What SecOps Teams Can Expect in 2022 – InApps Technology 2022

Traditionally, most organizations have had siloed departments, wherein the activities of teams are highly separated and the objectives within organizational structures divided. This operational methodology has brought about friction, especially within the IT department, when developers and ITOps lack collaboration. In an attempt to streamline IT operations and reduce this friction, most IT managers are adopting new methodologies such as SecOps, DevOps, and DevSecOps to promote process integration and increase collaboration between departments.

DevSecOps is a portmanteau of two methodologies — SecOps and DevOps — combining IT operations, IT security and development teams into a synchronized working process. The goal of DevSecOps is to prioritize security and operations compliance by ensuring that the critical vulnerabilities of development are remediated through an integrated approach championed by the associated teams.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, there has been a shift in digitization methodologies and the adoption of emerging technologies into the new normal work processes. Most companies have taken it upon themselves to make sure that their IT departments and operations are more agile and that their systems are seamlessly thriving even with the shift to remote work.

There are still many untapped opportunities in the DevSecOps movement with the potential to streamline the infrastructure, automation, security and technical management of most companies in the coming years. This article will explore some of the emerging trends in cybersecurity that SecOps teams should look out for in 2022, as well as how they can best leverage their ecosystems to enjoy digitization success in DevSecOps.

1. Transition from Monolith to Microservices

With the rising popularity of DevOps, 2022 will see an increase in the move from monolithic architectures to microservices. With containerization, instead of being deployed as a single file, services are decomposed and divided into a set of loosely coupled services to ensure that they are independent and easy to maintain. SecOps teams should expect to have to follow a well-defined way of monitoring applications, since these services are deployed independently and must be maintained separately  to improve observability and maintenance. This way, smaller teams can easily manage microservices and troubleshoot errors.

2. Increased Cloud Adoption

With the ongoing pandemic and the massive shift to remote work, most organizations have started to do away with traditional data centers. This is because the network operations team is no longer based in a physical office and therefore cannot monitor the server rooms continuously. With teams working remotely, there is an increased demand for team members to collaborate closely through continuous development and continuous deployment. To be able to seamlessly build, test, monitor and continuously improve applications throughout the software development lifecycle, DevSecOps teams will need to use collaboration tools through the cloud.

3. Containerization

It is impossible to ignore the influence and popularity of containerization in the ongoing development of DevOps and SecOps. The importance of directly integrating container tools such as Kubernetes and Docker cannot be overstated, especially when we talk about improving DevSecOps processes. Containerization has become a crucial part of the process, because it centralizes infrastructure control and simplifies deployment through simplified automation.

4. AI and ML

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are becoming increasingly essential for enterprises that want to remain competitive in the marketplace. That’s because these technologies allow them to leverage backend data from their systems and operations to make insightful and smart business decisions.

AI and ML will greatly increase the success of DevSecOps in 2022 by enabling the automation of operations, improved data analytics and the provision of the right cloud native toolchains that generate data for actionable technology. Most enterprises will achieve enhanced security, observability, and improved productivity through AI and ML.

SOC teams should expect to see enhanced problem-solving techniques through the use of AI and ML, including improvements to IT operations, operation analytics and security checks, as well as predictive analysis and faster monitoring capabilities. Through AI, SecOps teams will be able to easily track security threats and fortify their defenses to combat the attack before the damage is done. AI will also improve operational processes in general, by prioritizing the end-user experience.

5. Cybersecurity Attacks and Increased Vulnerabilities

To address some of the gaps that exist between security, development and operations teams, businesses need to prioritize operational security through collaboration. Though they should maintain a level of independence, SecOps and DevOps teams will have to work together to ensure common visibility into IT operations and development pipelines to integrate processes and implement remediation strategies in case of an attack.

The pandemic has brought about a change in the work environment as well as the dynamics of operations within an organization, which has, in turn, increased the risk of cyberattacks. Remote employees are in constant danger of encountering sophisticated ransomware attacks that could easily take control of the company network through weaker links.

The surface area for cyberattacks is predicted to continue to increase in 2022; thus, SecOps teams need to stay vigilant and focus on improving cybersecurity. Data privacy and data protection will continue to be a major concern, especially with the proliferation of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies within IT operations and the management toolchain.

Stay Ahead of Cybersecurity Future Trends

As the industry moves toward increasing digitization and the continuous adoption of DevSecOps, organizations that take advantage of any of the above trends in 2022 will realize huge benefits. When an organization streamlines its DevOps pipelines and increases security and compliance, it will see fewer cybersecurity breaches, spend less money on risk and compliance issues, and improve efficiency and collaboration between the security, development and operations teams.

InApps Technology is a wholly owned subsidiary of Insight Partners, an investor in the following companies mentioned in this article: Torq, Docker.

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