There are many different technologies used to power a website or application, including servers, databases, and third-party apps—and these tools are often accessed and managed by different personnel in different environments at different times.
Consequently, infrastructure access management is a common pain point among software development teams. A poorly organized legacy access management system leads to severe internal inefficiencies, from slow approvals, to overly-complex onboarding processes, to data breaches.
To avoid workflow bottlenecks and data security risks, organizations across all industries are investing in advanced tools and processes that allow DevOps teams to identify users, grant access, control user permissions, and monitor activity within critical business systems—all from a centralized location. This is critical to embracing the Agile methodology, as it enables developers to effectively adapt to ever-changing business needs and customer expectations.
So what are the main factors that DevOps teams need to focus on when it comes to infrastructure access management? Approval systems, onboarding processes, data security, and credential management are the top priorities—and each of these domains can be elevated through modern DevOps tools and workflows. Let’s take a closer look at each.
Speeding up approvals
For 25% of organizations, developers must request access from four or more people before gaining access to critical business systems. As you can imagine, this inhibits productivity—in some cases more seriously than others. 50% of businesses report that the average access request takes hours, days, or even weeks to fulfill.
With a modern DevOps ecosystem, you can streamline much of the approval process, from granting access to new users, to establishing specific permissions for existing users. For example, access request notifications can be automated to help admins stay on top approvals, so developers don’t get stuck waiting to modify code, run tests, or push new code to the production stage.
Enhancing security and compliance
Maintaining a speedy approval process without putting sensitive data at risk can be challenging—especially for remote businesses with many systems across multiple environments. Healthcare companies, for example, must comply with HIPAA standards when storing and transmitting patient health information, adding yet another layer of complexity to the infrastructure access management problem.
These security issues are best solved through advanced DevOps tools and practices, now commonly referred to as DevSecOps. This branch of DevOps focuses on implementing automated processes that prevent cybercriminals from gaining access to sensitive data. For instance, a DecSecOps engineer may implement a feature that automatically updates keys, passwords, and certificates periodically. Or, if a data breach is detected, credentials and permissions can be automatically rotated or terminated immediately.
Streamlining the onboarding process
47% of businesses appear to struggle with onboarding new employees and contractors—another symptom of poor infrastructure access management.
Making sure that new developers have access to everything they need is critical to maximizing productivity in the long run. With DevOps, you can automate tasks associated with establishing new user permissions and training new developers on various environments, languages, frameworks, and so on.
Tracking credentials
As your business adds new tools, people, and processes to its ecosystem, access management grows increasingly complex—which is why 50% of companies claim to have trouble tracking user credentials across multiple systems.
From a DevOps perspective, the key here is to set up a centralized portal with an intuitive dashboard, where admins can quickly and easily find user credentials, as well as monitor user behavior. This helps to ensure that sensitive data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, that development teams don’t spend valuable time recovering lost passwords and keys, and that admins know exactly who is using what systems at any given time.
Get started with modern DevOps for your business
With a fast, smart, and secure infrastructure access management system, DevOps teams can work more collaboratively, embrace Agile practices, and truly optimize the software development lifecycle. But establishing a technological ecosystem that supports modern DevOps is challenging, as there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Every organization—depending on its unique goals and requirements—will require its own combination of tools and workflows.
By partnering with Codal, you’ll work with a global team of DevOps experts that’s built, tested, and maintained intelligent internal systems for businesses across all industries. With over thirteen years of experience, our award-winning team uses Agile methodologies, cutting-edge technologies, and data-driven designs to create fast, intuitive, and secure access management solutions that maximize DevOps efficiency and scalability.
Interested in learning more about how to solve common business challenges through DevOps? Get in touch with a member of our team today!
