Application development teams often face many security issues, which become complex over time. These comprise threats from external hackers as well as weaknesses in the company’s internal tools and systems. As teams look to keep up with changing demands and trends, defending against attacks with advanced countermeasures is an urgent necessity!   

That’s where DevSecOps comes in. Instead of integrating security as an afterthought, DevSecOps paves the way for sustainable development, securing applications and reducing risks. Read on to find out more!

Understanding DevSecOps

DevSecOps is a cultural or mindset shift focusing on making security an integral aspect of the development lifecycle. It ensures security is integrated at every stage, in every way, and by every stakeholder. From developers to testers, DevSecOps makes security everyone’s responsibility. Let’s look at the core concepts that define DevSecOps:

• Shift left testing: Unlike traditional DevOps, where testing is performed after the code is developed, DevSecOps shifts testing left and makes it an integral part of the development process itself. By encouraging testing from the early stages of the development lifecycle, DevSecOps
• Early bug detection: DevSecOps also helps identify and resolve bugs as early as possible in the development pipeline. This improves software quality and reduces time spent resolving issues later in the pipeline, as development progresses.
• Faster time to market: DevSecOps encourages developers to run tests themselves before pushing individual code units to version control. By fixing bugs as they emerge, DevSecOps improves time to resolution, helping teams bring products to the market quickly.
• Reduced downtime: DevSecOps also promotes automating security testing, helping teams maintain high code quality and reliability throughout the development pipeline. Through continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), DevSecOps helps fix issues before they make it to production, reducing the likelihood of security breaches that could cause downtime.

The Need for Sustainable Development

In a highly volatile business environment, where competition is hitting the roof and the skills gap is becoming a global problem, sustainable software development is the need of the hour. Sustainable development aims to create systems that are efficient and effective with a limited set of resources. Here’s why sustainable development is so important today:

• Better software maintainability: Sustainable software is known to be more easily maintainable over time. By making software easy to update, modify, and change as requirements change, sustainable development reduces the need for frequent rewrites or overhauls and ensures software remains useful and functional in the long run.

•   Efficient resource utilization: Sustainable software development is essential to optimizing resource utilization. When software is developed efficiently, it uses less hardware and fewer resources, extending the lifespan of existing tools and infrastructure. This reduces operational costs and promotes reusability.

• Cost-effectiveness: Sustainable development leads to software that is easier to maintain and update. This reduces the cost of long-term maintenance and support while also minimizing the financial strain associated with emergency fixes. With fewer unexpected failures, teams can predict costs better and lower technical debt.

• Stronger risk management: Teams that embrace sustainable software development practices are in a better position to comply with regulatory requirements. This strengthens risk management, reducing the risk of failures and data breaches and avoiding legal issues and penalties.
• Security by design: Sustainable software development also ensures security by design, making applications free of vulnerabilities. Through measures such as continuous and early testing, it focuses on building security into the code and helps design systems that are as secure as possible from the start. 

The Convergence of DevSecOps and Sustainable Development

As software development teams look to code sustainably, DevSecOps helps integrate security practices into the development and operations lifecycle.

• Stronger and more secure codebase: DevSecOps allows teams to identify and fix issues early in the pipeline. This helps improve the overall code quality while ensuring a stronger and more secure codebase. It also empowers teams to conduct regular peer reviews to spot potential vulnerabilities and ensure adherence to secure coding standards.
• Minimized vulnerabilities: DevSecOps embeds security practices throughout the development lifecycle, helping teams identify and mitigate vulnerabilities quickly and often. This proactive approach minimizes the probability of security breaches and avoids costly and resource-intensive fixes.
• Better stability: Since DevSecOps helps integrate security practices early in the development process, it empowers teams to identify and address vulnerabilities before they become major issues. This, along with a culture of continuous monitoring and automated testing, promotes software stability and reliability while reducing the likelihood of disruptions and downtimes.

Tips and Best Practices

If you want to secure your applications and reduce the risk of bugs and defects, you must adopt the right DevSecOps best practices. Here are critical elements to consider:  

• Integrate security early and often: Integrating security early and often in the development lifecycle is a great way to make it a seamless part of development. By considering security from the start of any project and a core component of the CI/CD pipeline, you can build software that is secure by design.
• Enable continuous monitoring and feedback: Continuously monitoring development progress is a great way to unearth gaps and areas of improvement. Teams must also constantly gather feedback from user groups and incorporate them into the code to improve user experience.
• Embrace secure coding practices: Embracing secure coding practices can go a long way in safeguarding published code from known, unknown, and unexpected vulnerabilities. Teams must also integrate security training and reviews into each phase of the software development lifecycle to increase awareness, enable early detection, and foster a security culture.
• Implement strong access control measures: Another critical aspect of DevSecOps is the implementation of strong access control measures. Role-based measures can ensure that only authorized individuals have access to specific data, systems, and tools. Such measures can enhance software security and minimize the risk of unauthorized actions that could compromise quality.
• Ensure robust incident response: Establishing a robust incident response mechanism can also help you respond to security incidents quickly and efficiently. Proper response can make you adept at identifying, containing, and resolving security issues, minimizing the frequency and impact of security incidents.

As software becomes integral to every product today, embracing sustainable practices allows for efficient resource utilization, better software maintainability, increased cost-effectiveness, and stronger risk management.

DevSecOps plays a huge role in enabling this sustainability. Shift-left testing allows for early bug detection and resolution. This helps strengthen the code base, minimize downtime, improve code quality, and eventually improve user experience and satisfaction.

Looking to make the most of DevSecOps? Explore enreap’s DevSecOps Consulting Services today!