Historically, DevOps and SecOps teams have operated separately, each with its own priorities. But with AI and agentic security evolving, the gap between them is narrowing. This piece explores why these teams were traditionally siloed, how advancements in AI security are aligning their goals, and whether we’re heading toward a future where the distinction disappears entirely.

The Traditional Divide and its Reasoning

DevOps and SecOps have traditionally worked in separate silos due to differing priorities. DevOps focuses on speed and deployment, while SecOps prioritizes security and compliance. This has often caused friction, making collaboration difficult. Here’s why this divide has persisted:

Speed vs. Security

DevOps teams are focused on pushing new features as fast as possible. They have pressure from management to deliver, and security is usually not seen as their main priority. You will sometimes see backlogs full of unresolved bugs, so expecting security to be at the top of the list isn’t realistic. SecOps, on the other hand, prioritizes protection, which can sometimes slow things down. This creates friction between the two teams, with security being looked at as a blocker.

Slightly Different Skillsets

DevOps and SecOps might sound similar, but they actually deal with different things. DevOps engineers specialize in CI/CD, infrastructure, cloud automation, and system stability. SecOps is all about threat detection, compliance, vulnerability management, and security tooling. While both might use scripting languages and automation, their knowledge bases don’t fully overlap. A DevOps engineer and a SecOps engineer won’t necessarily have the same skillset, even if they both understand CI/CD pipelines.

How Management Sees it

From a business perspective, DevOps is seen as something that delivers value, new platform releases, updates, and improvements. Security, on the other hand, is often viewed as a cost center, something that needs to exist but doesn’t directly drive profit.

Different Toolsets

DevOps and SecOps use slightly different sets of tools, making integration somewhat difficult, although sometimes there might be an overlap. DevOps primarily works with automation tools like Jenkins, Kubernetes, and Terraform, while SecOps relies on SIEM systems, EDRs, and scanners. Because these tools aren’t necessarily designed to work together out of the box, integrating security into DevOps workflows isn’t always straightforward.

Compliance Bottlenecks

Regulatory requirements force security teams to act as gatekeepers, which slows down DevOps workflows. Security has to ensure compliance with frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2, which means more checks and approvals. This creates a natural tension. DevOps wants to move fast, while SecOps is responsible for making sure nothing slips through the cracks.

Why This Divide No Longer Makes Sense

The historical separation between DevOps and SecOps was, and still is to some extent, rooted in practical constraints: competing priorities, mismatched tools, and organizational inertia. But today, the risks of maintaining these silos far outweigh the reasons for their existence.

AI and Agentic Security Make Integration Easier

Technology is changing this dynamic, whether organizations realize it or not. AI and agentic security are making it possible for security steps to be integrated directly into DevOps workflows without requiring deep security expertise. To give you an example, a DevOps engineer deploying an EC2 instance can now just add a step in their workflow to automatically scan security configuration settings before deployment. This means security can be built in without SecOps having to manually intervene every time.

Security is Moving Earlier in the Dev Cycle

Modern security is pushing for a “shift left” mentality - integrating security checks earlier in development rather than waiting until the end. This reduces the need for security teams to step in at the last minute and block releases. By embedding security earlier in the process, teams avoid delays caused by last-minute security findings. Management will also appreciate this approach, since it minimizes release disruptions and speeds up overall development cycles.

Cost and Efficiency

If DevOps teams get used to implementing basic security steps themselves, SecOps oversight becomes less necessary. Instead of manually reviewing every deployment, security teams can focus on edge cases and high-priority threats. This saves time and money because SecOps doesn’t have to constantly check routine security tasks that can now be automated.

Cloud Platforms Are Embedding Security

Cloud-native platforms are already recognizing the need for built-in security. Many platforms now include automated alerts for vulnerabilities and best-practice enforcement. This means DevOps teams are getting security feedback in real-time without needing to go through SecOps every time.

Faster Incident Response

If SecOps and DevOps are more integrated, they can respond to security incidents much faster. If an issue arises in production, a more collaborative team will already have the context needed to troubleshoot quickly. Instead of SecOps coming in cold and trying to figure out an unfamiliar system, they’ll already have familiarity with the deployment and codebase, making response times much faster.

AI – The End of DevOps vs. SecOps?

The reality is that DevOps and SecOps are merging, both from a technological perspective and a cultural one. Agentic security makes it easier to add security steps to DevOps workflows without needing dedicated security expertise. Instead of SecOps having to configure every little detail of a security scan, DevOps teams can just use natural language prompts to integrate it, and SecOps can step in only when necessary.

To give you a practical example, consider a DevOps team that wants to deploy a new web server on 0.0.0.0 to host a web application. Instead of getting SecOps to review the code or perform a test, they could feed this prompt to a platform that offers a copilot: 

“Deploy an NGINX web server with the following security best practices: enforce TLS 1.2 and 1.3 with a Let's Encrypt SSL certificate, restrict unnecessary public access, apply rate limiting, enable security headers to prevent common web attacks, and block known bad bots. Ensure logging is enabled for access and errors.”

The system would then automatically apply the necessary security configurations, reducing the need for manual intervention. An added benefit is that if the engineer doesn’t understand a specific aspect of the configuration, they can ask the AI integration to explain it to them with logical reasoning, and it will do exactly that. 

Keeping these two teams separate just doesn’t make as much sense anymore. As technology improves and security practices evolve, we’ll likely see even tighter integration between DevOps and SecOps. After all, both teams ultimately want the same thing. Secure, efficient, and reliable software releases.

Want to Integrate DevOps and SecOps?

If you’re looking to bring DevOps and SecOps closer together, agentic security is the way forward. At Kindo, we offer solutions that make it easy to integrate security into DevOps workflows without friction. Whether you’re a DevOps or SecOps team, we can help you streamline security without slowing down development. Get in touch to see how it works.