Devsecops is quickly becoming instrumental for businesses that want to boost productivity. According to the 2021 GitLabs DevSecOps report, teams that use a devsecops approach to generating their code got their work out the door 60% faster than those that didn’t. That’s a massive improvement in efficiency and productivity.
You can reap the same rewards by taking a devsecops approach early in your systems development lifecycle (SDLC). Keep reading to learn the five most important ways that early devsecops implementation can streamline your SDLC and what it means to take a devsecops approach.
The term devsecops is short for “development, security, operations.” It’s the next evolution of the “devops” culture and approach to development. In DevOps, the development and operations teams work together closely to ensure that the program is designed from the ground up to meet functionality goals and deadlines.
Devsecops goes one step further by rolling the security team into the development process. Instead of having a DevOps group and a Security group, everyone on the project is responsible for ensuring it’s secure. This helps prevent fundamental security flaws from being baked into the final product and reduces the risk of costly security fixes after development is complete.
Building a devsecops culture within your business helps you accomplish this by providing five main benefits. When your team is dedicated to pursuing devsecops goals throughout the SDLC, you can:
The traditional approach to application development involves siloed teams. Each part of the development process is handled by separate groups. These groups don’t typically work together and only communicate about the project when it’s moved from one team to the next. As a result, communication delays are common, and miscommunications can cause problems that take weeks to resolve.
Taking a devsecops approach can resolve this issue entirely. Instead of having siloed teams working separately, everyone is working on it at the same time. The group can easily communicate and bring up potential problems in advance, saving time and effort in the long run.
You can further improve communication about security concerns by implementing security solutions in your application from the very beginning. PreEmptive makes it easy for everyone on your team to ensure the app is secure, including non-specialists. Everyone can communicate in the same language and avoid delays since they’re all working with the same tools.
Devsecops allows you to start performing critical tests early before it becomes cost-prohibitive to make essential changes. There’s no need to wait until the project is nearing completion to send it to the security team. Since everyone is responsible for security, and protective features and architecture should be included from the very start, it’s possible to start security testing significantly earlier in your SDLC.
Working with a tool like PreEmptive makes early testing easier to accomplish. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel or worry about whether your tests will miss something. You can simply verify that the PreEmptive hardening features are working as intended.
This early testing can significantly improve your team’s productivity. You can catch potential flaws and risks right away when they can be fixed in hours or days. The result is less time wasted on preventable fixes and more time spent on features that matter.
Many teams monitor productivity metrics to determine how well they’re performing. When you’ve built a devsecops security culture, you can include your security teams in your monitoring process to understand how your project is going.
This holistic overview helps you spot places where you’re inefficient. You can quickly address delays or redundant processes and refine your SDLC to reach peak performance.
Another benefit of devsecops culture is the way it encourages sharing knowledge. A well-structured devsecops approach means that everyone does a little of everything. Having team members share their knowledge ensures that the loss of one person won’t derail an entire project. Someone else will have a basic understanding of what needs to be done to keep things moving.
Furthermore, this team culture can benefit your project as a whole. Collaboration between groups with different skill sets leads to more robust, secure projects, particularly when they have high-quality tools to work with. Providing shared security tools like PreEmptive reinforces this knowledge transfer and collaboration, making your final product even better.
A quality devsecops team will prioritize the use of automation. When your development and security teams are one and the same, it’s easy to build high-quality security automation from the beginning of your SDLC. This can make all the difference down the road.
Security automation includes attributes like:
The sooner these features are built into an application, the less likely it is to contain major security flaws. Devsecops ensures that you can bake in automated security protection while your app is still in early development.
PreEmptive makes it easy to automate your app’s security from the moment your team begins work. It’s as easy as adding your chosen solution to your app, with no need to send your sensitive or protected code to a third party at any point. You get the benefits of automated security and regular updates while keeping your code in-house.
It’s never too early to start thinking about application protection and security. Devsecops is the best way to make sure your app is secure from the moment you begin development.
If you want to make devsecops a fundamental part of your SDLC, PreEmptive makes it simple. By adding a PreEmptive security solution like DashO, JSDefender, or Dotfuscator to your app, you ensure that security is baked into your design. Learn more about how PreEmptive can help you accomplish your security goals, or start your free trial today.