DevOps Vs DevSecOps: Overview, Similarities, And Differences

It is easy to assume from their names that DevSecOps is merely DevOps with security added, however this is not the case. Secure development takes more than one stage to complete. For instance, ensuring that apps are developed with the appropriate security configurations, controls, and policies in place — and that they have been tested and verified –requires more than one activity. This article takes a detailed look at DecSecOps and DevOps, their similarities, and differences, etc. Let us get started. 

Overview Of DevOps and DevSecOps   

DevOps, which stands for development and operations, is a term that refers primarily to the collaboration among these two crucial teams in the development process. These two teams collaborate to create processes, KPIs, and milestones that can be jointly targeted. The operations team can then examine the delivery phases in greater detail while evaluating ongoing updates and comments from the development team. 

DevSecOps is an evolution of DevOps as it takes the DevOps concept and adds security as a second layer to the ongoing development and operation process. To strengthen the development process from a security and vulnerability mitigation viewpoint, DevSecOps brings in Application Security teams early rather than treating security as an afterthought. 

Both ideas are built on one another. Building microservices, utilizing infrastructure as code, and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) are just a few examples of DevOps approaches and methodologies. While testing for vulnerabilities, threat modeling, and incident management are all components of DevSecOps. 

Key Similarities Between DevOps and DevSecOps 

Collaborative culture 

To achieve development objectives like quick iteration and deployment without jeopardizing the safety and security of an app environment, a culture of collaboration is essential to DevOps and DevSecOps. Both approaches integrate traditionally distinct teams (development and IT operations or development, IT operations, and security) to increase visibility throughout the whole application lifecycle, from conception to application performance evaluation. 

Automation 

Both DevOps and DevSecOps have the ability to use AI to automate tasks in the development of mobile applications. Auto-completed code and anomaly detection, among other techniques, are used in DevOps to accomplish this. Automated and continuous security checks, as well as anomaly detection, can help DevSecOps in proactively identifying high-risk security threats and vulnerabilities, especially in complex and widely dispersed contexts. This is particularly crucial when applications increasingly run on distributed, multi-cloud infrastructures and the IT perimeter widens. 

Active monitoring 

In both DevOps and DevSecOps, data monitoring for the purposes of learning and adjusting is crucial. One of the important components of each of these approaches is the continuous collection and analysis of application data to drive improvements. Real-time data access is crucial for maximizing application performance, reducing the program's attack surface, and enhancing overall organization security setup. 

The Differences DevOps and DevSecOps 

The collaboration between application teams during the design and deployment phases is a key component of DevOps. Teams from operations and development collaborate to use the same KPIs and tools. Elevating the frequency of deployments while ensuring the app's predictability and efficiency is the aim of a DevOps methodology. DevOps engineers consider issues such as how they can release updates to an app as quickly as feasible with the least amount of user experience disturbance. 

DevOps teams sometimes neglect to prioritize the prevention of security threats along the way because they are so focused on increasing delivery speed. This can result in the accumulation of vulnerabilities that could adversely impact the application, end user data, and confidential company assets. 

As development teams became aware that the DevOps approach was not effectively addressing security concerns, DevSecOps evolved from DevOps. DevSecOps evolved as a technique to integrate security management earlier on during the development process as opposed to retrofitting security into the build.  

This approach places application security at the start of the build process rather than at the conclusion of the development pipeline. With this new method, a DevSecOps engineer aims to make sure that apps are continuously secure throughout app upgrades and are protected against cyberattacks before they are given to the user. DevSecOps highlights the need for developers to write secure code and seeks to address the security problems left unresolved by DevOps. 

The key reason for the evolution of DevOps was to boost productivity by having the development and operations teams collaborate to prevent any misunderstandings. With the introduction of DevSecOps, new problems were solved more quickly than before, and the divide between development and security teams was closed. As several teams now collaborate and think, the way we think has greatly improved. 

The development team experienced significant communication breakdowns and low levels of productivity. DevOps' objective is always speed. The more productive our DevOps team is, the quicker the work is completed. DevSecOps strives to offer security while facilitating quicker development and operation. When the team has quicker development and operations teams, nothing is compromised.