We all know that DevOps adoption continues to grow at an incredible rate. IDC projects that the worldwide DevOps market will reach $6.6 billion by 2022. DevOps adoption is driven by business investments in innovation, the adoption of collaborative and automated software development and operational processes that are integrated with security. People are now talking about SecOps the same way. Organizations have the chance to integrate security into their software development processes through the DevOps cycle. Organizations do not need to comply with a “final check” before releasing a product. Instead, they apply security best practices throughout the entire application lifecycle. This process is commonly called “SecOps” (or “Security Operations”). In this article, I’ll talk about DevOps and SecOps and their key differences.
What is DevOps?
DevOps is a combination of best practices in software development and IT operations. This gives us the name DevOps. It is a way to speed up the process of bringing a product to production and still deliver high-quality software. DevOps is compatible with Agile software development best practices. Many DevOps features are derived from Agile’s approach.
Continuous integration is the focus of DevOps. This central repository stores code and developers merge their work with every release of the software. This framework allows developers to automatically test their code against it, identifying bugs and issues before they are accidentally released into the real world. This will enable developers to find bugs and create high-quality products. The code is automatically built and tested as each change is made. This means that the code is always available for deployment. This is an advantage for software companies that frequently release software. It allows for bug fixes and seamless deployments.
The idea behind adopting DevOps within your organization is to power previously disconnected tasks like infrastructure provisioning or application deployments through one unified delivery pipeline. In a traditional development process, for example, developers would need to notify the operations team separately if the infrastructure needs to be reconfigured or provisioned to accommodate the application changes. This can cause delays and bottlenecks that could impact the delivery process. DevOps simplifies the process by allowing different teams to understand each other’s requirements. This allows them to anticipate these requirements and respond quickly. In some cases, this process can be automated to eliminate the need for manual interaction in managing the infrastructure.
DevOps can easily be adapted to the changing market and user needs. There is a common misconception that DevOps is unsuitable for traditional developments, yet DevOps practices can be adapted to suit any type of development, including DevOps for service management.
What is SecOps?
SecOps is a collaboration of security and operations teams. This is similar to how development and operations collaborate on the DevOps front. SecOps is a collection of best practices that organizations must follow, the processes they must execute and the tools they should use to secure their application environments. SecOps ensures organizations don’t compromise security in order to achieve set performance and uptime indicators. In a typical development cycle, requirements gathering, design, development, testing, implementation or deployment and maintenance–security is typically introduced in the later stages, somewhere between testing and deployment or even later. SecOps is about ensuring security at every stage of the software development cycle (SDLC).
I know what you are thinking. This will complicate the delivery process and increase its time. Operations and development teams must work together to simplify the process and reduce time. The next question you need to ask yourself is: Why are there so many headaches? It’s easier to see it this way. It would be more efficient to address security issues at an earlier stage than when they are implemented or delivered. It takes a combination of the security team, operations team, and development team. A little planning is all it takes. And a lot of execution.
Although SecOps is less commonly used than DevOps it does convey some details about how IT security is done. The term “SecOps”, in its simplest form, refers to an agile shared responsibility approach that emphasizes collaboration between IT operations and security (e.g. sysadmins). SecOps eliminates silos and optimizes security and performance. SecOps is similar to DevOps in that there is some ambiguity around the term. Some articles suggest SecOps is an independent thing that is distinct from DevSecOps. You may also find other bits of information online that suggest SecOps is the same as DevSecOps.
SecOps is important when you compare it to the alternative: a separate approach to security. IT professionals know that security can slow down things. This is a necessary evil. This is a risky way to expose critical data or bring down infrastructure. You don’t want to slow down processes for minor or non-essential issues. SecOps encourages collaboration among IT operations units such as sysadmin and IT security teams. Both teams can work together to achieve a common goal: delivering security- and operational-standard service. This improves the outcome.
DevOps and SecOps are two key differences
Definition
SecOps (Security + Operations), is a movement that facilitates collaboration between IT security teams and operations teams. It combines the technology and processes they use in order to keep systems secure. This helps to reduce risk and increase business agility.
DevOps is an acronym that stands for Development + Operations. It combines software development and IT operations. It is designed to reduce the time it takes to develop a system and ensure continuous delivery of high quality software.
Specialization
DevOps focuses primarily on the CICD automation process and strengthening the permissions surrounding containers and the user privileges that containers run under. DevOps can also implement static code analysis or 3rd-party dependency scanning.
SecOps specializes in the security of the outer border parameter. This includes preventing the implementation or disruption of damaging hacking attacks and other similar.
SecOps can be better described as Cyber Warfare. Even though there are not enough people to truly embody this definition, it is often up to DevOps teams and their teams to implement that mitigation as best they can. DevSecOps is a term that refers to DevOps.
Goals
SecOps goals are:
- Security is increased by prioritizing cybersecurity at all stages
- Security is a dynamic process that is continually improving and adapting.
- All parties involved in the production and security of a particular application should share responsibility.
DevOps goals are:
- Automation and collaboration can speed up software delivery.
- Increased control over production infrastructure
- Prioritize the delivery of consistent and efficient software.
- Streamlining integration of software architectures and systems into future products
Benefits
SecOps has many benefits
- Productivity improvement
- Increased use of resources
- Investing in higher returns
- Applications disruptions are minimized
- Reduced cloud security threats
- More efficient auditing processes
DevOps has many benefits
- Collaboration and communication between teams should be stronger
- Security teams can achieve greater agility and speed
- Early detection and mitigation code vulnerabilities
- Quality assurance testing – Enhanced
Team Focus
The DevOps team is more focused on the development and deployment of code. Communication between team members speeds up the process. The SecOps team is focused on code security and faster development and deployment. For the first use of the application, the password must be obvious. Hidden passwords should not be difficult to crack.
Automation
DevOps automation is used primarily to release code into higher environments. This allows developers to see the changes made by their team members and can work accordingly. Team members don’t need to be notified of changes often. They can simply check the releases or deployment logs.
Security testing is automated to ensure that new developments are regularly tested and passed with minimal errors. If common vulnerabilities are found during CI/CD, reports will be generated. SecOps will never permit security to be compromised.
The table below summarizes the key differences between SecOps and DevOps.
| FUNCTION | SecOps | DevOps |
| Definition | Collaboration between IT security and operations team | Collaboration between software development and IT operations team |
| Approach | Focus on security aspect of software or application | Focus on strong collaboration and communication with teams to ensure agility in software or application delivery |
| Scope | Building secure application or software | Development, remodelling and faster delivery of applications |
| Goal | Security in focus from start till end | Continuous and faster application development |
| Way of processing | Combination of manual or automated tests | Mostly automated or driven via AI |
| Implementation of changes | Changes are applied onto servers and applications | Changes are applied onto code |
Final Thoughts
There are many ways to compare IT operations and cybersecurity. However, there is no one right way. Because every company and each department has different needs, this is why there are no definitive answers. Both SecOps as well as DevOps play an important role in an environment that sees software updates being performed several times per day and outdated security models are not able to sustain them. DevOps is focused on deployment and security, while SecOps addresses both deployment and security. DevOps can only manage operational tasks for a single project, but SecOps assumes that everyone is responsible for security.
