Shifting security left has many benefits. Developers today have more ownership and responsibility for secure coding practices than ever before. However, this does not mean that the entire security burden falls on developers. Cloud native environments evolve rapidly. Teams rely on open source packages, build and deploy containers on demand, and push changes through CI/CD pipelines at high velocity. Threats can emerge in production long after code is written.
Security teams remain essential partners. They bring expertise in governance, compliance, and threat management. When equipped with the right solution and visibility, security teams can collaborate with development to strengthen container security across the entire life cycle.
The goal is shared success. Developers should be empowered to build secure code. Security teams should have the insight and control needed to manage risk effectively. Together, they can support rapid innovation without compromising security.
To enable this collaboration, organizations need an integrated approach to cloud native security. A unified solution that helps development and security teams share a common understanding of risks and priorities. This shared context allows them to address issues proactively and continuously, from development through production.
Aqua Container Security: New Features Connecting Dev and Sec
Aqua’s Container Security capabilities are continuously evolving based on real-world customer feedback. Recent enhancements help bridge key gaps in visibility and policy enforcement across cloud native development pipelines. These updates give security teams greater control while making it easier for developers to build and deploy secure applications.
Assurance Policies: Visibility, Control, and Actionable Insights
Aqua’s Assurance Policies provide flexible, risk-based controls that define what is allowed into production across cloud native environments. Policies can automatically fail pull requests, generate failed build messages, or flag audit checks when risks are detected, helping ensure that only secure workloads advance through the pipeline.
With the latest enhancements, Assurance Policies now provide far greater visibility and actionable insight for both developers and security practitioners. When a policy violation occurs, Aqua links the failed control directly into the code repository, giving both teams a unified view of why a build failed.
The new violated policy view within each repository shows exactly which policies were violated, which controls triggered those violations, and which specific findings caused the issues. Practitioners can navigate from this view into individual findings to see all the policies impacted, and from any finding, click through to the full Assurance Policy for additional context.
For compliance teams, this provides immediate insight into which packages are failing builds and why, along with traceability back to the related policies. Additionally, the UI now displays how many files were scanned and which programming languages were detected in the repository, providing additional context about what is being used in the codebase.
These enhancements help security practitioners save significant time when analyzing issues and give both development and security teams a shared understanding of what needs to be remediated. The result is faster resolution of policy violations and greater transparency across teams.
Watch the demo to see these Assurance Policy enhancements in action:
Lockfile Management: Visibility into Dependency Practices
Managing open source dependencies is a cornerstone of modern application security. Lockfiles provide an auditable record of exact dependency versions in use, helping ensure build reproducibility and reducing supply chain risk.
Aqua’s enterprise Trivy scanner now detects when lockfiles are missing or outdated, alerting both developers and security teams to potential gaps. Where needed, the scanner can automatically generate updated lockfiles, helping teams enforce secure development standards and avoid hidden risks.
IDE Plugins: Real-Time Feedback for Developers
Developers want to identify and fix security issues early, before they reach production. Aqua’s enhanced VSCode plugin provides developers with immediate feedback as they write code. The plugin identifies policy violations, misconfigurations, exposed secrets, and vulnerabilities in real time.
This capability was developed in response to strong customer demand for tools that integrate directly into the developer workflow. By addressing issues during development, teams reduce rework, speed up secure delivery, and foster a culture of shared responsibility between development and security.
Driving Cloud Native Innovation with Confidence
Cloud native development has transformed how organizations build and deploy applications. Developers and security practitioners each play essential roles in delivering innovation at speed, while managing risk in highly dynamic environments.
As pipelines grow more complex, visibility and collaboration become more important than ever. With Aqua’s latest enhancements, including deeper visibility into policy violations and more actionable insights across the SDLC, security teams can better support developers without slowing them down. Developers gain clear, contextual feedback on issues, while compliance and security practitioners have an integrated solution, they need to manage risk and enforce policies consistently.
By bridging gaps between development and security, Aqua helps organizations move faster and with greater confidence, securing cloud native applications from code commit to runtime.
