“Resistance to change is proportional to how much the future might be altered by any given act.” — Stephen King

Humans are naturally resistant to change. The fear of the unknown and loss of control can cripple attempts to innovate and modernize. This is often true when it comes to DevSecOps initiatives. Many people accept the need for a more integrated and automated approach to security, but concerns about security teams slowing teams down or hindering innovation hold many companies back from embracing it.

Meanwhile, the digital economy is becoming more competitive, talent is becoming harder and more expensive to acquire, and the cost of breaches — financially and on companies’ reputations — has skyrocketed. In this environment, the benefits of DevSecOps far outweigh the upfront costs and ongoing investment.

The goal with infrastructure as code (IaC) frameworks such as Terraform and CloudFormation is to make infrastructure provisioning more efficient. Through a combination of automation and either imperative or declarative configuration, IaC makes it easier to deploy the same environment consistently and repeatably.

IaC’s immutability and machine readability are huge advantages when it comes to building, deploying, and testing infrastructure. It allows for storing and versioning of infrastructure, making it easier to manage, collaborate, and audit. It also allows teams to test—and secure—infrastructure just as they would with any other code. But without the right approach, IaC can actually pose a disadvantage when it comes to security and compliance.