Introduction

If you want better software faster, DevOps is the answer. If you want software security, DevSecOps is the answer. Let’s start from the beginning. In this rapidly growing IT industry, continuous efforts are being made to improve the quality of work with ease. New tools and methodologies are being introduced and DevOps and DevSecOps are among them. Within a short period, more and more organizations have adopted DevOps and DevSecOps practices to streamline their software development process, which has quickly made it a hot topic of discussion and all kinds of things have come to light regarding this. But even today there are many misconceptions and confusions about it, what it is, what the difference between them is, and what work they do. After reading this you will get clear information about DevOps and DevSecOps.

So, in this blog, we will discuss some of the basics of DevOps & DevSecOps and the top differences between DevOps and DevSecOps. After the technical discussion, we will also see what the difference between them from the job perspective is.

 Differences between DevOps and DevSecOps

There are some common differences between DevOps & DevSecOps

What –

DevOps – First of all you should know DevOps is a mindset. It’s not a tool or a technology or a programming language, it’s just a way of working. DevOps is made by two words Dev + Ops, Dev means development and Ops means IT operations. In DevOps development & operation teams work together for faster and continuous delivery of software. In this process automation improves software quality.

DevSecOps stands for Development + security + operations. It’s a software development approach that accounts for the integration of security practices earlier into the software development process. We can say that this is DevOps but with a lens on security.

Why –

DevOps

  • There are some drawbacks in waterfall and agile models which DevOps fulfils.
  • Shortens the development cycle.
  • Lower deployment failure.
  • Improves communication and collaboration between development & operations team.
  • Increase efficiency & reduce costs.

DevSecOps –

  • It provides high visibility on security threats and made cloud computing more secure.
  • Check codes with accuracy
  • Use of modern technology like AI and ML.
  • Highlight threats in early stage.

Use cases –

DevOps –

  • Quickly identify, fix and deploy problems.
  • Customers get changes quickly with efficiency.
  • High quality apps and code delivers.

DevSecOps –

  • Visibility of progress in pipeline.
  • Helps in audit reporting.
  • Focus on informality in process.
  • Maximum risk mitigation
DevOps and DevSecOps
DevOps and DevSecOps

Primary objective –

DevOps – Enhance efficiency, speed and quality of software development.

DevSecOps – Secure the development process by integrating security into every stage of software development.

Processes –

DevOps – In DevOps continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD), Microservices, Infrastructure as code (IaC), etc.

DevSecOps – with CI/CD some security related processes also used. Like – static application security testing (SAST), interactive application security testing (IAST), Software composition analysis (SCA), dynamic application security testing (DAST), etc.

Security-

DevOps – Security is considered but it’s not the primary objective of DevOps.

In DevSecOps security is essential part of entire software development process. DevSecOps is introduced for security only.

Security check –

In DevOps security checked later in the end of development cycle.

In DevSecOps security is checked at every stage of software development.

Team work –

DevOps – As the name suggests the developer and software team work together.

DevSecOps – With software and developers, security teams also working together.

Tools used –

DevOps – Jira, kubernetes, ansible, GitHub, Jenkins, XRAY, Bitbucket, statuspage, Appdynamics, GetFeedback etc.

DevOps and DevSecOps
DevOps and DevSecOps

DevSecOps – Veracode, Checkmarx, OWASP ZAP, Burp Suit, SonarQube, Fortify, Snyk, Coverity, AppScan, etc.

Automation –

DevOps – It automates the entire software development process but relies on the team to handle security.

DevSecOps – It uses automation to simplify the task of bringing security to every stage of development and delivery.

Challenges –

DevOps –

  • Monitoring of overall DevOps process.
  • CI/CD performance issues.
  • Scalability of test infrastructure.
  • Interpretation of complex debugging reports.
  • Dealing with outdated practices.

DevSecOps –

  • Multi-cloud environment.
  • Documentation and tool integration.
  • Can’t fully automate.
  • Speed vs security.
  • Integration of security into development process.

Job point of view – 

Skills –

 DevOps – As a DevOps Engineer you have to ensure that software is developed, tested and delivered efficiently. You have to automate repetitive task, implementation of CI and CD pipelines, management of IaC and all other stuff together. If you really want to become a DevOps Engineer then you need to work hard.

To become a well-trained DevOps Engineer, you need to master some of the technical and soft skills mentioned below –

 Thechnical skills –
  • Coding and scripting
  • Linux fundamentals
  • Infrastructure management
  • System administration
  • DevOps toolchains
  • Cloud computing
  • Database and network management
  • Automation
  • Software testing
  • Computer programming
  • Security
  • Configuration management
  • Source code management
  • Continues delivery
Soft skills-
  • Interpersonal skills
  • Agile methodology
  • Organizational skills
  • Collaboration
  • Communication
  • Customer-focused approach
  • Proactive problem solving
  • Decision making 

DevSecOps – To become a DevSecOps Engineer, first of all you need to master all the skills mentioned above because DevSecOps is an advanced version of DevOps.

Beyond those, the skills a DevSecOps Engineer needed as follows –

Technical skills-
  • Application security knowledge
  • Deep cyber security knowledge
  • Cloud infrastructure
  • Knowledge of DevOps pipeline tools
  • Vulnerability assessments
  • Compliance and security training
  • Change management
  • Up to date security knowledge
Soft skills –
  • Strong communication skills
  • Team player mentality

Roles & Responsibilities –

DevOps –

  • Security integration
  • Security monitoring
  • Risk assessment
  • Automation and tooling
  • Toolchain integration

DevSecOps –

  • DevSecOps Engineer
  • Security Engineer
  • Automation Engineer
  • Security Analyst
  • Compliance Analyst
  • Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

Salary –

Devops engineer-

  • USA – $110,000 – $160,000

DevSecOps Engineer-

  • USA – $118,392 – $171,836

Conclusion

hope all your questions have been cleared and you have understood what DevOps and DevSecOps and what is the difference between them. They both are equally important in the organization. The purpose of DevOps is to provide collaboration to the development and operation team so that more work can be done in less time and the work of DevSecOps is to ensure security checks at every stage in the entire process. We can say that it’s nothing but a simple thing DevSecOps brings the philosophy of DevOps one step further. DevOps guides the software development process and DevSecOps tackles the security threats before it becomes a security issue in this development process.