Cybersecurity solutions
provider Trend
Micro Incorporated has released research results that show, despite the
enterprise benefits assured by adopting a DevOps culture, the majority of IT leaders polled
believe communication between IT security and software development must improve
greatly to achieve success.
Led
by independent research specialist Vanson Bourne, the company surveyed the attitudes toward DevOps held by
1,310 IT decision makers from within both enterprise
and SMB organisations across the globe. Those surveyed are at various stages of
the DevOps implementation as they integrate their teams, application development, information technology
operations and security, to shorten and secure the development lifecycle.
While
three-quarters (74%) claimed such initiatives had become more important over
the past year, an even higher percentage argued that communication within the
IT department needed to improve.
Some 89% said software development
and IT security teams needed to be in closer contact, while 77% said the same
for developers, security and operations. A third (34%) claimed that these
siloes are making it harder to create a DevOps culture in the organisation.
“History
of software development shows that the biggest and best process improvements
never happen quickly due to the most valuable variable, people, who have
existing behavioural patterns and cultural components,” said Steve Quane, executive vice president of network defense and hybrid
cloud security for Trend Micro. “Organisations implementing a DevOps
structure are going in a strong direction, but security cannot be forgotten
during this transition.”
Respondents
indicated the best ways to drive this cultural change include: fostering
greater integration between teams (61%); setting common goals (58%); and
sharing learning experiences across teams (50%). Yet over 78% of IT decision
makers said improvement is needed in these areas.
Only a third (33%) of respondents
said DevOps is a shared responsibility between software development and IT
operations, which is another indication of the current communication breakdown
between teams. It appears that each department feels responsibility or
ownership to lead these projects.
Part of the challenge is believed to
be — despite enthusiasm for DevOps, which has seen 81% of organisations already
implement or currently work on projects — nearly half of respondents (46%) have
only partially developed their DevOps strategy. IT
leaders polled confirmed that enhancing IT security is more of a priority (46%)
in DevOps than any other factor.
Quane
continued by saying, “Regardless of where an organisation is in their journey,
there are new tools that bake security into the development process while
automating rapid deployment of security at the same time as reducing risk and
ensuring compliance.”
“When we relate these findings within an African context two things stand out, firstly many of our customers are still in the infancy of their cloud journey and secondly, African customers are exceptionally security conscious. What this means is that DevOps is a critical part of their business, but security is more important. Until the link between these teams is firmed up we will continue to see a disconnect and the length of time developers take to deliver on applications will continue to suffer,” says Indi Siriniwasa, VP of Trend Micro Sub-Saharan Africa.
