Security Teams in DevOps? There's No Such Thing

Security Teams in DevOps? There's No Such Thing

Yesterday, I had an interesting conversation (recording available) with Eliza May Austin, founder of Ladies of London Hacking Society. The podcast has been listened to over 800 times in the first 24 hours, and a lot of the focus of the conversations around the discussion is that many, if not most, people commenting were excited to hear there is no such thing as a security team as part of a DevOps initiative. No one has seen it. It's like a unicorn... fun to talk about, but no such thing. (For those in the London area, Eliza will be delivering the keynote at DevSecOps Days on March 22, and will be talking about this.)

The eye-opening thing for me is that people are happy, and relieved, to hear they are not the only ones encountering this phenomenon. I feel as if I've been living in an echo chamber bubble if security people haven't seen an environment where security is integrated into the software pipeline, not as a silo, but as part of the team. It's intriguing to me that I'm working on a daily basis, advocating for DevSecOps as a cultural transformation, but people in the trenches are saying it's nonexistent.

As the co-founder of the world's largest DevOps conference, All Day DevOps (30,000+ registrations last year), I'm going to see what I can do about this perception. There are definitely companies who can tell the DevSecOps story, but it seems as if the message isn't getting to the people who could utilize that knowledge the most.

Do you agree that DevSecOps is a nice concept, but doesn't exist in the real world? Has your company implemented a DevOps/DevSecOps initiative we can use as a story to show others how it was done? I'm open to both sides.

The floor is open. Let's talk about it.

My stance on information security has always been guard rails over gate keeping. I want to empower my users, not force them to engineer around me, which they will do.  So that's a whole hearted yes for me on this statement, together we are better, faster and stronger. 

Great question and thread! My own $.02 as an observer and former member of the developer tribe is that the change is coming but it’s slow. I went through the same thing with DBA’s in the early days of continuous integration. The world of the security practitioner is changing around them faster than they can adapt right now. Even so, there are plenty of real world examples where this is happening but we might not see critical mass for another couple of years.

Mark Miller hope this short story helps :)

  • No alternative text description for this image

Continuous everything needs continuous security at all the interface touch points from dev , stage , pre prod, prod etc and cannot be ignored. Else you call be creating continuous vulnerabilities in the name of continuous everything ....#devsecops #devops 

To view or add a comment, sign in

More articles by Mark Miller

  • Your Community Isn't Dead—Your Lurkers Are More Valuable Than You Think

    You've probably been part of a community project that gradually became orphaned. There's a pattern I've seen across…

    2 Comments
  • Exploring the LinkedIn Algorithm: Podcast

    In this episode of the DevSecOps Podcast, we’re going to go off script and explore the LinkedIn algorithm. I could tie…

    53 Comments
  • Deming | Goldratt | Kim - A DevOps Timeline

    You can listen to Gene Kim and Mark Miller discuss the Unicorn Project on the podcast at DevSecOps Days. Edwards Deming…

    1 Comment
  • Why do trust me? Seriously, why?

    Malcolm Gladwell has a new book coming out, "Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know".…

  • The Learning Culture: Insights into What Makes Companies Better

    I just watched a remarkable video. Gene Kim and John Willis talk with Dr.

    2 Comments
  • The Value of Value

    Scrolling through my LinkedIn feed this morning I realized that 99%, or more, of what I see has no value to me. None.

    3 Comments
  • Quantity is table stakes. Quality is the differentiator.

    I was with my 14 year old daughter during the New York Youth Symphony rehearsal today. While watching the rehearsal, I…

  • Dinosaurs vs Unicorns

    What's it like to start a DevSecOps initiative in most companies? Yep, I think the image says it all. You're going to…

  • Old habits and beliefs fail as our context shifts

    There are some good takeways from Peter Morville's book, Planning for Everything: The Design of Paths and Goals. This…

    1 Comment
  • Remember books? Yes, they're still here.

    Kevin Roose from the New York Times published a fascinating article that might have you looking in the mirror after…

    6 Comments

Others also viewed

Explore content categories