RegScale named a Sample Vendor for DevOps Continuous Compliance Automation category in the Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Agile and DevOps, 2024 report!

We are excited to announce that RegScale has been recognized in the Gartner® Hype Cylce™ for Agile and DevOps, 2024 report in the DevOps Continuous Compliance Automation category – for the second year in a row! This report, published on August 5, 2024, by Keith Mann, Manjunath Bhat, and Nabeeha Ahmed, highlights the innovations shaping modern software engineering practices and the importance of continuous improvement in Agile and DevOps environments.

Harnessing Agile and DevOps for Enhanced Software Delivery

Every organization nowadays relies heavily on Agile and DevOps practices to continuously deliver valuable software. Central to these practices are the principles of continuous improvement, learning, and innovation. While Agile and DevOps are well-established, new tools, technical procedures, and human-centric approaches continue to emerge.  

Despite their importance, achieving uniform Agile and DevOps maturity across all teams can be challenging. Software engineering leaders must nurture their most advanced teams while supporting the growth of less mature teams. Each team faces unique challenges, necessitating tailored guidance and the introduction of innovations suited to specific needs. Leaders should recognize the value of innovations that help emerging teams progress, even if they appear less cutting-edge, to enhance the organization’s overall capabilities.

The Critical Role of Continuous Compliance Automation in DevOps

As organizations adopt Agile, DevOps, DevSecOps, and platform engineering practices, demonstrating compliance requirements across workflows can become complex. We believe that RegScale’s mention in the DevOps Continuous Compliance Automation (DCCA) category highlights our commitment to addressing these challenges. Our Continuous Controls Monitoring (CCM) platform enforces guardrails, identifies policy gaps, and audits security and compliance throughout the product and platform delivery life cycles and CI/CD pipeline. 

In addition, the complexities of regulatory requirements now extend beyond traditional financial and privacy mandates to include cybersecurity and government regulations. DevOps continuous compliance automation tools are essential for helping organizations seamlessly meet these diverse regulatory requirements. Read more to understand how they help support these requirements.

Key Factors Fueling Adoption

The increasing number of regulatory obligations and stricter reporting requirements highlight the need for automating compliance. Automated testing of compliance activities enhances developer efficiency and reduces the risk of audit failures. The proliferation of multiple DevOps toolchains necessitates compliance insights and controls across all initiatives. Additionally, as cloud-native application architectures and development models become more prevalent, integrating compliance into the toolchain becomes more feasible and common.

Overcoming Challenges in Implementing Compliance Automation

While the benefits of DevOps continuous compliance automation are clear, implementing it presents challenges. One common issue is the failure to engage compliance and security subject matter experts early in the development life cycle, leading to misunderstandings of policies and ineffective implementation. DCCA tools also require a formal, change-controlled, secure DevOps toolchain for effective auditing. 
 
Inconsistent ruleset understanding and implementation can hinder DCCA effectiveness as well. Failing to involve organizational compliance teams consistently in the implementation process can lead to suboptimal outcomes. Additionally, assuming that DCCA alone ensures compliance without additional efforts poses a significant business risk. 

User Recommendations by Gartner for Successful Adoption of DevOps Continuous Compliance Automation 

To fully leverage the benefits of DevOps Continuous Compliance Automation, Gartner recommends organizations to:

• “Collaborate on design, implementation, and ongoing strategy with key stakeholders, including internal audit, compliance, and security. 
• Adhere to compliance, governance, and security requirements while creating a leaner operating environment. 
• Implement a ’shift-left’ approach to ensure compliance controls and evidentiary data are understood and applied earlier in the development process. 
• Implement automated compliance checks at every phase of the pipeline, demonstrating a ’shift-secure’ approach. 
• Provide a continuous approach to prevent, detect, and correct audit failures, and remove manual reporting activities. 
• Enable efficient compliance policy checking to measure benchmarks, perform assessments, and report on compliance policy controls.” 

By implementing these strategies organizations can maximize the benefits of automation to enhance their Agile and DevOps practices while ensuring continuous compliance with ever-evolving regulations. 

We believe RegScale’s inclusion in the Gartner  Hype Cycle for Agile and DevOps, 2024 underscores our dedication to providing organizations with innovative compliance automation solutions. We remain committed to helping our clients navigate the complex regulatory landscape, enabling them to focus on innovation and growth. As the industry evolves, we will continue to support our clients in achieving their compliance goals and advancing their software delivery capabilities. 

Ready to gain extreme automation in your DevOps processes? Schedule a demo with RegScale to learn how you can shift-left security by leveraging RegScale’s compliance as code/OSCAL-native platform (Open Security Controls Assessment Language) to automate every control lifecycle phase. Start securing from code to cloud alongside other organizations that navigate the complexities of modern compliance landscapes.

Gartner subscribers can access the full report:

Gartner, Hype Cycle for Agile and DevOps, 2024, Keith Mann, Manjunath Bhat, Nabeeha Ahmed 5 August 2024 
*Gartner Methodologies, Gartner Hype Cycle 

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