DevOps vs DevSecOps: What’s the Difference?

DevOps is the process of integrating development and operations, while DevSecOps is a subset of that which focuses on security. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive, but they do have different goals.

A proper understanding of both will allow you to create a more secure environment for your company’s data by leveraging the strengths and minimizing the weaknesses in each approach.

Background

DevOps and DevSecOps are often discussed as if they were two opposing forces. However, the discussion is a bit more complex than that. Indeed, the two terms can’t be used interchangeably. Still, some experts argue that DevSecOps, in some cases, is not only compatible with DevOps but also necessary for it to work optimally.

Enable High Velocity Development

Breakaway from the inability to quickly deploy isolated environments of any specification.

Summary

In this article, we’re going to provide you with an:

Intro to DevOps
Intro to DevSecSops
Overview of the main differences between DevOps and DevSecOps
Overview of the main similarities between DevOps and DevSecOps

Lastly, we’re going to take a look at Rugged DevOps and how it compares.

Short Intro to DevOps

DevOps is a set of practices that aim to unify software development and IT operations. The goal is to improve the flow of work from coding, testing, and deploying code on production servers while also reducing risk at every step.

The word “DevOps” was coined in 2009 by Patrick Debois, who wanted a way for developers and sysadmins to communicate better.

Around this time, there were many high-profile outages due to poor communication with developers, which led companies like Adobe, Facebook, and eBay to adopt DevOps principles as part of their culture so they could avoid these problems.

Short Intro to DevSecOps

DevSecOps is a set of principles and practices that helps organizations secure their software, infrastructure, applications, and data. It’s an evolution of the traditional security approach, which mainly focused on protecting the perimeter.

	DevOps	DevSecOps
Philosophy	In order to increase their productivity, the Development and Operations teams collaborate	DevSecOps aims to find creative solutions by breaking down barriers between development teams (who focus primarily on software) and IT engineers (focused mainly on network infrastructure), eliminating silos, so both parties work together
Purpose	Heavily involved in the everyday aspect of the engineering process; the main purpose of DevOps is speed	The main purpose of DevSecOps is to provide premium security while also applying faster speed of process, accessibility, and scalability
Goal	Bridge communication gaps between teams by focusing on collaboration, continuous integration, and automation in order to reduce risk while delivering quality software faster	The goal is to provide a safe and secure way to share security decisions while maintaining the highest level of security, speed, and control
Emphasis	Emphasis on software development	Emphasizes the importance of developers creating secure and compliant code as their primary responsibility in order to minimize downtime and data loss
Team skillset	Linux fundamentals and scripting Knowledge of various DevOps tools and technologies	DevSecOps engineers must be skilled at detecting vulnerabilities with automated security tools Need great collaboration and communication skills Need to have extensive knowledge of cloud security and provide support to infrastructure users
Security begins	The concept of security begins right after the development pipeline	Application security begins during the build process
Challenges	infrastructure to microservices Changing well-defined processes to more efficient ones Limited customer feedback	The knowledge a developer would need to have will usually show a sizable gap at the beginning Lack of AppSec tool integration Pipeline friction and developer overload
Advantages	Renews focus on the customers Simplifies development focus Supports end-to-end responsibility	Can spot bugs early on Reduce risk and legal liability Reduce costs on resource management

Main Similarities | DevOps vs. DevSecOps

Continuous Integration (CI) is a process that merges code changes to ensure the latest version of this software is available for developers. This helps programmers make sure they’re on the same page as other team members and reduces bugs in new versions before deployment.

Continuous delivery and continuous deployment (CD) is a strategy to automate updates and increase efficiency. It can be used as an alternative to the traditional iterative, linear software development models like Waterfall or V-model.

Microservices are small pieces of an application that, when combined, create an entire system. By implementing microservice architecture, developers and tech teams can break down the complex code into small pieces for easier management.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a trend that allows you to design and implement infrastructure needs through code. This new system removes the need for IT professionals to manually configure servers, install software packages, or manage operating systems remotely, which would require hours of manual labor.

Monitoring: in data monitoring, collecting and analyzing application data for the purpose of learning how to improve is an important factor in both DevOps and DevSecOps. To optimize the application’s performance, minimize its attack surface and improve your organization’s security posture, it’s essential that you have access to real-time data.

Rugged DevOps vs. DevSecOps

DevSecOps is about bringing security closer to IT and business objectives by minimizing vulnerabilities earlier in the application development life cycle. The “rugged” term of DevOps is an accelerated approach where safety parameters are practiced at the start. The penetration tests used throughout the development cycle can lead to a clearer understanding of possible risks and increased confidence in what you create.

In a DevSecOps environment, IT professionals work with developers to automate security checks throughout the development cycle. Ruggedizing processes means making security a top concern for both parties involved in software deployment.

Rugged DevOps is a philosophy that emphasizes the need for transparency and collaboration between development teams, security teams, and operations teams. This methodology helps developers understand the impact of their code on risks related to security.

Rugged DevOps also advocates incremental improvements in practices by building continuous delivery pipelines with built-in audit trails. This can be programmed into compliance standards at any time. It’s also common to use third-party software applications just so you are always using the current version.

Tools for Rugged DevOps:

Gauntlt
Vault
OWASP Dependency Check
Retire.js
InSpec
OpenControl / Compliance Masonry.

The Bunnyshell Solution

As DevOps and other related methodologies continue to change, the use of automation is an increasingly important factor in development. One key difference between these two methods lies in how they prioritize delivery speed versus security: while one prioritizes that over all else (DevOps), the other changes security, so it’s considered more than just a side issue.

DevSecOps methods have a lot of benefits for both security and development. Initially, they will likely take longer to complete, but that time investment is worth it in the long run as codebases are protected from their very beginning by DevSecOps processes. After some training with your team, you can see improvements in not only deliver speed but also stability.

If you’re looking for a way to get started with DevOps automation today, feel free to check out Bunnyshell.