The IT industry is facing showdowns after showdowns. Though every segment of the industry is anticipating major changes, DevOps is likely one of the most affected areas. We have and will continue to see major level-ups due to AI, automation, and machine intelligence in DevOps. That’s why in today’s blog post, we’re addressing the 5 most crucial DevOps security challenges that your company must address right away in 2023 and how to go about them the right way.
Challenge 1: “AI is speeding up code development”
Wonder why that is a challenge? Because with never-before speed comes never-before errors. At the pace at which developments are happening in the DevOps space, we’re likely to encounter major coding mistakes, which could result in undetected bugs and errors, which will in turn create vulnerabilities for malicious actors to attack upon. Security and compliance will become a greater challenge than it is today.
To minimize unexpected failures or disruptions due to these, DevOps teams need to:
- Adopt a shift-left approach that involves integrating security testing early and often in the SDLC2.
- Use tools and practices such as code analysis, static and dynamic testing, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, code signing etc. to ensure code quality and security.
- Follow standards and regulations such as GDPR, PCI-DSS, HIPAA etc. to ensure compliance.
Challenge 2: “There is a rise in serverless computing”
You might already know this, but serverless computing refers to a cloud computing model where the cloud infrastructure is managed by the cloud provider. This is done so that developers can focus on writing code without worrying about provisioning, scaling, maintaining, or fixing servers. But despite the benefits, serverless computing gives rise to many security challenges such as lack of visibility, control, and accountability over the underlying infrastructure. They’re also highly vulnerable to attacks such as denial-of-service (DoS), injection, authentication breakdowns, and the like.
To overcome this, DevOps teams need to:
- Use tools and platforms that provide serverless security. Examples: AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, or Google Cloud Functions.
- Implement best data security practices such as encryption during rest and transit, minimize function permission accesses and improve logging and monitoring activities.
- Strengthen reliability and fault tolerance using API gateways and other means.
Challenge 3: “We need multi-cloud environment management”
Managing multi-cloud environments was already seen to be a major business challenge in 2022, and it’s likely to stay in 2023 also. Multi-cloud means multiple cloud providers or services to serve different purposes. Though multi-cloud offers many advantages such as cost optimization , performance improvement, and risk mitigation, its disadvantages around user access control, visibility, and shared data security cannot be ignored.
To overcome this, DevOps teams need to:
- Set up their multi-cloud environment professionally, using the best DevOps practices, like simplifying the complex process and optimizing user experience. This can be done by incorporating smart multi-cloud management tools that help with provisioning, configuration management, monitoring, governance , across cloud platforms.
- Adopt a cloud-agnostic approach to strengthen portability and interoperability of their applications and data.
Challenge 4: “The interconnectedness is confusing”
When DevOps was introduced, one of its major benefits technologists spoke about was collaboration. But in reality, many organizations still struggle with breaking down silos, aligning and assigning goals, sharing information and resolving conflicts due to the increased complications of interconnections. Miscommunication and uneven priorities can cause delays, errors, rework, and low morale, among other things.
To overcome this challenge, DevOps teams need to:
- Establish clear communication channels and be even about their shared vision and feedback loops.
- Implement daily stand-ups and meetings to ensure developers are on the same page with their goals around a project.
Challenge 5: “Compliance and security issues are frustrating”
With the speed of coding and software development soon to exceed even Moore’s law, security and compliance are in question. Compromising on them can have serious consequences for organizations and cause customer dissatisfaction.
To overcome this challenge, DevOps teams need to:
- Prioritize compliance and security
- Introduce them into every stage of their software lifecycle
- Adopt a DevSecOps approach for collaboration and shared responsibility among all SDLC contributors
Conclusion
Change is happening at a faster rate than ever in the IT industry today. Speed and productivity benefits aside, organizations will likely face high security challenges in their software development lifecycle (SDLC) due to this. To secure your business’ future, ensure your DevOps teams are addressing all the five challenges discussed in the blog post above.
For more, check out other posts from this blog.
If you’re seeking help from a qualified DevOps consulting services provider, feel free to reach out to us.
