Agility is all-important in enterprises these days, specifically for product development. While DevOps has been around for years, several enterprises are shifting towards DevSecOps to marry agile development with security.
Cisco’s AppDynamics reports that today, the DevSecOps model has already been adopted by 38% of relevant organizations, while another 35% say they have plans in place to implement it by the end of next year.
While DevSecOps is a promising framework, companies are still figuring out the best method of implementing it. Secrets and credential sprawl are major hurdles when adapting to DevSecOps. The modern product development environment is a complex mesh of microservices, cloud containers, and automated processing pinging each other for data.
A recent ESG study found that 92% of cyber and IT pros at midmarket to enterprise companies see workload identities as “critical” or “very important” cyber risks.
Agile development values quick deployment, which can seem at times to be at odds with security principles. Developers need agile secrets management tools to adhere to security needs while delivering code at a fast pace.
Emerging as a go-to tool in the DevSecOps ecosystem, Akeyless offers a solution that allows coders to build products without the dangers of mismanaged credentials for both human and machine identities. It supports centralized identity management in an extremely secure environment, with just-in-time generation of ephemeral credentials that can be injected into code on a dynamic basis. The platform is built to allow developers to continue working seamlessly in the containerized DevOps environment, but in a manner that adheres to strict Zero Trust standards.
Let’s take a deeper dive into a few key reasons why Akeyless is such an effective solution to DevSecOps issues in the enterprise.
Fully SaaS-based
Secrets management isn’t a unique offering in the modern cybersecurity arena. Companies use a wide range of security information and event management (SIEM) solutions to validate credentials and compartmentalize their secrets. The bigger issue is infrastructure architecture and the workflows needed to maintain it.
For instance, popular open-source secrets vaults need installation and regular instance maintenance to work properly. Security teams must spend time configuring settings and integrating these solutions with the rest of their tech stack as it evolves. Akeyless is distinct in that it works as a fully scalable SaaS platform. For a single monthly payment, a company can instantly upgrade its secrets management framework and leverage its API-based architecture to connect systems.
The result is a seamless onboarding and scaling experience for cost-efficient secrets management workflows. Akeyless SDKs offer a high degree of customization should an organization wish to tailor the platform to suit its needs. The platform also comes as a browser extension, helping enterprises use the solution in several environments.
This API-based approach is critical to getting enterprises up to speed quickly and reducing time spent on maintenance and upgrades. As the infrastructure is handled on Akeyless, security teams can focus on their sprint schedules and automate their management of secrets.
Automated, dynamic, JIT credentials
Automation is one of Akeyless’s strongest features. The platform doesn’t just secure secrets but also automates several portions of the credential management workflow. Other secrets vaults offer industry-standard protection but lack the value addition that automation brings.
For instance, a security professional must routinely issue, verify, and validate the credentials of entities entering the company’s systems. Given the rise of machines accessing data, manual workflows cannot keep pace. Thus, most security teams create credentials that expire long after access is theoretically needed.
This situation creates a potential attack vector, with malicious actors using those non-expired, dormant credentials to infiltrate a system. Akeyless marries Zero Trust and DevSecOps principles through its novel just-in-time (JIT) credential management feature.
Security admins can create credentials and set them to activate and expire only during windows when access is needed, so there’s no need to worry about tracking credentials that require deactivation. Akeyless automates that part of the workflow, saving security admins considerable time.
Whether renewing credentials or monitoring usage, Akeyless automates processes at every step, giving security admins more time to focus on monitoring emerging threats and problematic usage patterns.
Infrastructure designed to resist penetration
The rise of cloud servers has led to many CSPs offering their own proprietary secrets managers. While these solutions seem ideal on the surface, they pose several problems to the modern enterprise.
Firstly, the enterprise does not own the keys to its vaults, the CSP does. Thus, the enterprise’s network and secrets are open to compromise at any moment, leaving them vulnerable and unable to mitigate the risk. HSM-based secrets management is often presented as foolproof by CSPs, while it is anything but.
Akeyless’s patent-pending technology is disrupting how companies think about managing their secrets. The key to its solution lies in its Distributed Fragments Cryptography (DFC) technology. DFC creates ephemeral, fragmented keys that are almost impossible to compromise. DFC injects recompiled key fragments only when and where the access is needed.
Essentially, Akeyless never has access to an entire key, which adheres to Zero Trust principles at all times, giving organizations more control over system access and ensuring that organizations are the sole owners of their secrets.
This unique solution eliminates the “secret zero” issue. Secret zero occurs when companies protect every secret with a password and secure that password with another key. Creating a string of keys only ensures that a company’s secrets depend on a single secret being breached, called the secret zero problem. DFC removes the secret zero from the equation by fragmenting critical secrets, rendering them almost impossible to compromise.
Agility in security is the need of the hour
DevSecOps is perhaps the best practice for organizations looking to build agile security postures. However, product developers and security teams need the right tools to realize this goal.
Akeyless’s API-based SaaS approach, advanced cryptography solutions, and agile automation make it the best platform for enterprises looking to upgrade their security stack while maintaining agile product release schedules.
About Author: Akeyless' unique combination of innovative technology and cloud-native architecture, enables enterprises to fastly secure DevOps, cloud workloads, and legacy environments, while meeting compliance and regulations.
