Government organizations with significant technical debt require modern approaches for delivering services. Deploying services using DevOps techniques and a DevOps-enabled identity and access management (IAM) platform can improve application performance, availability, and scalability, while reducing maintenance and deployment costs.

Why DevOps?

DevOps is a methodology that combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to improve collaboration, communication, and efficiency in delivering software applications.

Docker and Kubernetes are two foundational technologies that can be used for any deployment methodology — not just cloud computing — because they support building applications that can run on any modern operating system, and in any environment.

Docker is a tool designed to make it easier for developers to quickly create, deploy, and run applications at scale and in any environment by using containers. Containers allow a developer to bundle an application with all of the parts it needs — such as libraries, code, and other dependences — and deploy it as one package.

Kubernetes is an open source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.

Together, Docker and Kubernetes enable developers to focus on writing code without worrying about the systems that it will be running on. The combination enables them to orchestrate and deliver faster services with flexible deployment options, whether they are to run in an on-premises, hybrid, or multi-cloud environment.

The benefits of DevOps-based IAM

Time is of the essence when developing and deploying capabilities that support the growing need for digital government services or for mission-critical applications used in denied, degraded, intermittent, and limited (DDIL) environments.

One of the best ways to speed deployment, scale for peak demand, and increase efficiency and security is by using a modern, comprehensive IAM solution that supports a multi-cloud DevOps deployment model with Docker and Kubernetes-based containerization and orchestration technologies. With the cloud now a top government strategic priority and more workloads shifting to cloud platforms every year, it’s imperative to protect these workloads, no matter where they reside.

Large government agencies and organizations that are using older, on-premises IAM systems can’t deliver the scale and security needed for digital government services for constituents or mission-critical applications used in intelligence and defense. Traditional IAM solutions are often complex and difficult to deploy, lacking the scalability and flexibility needed for quickly rolling out new services, upgrades, or releases.

In contrast, DevOps-friendly IAM solutions are designed to support automated and continuous delivery requirements, which are essential for DevOps practices across any environment.
By containerizing IAM using tools like Docker and Kubernetes, government agencies can achieve greater flexibility when deploying IAM solutions.

Comparing DevOps-based IAM with legacy and cloud-only solutions

ForgeRock fully supports DevOps-based IAM and offers several advantages over legacy, monolithic IAM solutions and cloud-only IAM:

1. Deploy anywhere, online or offline: DevOps-based IAM can be deployed in any environment: on-premises, in private or public cloud, and in offline access scenarios such as on military vessels with intermittent internet connectivity. Our Cloud Deployment Model (CDM) adheres to the DoD Enterprise DevSecOps Reference Design for deployment in a containerized environment.
2. Best of both worlds: The comprehensive ForgeRock IAM platform provides the features, capabilities, and customization you need, without the hassle of maintaining a monolithic IAM system. Cloud-only IAM solutions offer agility and scalability, but they may not be suitable for government agencies and organizations that are managing complex use cases or DDIL low-bandwidth and offline requirements.
3. Up-to-date security: Unlike a monolithic IAM solution, DevOps-based IAM can be patched quickly for security updates and new features without taking the entire solution offline.

The ForgeOps deployment methodology

Customers that use the ForgeRock DevOps deployment model called ForgeOps have accelerated projects by three to six months, saving 25% on implementation costs. Agencies can deploy updates between their containerized applications and ForgeRock with the ability to test, QA, and deploy ForgeRock into Kubernetes clusters in minutes by running a simple command. And they can choose the operating system that meets their needs.

Government agencies requiring high security often choose OpenShift, an on-premises platform-as-a-service Kubernetes implementation that supports public cloud, on-premises, hybrid cloud, or edge architectures. The ForgeOps-provided Kubernetes scripts can be modified to support an OpenShift deployment.

With the right identity solution, organizations can easily protect workloads in any cloud; support millions of identities of any type; enable rapid solution development in a repeatable way; and conduct fast, simple, and highly available deployments — all without sacrificing rich features and extensibility. This ultimately leads to immediate business benefits, including accelerated time to market, increased flexibility in rolling out new services, availability and scalability, and time savings.

The ForgeRock difference

By making it easy to utilize Docker and Kubernetes technology, ForgeRock provides the fastest and most flexible multi-cloud IAM deployment options. Our cloud deployment model removes complexity and can help you accelerate development, making it easy to deploy millions of identities in minutes, on any cloud – whether it’s a private cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), or Microsoft Azure.

You can validate deployment options against ForgeRock benchmark results and analyze the most cost-effective cloud solution based on multiple factors so that your organization can reduce costs and ensure optimal performance, availability, and reliability to meet customer demand quickly.

Learn more about ForgeRock multi-cloud and DevOps solutions. For a technical deep dive, watch this on-demand webinar: Running IAM using Docker and Kubernetes.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Forgerock Blog authored by Kelvin Brewer, CISSP, CEH. Read the original post at: https://www.forgerock.com/blog/speeding-delivery-government-services-devops-and-iam