2024 is shaping up to be the year of DevSecOps, where more organizations realize the full potential of blending development, security, and operations through the adoption of a comprehensive platform. This is when teams will move beyond using just source code management (SCM) and tap into all the AI-powered features available across the software development lifecycle (SDLC), delivering better, more secure software faster. But first organizations have to knock down the blockers that can get in the way of successful DevSecOps adoption.
In talking to customers at organizations of all sizes, I've heard three main blockers:
- The potential of AI is believable, but right now it seems limited to code creation and that has limited impact as there is more to the SDLC.
- A platform seems like a great idea, but forcing my development, security, and operations team to give up their preferred tools all at once will undoubtedly cause a revolt. Yet, without everyone on the same platform, the investment is hard to justify.
- Regulations and compliance makes it difficult to leverage a DevSecOps SaaS solution, and being on a multi-tenant solution is a non-starter for us as we are in a highly regulated industry. However, the overhead of self-hosting a DevSecOps platform is becoming untenable at our scale.
While legitimate concerns, these blockers can be eliminated by combining DevSecOps practices and a platform approach. "Making sure that we spend our money wisely is very, very important. GitLab allowed us to reduce our costs and centralize our work in one place. It’s been money well spent," says Andy Chow, Technology Chief of Staff at global fintech company Airwallex.
Let's dig deeper into each blocker and see how it is resolved with a DevSecOps platform.
AI is not limited: It is having real impact across the SDLC
We know that AI is already improving the developer experience but there is so much more that AI can do across the entire SDLC. With AI, organizations can unburden development, security, and operations teams from tedious tasks by taking advantage of the efficiencies that AI provides. For instance, users can access summaries of comments in merge requests, have tests generated, refactor sections of code, and perform other time-saving actions.
That's why with GitLab Duo, our suite of AI-powered workflows, we focus on more than just code creation — after all, code creation only accounts for 25% of a developer's time. There is so much more that happens in the SDLC where AI can add efficiency. For instance, development, security, and operations teams that use AI-powered capabilities, such as Vulnerability Remediation and Root Cause Analysis, share that they can find and resolve vulnerabilities earlier and identify CI/CD pipeline failures faster and in a more collaborative manner.
Forget one-size-fits all, migrate your way
Realizing the benefit of a DevSecOps platform is not a one-size-fits-all. You can customize your deployment to fit your organization's needs and where you are in your digital transformation journey — choosing one team at a time to adopt the platform or a full cutover. I have advice, though: Commit to using more than just source code management. A DevSecOps platform is a robust solution that includes enterprise agile planning, CI/CD, security and compliance, value stream analytics, and more. Also, make sure that as you deploy your platform, your users agree to get familiar with its range of capabilities — and not still maintain a complex toolchain.
The way to extract the most ROI and satisfaction from your migration is to show users how to get the functionality they had in their other tools from within the DevSecOps platform. To that end, we've increased our resources to support you. From in-depth tutorials to clear reference architectures, we have a vast library of content (including videos) for you to draw upon to help your users acclimate to and thrive in the DevSecOps environment.
We've also made it easier to onboarding teams, with capabilities like remote development environments, enabling organizations to reduce adoption friction. In fact, as more teams within your organization adopt GitLab, consider expanding access for other critical functions that contribute to delivering software value such as Finance, Legal, and Marketing teams. The power of a DevSecOps platform is giving everyone visibility into the SDLC which drives better collaboration, improves planning, reduces security risk, improves team velocity, and leads to faster time-to-value. This means your teams are happier and so are the users of the applications you build, secure, and deploy using GitLab.
Read how the U.S. Navy's Black Pearl sped up onboarding using GitLab.
Note: GitLab doesn't have to be introduced to the organization by the development team. For instance, if security teams want vulnerabilities identified and mitigated earlier in the lifecycle or increased compliance via security scanning, they can recommend that developers use the DevSecOps platform. Read how U.K. retailer Dunelm made this happen.
Multi-tenancy is just one option; single-tenancy can address regulatory requirements
Keeping software up-to-date and secure while maintaining compliance with strict regulations can make self-hosting a challenge. In June 2023, we launched GitLab Dedicated, our single-tenant SaaS solution, into general availability to address the needs of organizations in highly regulated industries like finance and healthcare, and in highly regulated geographies such as the European Union. GitLab Dedicated provides the secure environment organizations need for regulatory compliance, including control over data residency and isolation, while removing the overhead of self-hosting.
Dedicated customers are upgraded automatically every month, which means they have all of the benefits without the administration overhead. Furthermore, GitLab Dedicated comes with GitLab Ultimate, enabling organizations to ship secure software faster with built-in compliance visibility and controls as well as advanced security scanning capabilities.
Learn the origins of GitLab Dedicated and how it has grown into the solution highly regulated organizations need.
Try GitLab today
As you proceed with your software development roadmap for 2024 (and beyond), consider what an AI-powered DevSecOps platform could do for your organization. Also keep an eye on our Direction page to learn about what’s coming next and our monthly release posts to learn about the latest and greatest available.
Start your trial of GitLab Duo Pro or GitLab Ultimate for free today.
