Top 9 DevSecOps Trends for 2024

As software continues to fuel the global economy, ensuring its security is not a choice but a necessity. A Gartner report predicts that by 2025, cyber attackers will have weaponized operational technology (OT) environments to harm or even kill humans successfully. However, DevSecOps is set to rise to the challenge in 2024, armed with transformative trends that strengthen resilience and security. Automation, infrastructure as code, and observability are revolutionizing how organizations approach security and development. This blog delves into the DevSecOps trends of the future, empowering businesses to forge a secure and innovative path in an increasingly interconnected world.

DevSecOps 2024

Here’s what 2024 holds for DevSecOps:

1. Leveraging automation for DevSecOps innovation: DevSecOps is transforming with automation, ML, and AI, enhancing efficiency, streamlining processes, and bolstering security practices. Automated testing and predictive security analysis enable swift vulnerability addressing, intelligent decision-making, and proactive problem-solving, ensuring secure, high-quality software. Embracing these trends gives DevSecOps a competitive edge, freeing human resources for innovation and strategic initiatives.
2. Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Infrastructure as Code (IaC) addresses challenges in traditional IT management by automating tasks through configuration files. With the constant growth of IT components and cloud computing, IaC provides an efficient solution, relieving engineers from manual upkeep. This will help with time-saving, enabling a focus on innovation. IaC maximizes DevSecOps benefits, streamlines processes, and optimizes resource allocation for enhanced IT infrastructure management.
3. Intelligent remediation - proactive defense: Businesses are prioritizing remediation in the face of rising cyber threats, focusing on continuous monitoring and prompt action. They will emphasize a proactive, intelligent, and automated approach, fully integrated into their processes. This involves installing security patches to firmware and systems, mitigating risks, and preventing vulnerabilities. As cyber threats evolve, relying solely on traditional best practices is deemed insufficient; automation is crucial for effectively countering dynamic threats in 2024.
4. Next-level CI/CD automation: In 2024, continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) are expected to advance, aiming to benefit businesses more effectively. Traditional CI/CD processes, involving rebuilding and extensive testing, are often time-consuming and resource-intensive. The anticipated evolution includes a surge in automation techniques, integrating automated testing at every pipeline stage. This approach aims to enhance code deployment efficiency, allowing teams to implement additional quality measures without hindering the process. Automation deployments ensure comprehensive testing, reducing development and deployment time and facilitating faster issue resolution for developers.
5. Low-code: Organizations are increasingly adopting the Low-code DevOps approach to enhance software development agility, providing a competitive edge. This strategy empowers organizations to design applications without requiring extensive coding expertise, enabling non-technical professionals to participate in the development process actively. With intuitive visual interfaces, individuals can efficiently manage development phases by dragging and dropping elements, revolutionizing traditional approaches. The user-friendly nature of low-code is expected to experience a significant surge in adoption in 2024, accelerating development and deployment.
6. More of AI and ML: AI and ML – the most talked about duo, have transformed data access and advanced CI/CD pipelines. In 2024, their impact is set to optimize resource allocation and improve quality assurance in development processes. Organizations leveraging AI/ML for resource allocation can provide on-demand models, allocating resources based on real-time business objectives. Automation of repetitive tasks, including app validation, enhances efficiency. In DevOps, AI/ML will expand in automated testing, continuous deployment, and monitoring, streamlining workflows and elevating software development efficiency. AI-powered testing tools address real-time issues, prevent deployment failures, and enhance application performance, reducing manual effort and elevating software quality.
7. Serverless and cloud usage to further expand: Serverless and cloud-based solutions will witness increased popularity, driven by their economic advantages. Leaders recognize the scalability and cost-effectiveness of serverless development, benefiting from economies of scale. Cloud models offer convenience, lower costs, and support globalized work patterns, with containerization and micro-services enhancing adaptability. This shift will allow developers to enjoy reliability and scalability without solely relying on their server connectivity, providing flexible, reliable, and scalable application solutions. 
8. Security-first mindset: Developers will prioritize open-source code security, adopting a DevSecOps mindset amid growing security concerns. The shift involves committed SDLC security patching and a prevention-first approach, often integrating Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP). Embracing security from development to production on a unified platform enables proactive issue resolution. This approach ensures tailored security for each project while facilitating faster roll-outs. The rise in open-source software usage enhances visibility and transparency in DevSecOps practices.
9. Increased efforts on observability: DevOps teams will intensify their focus on observability to optimize application quality and performance. They gain deeper insights into real-time application behaviour by prioritizing technologies like distributed tracing and log analysis. Distributed tracing tracks requests through a distributed system, identifying bottlenecks, while log analysis helps pinpoint root causes and make targeted improvements. Proactively addressing issues ensures consistent value delivery to end-users, emphasizing the critical role of observability in achieving application reliability and stability.

Start adapting today!

As agile and DevOps practices continue to expand, coupled with the ever-increasing importance of software security, the evolution of DevSecOps is inevitable. In 2024, we can expect to witness the emergence of novel tools, refined processes, and best practices designed to seamlessly incorporate security into the software development process. Embracing these developments will empower organizations to deliver software that is not only secure and reliable but also produced at a rapid pace and capable of scaling efficiently in response to changing demands. Staying on top of these evolving trends will undoubtedly position businesses to thrive in a rapidly changing technological landscape while maintaining the highest levels of security. Are you looking to strengthen your DevSecOps process? Write to our DevSecOps experts at contact@opcito.com to ensure you're ready to take on 2024.