Most companies these days are well aware of the importance of cybersecurity. With data breaches and hacking scandals making headlines on a seemingly daily basis, it's no wonder that more and more businesses are turning to automated solutions to help them secure their networks and protect their data. But while many organizations have implemented security measures such as firewalls, anti-virus software, and intrusion detection systems, few have embraced DevOps as a Service (DaaS) as part of their overall security strategy.
DevOps as a Service is a relatively new concept, but it can offer tremendous benefits when it comes to cybersecurity. By automating the tasks associated with DevOps, DaaS can help organizations speed up the software development process while also reducing the chances of human error. As a result, businesses that leverage DaaS can release new software and updates more quickly and with fewer security risks.
Inventory Your Cloud Resources
By automating the process of deploying and managing applications, DaaS can help you to optimize your use of cloud-based resources, making sure that you're only using the resources that you need and avoiding the costs associated with over-provisioning.
In order to take advantage of this benefit, it's important to first understand how your organization uses cloud resources. This means tracking and inventorying all of the applications and IT services that are running in the cloud, as well as all of the associated data and infrastructure. Once you have this information, you can use it to create a detailed map of your organization's cloud infrastructure.
With this map in hand, you can work with your DaaS provider to create a tailored solution that meets your specific needs. Intertec can help you to optimize your infrastructure for performance and efficiency, ensuring that your cloud solutions are running as quickly and securely as possible.
Establish a Governance Structure for Cloud Service
DevOps as a Service can help improve your security posture by automating the deployment of security controls and providing visibility into your environment. You can establish a governance structure for using DevOps as a Service, ensuring your organization's security policies and procedures are followed. The following steps can help you get started:
- Define the roles and responsibilities for using DevOps as a Service: With any new technology or service, it is important to define the roles and responsibilities of users. For DevOps as a Service, you will need to define responsibility for provisioning and managing the service, approving changes, and monitoring the environment.
- Develop a process for authorizing changes to your environment: To prevent unauthorized changes from being made to your environment, establish a process for approving changes. This process should include who can request changes, who needs to approve them, and how they will be implemented.
- Audit and monitor your environment: DevOps as a Service provides visibility into your environment, helping you detect and prevent security issues. You will need to establish procedures for auditing and monitoring your environment to identify any potential security concerns.
- Train your team on how to use the Daas securely. This training should cover topics such as how to provision and manage the service, how to review and approve changes, and how to monitor the environment.
Give DevOps Accountability for Security
The most effective way to integrate DevOps as a service with your security practices is to give DevOps full accountability for security. This allows our team to ensure all code snippets remain secure and that all deployment and operational processes adhere to security best practices.
Your DaaS provider should have a good understanding of the security risks and threats that your organization faces. Only then can we identify and mitigate risks during the development process.
An outsourced DaaS team will work closely with your security team to ensure that all security policies and procedures are followed. By giving DevOps full accountability for security, you ensure your organization’s code and configurations are secure and that all deployment and operational processes adhere to documented security protocols.
Redefine Centralized Security
The centralized security model is no longer viable in the world of DevOps. To be successful, you have to build security into the process from the beginning. In turn, your cybersecurity team will work closely with developers to implement and continuously improve security controls.
This doesn't mean security teams should abandon their current tools and processes. Rather, they need to adapt them to work in a DevOps environment. For example, security teams may need to use automation and orchestration to manage the increased workload. We may also ask you to adopt new ways of thinking about risk management.
Ultimately, the goal is to integrate security into the DevOps process so that it becomes part of the culture. Only then can your security efforts keep pace with the speed of development.
Leverage Automation for Security Testing and Compliance
Organizations are under increasing pressure to do more with less when it comes to cybersecurity. They must continuously adapt their operations and processes to meet the ever-changing landscape of cyber threats. This requires a significant investment in resources, tools, and expertise.
One way to address this challenge is to leverage DaaS to help with the continuous delivery and integration of security controls. DaaS can provide your organization with the ability to automate security testing and compliance processes, as well as provide access to the latest tools and technologies.
When it comes to integrating DaaS with your security practices, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- First, you need to ensure that your DaaS provider has the necessary expertise and experience in cybersecurity. Consider partnering with a provider who is ISO 27001 certified.
- Second, you need to establish clear communication channels between your security team and the DaaS provider.
- And finally, you need to put in place the appropriate monitoring and reporting mechanisms to track the progress and effectiveness of the DaaS-based security controls.
Continuously Monitor Your Cloud Environment
The first and most important rule of security as an IT managed services provider (MSP) in the cloud is to continuously monitor your environment for threats. This means you need to have a comprehensive understanding of all the resources in your environment and how they’re interconnected. You also need early detection and response capability if a security threat arises.
In a traditional on-premises data center, this involves a combination of security tools and manual processes. But in the cloud, where resources are constantly changing and evolving, that’s not feasible. You need to leverage automation to continuously monitor your cloud environment for threats.
There are several ways to do this, but one of the most effective is integrating DevOps as a Service Provider with your security practices. DaaS is a cloud-native approach to development and operations that enables you to automate the entire software development lifecycle. This includes everything from code development and testing to deployment and monitoring.
The Bottom Line
When it comes to DevOps and security, the key is to integrate the two from the beginning. This means shifting security to the left and adopting a DevOps as a Service (DaaS) approach to development and operations. It also means continuously monitoring your cloud environment for threats and leveraging automation to help with the continuous delivery and integration of security controls. All of this will help you keep pace with the speed of agile software development and the ever-changing landscape of cyber threats.
If you’re interested in learning more about Intertec and our DaaS Services, download our free whitepaper, Closing the Gap Between Development and Operations with DaaS.
