Just 20 years ago, organizations relied on a single wall of defense to secure their applications and networks. Fast forward to 2015 and that large fence is no longer adequate. With the proliferation of mobile, cloud and SaaS technology adding to the complexity of ever-advancing systems and networks, it becomes much more important that teams across an organization work together as one, toward a common goal. We’ve already seen enterprises adopting new methods of organizing internal structures to increase collaboration through DevOps, but as security continues to be top of mind for organizations, many are looking to further this approach by including the security team in the DevOps conversation. With a DevOpsSec team, organizations can work toward delivering software that is not just reliable, but also secure.

Introducing security to DevOps provides the means to this protection by reducing the number of bugs and vulnerabilities during the build process before code hits production systems. Moving security as close as possible to the code and data will bring a large number of high value benefits to an organization.

The first benefit of introducing security to DevOps is the enablement of team collaboration through tight feedback loops. Development, operations and security teams all have different goals and are motivated by different things, which are often contrary to the other teams. To ensure that these groups don’t work as adversaries within an organization, DevOpsSec encourages them to work together, pulling from all parties’ strengths and building a collaborative and engaging environment. This collaboration offers transparency into the assorted issues that arise within each team, establishing a deeper level of understanding and respect across the board.

The second benefit is that DevOpsSec provides a wider perspective across previously siloed teams. As a result of greater team collaboration, Dev, Ops and Sec teams are able to gain more insight into how the other teams operate. This widened perspective decreases friction between them, further revealing common goals and generating more natural solutions. Overall, the assortment of perspectives results in more efficient strategies for the organization in keeping its systems secure.

Lastly, the implementation of DevOpsSec ensures faster response time to issues. As applications and systems become more distributed and complex, it becomes more difficult to identify and fix bugs and vulnerabilities. Developers are writing and pushing code faster than ever before, and what used to be monthly or longer release cycles can now be measured in hours. This is due in part to the fact that code is being used both inside and outside our networks, requiring more thorough network security. The new normal will be found in developing DevOpsSec teams and moving the security as close as possible to the code and data. Through more continuous review processes and more ownership over code in production, the merging of DevOpsSec can mean faster times in closing feedback loops and will ultimately help organizations to operate more efficiently.

So what will an organization look like after implementing DevOpsSec? As a result of the cross pollination between teams, organizations will have curated an elevated platform for innovative ideas, gained greater insights across teams and developed faster response times to help the business run smoother. With DevOpsSec in affect, organizations will better understand and anticipate security issues and the decisions required to diminish them.