Security drives DevOps platform adoption

Nearly three-quarters of respondents to a new survey have adopted -- or plan to adopt within a year -- a DevOps platform in order to meet rising industry expectations around security, compliance, toolchain consolidation, and faster software delivery.

The study from GitLab shows security has overtaken even cloud computing as the number one investment area across DevOps teams at global organizations.

Toolchain consolidation is also a high-priority focus, with 69 percent of respondents wanting to consolidate their toolchains due to challenges with monitoring, development delays, and negative impact on developer experience.

"Rapid deployment and speed-to-market are some of the biggest differentiators in today's business landscape. This often comes at the cost of security -- a major concern across technology, business and government leaders -- but it doesn't have to," says Johnathan Hunt, VP of security at GitLab. "Streamlined toolchains and standardized, transparent processes help organizations keep security and compliance at the core of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), rather than an afterthought."

Over half of respondents say that security is a performance metric for developers within their organizations, however, 50 percent of security professionals report that developers are failing to identify security issues – to the tune of 75 percent of vulnerabilities.

Development, security, and operations teams broadly note better security as a key advantage to using a DevOps platform. The survey data also demonstrates that a commitment to security is a driving force for many decision-makers when choosing a DevOps platform or other tools. Additionally, investing in a single platform allows practitioners to take advantage of more features with fewer tools.

Although 60 percent of developers surveyed say they are releasing code faster than before, toolchain sprawl is impacting speed and productivity, taking valuable time away from developers. Nearly 40 percent of developers are spending between one-quarter and one-half of their time on maintaining or integrating complex toolchains -- more than double the percentage from 2021.

"The last year marked a significant turning point in the adoption of DevOps tools, platforms, and processes. In 2022, we're seeing the fruits of those efforts," says David DeSanto, VP of product at GitLab. "Despite hurdles presented by the ongoing pandemic, including cultural shifts, all remote and hybrid team collaboration, and challenges surrounding hiring and retention, teams are releasing new applications faster than ever. We’ll see an ongoing focus on speed, security, and compliance as organizations continue to consolidate their DevOps toolchains and processes."

You can get the full report from the GitLab site.

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