In the ever-evolving IT industry, administrators and developers encounter fresh hurdles regularly, owing to the rapid pace of technological advancement in recent times. Cloud-native software and containerisation have expedited the development of technology, bringing with it a plethora of novel complications and possibilities.
A fundamental aspect of the IT sector is comprehending the concept of DevOps, which refers to the union of Development and Operations that has been made possible due to the rise of container deployments. This blog post will examine DevSecOps, a practice that prioritises security in both development and operation. However, before delving into this subject matter, it is crucial to understand the origins of these amalgamations.
The Significance of Efficient Procedures
Historically, Development and Operations teams worked autonomously, with little to no communication. However, container operations necessitate close scrutiny, rendering isolation infeasible. Therefore, it is imperative for the Development and Operations teams to cooperate with each other to meet this demand.
As a result, DevOps has evolved into a practice that fuses software engineering with IT operations to hasten the system development life cycle.
The need for swift iteration during the development and deployment of containers has given rise to the requirement for the automation of the development life cycle. Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) has gained traction due to this demand, as it reduces the time between coding and business execution.
By leveraging CI/CD, developers can expedite the implementation of changes, and operations can swiftly test and deploy any updates as soon as new code is committed to the organisation’s repository.
Adopting Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) is the sole means of guaranteeing a seamless and efficient development cycle.
The Fundamental Problem
The issue of safety is a significant concern due to the high levels of productivity, automation, and brief life cycles. With the numerous constituents involved in a Kubernetes or Docker deployment, including images, containers, pods, control planes, and networks, and their manifest complexity, ensuring security can be challenging.
There is a possibility that the engineers working in your team may construct the entire system using a container image that contains severe security weaknesses, making it impossible to ensure the system’s safety.
The project manifest may contain errors that result in security vulnerabilities. Additionally, it is possible that the containers being used could have APIs with known vulnerabilities, or contain secrets that could expose account credentials. If such containers were to be deployed into production, the security of the network, servers, and cloud storage could be compromised, potentially granting hackers access to sensitive information.
An increasing number of companies are moving to the cloud; however, it has been observed that 22.5% of security breaches are caused by inadequately configured managed services.
If you select a cloud provider with inadequate security measures, your data may be at risk.
How DevOps Rescued Me
In this context, DevSecOps is advantageous as it merges the software development and information security disciplines. DevSecOps adds a security emphasis to the connection between Dev and Ops, and is not merely a meeting between three separate departments. In DevSecOps, security is embedded in every phase of the software development process, including all stages of creation such as planning, coding, assembling, testing, releasing, and so on.
Including security in the CI/CD pipeline is critical to the development of DevOps. DevSecOps is the next logical stage in this progression, ensuring that security considerations are incorporated into each phase of the development life cycle. This enables swift resolution of any security issues that may arise, reducing the risk of undetected vulnerabilities.
DevSecOps’ “software, safer, sooner” approach is achievable because of its distributed security responsibilities. However, it is important to note that DevSecOps cannot provide a cure-all to ensure complete protection against all security incidents.
The Advantages of DevOps
A DevSecOps methodology has many benefits, but some of the most compelling ones are:
- Employing a shorter software development life cycle leads to faster delivery times and lower costs compared to traditional testing processes that often impede progress.
- Automated code auditing, scanning, and security due to the expansion of security’s scope across more teams.
- DevSecOps aims to automate the entire process, resulting in quicker vulnerability resolution.
- Integrating more closely with contemporary development practices is crucial as outdated legacy development methods become obsolete. This is especially true in the corporate landscape, where neglecting to stay current with cutting-edge technologies will put you at a competitive disadvantage.
- Collaborating with this software life cycle model guarantees that your development life cycle operations are not just repetitive but automated as well.
Conclusion
For companies that are currently utilizing DevOps, it is highly recommended to incorporate security into the workflow. This will lead to better management of the software life cycle while also strengthening deployment security. Ensuring application security should be a major goal for all organizations.
