#devops security testing

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5 tools that enable kickstarting software development with DevOps

The realization that adherence to quality is not a one off affair but the essential requisite for businesses to earn customers trust is driving companies to adopt the DevOps approach. It is a move over Agile and includes elements like Continuous Integration/Delivery. DevOps QA requires the Development, Testing, and Operations teams to collaborate seamlessly to offer quality products and services to the end customer. It is no longer confined to the SDLC phase alone but goes beyond by creating a total quality culture. It is the culture that ensures the quality of products or services to be upheld during the entire product lifecycle.

The DevOps testing strategy helps in better and quicker identification of glitches and improves the rate of deployment. It entails the simplification of process workflows in departments, improving intra department/process communication, and creating a common objective. However, for DevOps to work to its full potential, it should be enabled by the use of tools. The tools are not ‘one size fits all’ type and help in achieving Continuous Integration/Delivery, information sharing, process automation, and a shorter process cycle.

Since these tools come with a robust reporting mechanism, they help in generating quality feedback for every stakeholder to understand and follow. Besides achieving the DevOps objectives, the tools are categorized into groups based on their functionality. These are Continuous Integration, Configuration Management, Continuous Inspection, Containerization, and Virtualization. The DevOps team should ensure the following before embarking on DevOps testing:

All stakeholders should be on the same page during transformation to the DevOps model

Take one department or process at a time and thereafter include others incrementally

Measure the output of your department/process before and after DevOps adoption on the basis of well-defined metrics

Automate processes that are needed instead of forcing all into DevOps test automation

5 tools to enable the adoption of DevOps

#1 Nagios & Icinga: Among the many open source tools, Nagios or Nagios Core is a highly effective infrastructure monitoring tool thanks to the presence of a dedicated community of developers who create plugins. Nagios comes in three variants viz., XI, Log Server, and Fusion. While XI monitors all mission critical infrastructure components of an OS, the Log Server audits your system and identifies the security threats and trends among others. Fusion, on the other hand, provides a centralized network view. Overall, the tool written in C language monitors as well as alerts users about malfunctioning servers, switches, applications, and services.

Similar to Nagios is Icinga. Its scalable fork with high level features provide a great user experience. It monitors the software infrastructure with an SSL protected cluster system.

#2 Jenkins: This Java-based open source tool helps in DevOps testing by building, testing, and integrating software continuously besides monitoring some of the externally run jobs. Its popularity among the DevOps testing specialists is due to its GUI-based scalability and customization features. The fact that it requires little maintenance and has a repository of over 400 plugins makes it easier to build and execute any type of test cases.

#3 Docker: This open source containerization platform helps developers and admins to send a product or service for delivery without the intervening cross functional environments. Through its containerization technology, Docker lends portability to applications by moving them across platforms in self-contained units. Its standardized format and the ease of writing test cases in virtually any language make it easier for both the development and operations teams to use it. The tools help in configuration management, scaling, and controlling glitches.

#4 Git or GitHub: This open source tool came about as a response to Linux community’s need for a Source Control Management (SCM) software. It helps in control management and lends support to distributed systems. Its features such as enabling repos, local branching, convenient staging, multiple workflows, and pull requests among others make integration and deployment easy.

#5 AWS: The Amazon Web Services provide flexible services for developers to deliver quick products or services through its robust cloud computing features. The many features include networking, database, analytics, storage, computation, deployment, management, mobility, and application services.

Conclusion

The aforementioned DevOps tools help in automating test cases and provide the right CI and CD environment to deploy products and services smoothly.

This Article is originally published at Medium.com, 5 tools that enable kickstarting software development with DevOps.

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Can you mitigate Cybersecurity risks with DevSecOps?

The growing threats to cybersecurity from hackers and cyber criminals have made companies to sit up and take notice. It is no longer about thinking or assuming, ‘I am not at risk and so, I need not worry’ as trojans, viruses, bots, and malware are swirling around on the internet. With digital transformation striking deep roots across the spectrum, individuals, businesses, industries and organizations have invested in building IT infrastructure with a vengeance. This is due to the fact that no one wants to lose out on a large slice of customers on the go, besides, of course, leveraging the other spinoffs.

These include developing and delivering quality products, establishing a seamless communication, and achieving greater efficiency and ROI. The dependence of entities and customers worldwide on the internet has lured cyber criminals to steal data and information for making a quick buck. Moreover, given the reach of these fraudsters and the fact that the law enforcement agencies find it difficult to catch up with them, these more or less seem to operate with impunity.

Here, small businesses are more at risk, as their digital infrastructure often lacks the requisite cybersecurity measures. This is not to state that bigger organizations with a better security paraphernalia do not fall foul of such activities but the odds are certainly stacked high against smaller businesses.

As cyber criminals are getting smarter by the day and finding out new ways to exploit the vulnerabilities and breach the security of a system, the task is cut out for companies to secure their systems and networks. This calls for implementing new methodologies, models and protocols such as DevOps or DevSecOps. The imperative for adopting this approach has become pronounced due to the interface online systems share with the cloud, mobility, social media, and big data.

Why DevSecOps?

Since strengthening cybersecurity is about plugging the vulnerabilities and developing robust applications, it needs a concerted effort from all quarters. This is where DevOps (Development and Operations) comes with its emphasis on Continuous Improvement and Delivery across the SDLC. The cybersecurity strategy should have involvement from both the technical and business sides.

Remember! The DevOps approach is not only about enabling business agility through accelerated development, testing and deployment, but involves creating a collaborative quality culture across the organization as well.

It is this culture or ecosystem that acts as a bulwark against cybersecurity threats, for everyone in the organization will be responsible to enforce security measures. These include steps such as not sharing passwords or accessing emails from suspected sources, logging out after every session, etc. The focus should be to align data security goals with business objectives early on in the development of an application. Since DevSecOps solutions are hinged on running test automation, validating applications in terms of security (and others) becomes easy and comprehensive.

Mitigation of cybersecurity threats courtesy DevOps security testing

Security audit: If a business does not employ DevSecOps solutions as a part of its development strategy, it is high time to implement the same. During implementation, DevOps specialists should audit the devices that are connected to the central information network. These can range from the remotely connected devices like WiFi routers, mobiles, and tablets to laptops or dumb terminals that are part of the intranet. The audit identifies the resident vulnerabilities in the entire system network and provides for an extra layer of security.

Security integration: Security should ideally be built into the development process and not as an afterthought for the quality assurance team to deal with. The CI/CD approach of DevOps software testing should integrate security into the whole matrix, thus strengthening cybersecurity.

Automation: The process of conducting a security audit for the entire IT network of a business should incorporate test automation. This has been necessitated due to the release or update of more number of software, which makes it virtually impossible to identify and plug the security vulnerabilities. Remember, Continuous Improvement and Delivery must feature Continuous Security Controls as well.

Conclusion

The strengthening of cybersecurity measures in the development cum testing sprint should be proactive, which even saves time and money by a large measure. The collaborative approach of DevSecOps software testing is best suited to identify and plug security related vulnerabilities, leading to securing businesses and customers from the growing threats of cyber criminals.

This Article is originally published at Medium.com; Can you mitigate Cybersecurity risks with DevSecOps?

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What’s the value that DevSecOps brings for Application Security?