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The term “DevSecOps” has become popular in recent years as a way to emphasize security as part of the DevOps methodology. However, the concept of DevSecOps is misleading – security should not be treated as a separate practice from DevOps, but rather an integral part throughout the DevOps lifecycle.

What is DevOps?

DevOps is a set of practices and cultural philosophies aimed at improving collaboration, automation, and communication between software developers and IT operations teams. The core goals of DevOps are to deliver software faster and more reliably. Key DevOps practices include agile development, continuous integration, continuous delivery, infrastructure as code, monitoring, and collaboration between dev and ops teams.

Security is inherent in DevOps:

DevOps is not solely about speed – it’s also about developing more secure software. Security cannot be an afterthought or separate initiative, it must be baked into DevOps from the start. Here are some ways security is an inherent part of DevOps best practices:

• Infrastructure as code allows teams to standardize and automate security policies
• Continuous integration tools scan code for vulnerabilities early in the development process
• Monitoring tools like logging and anomaly detection improve incident response
• A culture of collaboration breaks down silos between dev, ops, and security teams
• Automating processes reduces opportunities for human error or overhead

No need for separate “DevSecOps”

Because security is intertwined with DevOps, there is no need to create a separate methodology called “DevSecOps.” Adding “Sec” to the name implies that security is something external to DevOps, when in reality it is an embedded concern across the entire DevOps lifecycle.

The future is DevOps with security

As organizations continue to adopt DevOps, they must ensure security practices are tightly integrated into their processes. Security and compliance should be considered at every stage – when planning projects, developing code, testing releases, deploying updates, and monitoring systems. The future is DevOps with security, not DevSecOps.

In short, the term DevSecOps is redundant. Security cannot be separated from DevOps – it must be an integral part of the entire process. Organizations should focus on deeply integrating security into their DevOps practices instead of treating it as a separate initiative or afterthought. The future is DevOps with security built-in by design.