Deop partnered with Globys to successfully migrate their entire code base and pipelines from GitLab to GitHub. The core of the engagement was to solve the critical challenge of replicating GitLab's group and repository hierarchy within the more open GitHub architecture while simultaneously establishing robust, organization-wide security and governance standards. By implementing a combination of custom properties, repository topics, and the Safe Settings solution, Deop ensured a seamless migration with centralized control, improved code hygiene, and enhanced security posture, allowing Globys to maintain structure across hundreds of repositories.
Seamless GitLab to GitHub Migration Without Disrupting Developer Experience: Globys faced a critical challenge: migrating hundreds of GitLab repositories to GitHub while maintaining a consistent, high-quality developer experience. The goal was to transition all source code and CI/CD pipelines to GitHub Actions with zero downtime or workflow disruption.
At the same time, it was essential to strengthen security controls, enable Copilot for enhanced productivity, and ensure Canadian data compliance throughout the migration. Achieving this required expert DevOps consulting and a carefully orchestrated migration strategy tailored for Canadian enterprises.
Governance at Scale: The migration required applying a consistent set of branch protection and other settings to hundreds of repositories in bulk. Manual configuration was infeasible for the scope of the project.
Deop developed and executed a comprehensive strategy focused on establishing strong governance and organizational clarity within the new GitHub environment.
Preserved Globys's group hierarchy inside GitHub using custom repository properties and topics as targeting labels — so a policy could apply to an entire product line or client without hard-coding repository lists.
Migrated all source code and history cleanly onto GitHub — managing large-file limits up front — and re-platformed every CI/CD pipeline onto GitHub Actions with zero downtime and no disruption to developers.
Established an organization-wide governance baseline as code with Safe Settings — mandatory branch protection, required reviews, secret scanning push protection, and Dependabot — reconciled automatically across hundreds of repositories so nothing drifts.
The Safe Settings implementation was configured at multiple levels to balance organization-wide policy with granular repository needs:
Organization-Wide: Settings applied to all repositories were defined in the .github/settings.yml file, requiring caution due to their wide scope.
Suborgs (Group-Based): Custom configurations were defined for groups of repositories (suborgs), created using wildcards (e.g., globys-*), team-based permissions, or Custom Properties (e.g., repositories with client=ABC).
Per-Repository: Individual settings were placed in a <reponame.yml> file under the .github/repos folder for granular, repository-specific management.
Scope Control: A deployment-settings.yml file was created to restrict which repositories the Safe Settings application could manage via the restrictedRepos configuration.
Centralizing configurations via the Safe Settings files eliminated the need for manual per-repository updates.
Automated features like Dependabot and Safe Settings handle repetitive tasks, allowing developers to focus on feature delivery rather than manual governance or cleanup.
By enabling secret scanning push protection, Globys now stops a major security risk before it can happen.
Uniform, automated branch protection and security controls are now enforced across hundreds of repositories — the same guardrails everywhere, applied by default and kept in place continuously.
"Moving our code base to GitHub was a massive undertaking, but Deop's expertise made the process seamless. The biggest win for us was the implementation of the Safe Settings solution. We were worried about losing the fine-grained hierarchy we had in GitLab, but the use of Custom Properties and Topics gave us the structure we needed while maintaining the velocity and developer experience of GitHub. The immediate enforcement of critical security features, like preventing secrets from being pushed in the first place, has given our leadership team complete confidence in our new environment."
- Head of Engineering
Deop is a Microsoft Solutions Partner in Cloud & AI Platforms and Security, with advanced specializations including Agentic DevOps with Azure and GitHub. We deliver alongside Microsoft and GitHub.
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