Accelerated DevSecOps adoption is driving higher security, reliability, and agility across industries
The recent pandemic has been a watershed moment for organizations to adopt cloud computing, remote working practices, and BYOD culture, compelling those who didn’t earlier. However, these digital changes have unfortunately increased the threat landscapes adding to the already existing pressure on IT and Security professionals.
DevSecOps – the need
Earlier, with cloud migration, software developers were constantly faced with quick delivery demands while ensuring the bridge of communication between teams was not broken. Though it was addressed with the DevOps model, the security aspect was not prioritized. Even the most advanced app could fail, if the security measures were not in place, leading to customer and revenue losses. Unfortunately, API Services, third-party code libraries, and open-source project repositories have all become attack vectors. Threat actors sometimes trick developers to install malicious dependencies during zero-day attacks.
Yes, App Security is key for a project to succeed. With growing cybersecurity threats in the recent past, organizations are pushed to implement tighter security controls and monitoring features. But by considering security in silos or as a separate task performed at the end of the software development life cycle, it becomes almost impossible, time-consuming, and expensive to rectify the issues that may occur in the app. This will further cause delays in the software release date. It is important to build security in the software development life cycle itself. The implementation of security throughout the entire software cycle has led to the birth of DevSecOps (Development, Security, and Operations). In this service security tools and processes are integrated within the DevOps lifecycle. DevSecOps is slowly replacing DevOps today across several businesses.
DevSecOps benefits
According to Data Bridge Market Research, the global DevSecOps market which was valued at USD 2.59 billion in 2021, is expected to reach USD 23.16 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 31.50% during the forecast period of 2022-2029. This massive growth of the technology indicates the several benefits it offers.
By the application of security by design principle, DevSecOps process provides ongoing security throughout the entire app life cycle. The attack surface gets minimized with the automated reviewing of the security code and testing of the application. With minimal disruptions and increased collaboration between teams, the development lifecycle is significantly reduced and efficiency is increased. As security issues are detected in time and addressed immediately the speed of delivery and product quality improves. It is important to note cloud service providers take the responsibility of securing the cloud and not ‘in’ the cloud. DevSecOps can support the latter aspect and make cloud computing secure. Regulatory compliance is improved with the automation of security, monitoring, and notification in the DevSecOps lifecycle.
DevSecOps trends
App security is driving faster innovation and the high quality of software development, which is shaping DevSecOps adoption. There is an increase in the use of automation in security testing as well as remediation as it provides the speed required and makes the process efficient.
The growing use of cloud-native technologies such as serverless architecture and microservices is observed. Besides enabling the teams to build and deploy solutions at speed, the apps and services can be easily scaled on demand. There will be an increase in the adoption of security-as-code approaches leading to a decrease in vulnerabilities.
Container orchestration tools will be leveraged more as they support managing a large number of containers. These containers are used by software developers to package the apps and their dependencies into a single unit, which can be deployed across various environments. With cybersecurity risks becoming a concern of the Board, DevSecOps efforts will continue to grow to save organizations from threat actors.
DevSecOps – Best practices
Build a culture of security testing and implementation where the top executives communicate about the change across all departments and enable the different teams to collaborate with each other. All employees should be trained in security awareness. This way the app development process is well-secured. The principle of least privilege should be applied while giving access to DevOps resources. Sensitive data has to be encrypted and 2-factor authentication is mandatory. The security scanning has to be automated. IT security tools have to be updated regularly. It is crucial to perform a regular security audit. Implementing a disaster recovery plan will help in minimizing the impact of any attack.
From enhancing the software development lifecycle and improving collaboration between the development, operations, and security teams, DevOps plays a key role. With better operational efficiencies and reduction in cost DevSecOps solution is being embraced by both IT and Security teams at organizations. Security will be uniformly deployed throughout the organization with issues between solution development, security, and operations eliminated. Undoubtedly, DevSecOps adoption has become essential and is the responsibility of all technology-driven organizations to ensure the effective delivery of a project or solution. To witness better business outcomes, they have to quickly invest in DevSecOps adoption in the coming days to meet the requirements of current and future market standards.
(The author is Mr. Rajarshi Bhattacharyya, Co-Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, ProcessIT Global, and the views expressed in this article are his own)
