DevSecOps: The Roadway to Better and More Secure Applications

What is DevOps?

Before we dive straight into the topic lets revisit the concept of DevOps. The technological world has rapidly developed in the past 10-15 years. In order to satiate the growing hunger of the modern world, the IT industry adopted a practice known as DevOps.

It combined the entire information-technology operations with software development, shortening any systems development cycle and delivering high-quality software on a consistent basis. Its goal was to establish a better relationship and a clear line of communication between two business units.

 What is DevSecOps?

DevSecOps is like an enhanced version of DevOps with the added benefit of security implementations at every step of development. The goal was to embed security protocols during the early development cycle and not leaving it for the end.

The internet has become a community. Sure you exchange information and do a whole bunch of other works, but the core essence of it has evolved into a place where people come together to create and innovate.

The huge influx of users coupled with an exponentially increased demand for software and applications lead to revolution. Although it was for the best, the change wasn’t all good.

The implementation and verification of security infrastructure within these services haven’t kept up with the trend. Cloud computing, dynamic provisioning, and shared resources have skyrocketed app development cycles by a thousandfold. However, security monitoring tools have fallen behind and cannot keep up with the pace of development.

In came the yet another revolutionary idea known as DevSecOps. High performing industries around the globe are adopting this successful business model. There hasn’t been a period in history where consumer demand has been this varied and sought after.

To meet such high requirements a company has to roll out frequent updates maintaining a variety of functions, keep tabs on existing ones and invent new and innovating ways of engaging with the consumers. The only problem is with security.

Since security patches aren’t readily implemented and were kept for the last, most systems had trouble assimilating it into the source code of the application, slowing down the entire workflow. The solution came in the form of integrating security patches throughout the pipeline in order to eliminate any downtime in the end.

The Difference between DevOps and DevSecOps

As of now, the two terms are different in both name and structure. DevSecOps presents a whole new set of obstacles such as tools, mindsets, and processes. DevOps is agile and seamless in its development process. Contrarily, DevSecOps is new and is still in its infancy.

It will take both time and patience to integrate the seamless nature of DevOps into its successor. The challenge presents an understanding of the problems. The workflow of DevOps consisted of creation and proper execution.

The added pressure of ensuring security dictates the developers to have a sound understanding of the responsibilities and the skills required to acclimatize themselves to the challenge.

Companies that have adopted DevSecOps show drastic improvement in their ability to detect flaws in their applications and the time required to fix said flaws. It’s a vision in the right direction, one that is in the works but truly inevitable in the near future.

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