Revisit security in the era of DevOps: An evidence‐based inquiry into DevSecOps industry

Abstract By adopting agile and lean practices, DevOps aims to achieve rapid value delivery by speeding up development and deployment cycles, which however lead to more security concerns that cannot be fully addressed by an isolated security role only in the final stage of development. DevSecOps prom...

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Main Authors: Xin Zhou, Runfeng Mao, He Zhang, Qiming Dai, Huang Huang, Haifeng Shen, Jingyue Li, Guoping Rong
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2023-08-01
Series:IET Software
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2.12132
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author Xin Zhou
Runfeng Mao
He Zhang
Qiming Dai
Huang Huang
Haifeng Shen
Jingyue Li
Guoping Rong
author_facet Xin Zhou
Runfeng Mao
He Zhang
Qiming Dai
Huang Huang
Haifeng Shen
Jingyue Li
Guoping Rong
author_sort Xin Zhou
collection DOAJ
description Abstract By adopting agile and lean practices, DevOps aims to achieve rapid value delivery by speeding up development and deployment cycles, which however lead to more security concerns that cannot be fully addressed by an isolated security role only in the final stage of development. DevSecOps promotes security as a shared responsibility integrated into the DevOps process that seamlessly intertwines development, operations, and security from the start throughout to the end of cycles. While some companies have already begun to embrace this new strategy, both industry and academia are still seeking a common understanding of the DevSecOps movement. The goal of this study is to report the state‐of‐the‐practice of DevSecOps, including the impact of DevOps on security, practitioners' understanding of DevSecOps, and the practices associated with DevSecOps as well as the challenges of implementing DevSecOps. The authors used a mixed‐methods approach for this research. The authors carried out a grey literature review on DevSecOps, and surveyed the practitioners of DevSecOps in industry of China. The status quo of DevSecOps in industry is summarized. Three major software security risks are identified with DevOps, where the establishment of DevOps pipeline provides opportunities for security‐related activities. The authors classify the interpretations of DevSecOps into three core aspects of DevSecOps capabilities, cultural enablers, and technological enablers. To materialise the interpretations into daily software production activities, the recommended DevSecOps practices from three perspectives—people, process, and technology. Although a preliminary consensus is that DevSecOps is regarded as an extension of DevOps, there is a debate on whether DevSecOps is a superfluous term. While DevSecOps is attracting an increasing attention by industry, it is still in its infancy and more effort needs to be invested to promote it in both research and industry communities.
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spelling doaj-art-cff0e956710e4369ba77c3eb634d52bb2025-08-20T03:24:55ZengWileyIET Software1751-88061751-88142023-08-0117443545410.1049/sfw2.12132Revisit security in the era of DevOps: An evidence‐based inquiry into DevSecOps industryXin Zhou0Runfeng Mao1He Zhang2Qiming Dai3Huang Huang4Haifeng Shen5Jingyue Li6Guoping Rong7State Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology Software Institute Nanjing University Nanjing ChinaState Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology Software Institute Nanjing University Nanjing ChinaState Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology Software Institute Nanjing University Nanjing ChinaHuatai Securities Co., Ltd. Nanjing ChinaState Grid Nanjing Power Supply Company Nanjing ChinaPeter Faber Business School Australian Catholic University Sydney New South Wales AustraliaNorwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim NorwayState Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology Software Institute Nanjing University Nanjing ChinaAbstract By adopting agile and lean practices, DevOps aims to achieve rapid value delivery by speeding up development and deployment cycles, which however lead to more security concerns that cannot be fully addressed by an isolated security role only in the final stage of development. DevSecOps promotes security as a shared responsibility integrated into the DevOps process that seamlessly intertwines development, operations, and security from the start throughout to the end of cycles. While some companies have already begun to embrace this new strategy, both industry and academia are still seeking a common understanding of the DevSecOps movement. The goal of this study is to report the state‐of‐the‐practice of DevSecOps, including the impact of DevOps on security, practitioners' understanding of DevSecOps, and the practices associated with DevSecOps as well as the challenges of implementing DevSecOps. The authors used a mixed‐methods approach for this research. The authors carried out a grey literature review on DevSecOps, and surveyed the practitioners of DevSecOps in industry of China. The status quo of DevSecOps in industry is summarized. Three major software security risks are identified with DevOps, where the establishment of DevOps pipeline provides opportunities for security‐related activities. The authors classify the interpretations of DevSecOps into three core aspects of DevSecOps capabilities, cultural enablers, and technological enablers. To materialise the interpretations into daily software production activities, the recommended DevSecOps practices from three perspectives—people, process, and technology. Although a preliminary consensus is that DevSecOps is regarded as an extension of DevOps, there is a debate on whether DevSecOps is a superfluous term. While DevSecOps is attracting an increasing attention by industry, it is still in its infancy and more effort needs to be invested to promote it in both research and industry communities.https://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2.12132software development managementsoftware engineering
spellingShingle Xin Zhou
Runfeng Mao
He Zhang
Qiming Dai
Huang Huang
Haifeng Shen
Jingyue Li
Guoping Rong
Revisit security in the era of DevOps: An evidence‐based inquiry into DevSecOps industry
IET Software
software development management
software engineering
title Revisit security in the era of DevOps: An evidence‐based inquiry into DevSecOps industry
title_full Revisit security in the era of DevOps: An evidence‐based inquiry into DevSecOps industry
title_fullStr Revisit security in the era of DevOps: An evidence‐based inquiry into DevSecOps industry
title_full_unstemmed Revisit security in the era of DevOps: An evidence‐based inquiry into DevSecOps industry
title_short Revisit security in the era of DevOps: An evidence‐based inquiry into DevSecOps industry
title_sort revisit security in the era of devops an evidence based inquiry into devsecops industry
topic software development management
software engineering
url https://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2.12132
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