DevSecOps vs SecDevOps: Key Differences

What is DevSecOps?

DevSecOps – a portmanteau of development, security, and operations – is the integration of security into software development and management operations.

The core goal of DevSecOps is to prevent security from becoming a siloed process that takes place in isolation from standard software development procedures. Instead, DevSecOps encourages the integration of security into all of the core processes that teams use to build, deploy, and maintain software – from application design and implementation through to runtime environment monitoring.

What is SecDevOps?

SecDevOps – short for security, development, operations – is a concept that makes security a top priority during software development and management operations.

Under a SecDevOps approach, security becomes the primary consideration at every stage of software development and delivery. In addition, security takes precedence over other goals, such as development velocity and developer experience.

DevSecOps vs. SecDevOps

DevSecOps and SecDevOps are similar in that they both emphasize the importance of integrating security into the software development lifecycle. Thus, both strategies help ensure that security is not an afterthought or a siloed process, and both have important implications for all stages of the software development lifecycle.

However, the key difference between the concepts is that in SecDevOps, security is the number one priority that takes precedence over all other goals or objectives, whereas in DevSecOps, security is just one of several areas of focus.

This is why Gartner says that “ideally” – emphasis on ideally – DevSecOps “is done without reducing the agility or speed of developers or requiring them to leave their development toolchain environment.” In practice, DevSecOps may force teams to make compromises in the realm of security in order to protect other priorities, like development speed or tooling preferences. SecDevOps is different in that it doesn’t allow for compromises when it comes to security. Everything else takes a back seat.

To explain what that difference means in practice, let’s walk through some of the key areas of distinction between DevSecOps and SecDevOps.

Main focus

Again, in SecDevOps, security is the first and foremost focus across all software delivery processes, and for all stakeholders. This means that when building an application using a SecDevOps approach, engineers would start by asking which type of design is most secure. Only after that would they address other design considerations, such as those related to performance. Security would remain the top priority at all later stages of the development lifecycle.

In contrast, under DevSecOps, security is not necessarily the top consideration. Thus, during the design phase of the software development lifecycle, for example, developers might choose an overall design strategy based on the goal of optimizing performance. They would also address how they can ensure that their design is secure, but security would not be the main driving factor in design decisions.

Security integration

Under SecDevOps, security serves as the basis for all software development operations. This leads to practices like scanning code for security vulnerabilities before running other types of tests during the testing phase of the software development lifecycle.

WIth DevSecOps, integration is different in the sense that security processes run alongside other processes, but they are not necessarily first. Security scans might come after code quality scans, for example.

Key activities

In SecDevOps, the main activity of all stakeholders in software development is security. Other responsibilities, like code design and implementation, take a back seat to activities that ensure security, such as code scanning and threat analysis.

Meanwhile, in DevSecOps, the overall focus of software development teams is keeping development operations on schedule and ensuring that projects meet their overall goals. Security is also important, but it’s not the defining activity that shapes all other operations.

Team structure

While there are different approaches to structuring both DevSecOps and SecDevOps teams, the latter is more likely to have security engineers either embedded directly into development projects or in close and constant collaboration with developers.

In contrast, with DevSecOps, security may be treated as a cross-functional responsibility, without a dedicated cadre of security engineers driving the overall project.

Workflow emphasis

Because security is the first priority in SecDevOps, workflows can come to a halt due to a security issue. Even vulnerabilities that engineers do not deem critical may lead to pauses in workflows like coding, testing, or deployment until developers fix the issue.

With DevSecOps, non-critical security problems are less likely to disrupt workflows. A team might decide that getting an application release into production is more important than fixing every minor security vulnerability detected in a pre-deployment scan.

Tool usage

The tools that both DevSecOps and SecDevOps teams use can vary widely. That said, a key difference between each approach with regard to tooling is that DevSecOps teams are likely to choose tools based on priorities like which CI/CD software they find easiest to use or which leads to the best development velocity.

In contrast, under a SecDevOps approach, security would be the chief consideration when selecting tools. Instead of choosing the CI/CD suite that developers like best, for instance, a team might choose the one with the most robust security capabilities.

Cultural aspect

DevSecOps and SecDevOps both encourage teams to make security a cultural priority. But SecDevOps takes this process a step further by emphasizing the importance of making security the basis for all other aspects of operations.

Choosing between DevSecOps and SecDevOps

Although SecDevOps places a stronger emphasis on security (relative to other software development considerations) than DevSecOps, this doesn’t make SecDevOps any inherently better or worse than DevSecOps.

It simply means that both approaches have different areas of emphasis and cater to different use cases and needs.

In general, DevSecOps is ideal for organizations or projects where the following is true:

• Security risks are not extreme.
• The organization can tolerate some level of risk.
• There is clear value in balancing security with other priorities, like software development speed.

In contrast, teams should consider SecDevOps if:

• They face particularly severe security threats based on their region or business sector (for instance, companies in finance, where cyberattacks occur at a high frequency, might find more value in SecDevOps).
• They face special compliance mandates that require an especially heavy focus on security.
• They struggle to manage security risks effectively using standard DevSecOps practices and need to take security to the “next level” through SecDevOps.

The benefits of a security platform for DevOps

Whether your goal is to implement DevSecOps or SecDevOps, a DevOps security platform can help. A DevOps security platform provides the capabilities that actually embed security into the software development lifecycle – such as continuous scanning, risk prioritization, and remediation guidance. As a result, no matter how exactly security fits into the overall development process, DevOps security solutions ensure that teams can integrate it in whichever way makes most sense based on their overall goals and priorities.