Genomics England (“GEL”) is a wholly owned entity of The Department of Health & Social Care, set up to deliver the 100,000 Genomes Project, a flagship NHS project to sequence 100,000 whole genomes from NHS Patients with rare diseases, plus their families, as well as patients with common cancers, In addition, GEL is tasked with deliverying the NHS's new groundbreaking Genomic Medical Service.

Genomics England (“GEL”) is a wholly owned entity of The Department of Health & Social Care, set up to deliver the 100,000 Genomes Project, a flagship NHS project to sequence 100,000 whole genomes from NHS Patients with rare diseases, plus their families, as well as patients with common cancers, In addition, GEL is tasked with deliverying the NHS's new groundbreaking Genomic Medical Service.

DevOps continues to be an important growth factor in the technology world. With the right DevOps expert, you can develop a software process that's more efficient, more productive, and designed for digital transformation. Of course, as with any new tech initiative, there's a prevailing concern to consider, and that's security.

In an age where cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly common, high-performance teams must have the right combination of development know-how and security expertise to ensure that your company evolves in a stable, resilient manner. This is where the need for "DevSecOps" emerges.

What Spurred the Rise of DevSecOps?

In the past, technology moved slowly, with each innovation requiring months of careful planning and implementation. Now, not only is the industry moving faster than ever, but the sheer speed of transformation is pushing companies to accelerate their development processes too.

Of course, the need for speed also paves the way for mistakes, gaps in the code, and potential security risks too. That may be one of the reasons why 7 out of 10 large enterprises have been crippled by data breaches in the last year.

To stay ahead of the curve, and stay safe, companies need to empower their DevOps staff with a new kind of expertise: DevSecOps.

The concept of DevSecOps melds innovation with security. It's about implementing precautions at every stage of the growth and testing cycle for a modern business, to ensure the creation of agile, efficient, and "safe" applications.

DevSecOps and The Transformation of the IT Team

An increasing demand for security infused with technology intuition means that the development group is changing. It's no longer enough for your experts to know how to write a stable code and leave the rest to the security team. Everything needs to be addressed at the same time during the production cycle, breaking down the walls between business silos.

The underlying idea of Developer-Security-Operations is that everyone in the software space must be responsible for security. Unfortunately, almost half of all organisations feel that the hardest hires to recruit are those that can combine DevOps knowledge with security expertise.

While many businesses believe that speed-to-market may be the issue that's stopping them from competing in the current, fast-paced marketplace, the truth is that speed doesn't matter unless you have the security to back it up. Today's tech leaders need to be on the hunt for a new kind of talent - wherever it might be.

Tackling the Skills Shortage

The first step in finding the right candidates for your DevSecOps role is working with the right specialist recruitment team. However, there are things that organisations can do behind the scenes too.

Addressing the skills shortage in the DevSecOps world means changing the company culture that separates technology development, from security. Everyone who interacts with software from the top down must have a thorough understanding of the value of security, and what they can do to make the next implementation safer.

Here are just some of the ways that you can prepare your business for the mind-shift that paves the way for DevSecOps success:

Provide Frequent Security Training: In-house training while you wait to find the perfect applicant for your team can be the key to preventing risks in the development space. Look for ways to incorporate training practices for every group in your DevOps network, and ensure that they stick to the best-practices they learn with regular check-ups and feedback.

Provide Purpose Ownership: As the role of the DevOps team continues to shift with more of a focus on security, the job descriptions you originally wrote for your hires may need some alteration. If you're planning on asking your experts to take on new responsibilities, then you'll need to talk through these requirements with them, this will help to give them ownership of their new roles.

Offer continuous education: Besides must-have training solutions that keep your employees informed of security best-practices, it's worth making sure that there are always educational options available for those who want to expand their skills. The DevOps space is constantly changing, and it pays to be prepared.

Today's IT professionals have more pressure to contend with than ever before. With security issues on the rise, no technology team can afford to overlook the importance of proactive, preventative safety measures. The right experts in your organisation will help you to produce innovations faster while reducing your risk of cybersecurity attacks.

The faster you can start to invest in DevSecOps for greater speed, security, and performance, the quicker you'll rise above your competition, and protect your business at the same time.

About Inspire People

We believe that technology has the power to change the world for the better and we love working with businesses whose technology or purpose has a positive impact. We help businesses that share our vision access the people, resources and strategic advice they need to achieve their digital transformation goals

Our service is designed to accelerate your digital growth. We created our offer in response to emerging challenges in an uncertain business landscape: a blend of Advisory, Talent and Project led services that will help you achieve your strategic aims and deliver more for your employees and customers. We’ll connect you to rare specialist talent, experts and insight to help you navigate your biggest challenges and remain competitive in a changed world.

Get in touch today to discover how working with us could help you innovate and grow.

