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Blog Summary:
DevOps and DevSecOps streamline software development by enhancing collaboration, automation, and security. While DevOps accelerates delivery through CI/CD and automation, DevSecOps integrates security from the start. Businesses should adopt these practices for speed, security, and compliance. This blog explores their benefits, implementation strategies, and key tools, helping organizations choose the right approach for scalability and efficiency.
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For software development teams, every day is a race against tight deadlines. As the release date approaches, the team discovers a critical vulnerability. The entire lifecycle suddenly comes to a halt, and the app launch is postponed, requiring extensive rework.
Are the features working fine? Are all security concerns addressed? Have we left any bugs unfixed? Finding out such concerns just before deployment can be a real stressor.
This scenario is all too common in traditional DevOps practices, where security is often an afterthought. Especially when:
Integrating security from the outset is not just a best practice; it’s a financial imperative. Transitioning from DevOps to DevSecOps embeds security into every phase of development. It focuses on the idea that security is the responsibility of everyone involved, and not only the specific team.
In this blog, we’ll explore the comparative dynamics of DevOps vs DevSecOps and also elaborate on how your organization can smoothly transition from the former to the latter.
The world of software development is ruled by two superpowers: Development and Operations.
The development team is known for its speed and innovation in building new applications and releasing them in the market. The operations team is responsible for bringing stability and reliability to the production environment and is not disrupted by any new change in the app’s code.
Before DevOps, these two superpowers struggled to work together. When developers completed their work and forwarded it to the Operations team, the latter used to find the software difficult to deploy, often buggy, or with incompatible code.
In 2007, the industry shifted towards users demanding faster updates and businesses needing agility, making the competition fierce. Patrick Debois introduced the solution where Dev and Ops could work together by focusing on breaking down silos amongst the companies.
Central to the DevOps vs DevSecOps dynamic, the former practices focus on merging code to catch errors, automatically testing and deploying updates, managing infrastructure through code, and tracking real-time performance for quick fixes.
As elaborated above, DevOps is the merging of two essential teams in software development: development and operations. Working as one unified team, DevOps highlights the major aspect of the DevOps and DevSecOps comparison by transforming software delivery into a smooth and continuous cycle.
Here’s how it works:
Capital One is a leading financial institution that understands how to reduce the time required to develop and deploy new applications. Earlier, it took them weeks to provision infrastructure for new projects; using DevOps practices by Amazon Web Services (AWS), they adopted an on-demand infrastructure.
Its chief architect, John Andrukonis, emphasizes the importance of DevOps, “We’ve cut the time needed to build new app infrastructure by 99%”.
Let’s understand some of its core benefits:
This benefit of DevOps is best understood in the case of streaming giant Netflix. By embracing continuous delivery and automation, Netflix has increased its deployment speeds and recovery times. With the DevOps tool Chaos Monkey, Netflix can roll out a thousand deployments daily and even bounce back at record speed.
Companies that follow DevOps processes are at least 200 times more prolific than companies with traditional software. They can also bounce back quicker from a failure and recover with an astounding 24 times faster.
Teams that generally operate in silos lead to communication gaps and delays in deployment. A similar case happened with New York’s luxury fashion retailer Tapestry, which is the parent company of brands like Stuart Weitzman, Kate Spade New York, and Coach.
When their frontline retail associates faced challenges in capturing and utilizing feedback, Tapestry adopted AWS to develop a generative AI engine named “Ask Rexy.” By facilitating communication between store associates and top decision-makers, this engine helped Tapestry collect almost 30,000 pieces of feedback in a year and increased deployment 10x faster.
DevOps has another great advantage of driving operational efficiency and business scalability through CI/CD pipelines. EquipmentShare, a specialist company in equipment rental and technology solutions for construction, utilized AWS to transform its deployment processes.
When they needed to scale their infrastructure and grow, Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) helped them decrease their manual deployment times by 75%. Using its automation, it accelerated software release cycles with a 120% YoY growth and reduced downtime by 70 hours.
Successful DevOps security practices enable organizations to build effective monitoring and feedback mechanisms to boost operational performance. A software company, Slice, implemented DevOps Guru to gain in-depth insights into their system health.
When Slice needed a critical database upgrade, the DevOps Guru tool helped them detect inefficient queries after the restart and promptly optimize them. DevOps database tools also helped them update proactively to prevent production issues, resolving seven issues in less than nine months while increasing uptime.
Let our experts guide you through the journey of adopting and implementing DevOps to automate the software release cycles.
With technology, DevOps also evolved with cloud computing and AI-driven automation. Cloud computing has made infrastructure more scalable, and AI-driven automation has improved testing and monitoring.
However, it also led to growing security challenges, which ultimately gave rise to another modern concept, DevSecOps. DevSecOps is an extension of DevOps principles that integrates security right from the beginning of the development process.
Prioritizing the security aspect of the DevSecOps vs DevOps comparison, DevSecOps works through the “shift-left” principle. Under this principle, development and operations teams perform security checks earlier in development rather than just before deployment.
Here’s how DevSecOps enhances DevOps security:
DevSecOps is a tale of secure innovation in software development, where development and operations teams streamline the delivery by automating each stage of the software lifecycle.
