Concrete and steel foundations and structures are uninteresting. But every modern building has a similar foundation and framing. The foundation and the framework enable everything else that goes into a building, such as the flooring, wiring, lighting, location of rooms, and so on. You must start by constructing a strong foundation and a structure, including security if you want DevOps to be successful in your organization. Below is a suggested strategy for dealing with DevOps’ steel and concrete.
Three Foundational Needs
1. Leadership and Governance
Decisions must be made, teams must be managed, orders must be given, and operational governance must be provided by someone. Setting the correct tone for the workplace is an important part of securing DevOps. It goes beyond simply following a set of security ideas. Success in development is highly dependent on leadership and governance.
The demand to release software more quickly and often is strong, but so are the security, regulations, and a host of other issues with automation that could find errors or other issues with the program before it is pushed into production. How does one reconcile these conflicting priorities when there is a demand to release code more quickly? Which is more important: quality or speed? One of the biggest issues facing businesses using DevOps practices today is the tension between speed and quality.
To keep people working on the right things, maintain morale, provide direction about project prioritization, and budget the proper tools for the job, an organization’s leadership and governance regarding people and data must be in place.
Data classification is an important subcategory of governance. What location does the data have? What conduits does it pass through? What type of data are they? The classification of the data has long-term effects on resource acquisition, including the choice of storage and if encryption is required, the necessity for strong access control in the environments, and the interchange of the various technologies.
2. Regulatory Compliance
Not too long ago, there weren’t always many regulatory requirements if a business only operated on a national level. However, international and cross-border data transfer is a given if a firm has a website (and who doesn’t?); otherwise, one can choose geo-restriction, which can be a significant project with repercussions.
The requirements for regulation. Where do individuals or other services get access to the data? What sort of transnational transfer is involved? Through paraphrasing the PSA from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, “It’s 10:00 p.m. Are you aware of the location of your data?” Comprehend and carry out accordingly.
3. Risk Management
One concept of technology management is that risk takes center stage. What would it cost the organization if a significant incident like a data breach or theft occurs, and was the business at fault (for example, through negligence)?
What are the product’s or service’s technical weaknesses, dangers, and risks? What testing techniques (such as regression, penetration, vulnerability, and CTI) would be necessary to identify and mitigate the risks? The patch cadence looks like what?
What are the risks of key people quitting from a personnel perspective? What is the team’s attitude toward things like culture and pay? What steps are being taken to mitigate those risks? Third-party, contractual, and privacy risks are included (remember the data classification from earlier?)
Uptime is usually needed to fulfill responsibilities, NPM packages are becoming more and more popular as a means of exploitation, and privacy is increasingly viewed as a human right and not something to be taken lightly.
Two Framing Activities
The DevOps structure is supported by the foundation activities, which also take into account how the structure is formed.
1. Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
SDLC is important. Without it, how will the team, contractors, and consultants proceed with designing and putting the product into use? What model is employed, and who is in charge of what? The SDLC contains all of it. Of course, things like references for specifics on API design and related application documentation would give one the impression that they are going around the Library of Congress (and would make developers want to burn it down like the Library of Alexandria in ancient Egypt!).
Speaking about APIs, any use of APIs must be a component of the SDLC due to the significant growth of API use across all industries, including healthcare and retail.
In addition to the rising use of APIs for public interaction and use, the use of microservices within organizations has grown significantly. It is vital to include APIs as critical resources because they are required both internally and externally for businesses to achieve, sustain, and accelerate the speed of innovation. Developers must take care of this ecosystem by making sure that appropriate activities, particularly security, are included since the average API usage per organization increased by 221%.
The SDLC is not intended to make work more difficult by presenting unpleasant tedium; rather, it is intended to make workflow and production consistent (and consequently easier) by codifying what must be done for the company and the customer. Like any corporate policy, it must be effective while avoiding being weak.
The following details should be included:
- Threat modeling must be integrated in some way. Threats will play a significant role in development, but they need not be a worthy effort.
- The testing. Regression, stress, work perfectly, security, and other factors will influence the type of testing environment required and determine whether or not capacity and scalability need to be increased.
- Security coding If it’s being done, improve it by taking action. Simply begin if it isn’t being done. It’s never easy to go back and repair unsafe code, but it’s required since there are so many dangers and rules associated with making software available to the general public.
2. Training
Businesses must adapt as technological advancements open up new options that result in constantly shifting customer needs, increasing the need for training.
There is training all over! There is no one ideal setting or method; instead, seek training and adapt as necessary (specifics should be handed down by leadership).
On a tight and minimal spending plan? One choice is OWASP membership, which includes various forms of AppSec and DevSecOps training and costs $50 per person per year. The level of clean and secure coding, threat and security awareness, and professional reputation can all be improved with that reduced expenses.
Setting the Course and Always in Motion
Setting any course in business has the drawback of being temporary. One may be hesitant to commit when a DevOps model is implemented because it becomes a part of the foundation. The only way to demonstrate the effectiveness of the chosen techniques is to commit to doing them repeatedly over an extended period of time. The model may change over time in certain ways, but once that basic structure is established, it is very labor-intensive, expensive, and time-consuming to alter. The model takes the necessary factors into account from the onset to chart the right track because the change wouldn’t be a remodel, but a reconstruction.
While DevOps requires a strong basis, it is a concept that is always evolving. There are new personnel, new technologies, adjustments in business, alterations in customer demands, and changes in society and culture. Calculations incorporating these ideas are possible, but it is impossible to predict what the modifications will be. If the appropriate personnel is hired and trained, the required actions and modifications will be possible.
Here at CourseMonster, we know how hard it may be to find the right time and funds for training. We provide effective training programs that enable you to select the training option that best meets the demands of your company.
For more information, please get in touch with one of our course advisers today or contact us at training@coursemonster.com