Speak to our expert team on +44(0)20 7871 8550 or email  hello@inspirepeople.net

Are you prepared to thrive in a professional world reliant on technology? According to the EU Commission, by 2021, Europe could have a shortfall of about 900,000 crucial IT professionals. Already, many technology businesses are struggling to find the right talent and skill in their industry, particularly as the sector shifts from a focus on hardware to software. 

Since the world of formal education is widely regarded as largely out-of-date, professionals who want to stay ahead of the competition, and highlight themselves as the ideal candidate for any DevOps role, will need to pinpoint and cultivate the right skills for our rapidly evolving world.

The best way to enhance your value in the growing digital market is to be ahead of the game and keep your skills updated. While it’s not about learning every technology or coding language that emerges on the market, there are a few essential skills you'll need to refine if you want to have your pick of the technology job market.

Technologies and Tools

The DevOps landscape is a place of continuous development and evolution. If you want to thrive in this space, you need to be informed about the latest and greatest innovations in this area. There are numerous elements to look at, including:

• Source Control software (VSTS, Svn, Bitbucket)
• Continuous Integration (Bamboo, Jenkins)
• Cloud (AWS, OpenStack, Google Cloud)
• Infrastructure Automation (Ansible, Chef, Puppet)
• Deployment orchestration and automation: (VSTS, Jenkins, Octopus Deploy)
• Container concepts (Docker, LXD)

Though you may not be able to become a specialist in every piece of software on the market, a great DevOps Engineer is always curious about the latest developments in their field. By keeping pace with industry developments, reading up and exploring new software, and diving deeper into solutions that might be relevant to a new employer you will position yourself as a potential employee who is ahead of the field.

Security First

As coding and technology become more streamlined and efficient, it's important to remember that security will always be an essential part of any DevOps career. Sometimes, the most important skill you can demonstrate to a hiring manager is your ability to consider software integrations and developments from the perspective of business integrity.

As a developer, it will be your responsibility not only to write code that protects applications from attacks, but you'll also need to think about how you can overcome common cybersecurity problems when implementing new software too.

Make sure that you're prepared to perform security tasks during the requirement phase of your DevOps journey. Explore the latest safety options, and let your business know that you're capable of installing security measures into applications from the start - rather than having to bolt them on at a later stage.

Version Control

A thorough understanding of version control is crucial for any DevOps specialist. Version control simply allows you to track your product versions, reverse changes, and keep a backup of your data close. Version control can also help multiple people in a team work on the same codebase at the same time.

Today, the most popular version control solutions are SVN and Git. If you want to get ahead of the crowd, however, you need to be well-versed in how to use both. The good news is that the logic behind these systems is very similar. While websites like WordPress use SVN for their plugins because it was available before Git, Git is accessed by developers from almost all industries.

To learn more about Git, you can read up on the Git Book online. Similarly, there's plenty of documentation available for SVN too.

Automation Experience

Automation is a fundamental element of DevOps in today's digitally transforming landscape. A lot of the manual tasks previously performed by administrators can now be automated through standard scripting languages like Ruby, Python, and Shell. As a DevOps professional, you'll need to speak many coding languages and understand how you can use those languages to automate manual tasks and remove the human component from repetitive jobs.

DevOps engineers need to be able to implement automation solutions at any level in today's business environment. As manually-configured infrastructure systems become a thing of the past, candidates who can evidence their ability to provision and configure infrastructure using code will create the best career opportunities for themselves.

Develop your experience with on-premises infrastructure like Hyper-V and VMware, as well as cloud and hybrid solutions like Amazon Web Services and Azure. Where possible, it may be helpful to build a portfolio that shows your automation experience.

Build Tool Knowledge

Finally, as more companies strive to grow as fast, and efficient as possible, a solid understanding of the latest build tools is crucial for DevOps experts. Build tools remove the strain of compiling SASS/LESS, optimising images, and checking for errors - cutting your development time to a minimum.

The two most prominent build tools to understand on the market today are Grunt and Gulp. However, it's up to you to make sure that you have an in-depth knowledge of the build tools that are most appealing to the organisation you want to work for.

By learning as much as you can about build tools, you could enhance your appeal in any company, by walking into a new work environment and introducing automation solutions to make everyone's life a little easier.

About Inspire People

We believe that technology has the power to change the world for the better and we love working with businesses whose technology or purpose has a positive impact. We help businesses that share our vision access the people, resources and strategic advice they need to achieve their digital transformation goals.

Our service is designed to accelerate your digital growth. We created our offer in response to emerging challenges in an uncertain business landscape: a blend of Advisory, Talent and Project led services that will help you achieve your strategic aims and deliver more for your employees and customers. We’ll connect you to rare specialist talent, experts and insight to help you navigate your biggest challenges and remain competitive in a changed world.

Get in touch today to discover how working with us could help you innovate and grow.

Speak to our expert team on +44(0)20 7871 8550 or email  hello@inspirepeople.net

The Cloud. Stuff-as-a-Service. The IT industry has long been famed with redefinitions of existing concepts, and some might argue the most recent seems to be DevOps. Or is it?