DevOps vs. DevSecOps: Choosing the Right Fit for Your Organization

Are you navigating the evolving landscape of software development and deployment? Discover the differences between DevOps and DevSecOps. Explore the pivotal roles both play in modern development practices.

If your business already practices DevOps, transitioning to DevSecOps is seamless. Integrating security within the software development lifecycle is essential to protect your business and customers. Although DevOps emphasizes speed and efficiency, it lacks security. That’s where DevSecOps is changing the landscape. DevSecOps is built upon the foundation of embedding security in software development right from the start.

Organizations constantly strive for agility, efficiency, and unwavering security. Hire DevOps Engineers to achieve these goals, which often hinges on adopting the proper software development methodology. Two prominent methodologies that stand out are DevOps and DevSecOps.

Before we dive into the blog, let's reflect on a few of your current challenges

• Slow feature releases hinder your competitive edge.
• Inefficient processes are draining your budget and resources.
• Does the evolving threat landscape keep you worried?

Addressing these concerns can significantly impact your success. In this article, we will explore the key differences between DevOps and DevSecOps, shedding light on how DevSecOps has become a natural extension of the DevOps methodology.

What is DevOps?

DevOps is a combination of development and operations. It is a software development methodology that aims to break down silos between traditionally separate development and operations teams. It emphasizes collaboration, automation, and continuous improvement throughout the software development lifecycle.

What are the Benefits of DevOps?

1. Launch fast - DevOps reduces the delivery cycle, so you can launch your products faster and reach users before your competitors.
2. Improved Quality - Since DevOps is based on continuous feedback, where software is improved continuously, the quality is enhanced, keeping your customer happy. Netflix became a top entertainment brand thanks to the adoption of DevOps.
3. Increased Collaboration: Innovations are formed when teams work together effectively. DevOps focuses on a collaborative culture where everyone is responsible for their actions.

Everything comes with some challenges, and DevOps is no different. Let’s see what challenges you can face with DevOps.

What are the Challenges of DevOps?

1. Slow Acceptance: DevOps is a methodology that needs a culture shift. The culture shift might be challenging for many employees, and some may leave. DevOps demands breaking down silos that exist in your business and uniting the team. Be ready for slow acceptance.
2. Security integration: DevOps’s focus is on agility and speed. This means security often gets sidelined or happens only in the end. This can potentially leave your system vulnerable to attacks.
3. Complex tools: DevOps has complex CI/CD pipelines, which makes selecting the right tools extremely daunting. However, DevOps consulting can help you here.

The Emergence of DevSecOps

Despite DevOps’s benefits over the traditional software development life cycle, it has one major problem. DevOps did not address software security concerns. DevSecOps was born out of the need to address security risks early in the development process rather than as an afterthought.

It emphasizes integrating security principles into the software development lifecycle, reflecting a shift towards a more proactive and collaborative approach to security. DevSecOps is highly beneficial for industries where security is paramount; this includes healthcare, legal, and manufacturing.

These aspects will be quantified based on their importance and impact on businesses adopting DevSecOps in 2023. Let's proceed to illustrate the graph.

The graph above illustrates the primary reasons businesses have adopted DevSecOps in 2023, specifically focusing on security and the benefits. It highlights six key aspects:

1. Improved Security Posture: With the highest importance, indicating that strengthening security measures is a primary goal of DevSecOps.
2. Cost Reduction: Shows significant importance, underscoring that addressing security issues early in the development cycle can lead to considerable savings.
3. Compliance and Risk Management: Emphasizes how DevSecOps facilitates compliance with legal and regulatory standards while effectively managing security risks.
4. Speed and Efficiency in Development: Marks the importance of integrating security into the development process without sacrificing speed or efficiency.
5. Enhanced Collaboration and Culture: Reflects on the positive impact of DevSecOps on team collaboration and organizational culture.
6. Customer Trust and Satisfaction: Tied for the highest importance, highlighting that maintaining high-security standards is crucial for building and retaining customer trust.

What are the Benefits of DevSecOps?

• Identifies security risks in early development stages, when proactive security measures can be taken to reduce the risk of vulnerabilities and breaches.
• Since code is scanned continuously for vulnerability, security issues are identified and addressed earlier, minimizing downtime and costs.
• Significantly improves security regulation and standards like HIPAA, reducing audit risks.

Along with benefits, DevSecOps poses some challenges. Let’s take a look at them.

What are the Challenges of DevSecOps?

• Widened skills gaps: DevOps talent is already scarce, and adding security to the mix makes it challenging to find a professional who can lead the DevSecOps team and follow the practice judiciously.
• Process Integration: Integrating security from the start of software development requires changing the workflow and tools, which can be challenging.
• Navigating cultural shift: Similar to DevOps, DevSecOps demands a cultural shift in thinking about security from the start. Such a vast change might be challenging for large organizations, making employees slow to adopt it.

What are the Critical Differences in DevOps vs. DevSecOps?

What is DevSecOps Process?

DevSecOps stands for Development, Security, and Operations. It integrates security practices within the DevOps process. DevSecOps is a culture, philosophy, and practice that aims at unifying software development (Dev), security (Sec), and operations (Ops), thereby ensuring rapid, safe, and high-quality software delivery. The DevSecOps process integrates security measures and testing seamlessly into the development and deployment processes. Here's an overview of the DevSecOps process:

1. Planning

• Integration of Security Goals: Security goals are integrated into the planning stages. This includes identifying security requirements and incorporating them into the project's objectives.
• Threat Modeling: Teams perform threat modeling to identify, communicate, and understand threats and mitigations within the context of protecting something of value.

