Devsecops vs Devops: Understanding the Key Differences

DevOps is about bringing together the development (Dev) and operations (Ops) teams to improve the process of making and delivering software. The goal is to make code release faster, more reliable, and continuous by automating chores, cutting down on manual work, and making it easier for teams to work together. Aims to cut down on the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and speed up releases by using Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) processes.

Conversely, DevSecOps makes security (Sec) an essential part of this process. In DevOps, speed and efficiency are emphasized. In DevSecOps, security is stressed at all stages of the development process. Security is not an addition or last step before release in DevSecOps. It is built into the CI/CD process, meaning security risks and flaws are found and fixed early in the development cycle. This leads to the "shift-left" method, in which security is built in from the start of the project instead of being added on at the end.

The goals of both DevOps and DevSecOps are to be more efficient, work together better, and release software more quickly. But there are significant gaps in what their main goals are:

• DevOps Goals: The main goal of DevOps is to make the SDLC more automated and streamlined by getting the development and operations teams to work together more. Companies can release software faster, make the code better, and reduce launch times by doing this. The end goal is to make it possible to build, test, and release software in an ongoing, automatic, and smooth way that lets feedback loops happen quickly.
• DevSecOps Goals: As DevOps grows, it adds an essential layer of security to the goals it already has. The goal is to make the operations and development process more efficient and ensure security is built into the flow. The goal is to find and fix security holes before they cause problems. This will make software updates faster and safer. DevSecOps works to ensure that every release is safe, efficient, and in line with all applicable laws and rules.

Both methods are based on DevOps techniques, but the skills needed differ for DevSecOps because they include security. How do they stack up?

• DevOps Skills: People who work in DevOps need to know about automation, cloud platforms, CI/CD pipelines, scripts, containerization (like Docker), and management tools (like Kubernetes). The main goal is to ensure that development and release happen constantly, without any downtime. To ensure the system works well and reliably, team members should know how to use communication tools, handle configurations, and monitor things.
• DevSecOps Skills: DevSecOps workers need the same technical background as DevOps engineers. However, they also need to know much about security best practices, such as threat modeling, encryption, identity management, compliance, and risk evaluation. It is up to these teams to ensure that security tools like static and dynamic analysis are used throughout the whole process, from writing the code to deploying it. It's also essential for some businesses to know about security reporting guidelines like SOC 2, GDPR, and HIPAA.

The approach to the development cycle also differs between DevOps and DevSecOps:

• DevOps Development Cycle: DevOps is all about making the development cycle go through many changes quickly. The time between writing and releasing code is reduced by changing it often, checking it automatically, and deploying it. Feedback loops are critical because they let teams quickly deal with problems and make fixes. Speed and effectiveness are essential in DevOps, and the cycle is usually shorter because security checks aren't built into the process as deeply.
• DevSecOps Development Cycle: In this same loop, DevSecOps adds more layers of protection. In other words, speed is still critical, but security is also vital. As part of the CI/CD process, DevSecOps uses automatic security tools to ensure that security tests happen along with functional tests at every stage of development. This ensures that the code is safe before it is used in production. Because of these extra security checks, the cycle may be longer than with DevOps, but the result is a safer product with fewer bugs after release.

One of the most critical distinctions between DevOps and DevSecOps is how security is integrated into the process:

• DevOps Security Implementation: Security is often thought of as a different task in DevOps. On most occasions, it's used after the development phase, during the testing or release phase. This means that security holes might not be found until much later, which could mean expensive fixes or even complete rollbacks. DevOps teams may focus more on features and speed and leave security to a separate security team. This can cause releases to be late or cause problems at the last minute.
• DevSecOps Security Implementation: In DevSecOps, security is built into every step of the process. Now, security is built into the CI/CD process rather than being an addition. Automated security testing tools find holes early on. With DevSecOps, developers can be in charge of security, making it a regular part of their work instead of something given to a different team. This cautious method lowers risks, keeps costs down for fixing security problems, and ensures rules are followed.