What is DevSecOps?
Development, Security & Operations (DevSecOps) is a development model incorporating security testing in different phases of the software development cycle. Unlike traditional approaches where security is an afterthought, DevSecOps integrates security throughout the entire process.
This “shift left” mentality ensures vulnerabilities are identified and addressed early, preventing costly delays and security breaches later.
By fostering collaboration between development, security, and operations teams, DevSecOps aims to deliver highly secure applications faster and more efficiently.
The Role of DevSecOps
DevSecOps can play a valuable role in the development process in several ways:
- It helps an organization abide by ongoing security and legal regulations.
- This leads to developers having secure and improved coding techniques and making operations more aware of security issues.
- It shortens development cycles since security measures are tested and fixed during development, not after the fact.
- This process automates security features by merging them in the CI/CD (Continuous Integration & Continuous Delivery) pipeline. With static and dynamic analysis, automated scans, and other methods, it can identify, test, and secure code for faster solutions.
DevSecOps vs DevOps
The two concepts are tied culturally by their emphasis on community. To finish projects or produce goods, several departments come together. This collaborative culture unites various groups inside your company to reduce roadblocks and enhance development.
DevOps gave rise to DevSecOps, although the two approaches have different objectives. DevSecOps builds upon DevOps to address cloud vulnerability and is more concerned with security, while DevOps is more concerned with efficiency.
| Feature | DevSecOps | DevOps |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Integrated security practices in DevOps while keeping the speed and agility of DevOps | Software development and delivery |
| Primary Goals | Improve software quality, faster delivery, catch software vulnerabilities early, proactive security | Deliver software faster, improve software quality, and automate software delivery |
| Benefits | Limit security vulnerabilities, proactive security, cross-team ownership, repeatable and adaptive process, automation compatible, reduce time to market | Faster software releases, improved software quality, increased collaboration between development and operations |
| Challenges | Including security tools in the delivery process, bringing the importance of software security practices and timely delivery to software and security teams. | Resistance to change, automating testing, security concerns, shift from traditional infrastructure to microservices |
| Response To Security Issues | Proactive; continuous monitoring for security threats leads to faster responses | Usually reactive; managing security issues if pops up |
Importance of DevSecOps
DevSecOps is important as modern technology makes it easy to identify and eliminate vulnerabilities for cyber attacks. Applying security in the development cycle can ease the process of identifying & fixing issues to improve the response time to real-time cyber attacks.
Developing software while keeping security in mind helps reduce costs by finding and fixing vulnerabilities before going into production or after the release of the software. DevSecOps can deliver software as fast as the typical DevOps process while marginally improving software security by building a connection between the development, security, and operations teams.