Category: DevOps

Integrating security scanning into infrastructure as code (IaC) allows detecting misconfigurations early in development. This post explores using the KICS plugin from Checkmarx with AWS CDK. Learn how KICS performs static code analysis to find vulnerabilities and compliance issues in IaC and scans the CDK code to report findings, failing the command for high-severity issues. This shifts security left, mitigating risks in deployed infrastructure.

Amazon EC2 Mac instances provide Apple hardware to develop for iOS and macOS at scale. Dependencies for building apps require privileged access, normally needing manual user approval. By enrolling EC2 Macs into Mobile Device Management (MDM) with Jamf Pro, administrators can automate remote configuration and software deployment without per-instance interaction. After launching an instance and installing required profiles with Jamf, users should create an AMI to retain the instance state.

Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) allow quick deployment of EC2 instances, but managing multiple customized AMIs is complex. Stratus10’s Image Management Solution automates and streamlines AMI building, testing, and deployment using EC2 Image Builder. It provides consistency, integrates with current processes, reduces costs, and improves security. By eliminating manual processes, engineering teams can focus on innovation while hardened images ensure best practices.

Leveraging AWS Lambda response streaming functionality enables progressive data delivery from large datasets, enhancing web application performance. This post compares a traditional API implementation to a Lambda streaming API, demonstrating reduced time-to-first-byte latency and quicker, more dynamic client-side rendering. By incrementally sending data, response streaming eliminates lag from waiting on entire dataset transfers, vastly improving user experience for data-intensive applications.

Skuid by Nintex is a low-code platform for rapidly building enterprise web apps. This post demonstrates using Skuid to connect to Amazon S3, listing bucket contents in a table, and enabling upload, download, and delete actions. With just a few configuration steps and zero coding, Skuid integrates data from services like S3 into polished, branded experiences, and streamlines building cloud-native apps without compromising power or flexibility.

As organizations modernize mainframe applications, integrating mainframe batch workloads into cloud environments is a key challenge. Stonebranch’s scheduler integrates with AWS Mainframe Modernization service to enable centralized, automated scheduling and monitoring of mainframe batch jobs on the cloud. This improves efficiency, optimizes costs, and accelerates mainframe modernization by enabling seamless workload orchestration across legacy and modern platforms.

Organizations are rapidly adopting containerized environments using AWS Fargate for developer efficiency. Sysdig uses advanced instrumentation to provide real-time visibility into AWS Fargate containers to detect threats. With policies and automatic response, Sysdig Secure enables AWS Fargate workload protection without requiring code changes. As an AWS Specialization Partner, Sysdig helps secure cloud-native applications on AWS.

AWS customers can run Kubernetes on managed services like Amazon EKS or self-managed options. To secure these environments, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes (RHACS) detects vulnerabilities and policy violations. Its findings can be sent to AWS Security Hub which aggregates security issues across AWS services. This post walks through installing RHACS on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS, creating policies in RHACS, and integrating with Security Hub to view findings.

Many startups want to use machine learning but struggle with developing scalable MLOps pipelines. Automat-IT’s MLOps Accelerator helps startups fast-track their machine learning journey and provides an end-to-end automated solution for the ML lifecycle, from data preparation to deployment, leveraging AWS services. With customizable pipelines and dedicated ML experts, Automat-IT empowers various roles to develop, operationalize, and monitor models efficiently.

Complying with FedRAMP poses challenges for DevOps teams, including slower deployment speeds, process overhead, and complex AWS GovCloud requirements. To optimize velocity while maintaining compliance, organizations can shift security controls left, automate workflows, and architect secure in-boundary pipelines. With the proper frameworks, teams can increase deployment frequency and reduce change failure rates in FedRAMP environments.