export issue history to get more insights via the analytical systems.

Store/restore deleted Jira issues

• Audit deleted issues to stay accountable for every record.
• Restore deleted tasks to retrieve lost information while maintaining the accuracy and completeness of the data.

Revert changes made to the description

Find the previous version of the description field and roll back the changes to the state you need. Text formatting (bold, color, lists, tables) will be preserved. The only exception is attachments. As Jira does not store attachments after removal, you can only return the name of the removed format.

Issue History for Jira is available for Cloud and Data Center users. The app provides reports within an add-on, on the issue tab, and as a gadget on the Jira dashboard, equipping you with all essential options for tracking issue history.

Takeaway

Regular backups and issue history tracking are essential components of a comprehensive Jira management strategy. A systematic approach to data protection and issue tracking allows Jira users to safeguard their critical project information, mitigate the risk of data loss, and ensure continuity in the event of a failure. In this way, organizations will not only improve their security posture and meet compliance standards but also improve productivity. 

Try GitProtect Backups for Jira (free for 14 days) or use it free for up to 10 users

Try Issue History for Jira (free for 30 days) or use it free for up to 10 users