Speed vs Security? In DevSecOps, You Can Have Both

The Age-Old Dilemma: Choosing Between Speed and Security 

Speed vs security has long been treated as an impossible choice: move fast and risk instability, or stay safe and fall behind. For DevOps, DevSecOps, and Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) leaders, that tension often plays out between the demand to ship updates quickly and the need to maintain airtight security and compliance. 

Data underscores the reality of this dilemma. A recent Synopsys survey revealed that over 80% of respondents experienced delays in delivery due to critical security issues. The Perforce 2024 State of Data Compliance and Security Report also found that 86% of organizations admit to allowing compliance exceptions in non-production environments, often because they fear slowing their developers down. 

But this "versus" mindset is now a relic of the past. Modern, unified infrastructure management makes it possible to achieve both speed and security. In this blog, you’ll learn how embracing a DevSecOps culture - one that embeds security into infrastructure from the start - increases deployment velocity without compromising security, while helping teams reduce cost and improve quality.   

Accelerate Development Speed Without Compromising Security 

Delivering infrastructure quickly is critical, but that can backfire if it's not also consistent or compliant. We explore four strategies teams use to accelerate delivery while embedding security standards directly into their workflows.  

Self-Service Automation 

Many teams rely on ticket-based workflows that slow down development and overwhelm operations. Waiting for environment access, approvals, or provisioning can delay delivery by days or weeks. 

By implementing reusable and secure self-service automation, operations teams can give developers and testers the ability to execute approved tasks on demand — no ticket queues, no wait times. Reliable guardrails are built in, allowing users to maintain velocity without risking misconfiguration or policy violations. 

These self-service workflows speed things up dramatically, automating and version-controlling everything from new environments to user access and system patches. And because they follow pre-approved, secure configurations, your teams can achieve velocity and consistency in deployment while driving down costs. 

AI Enhancements for Ease of Use  

Infrastructure-as-code gives teams powerful control, but it often requires deep knowledge and experience to use it effectively. That can limit progress when new engineers need help or senior staff are stretched thin. 

AI-assisted infrastructure tools bring ease of use into traditionally complex work. It allows users to interact with their infrastructure in plain language — asking questions, generating code, or triggering actions without deep knowledge of the underlying tool. That means junior engineers or developers can operate more independently with little risk. 

Seamless CI/CD Integration 

Teams moving quickly through continuous delivery pipelines often struggle to keep security and configuration in sync with application updates. If left unchecked, small issues can slip through the cracks and become costly problems post-release. 

Integrating infrastructure policies as code directly into CI/CD workflows ensures misconfigurations are flagged early — when they’re easier and much less costly to fix. This keeps releases on track and reduces the need for last-minute rollbacks or manual interventions. When security is woven in, you protect delivery timelines and end-product quality. 

Software Change Impact Analysis 

Environments are growing increasingly complex, and infrastructure changes made without context can trigger unforeseen ripple effects. Change impact analysis tools give teams visibility into how a proposed change might affect other systems or dependencies. That foresight helps avoid unplanned outages or regressions, especially when moving quickly. You don’t need to slow down for lengthy manual reviews when you can trust what’s coming next. 

With the right automation powering your infrastructure, speed and security work in tandem, giving you a competitive advantage through lower costs and higher quality. 

Strengthen Security Without Slowing Down Workflows 

Security and compliance efforts, such as long audit prep, reactive fixes, or manual enforcement, often become velocity bottlenecks. With the right approach, that model is reversed: security is built directly into infrastructure processes, making it automatic, continuous, and invisible to the user. Security doesn’t compete with speed; instead, it reinforces quality and helps keep costs low. 

Shift-Left Security 

Traditionally, security has been bolted on at the end of the delivery process, causing rework and inefficiency when vulnerabilities are discovered late. But teams can now build it in from the start. Encoding compliance rules directly into infrastructure definitions ensures that anything deployed automatically follows policy. Developers can launch secure new environments without waiting for reviews. 

Automated Baseline Enforcement 

After systems are deployed, configurations often drift due to manual changes or external tools, leading to silent non-compliance. Continuous drift remediation keeps systems secure post-deployment by automatically detecting and correcting deviations — such as unauthorized configuration changes or removed patches. That means less time spent on routine audits and greater confidence that systems remain aligned with baseline standards. 

Comprehensive Compliance Management 

Meeting compliance requirements can be resource-intensive and time-consuming, particularly when tools are fragmented and evidence is scattered. By using out-of-the-box content for robust hardening standards like CIS Benchmarks and DISA STIGs, teams can automate scanning, enforcement, and reporting — replacing annual audits with continuous compliance, real-time visibility, and auto-remediation. 

Consistent Security Enforcement 

Inconsistent security policy implementation across teams, platforms, and environments can create gaps, oversights, and errors. A unified security enforcement model applies security controls consistently across all platforms, eliminating the need for separate workflows. The result is scalable, repeatable security that supports compliance goals, delivers consistent quality updates, and cuts down on costly rework. 

Looking to accelerate deployment with secure automation? 

Read our white paper to see why self-service automation is vital to solving the speed vs security challenge. 

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Supporting Real-World Success: Puppet Customer Stories 

Organizations around the world have been using Perforce Puppet to break free from the speed vs security tradeoff, and the results speak for themselves. 

At DBS Bank, a leading financial services institution based in Singapore, Puppet powers self-service automation that significantly accelerated infrastructure provisioning. What took weeks can now be completed in days — and in some cases, minutes. They also reduced their security configuration team from 13 people to just three, without sacrificing quality. Puppet underpins their proprietary AppSys and SecureSys platforms, automating application provisioning and security compliance at scale across six countries. 

U.S. financial institution Fannie Mae, operating in one of the most highly regulated industries, turned to Puppet to speed up environment delivery. By automating infrastructure provisioning and unifying management across more than 11,000 nodes, deployment timelines were cut by at least 10 weeks. This saved $60 million USD over 18 months. Today, they use Puppet to enforce consistent configurations, reduce manual work, and give teams predictable, repeatable results. 

These examples show that speed and security can go hand in hand with the right tooling, resulting in higher quality and reduced costs. 

Break the Speed vs Security Tradeoff for Good 

The idea that you must choose between speed and security is no longer true. Puppet Enterprise Advanced is a powerful, intelligent platform that delivers unrivalled velocity and resilient server, network, and edge infrastructure — without the tradeoffs. It can help you automate infrastructure management, enforce compliance, and strengthen security while supporting continuous innovation. 

With Puppet Enterprise Advanced, you get: 

• Self-service automation and CI/CD integration for faster delivery
• Continuous policy enforcement for stronger security
• Audit-ready infrastructure for simpler compliance 

Ready to see how speed and security can work together? Learn more about Puppet Enterprise Advanced or request a demo. 

 Learn More About Puppet Enterprise Advanced 

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