Security and availability question

The hosted TFS is very interesting to me. The pricing seems fair as long as the system is secure and usable.

Please explain to me how hosted TFS is secured with regards to account access control, and access to stored assets (source code). This should describe both internal (your people) and external accesses.

Another concern is availabiliy. Please explain how hosted TFS will be kept "available" 24x7 without interruption, or at least align my expectations properly.


Thank you for your time,

Mark

 

TFS is secured the same way our hosting, database and mail servers are. The network is protected at the point of entry by two Juniper firewalls (one on each incoming backbone connection), and a 3Com "Tipping Point" intrusion detection system (see Tipping Point's case study of our use here). For DDoS mitigation we use Staminus SecurePort DDoS Mitigation.

As for physical access to the servers, see the security section of this Knowledge Base article. Only a few people in the company have physical access to the servers. As for access to the data on the servers, our system administration staff and some members of the support staff have server access. That's necessary for what should be obvious reasons - they need access in the event of a problem.

We do not guarantee uptime of any servers, because 100% uptime is not possible. Every server has to undergo maintenance to keep it up to date and operational. That being said, we limit regular maintenance to Wednesdays from approximately 6:00 PM to 3:00 AM Pacific time. So when maintenance is necessary, you can expect it to take place during that time frame.

I can tell you that the user reaction to our TFS hosting has been very positive so far. If you are a DiscountASP.NET hosting customer you can try TFS free for 30 days.

 

...Wow, that was insightful. ;-)

 

Okay, well, admittedly, a lot of that is from a canned security template that I use in helpdesk. It's a common question, and I understand why people ask. There are a lot of "hosts" out there that are no more than a kid somewhere and a rented server somewhere else. It's always a good idea to make sure you aren't handing over your online life to one of them.