However, with the speed and efficiency at the center, security threats often loom over. Data breaches and hacking often creep into software apps, which can exploit the vulnerabilities before teams can react.
Earlier, such security checks were performed either just before releasing the software or even after deploying it. They often led to last-minute delays, emergency fixes, and compromised user trust.
With DevSecOps, DevOps security is never an afterthought because it is integrated from the beginning rather than bolting with it in the end. Here, security teams are not outsiders but are internal team members. Here’s how they ensure every step is secured:
Shifting to DevOps security with DevSecOps requires you to include security checks at every step. Implementing this approach, in addition to DevOps, allows you to secure your software development cycles from several things.
You can validate real-time transactions, detect threats and fraud immediately, reduce compliance risks, and keep confidential information safe. Additionally, teams can catch suspicious behavior, keep protective checks on customer interactions, and even roll out incremental updates on data exchange frameworks.
By integrating security early in the development cycle through DevOps, organizations can significantly reduce their software development times. They can identify and address vulnerabilities promptly and minimize the delays associated with post-deployment security fixes.
Fidelity Investments implemented such a DevOps security model, which helped them reduce up to 20% of the development time required to deliver new applications. They also saw at least a 30% improvement in security compliance rates and expedited delivery times.
DevSecOps enhances compliance with privacy regulations early in software development cycles. It allows developers to be proactive in addressing regulatory issues while also reducing the risks associated with penalties for non-compliance.
One of the most notable examples is when Veritis collaborated with an energy service provider to enhance their compliance with privacy regulations. Another example is HashiCorp implementing a unified monitoring platform, DataDog, to gain a comprehensive view of internal and external teams and resolve security issues.
With the DevOps security model, organizations can automate their software security by continuously monitoring the threats throughout the development and deployment processes. They can maintain app security risks, standardize data privacy standards like PCI-DSS, and avoid dangerous loopholes.
A noteworthy example is Infogain’s partnership with a medical device company to automate its API development process. Implementing a fully automated DevSecOps process allowed them to escalate API updates while simultaneously ensuring compliance with HIPAA.
By integrating security automation through the DevOps security model at every step, organizations can seamlessly scale and swiftly adapt to the changing market for software development. They can ensure that security becomes a growth facilitator instead of a bottleneck.
Global communications leader Comcast recognized such needs and started a small pilot program. In this program, Comcast implemented DevSecOps across all teams, which reduced its security incidents by up to 85% in the production environments.
Strengthen your software deliveries by detecting vulnerabilities early in the software development lifecycle with integrated security.
Both DevOps and DevSecOps approaches focus on how organizations can address security, although the latter aims to integrate it at every step. This similarity makes the transition from the former even smoother.
Gil Zellner, the Infrastructure Lead at HourOne.ai, an early-stage startup, also highlights this in his podcast, “From DevOps to DevSecOps.”
Developers’ responsibilities are directly proportional to their adaptability to security demands when implementing such measures in fast-paced environments. Hence, the strategies for startups and large-scale companies to implement DevOps will also differ.
For a rundown, here’s a comparison between both:
Particulars | DevOps | DevSecOps |
---|---|---|
Focus Methodology | It prioritizes speed and efficiency by collaborating between development and operations. | It integrates security from the start, where security practices are embedded throughout the lifecycle. |
Goal and Purpose | The goal of DevOps is centered on ownership and continuous improvement. | DevOps security emphasizes achieving accountability while also creating security awareness. |
Coding Tools and Skills | The teams require maintenance and development skills, such as CI/CD, configuration management, and continuous monitoring, as well as skills in Ansible, Puppet, and Jenkins. | DevSecOps teams focus primarily on technical aspects and need a comprehensive understanding of security and cybersecurity, such as SAST, IAST, DAST, SCA, Veracode, and OWASP. |
Security Implementation | While DevOps follows an integrated approach, security generally comes at the last stage of the development process before apps are released. | DevOps security model makes security a responsibility across teams because it puts security at the forefront rather than at the end. |
Development Cycles | DevOps relies on continuous monitoring across cycles, but the durations of cycles are shorter. | DevSecOps allows focusing on efficiency by adding a security layer to ensure compliance, making lifecycles comparatively longer. |
Testing Process | DevOps has a testing process that primarily focuses on functionality, performance, and reliability. This ensures apps are deployed by continuous testing. | DevSecOps approaches testing by integrating static and dynamic code analysis, vulnerability scanning, and compliance tests at every stage of the pipeline. |
Automation | DevOps automates development, testing, and deployment, making it highly scalable. It also has straightforward implementation and a reactive approach to addressing security issues. | Extending DevOps automation, DevSecOps also includes automating security processes, making implementation more complex. However, it is more proactive in addressing security threats. |
Since DevSecOps is more of an extension to DevOps, primarily focusing on the principle that security shouldn’t be an afterthought but an integral part of the development process, they are both quite similar approaches.
