Integrating security into DevOps! Uncover the essence of DevSecOps, its importance, and how it is redefining the way we approach security and software delivery.
Up to this point, no one would argue that DevOps is a necessary set of practices that efficiently combine software development and IT operations to enable shorter lifecycles and provide continuous delivery of high-quality products. However, over the past few years it has become clear that to make the most of the DevOps approach, IT security also had to play an essential role during development.
As DevOps brings faster and more frequent development cycles, security needs to keep pace. This is exactly what DevSecOps aims to provide by integrating the latest end-to-end security considerations. In this way, this DevOps revamp ensures that security is part of the equation from the beginning, preventing outdated practices from derailing the project later. Here's what you need to know about DevSecOps.
What is DevSecOps?
DevSecOps is an enhanced version of DevOps that integrates security practices into the DevOps process. The goal remains the same: to promote flexible and continuous collaboration between development and operations teams to create software processes in an agile framework. The improvement comes with the integration of the security aspect that avoids the bottleneck effect of older security models when used in the context of continuous delivery.
Thus, DevSecOps not only bridges the gap between software engineers and IT professionals, but also brings security experts into the mix. This ensures fast and secure delivery of code that meets the latest business standards and regulations, thanks to the inclusion of security tasks at every stage of the delivery process.
Adopting DevSecOps implies the following:
• Consider application and infrastructure security from the beginning of the development lifecycle.
• Automate tasks and security gates to keep pace with DevOps.
• Choose the right tools to ensure seamless security integration.
• Adopt cultural changes in development and operations teams for seamless integration of the security team.
Security in DevOps vs. DevSecOps
DevOps
With DevOps, security works more as protection around applications and data, rather than being built into them. While good DevOps initiatives use security insights to inform their design plans, security often remains at the end of the development cycle.
DevSecOps
With DevSecOps, security is integrated into the development process itself. This is done through the automation of repetitive tasks that allow the development team to perform security checks on the pipeline to ensure security requirements are met. DevSecOps also defines a risk tolerance level that establishes a security threshold good enough to ensure security without slowing down development.
Benefits of DevSecOps
By definition, DevSecOps ensures that security protocols are built into the development process, rather than layered on top of it. This allows everyone on the development team to access the benefits of the latest agile methodologies and security practices without sabotaging the goal of rapid delivery of high-quality software.
Other benefits of using DevSecOps include:
- Increased presence of automated builds and quality assurance testing throughout the development lifecycle.
- Early detection of vulnerabilities in code for faster remediation and more robust results.
- Better collaboration between development, operations, and testing teams, which leads to a smoother overall process.
- High flexibility that allows rapid adaptation to changing requirements, including those related to security.
- High development speed and agility in the same DevOps line.
- Better ROI on existing security infrastructure.
- Improved operational efficiency in security-related operations.
- Possibility of using cloud-based solutions to their fullest extent for development processes without worrying about security.
How to get started with DevSecOps
As mentioned above, one of the crucial aspects you will need to adopt DevSecOps is a significant change in your development culture. This means reevaluating the role of the security team in the pipeline. Therefore, instead of seeing security as an unpleasant facet that you would leave aside in the name of agility, it is important that you and your team understand security for its valuable contributions to preventing problems in the future.
Of course, it's much more than just a change of heart. DevSecOps has several crucial components that you must address early on to ensure proper adoption. These components include:
- Code analysis: The team needs to hand over small snippets of code to allow security professionals to evaluate them for vulnerabilities. The size of these chunks is important, as being small will allow the security team to find problems faster.
- Continuous auditing: The security team must always be aware of compliance with both security requirements and applicable regulations. You should perform regular audits to make sure everything is in the right place.
- Change management: You should start allowing anyone to submit changes to increase the speed at which you apply them. Naturally, before doing this, you must define whether the change is good enough to be applicable.
- Continuous threat monitoring: Every time the team updates the code it can bring new potential threats. That's why you should check every update and resolve any emerging issues quickly to avoid future consequences.
- Performance assessment: Measure how quickly the team responds to new vulnerabilities. Consider measuring the time it takes to identify new vulnerabilities and fix them.
- Constant training: DevSecOps security practices need to be constantly updated, which means your team also needs to stay up to date. Make sure you provide them with ongoing training to ensure the level of security required by current standards.
The time for DevSecOps is now
There are numerous benefits you can gain from this DevSecOps approach, but chief among them is a tighter focus on security that doesn't require you to sacrifice your continuous delivery cycle. By adopting this new way of working, you can be sure you'll get all the benefits of agile development while adding a much-needed layer of built-in security.
If you liked this, be sure to check out our other DevOps articles.
- Understanding the DevOps Hype
- What is DevSecOps and why do you need it?
- DevOps Observability and Monitoring: Definitive Guide
- Why is DevSecOps becoming essential?
- Achieving zero downtime deployment with continuous deployment
