How To Tackle The Challenges In DevSecOps Automation?

DevSecOps implementations are gaining more traction in today’s enterprises as organizations are beginning to reap more benefits, such as better collaborative development processes, unified operation, and enhanced security. DevSecops helps organizations achieve an automated development environment where security is baked into every stage of the development lifecycle. This is achieved not just by a mere change in process but by how the DevOps teams interact within the process and the organizational culture.

Implementing DevSecOps is a challenging proposition due to the changes affecting People, Processes, and Technology. Most implementations get abandoned midway due to various challenges, such as internal resistance, cost, and access to tools. Reports say, ‘through 2022, 75% of DevOps initiatives will fail to meet expectations due to issues around organizational learning and change’. These challenges can be easily overcome if the right solutions are put in place foreseeing the possible challenges that your organization may face in the process.

Let’s take a look at some of the common challenges in implementing DevSecOps and how Gsoft can help alleviate them.

Challenges And Solutions in DevSecOps Automation

People Challenge

Any change begins with people, and DevOps is no exception. As if forming a cohesive team that can handle the development and operations is not challenging enough, adding security professionals to this equation makes things more challenging.

The cultural shift

Many organizations consider security as a bottleneck and go with the common perception that security slows things down. The resistance within the organization towards DevSecOps adoption is a significant roadblock and is hard to break. For a successful DevSecOps implementation, a security-first approach should be at the forefront rather than an afterthought. However, bringing this mindset within the work culture is hard for many organizations.

Solution

Develop new standards and practices that work well for everyone in the organization.

Educate and encourage teams to work together for achieving a common goal rather than stick with the beaten path of the current development process.

Build effective collaboration between cross-functional teams to attain faster response.

Technical knowledge gap

Research shows that most organizations lack an adequate number of expert DevSecOps practitioners, tools, or budgets. Professional development and team upskilling are important factors for achieving the right mindset, as unfamiliarity with modern infrastructure or software development is a key deterrent. Bridging such knowledge gaps acts as a catalyst for successful DevSecOps automation.

Solution

Conduct formal in-house training programs to create security awareness.

Invest in self-paced online courses and specialized training providers.

Encourage continuous knowledge sharing through expert training, online forums, guidelines, and documentation.

Process Challenge

Speed, Security, and Quality are key features defining an ideal product. Unfortunately, in most product development workflows, security has become more of an afterthought. Integrating security into the DevOps process has therefore become quite a challenging activity.

Automation hindrances

The traditional DevOps security practices entail architectural risk analysis, threat modeling, risk management, and compliance checks. It involves security teams running tests, reviewing findings, and circling back to developers to implement changes. These lengthy processes usually conflict with the speed at which DevOps processes work. Moreover, they are typically hard to automate, making it a challenging proposition.

Solution

Adopt comprehensive DevSecOps tools, models, and formulate new DevSecOps strategy, standards, policies and, SLAs.

Implement cloud-native application protection platforms like Zscaler Posture Control (ZPC).

Speed vs security

Speed is one of the critical factors in any DevOps implementation, especially for projects with quick deadlines. At the same time, security practices involve time-consuming processes that impediment rapid release cycles. This conflict is one of the key reasons for resistance to DevSecOps adoption within organizations.

Solution

Integrate quick feedback loops to maintain traceability, find faults, and fix issues faster.

Move security practices earlier in the software development lifecycle (SDLC) to identify and resolve security issues quickly.

Tool Challenge

Integration of Security testing tools within the CI/CD pipeline is vital for DevSecOps success. Shifting-to-the left approach, using tools to cover all possible security tests, attempting as much no-touch automation as possible, and using AI capabilities are essential for DevSecOps success.

Clash of tools

Choosing the right tool from the whole gamut of security automation tools available in the market poses a big challenge for enterprises. There is a huge variety of cloud solutions and the underlying cloud architecture adopted by organizations. The tools used for security and DevOps may also vary across teams. Streamlining and using the right stack of tools for best operational efficiency presents a challenge.

Solution

Educate development teams about tools and standards.

Provide documentation support and guidelines.

Conduct training programs to help teams understand the capability and limitations of various tools.

Complexity in tool integrations

Integrating tools from different departments in an organization into your development pipeline can be difficult, especially if each department uses multiple open-source tools or vendor solutions that are often incompatible with each other. Similarly, combining and reconciling results from different tools and vendors adds significant complexity to the process. Without proper planning and auditing, they may pose security problems and compliance issues.

Solution

Choose a suite of tools that can provide a comprehensive security solution.

Outline the recommended security settings for tools.

Conclusion

Obviously, DevOps adoptions can bring in technical and business advantages by reducing the chance of security flaws. This helps you to boost customer confidence in your organization. An expert cloud service provider can help you narrow the cultural gap and accelerate DevSecOps adoption while keeping security at the forefront. With support over a multitude of security automation tools and industry-standard DevSecOps practices, Gsoft offers the best tailor-made solution matching the unique requirements of organizations. Talk with our expert DevOps Consultants to find out the best solution.