Software & App Delivery Is Now On The Fast Track
Just a decade ago, building and deploying software was a long, manual & disjointed process where work was siloed, bugs were common, testing was late and releases were infrequent. Everything changed with the advent of DevOps, an organizational cultural shift that seamlessly brought the two disparate functions of development and operations together.
The overarching, optimized principles that DevOps is built on – CI/CD, constant feedback loops, automated code guardrails, monitoring, etc. – helped enterprises rapidly push features, automate builds and iterate based on real-time feedback. As a result, businesses moved from releasing software every few months to scenarios where updates are being released multiple times in a day. A new level of business agility has been unlocked.
Agility At Odds With Security
Unfortunately, the very principles that make DevOps fast & agile also make it vulnerable, if security is not embedded from the start. That is exacerbated by the current DevOps-security disconnect seen in many projects – 47% of developers report testing and security as the top cause of release slowdowns, mainly because these processes are still handled manually or only after code is committed—the so-called ‘shift right’ approach. They believe the missed deadlines, increased rework and bottlenecks that come with integrating security defeats the entire purpose of agile DevOps.
However, the current scenario makes it a non-negotiable, as failing to build security into DevOps creates real business risks that are hard to recover from. In 2024, cyberattacks in India surged by 20%, with over 7.15 billion attacks blocked across monitored sites and APIs. Nearly every website faced bot-driven attacks, and API-related threats rose sharply. Not being prepared for these attacks could really cost you – according to the 2024 IBM Cost of a Data Breach report, breaches in DevOps environments without built-in security cost 23% more on average.
Another factor to consider is the increasing amount of regulations that have come as a response to the rising level of cyberattacks. Mandates by RBI, SEBI and the upcoming DPDPA explicitly mention elements like secure SSDLC, coding practices and VAPTs for all Internet-facing apps. Should a breach occur, it gets magnified with all the compliance related penalties you could face. For example, in the upcoming DPDPA, breach fines can go up to ₹250cr.
Common Attack Vectors In The Lifecycle of Your Apps
The need of the hour is security integration that matches the agility of your DevOps, protecting your organization against a wide variety of application-related cyberthreats.
| Vulnerabilities | How They Occur | How Attackers Exploit Them |
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| Code Injections |
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| Exposed Secrets & Hardcoded Credentials |
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| Vulnerable Open-Source Dependencies |
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| Container Vulnerabilities |
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| No Runtime Threat Detection |
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| Unmonitored API Endpoints |
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| CI/CD Toolchain Exploits |
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| Misconfigured Infrastructure |
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Putting Security At The Heart Of DevOps
In response to the growing threat, a new advent is starting – one that puts security right at the heart of DevOps to create DevSecOps. Adopting this creates a ‘shift left’ movement across your application lifecycle, where security checks are built into every stage of the CI/CD pipeline and every environment is observed to swiftly eradicate threats once spotted. Concerns about the aforementioned DevOps-security disconnect get immediately dispelled if you choose a security partner (like iValue) with frameworks that enable agility & security to go hand-in-hand.
Secure & Optimize with iValue’s ALM Frameworks
Our Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) framework provides optimized, end-to-end security using a mix of governance, observability and unification:
- Governance is brought by OpenText’s capacity to facilitate secure collaborations amongst your teams, automate security policy enforcement across the lifecycle and adhere to all relevant compliance regulations.
- Observability is enabled by Dynatrace’s AI-powered real-time monitoring and observation systems that incorporate continuous risk detection and insight generation across the entire lifecycle – from design to post-deployment.
- Unification is achieved by iValue’s single source of truth dashboard that helps you gain complete visibility of everything that’s happening across the entire lifecycles.
Complete Security Governance, Enabled By OpenText
Our integration with OpenText gives you the ideal building blocks for optimized DevSecOps, achieving enterprise-wide security governance across various functions:
- Code Governance: OpenText ensures integrity, traceability and quality of code throughout its lifecycle with processes like static code analysis, code review workflows with traceable approvals and complete enforcement of secure coding standards like OWASP.
- Access Governance: Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC), PAM integration, strong MFA, approval-based access provisioning and secure access logs are just some of the ways we ensure that only the right people access the right resources throughout your software ecosystem.
- Collaboration Governance: Key features like role-bound collaboration workflows, traceable task assignments and secure documentation sharing with versioning & history help ensure that all your collaborations are secure, documented and aligned to delivery protocols.
- Compliance Governance: Dynamic compliance to myriad regulations like DPDP, CERT-In mandates, etc. is achieved through automated policy enforcements, compliance dashboards with risk scoring and documents approvals/sign-offs for every change or release.
End-To-End Observability, Achieved By Dynatrace
Once you’ve laid out the foundations of secure development, Dynatrace helps fortify your entire pipeline through continuous, intuitive monitoring:
| Stage | Key Capabilities |
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| Design & Development |
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| Building & Testing |
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| Deployment |
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| Operation & Optimization |
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Comprehensive Unification, Brought To You By iValue Group
Finally, you need orchestration that aligns these capabilities across the entire ALM lifecycle and gives you full visibility over what’s happening. That is the kind of security oversight iValue offers through its ALM frameworks, allowing you to eradicate all the vulnerabilities that can plague your development cycles:
| Vulnerabilities Eradicated | OpenText’s Role | Dynatrace’s Role |
|---|---|---|
| Code Injections | Enforces secure coding practices |
Static code analysis, with approval workflows for high-risk code Monitors live app behaviour and user inputs to detect anomalies or injection signatures in real-time |
| Exposed Secrets & Hardcoded Credentials | Strong governance of secrets repository access |
Policy-based code scanning to detect & block hardcoded secrets before commit Detects unauthorized use of credentials in runtime environments Alerts for privilege misuse |
| Vulnerable Open-Source Dependencies | Scans dependencies |
SBOM enforcement helps flag outdated/vulnerable components during builds Tracks vulnerable versions running in production + maps them to known CVEs for runtime risk exposure |
| Container Vulnerabilities | Scans Dockerfiles & containers pre-deploy |
Enforces compliance for base image selection Continuously monitors container runtime behaviour for resource abuse, misconfigurations or malicious processes |
| No Runtime Threat Detection |
Audit trails Incident workflows |
Real-time observability using distributed tracing, AI-enabled anomaly detection & root cause analysis |
| Unmonitored API Endpoints | Strong access governance & API security policies |
Monitoring of API design and workflows Observance of all API calls in production Identifying shadow APIs Flagging unusual access patterns |
| CI/CD Toolchain Exploits |
Secures pipeline stages through coded policies Audit trails for every build and deployment |
Monitors pipeline performance Detects anomalous actions during builds and deployments |
| Misconfigured Infrastructure | Integration with IaC tools (Terraform, Ansible) to scan for compliance violations & access misconfigurations | Detection of misconfigurations in live environments using topology maps |
So, if you’re looking to put security right at the heart of your organization’s DevOps – with zero compromise to agility – click here to speak to an iValue security expert today.
