Should one keep their clients' files separated?

Question

As you continue to add more and more clients, are there best practices or procedures that are best to follow to keep clients' project files, credentials, etc.. separated on your computer?

My concerns are trying to ensure I don't accidentally mix up client files, or even web credentials. Or even the source code and different AWS/GCP/Azure profiles.

I've thought of using separate logins on my computers, but that also becomes a pain because there are so many tweaks and things to tools and settings that they are hard to keep synced up.

Is this really not a problem at all? Just as long as I sandbox as best as I can each client, use Chrome/Firefox profiles per client. I've done the best I can and call it good? Or are their techniques and ways to help better separate out each client into their own respective sandbox?

Answer 1

I give codes to different customers, here mostly tickets.

These codes are the prefix to folders, accounts etc. That helps to separate the work for different customers.

And so it is possible to give access to accounts to co-workers for this customer only.

Every customer has its own .txt file with notes what is linked to him.

Answer 2

It sounds like what you need are System Virtual Machines. These sit within your Operating System, but act like a walled garden so that your files don't (and indeed can't) interact with each other. You can also set tokens, credentials, cookies and login details without it compromising other websites that you're working on.

The added bonus here is that you can keep all of the work that relates to each client separated, take the VM wherever you go and restore them if and when your desktop catches fire or the HDD dies. This also obviates the need for having passworded file folders, code prefixes or whatever jerry-rigged system you're currently using to stop your files from accidentally bleeding over into each other.

There are a host of other benefits including the ability to run your VM on an identical software platform as your client's server and that you now have the capacity to share that setup with other developers and the client, should you so desire.