Security can no longer live at the end of the pipeline anymore. DevOps streamlines software delivery through automation and tight collaboration between development and operations teams. DevSecOps builds on that by wiring security into every stage so risks are addressed early and ownership is shared across teams.
| Aspect | DevOps | DevSecOps |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | To increase delivery speed, efficiency, and reliability by aligning development and operations around the same workflows and outcomes. | To ship software quickly and safely by making security a first-class, shared responsibility for developers, operations, and security specialists. |
| Focus | DevOps focuses on automation plus Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) to shorten the SDLC, reduce handoffs, and make releases predictable. | DevSecOps shifts security to the left, meaning it is integrated earlier in the development lifecycle instead of being postponed until the final stages. This is achieved through automated practices — such as dependency and container scanning, threat modeling, and secrets management — and approaches like policy-as-code, which embeds security rules directly into the pipeline. This way, issues like vulnerable libraries, misconfigurations, and hard-coded secrets are caught automatically as code progresses from development through build and testing to deployment. |
| Security | With DevOps, security is important, but it is not always present from the start. Reviews and checks often appear late in testing or after release, when fixes are slower and more expensive. | In DevSecOps, security is built-in rather than bolted on. Controls, testing, and review run from planning through deployment and maintenance, not as a separate phase. |
Key Differences Summarized
Integration of Security
Security is usually considered a distinct phase in DevOps. In DevSecOps, security is integrated from the beginning and continues through planning, building, deployment, and maintenance.
Timing
DevSecOps identifies vulnerabilities early in the build, whereas DevOps teams may discover vulnerabilities during testing or post-deployment.
Responsibility
DevSecOps does not replace DevOps. Instead, it complements it by extending collaboration between developers, operations, and security teams, supported by automation and reinforced with more integrated and resilient security practices.
Conclusion
DevOps speeds up delivery, while DevSecOps builds on top of it by embedding security into every step of the software development lifecycle — from planning and coding through testing, deployment, and ongoing maintenance. To build scalable and secure pipelines for your business, partner with IT Craft as your DevOps development company.