Let’s understand how:
Particulars | How are DevOps and DevSecOps Similar? |
---|---|
Similar Mindset | Both approaches focus on breaking down silos – whether it’s code testing or identity management. Both teams support frequent deployments and continuous testing to respond swiftly to changes. |
Process Improvement | Both have similar views on improving processes by accelerating delivery, efficiency, and reducing time to market. However, DevOps adds a security layer to all these processes. |
Quality Checks | Both focus on enhancing the quality of software apps by automating code reviews, monitoring, and maintenance. DevSecOps adds security-focused quality checks, such as detecting threats, validating compliance, and assessing vulnerabilities. |
Automated Development | Both concepts prioritize automated development and deployment to ensure quicker release cycles and more reliable code deployments. DevSecOps implements security measures to protect sensitive data from breaches. |
Performance Monitoring | They both include active performance monitoring throughout the development process in terms of error monitoring and potential breaches. While they both have constant vigilance, DevSecOps emphasizes preventing and detecting malicious attacks. |
From the above discussion on the difference between DevOps and DevSecOps, it is clear that transitioning from the former to the latter is more worthwhile than choosing one.
Complex infrastructures and security integration increase the need to know how a specific tool can be effectively used. Let’s understand some common tools and platforms for both:
Platform and Tools | Function | DevOps | DevSecOps |
---|---|---|---|
CI/CD Pipeline | Create loops for continuous integration and continuous deployments | Jenkins, CircleCI, TeamCity, TravisCI, Spinnaker, ArgoCD, AWS Code Pipeline | Snyk, Checkmarx, Veracode, SonarQube. |
Version Control | Manage changes in software apps or any program. | Mercurial, Apache Subversion, AWS CodeCommit, BitBucket | GitLab, Azure Repos, Perforce Helix Core, Plastic SCM |
Containerization | Manage containerized apps in the cloud. | Kubernetes, Docker, OpenShift, Amazon Elastic Compute | Aqua Security, Anchore Engine, Clair, Trivy |
Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) | Manage and compute infrastructure through coding instead of manually. | Terraform, Chef, Ansible, Pulumi | AWS Cloud Formation, Checkov, Terrascan, Spectral |
Cloud | Offer cloud computing services and related services. | AWS CodeDeploy, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Cloud Run, AWS OpsWorks | Amazon Inspector, Amazon Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Binary Authorization |
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) | Track cloud app performance and rectify issues. | New Relic, Datadog, Splunk, Dynatrace | Prometheus with Falco, Instana, SignalFx, Grafana Loki |
Security Scanning | Examine a network or app to identify potential vulnerabilities. | Prowler, AppKnox, Qualys, Nessus | OWASP DefectDojo, Falco, TheHive, Legitify |
Threat Modeling | Identify and address potential threats in systems and data. | IriusRisk, Threagile, CAIRIS, Stride | OWASP Threat Dragon, PyTM, SD Elements, Tutamen |
Compliance | Automate the checking process to adhere to regulatory standards. | AWS Config, Chef Inspec, JFrog Xray, Sonatype Nexus | HashiCorp Sentinel, AWS Audit Manager, Prisma Cloud, Cloud Custodian |
Upgrade from DevOps to DevSecOps smoothly without disrupting or slowing down your software development workflows.
Even in today’s AI-driven world, Uniphore, a leader in building conversational AI, encountered a dilemma when it launched its Q for sales software. However, they chose to solve these obstacles by combining both DevOps and DevSecOps using the AWS DuploCloud DevSecOps automation platform.
DevOps helped them reduce operational complexities by 70% and spin up new app environments 10 times faster. DevSecOps also allowed them to onboard new customers within just 3 minutes.
The above case exemplifies how your organization can expedite product launch while also fortifying its security. Hence, you can’t choose between DevSecOps and DevOps; DevOps is the foundation on which DevSecOps builds. If there is no app security, DevOps can’t be successful.
Choose DevOps if your top priorities are collaboration, speed, and automation. It will allow their teams to deploy software faster with more reliability by integrating IaC, CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing.
Choose DevSecOps if your key concern is security. It will allow developers to build and integrate security into each stage instead of adding it in the later stages. This will allow developers to keep their apps safe while maintaining speed from the start of the development process.
Today, it doesn’t matter if your business is establishing itself or already a known name. Both have to face a crucial decision: Do they want to scale their development processes and release software faster in the market?
However, operating at such speed has its risks related to security threats and compliance issues. If they don’t know how to balance both of these aspects, all these vulnerabilities are waiting to be exploited.
At Moon Technolabs, we offer them complete consultation on which one to implement. We are a renowned DevOps development company, and our expert developers, security engineers, and consultants take a proactive approach to ensure that your organization embraces DevOps practices and integrates security from the beginning.
This approach allows you to achieve faster development cycles, remain robust, and protect the organization and its customers without compromising on security. Contact us to understand which approach works best for you.
The world of software development is extremely dynamic. Hence, it poses a huge challenge to deliver innovative solutions rapidly while ensuring robust security. Accelerating time-to-market while handling operational complexities and security hinders swift deployments.
The importance of embracing both DevOps and DevSecOps cannot be overstated. DevOps practices can significantly enhance the software development and deployment processes. Coupled with DevSecOps, the software development pipeline integrates security right from the start, leading to rapid, secure, and efficient software deliveries.
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