Enhance MuleSoft DevSecOps best practices to boost code security and efficiency while mastering improved coding practices
Is code quality and security a priority for your organization? It’s hard to imagine any company answering “no” to this critical question. But how do you effectively address these concerns? Drawing on over 15 years of experience with MuleSoft customers, we’ve observed two distinct approaches:
At one end of the spectrum, some companies, often with just a few developers, push to go live as quickly as possible. They prioritize rapid development and deployment, conducting only basic manual testing to check use cases before launching.
At the other end are organizations with advanced DevSecOps processes, including continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, rigorous quality and security standards, and integrated quality assurance (QA) and operations teams.
A one-size-fits-all strategy doesn’t apply. For smaller companies with limited development resources, it’s impractical to spend months crafting detailed DevSecOps processes. So, how can they maximize security and quality with minimal effort? This article from IBM shows the effectiveness of DevSecOps at various levels: DevSecOps at IBM
The answer lies in Static Application Security Testing (SAST), or automated code scans. This tool functions like an insightful coding partner, identifying issues during the development phase and offering solutions based on established coding standards. This not only obviates the need for creating coding standards from scratch but also eliminates the cumbersome process of manual code reviews, all at about 5% of the cost of hiring a developer. Falcon Scan exemplifies this approach.
SAST ensures protection against potential vulnerabilities that could arise from oversight or knowledge gaps. By integrating SAST into the development process and utilizing tools for automatic code scanning before deployment, you can be confident that the code on your server is free from new issues. However, challenges such as bypassing SAST checks or newly discovered vulnerabilities in dependencies (e.g., log4j) remain. Identifying and addressing these vulnerabilities is crucial for maintaining security.
Beyond the code itself, platform security is paramount. Have you implemented DevSecOps best practices for your APIs? Are your environments configured according to established policies for each business group? Ensure the efficiency of your applications by utilizing DevSecOps automation tools. Addressing these concerns necessitates Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) tools, such as Falcon Eye, to assess your server/platform setup against industry best practices and swiftly identify and rectify non-compliances
After ensuring the security of your code and platform, the next step is to monitor API performance. This is especially important for APIs under Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Falcon Pulse enables you to track uptime, response times, and receive alerts for performance issues, supporting your team in troubleshooting and maintaining service standards.
In conclusion, the Falcon suite offers a comprehensive set of DevSecOps tools designed to enhance the security and quality of your development processes, optimize your platform, and ensure API performance meets business expectations.
