Shifting left
Security can now be easily integrated because of the visibility and flexibility that DevOps introduces. You might have heard of the concept “Shifting Left.” This means that DevOps teams focus on instilling security from the earliest stages in the development lifecycle and introducing a more collaborative culture between development and security.
Since security can now be introduced early, risks are reduced massively. In the past, you would find out about security flaws and bugs at the very late stages, even in production. They are leading to stress, rollbacks, and economic losses. Integrating code analysis tools and automated tests earlier in the process can now identify these security flaws during early development.
Shifting left
In the past, security testing was implemented at the end of the development cycle. As the industry evolved and security functions were introduced, security teams would perform various analyses and security testing in the final stages of the lifecycle.
Depending on the results of security testing, it would either permit the application to proceed for deployment into production or reject the application and pass it back to developers for remediating the flaws identified. This resulted in long delays in development and friction between teams.
Implementing security measures during all stages of the development lifecycle (shifting left) rather than at the end of the cycle will ensure the software is designed with security best practices built in. By detecting security flaws early in development, remediation costs are lower, and there would be no need to roll back changes as they are being addressed on time. This reduces cost, builds trust, and improves the security and quality of the product.