- Challenge
- Launching an app that holds client data, on Supabase, with no DevOps person on the team.
- Solution
- SimpleBackups backs up the Supabase database, Storage buckets, project config and GitHub, all to the team's own Google storage.
- Result
- 16 backups running, and a support team that flags a missed run before anyone at Accred+ notices.
Accred+ gives festival organisers, department leads, suppliers and operations teams one shared crew list they can rely on. It replaces the spreadsheets, email chains and last-minute check-ins that crew accreditation usually runs on.
The team is small and spends its time on features, stability and performance. Backups were one more thing that could not be allowed to slip.
Client data from day one, and no DevOps person
Accred+ was launching a web application that handles client data. Nobody on the team was a dedicated DevOps engineer. So the question was simple: if something went wrong, could they get the data back?
We want to be able to ensure that our data is backed up in case something happens… it's the right thing to do for our clients' data, and therefore our reputation.
Thad RobertsonCo-founder, Accred+Why they didn't write it themselves
Accred+ runs on Supabase, so the backups had to live somewhere outside it. The team could have written that software. They chose not to, because owning it meant maintaining a system outside their expertise while they were trying to ship a product.
We could have written the software internally to do that, but then that's another thing to have to maintain… that isn't really our area of expertise to have to maintain is a risk that we didn't want to take.
Thad RobertsonCo-founder, Accred+A script would also have run alone. Nobody would have been watching it, and a backup that quietly stops is the failure a small team finds out about last. Buying meant getting the backups and a team behind them.
Everything they back up
Today Accred+ runs 16 backups with SimpleBackups. They cover the four parts of the stack the app cannot run without, and every copy lands in the team's own Google storage, outside Supabase and outside GitHub.
- Supabase databaseThe Postgres database behind the app, including the auth schema that holds user accounts.
- Storage bucketsThe files the app keeps in Supabase Storage, copied outside Supabase.
- Supabase configProject and auth settings, so the project itself can be rebuilt, not only its rows.
- GitHubThe application code and its history, kept outside GitHub.
Every copy stored in Google, outside the systems it protects
Setup took no engineering project. In Thad's words, it was “reasonably easy to configure.”
The part a script can't do
Support is the reason the setup feels safe. When one of their backups did not run, our team spotted it and reached out to Accred+ directly.
Proactive support
Any support that we've required to date has been super responsive, and also in some cases it's proactive as well, noticing that something hadn't backed up and then reaching out directly to us.
Thad RobertsonCo-founder, Accred+For a team of a few people, that matters more than any feature. As Thad put it: “I miss things all the time.” Having someone else watching the backups means a missed run gets caught by a person, not discovered during an incident.
Next: the first restore drill
Accred+ is in its pilot stage with a small number of clients, and the team has not yet rehearsed a full restore. That is the honest state of most early teams, and it is the next step we would push anyone to take: a backup you have never restored is a hope, not a plan.
Thad expects we would help if a restore were ever needed, based on how responsive support has been so far. His advice to anyone comparing options is short.
Use these guys… they've worked for us so far in our very early venture.
Thad RobertsonCo-founder, Accred+