2. Development

• Code Analysis: Static application security testing (SAST) tools are used to analyze source code for security vulnerabilities early in the development phase.
• Dependency Scanning: Scanning dependencies for known vulnerabilities to ensure the libraries and packages used in the project are secure.
• Secure Coding Practices: Developers follow secure coding guidelines to minimize vulnerabilities from the outset.

3. Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)

• Automated Security Testing: As part of the CI/CD pipeline, dynamic application security testing (DAST), software composition analysis (SCA), and other security tests are automated to detect vulnerabilities in each build.
• Configuration Management: Ensuring that configurations for servers, applications, and infrastructure are defined securely and applied consistently.
• Secrets Management: Securely managing secrets (e.g., keys, tokens, passwords) by encrypting them and controlling access through proper tools and practices.

4. Deployment

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Security: Scanning infrastructure as code templates (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation) for misconfigurations and security issues.
• Container Security: Securing containerized environments through scanning container images for vulnerabilities and ensuring runtime security.

5. Operations

• Monitoring and Response: Continuous monitoring of the application and infrastructure to detect security incidents or anomalies, integrated with an incident response plan to address any issues swiftly.
• Feedback Loops: Information from operations is fed back into the development and planning phases to ensure continuous improvement in security postures.

6. Culture and Training

• Collaboration and Communication: Encouraging open communication and collaboration between development, security, and operations teams to build a shared responsibility for security.
• Security Training and Awareness: Regular training and awareness programs for all stakeholders to understand security best practices, emerging threats, and the importance of security in their roles.

DevSecOps emphasizes the need for security to be a shared responsibility across all teams involved in the software development lifecycle, rather than being siloed or an afterthought. By integrating security practices from the start and automating security checks and balances, organizations can achieve faster deployment times while reducing the risk of security vulnerabilities.

How Businesses Can Transition from DevOps to DevSecOps?

Transitioning from DevOps to DevSecOps must be planned carefully. Consider following the steps below for a smooth transition.

1. Start Small:

DevSecOps is a massive transition for teams. Starting small will help you not to overburden your team.

The team at Comcast tried to implement DevSecOps but failed for the first time. Learning from this, they adopted a more cautious approach, starting with a small team of just 16 members. This smaller group achieved remarkable success, uncovering critical vulnerabilities and slashing production security incidents by an impressive 85%.

Comcast's story highlights the potential benefits of starting small with DevSecOps, particularly for companies new to the methodology. Even small teams can achieve significant wins, paving the way for broader adoption and enhanced security.

2. Understand the Tools Required:

To adapt DevSecOps smoothly, you will need to use the right tools. Below, we have listed four security tools used to practice the DevSecOps approach.

• Static Application Security Testing (SAST): SAST tools analyze source code and identify vulnerabilities early in development. This way, you can address these issues before they become more challenging and costlier.
• Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST): DAST tools assess applications while running to identify security vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit. DAST helps you identify and address potential security issues in their applications.
• Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP): RASP tools are designed to detect and prevent real-time attacks at the application layer. By integrating RASP into the applications, organizations can add another layer of security to protect against potential threats
• Software Composition Analysis (SCA): SCA tools identify and track the use of open-source and third-party components within an application. Using SCA, organizations can identify and address potential security vulnerabilities in their open-source and third-party components.

3. Automate Wherever Possible

Security testing is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process that must be automated as much as possible. One way is to first find the vulnerabilities in the system and then automate tests to scan for such vulnerabilities. Consider Dynamic Application Security testing practices in your DevSecOps workflows because this practice focuses on verifying the integrity and performance of applications running in production. Also, utilize automated tools for vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and security compliance checks within your CI/CD pipeline.

4. Educate

One of the major hindrances in adopting DevSecOps is team resistance. To overcome this, you must educate stakeholders and team members on the benefits of DevSecOps and security through the software development lifecycle. You can also provide training and upskilling to current employees for a smooth transition. Comcast trained all their team members to adopt DevSecOps and found huge success!

5. Understand DevSecOps as a Cultural Change

Last, the transition to DevSecOps should be seen as a cultural change. It's essential to demonstrate the benefits of DevSecOps in business, efficiency, and security to gain organizational buy-in.

Verizon understood this well and adopted DevSecOps to drive culture change within the company. The aim was to reduce stress on security and development teams. To tackle it, the company designed a developer dashboard program to combine vulnerability management with individual accountability.

What Does the Integration of DevSecOps Mean for the Future?

Many companies will be shifting to DevSecOps in the future, bringing excellent benefits for users and enterprises.

For instance, DevSecOps will result in these vulnerabilities being found earlier and patched out before an application is even sent to the market. This will result in cost savings for the organizations because IBM Security estimates it to be $4.24 million.

We will also see DevSecOps tools and practices become more accessible and user-friendly, allowing smaller organizations and even individual developers to integrate security into their workflows.

In short, DevSecOps methodologies can lead us to a more secure, user-friendly digital world where personal information is much more secure and applications are much more reliable.

Making the Right Choice For Your Organization

Ultimately, the best approach depends on your business priorities and channel. If speed is a challenge, DevOps is the best way. However, if security is non-negotiable, which is the case for legal, healthcare, and industries, then DevSecOps is the best choice for you.

Ready to make a move? Consult with Clarion Technologies experts. We provide both DevOps consulting services and DevSecOps consulting services to help you assess your needs, analyze your resources, and tailor the right approach for your organization.