Renewed interest in IT security solutions has caught on like wildfire for private and public sector managers seeking to shore up network resources amid an already tumultuous 2021. Open-source assets are in the hot seat, and despite the widespread yet tentative adoption of container technology, many government agencies are sticking to antiquated security protocols that are largely incompatible. Driving home the practice of perfecting security processes in the crucial development phase is part and parcel of bringing open-source software location programs to the zenith of their potential.
For U.S. agencies that have shifted to container deployments, the improved convenience is readily apparent given the expectations of myriad IoT interactions and software representation for complex government systems. The potential boon of container encapsulation for government IT has not been matched by any meaningful attempt to build simpatico protective measures from the ground up. Federal agencies are weighed down by host intrusion detection and old-school antivirus software that do little to facilitate container use transparency -- a must-have for proper integration.
Research from MarketsandMarkets projects that the container security market is poised for further inflation in the immediate future. A potential 30.9% compound annual growth rate could boost the market size to $2,178 million by 2024. This represents a truly exponential surge from a respectable $568 million in 2019. North America is the current global leader in container security spending. Record-high research and development funding for cloud-native infrastructure goes hand-in-hand with the emphasis on standardizing the application development strategy for security authorization and overall assessments.
Government institutions may have to take cues from private industry success with containers, without excusing their own outdated precautionary methods.
Interestingly, the Biden administration’s recent executive order on cybersecurity requires a clear, two-way communication between developer/vendor and customer in regards to security testing. Another provision in section 4 is proof of compliance with secure software development practices. Falling short of the mandated standard could preclude government contracts and prompt an investigation. Embracing the trend of basing container technology development on solid security and transparency protocols seems to be a pre-existing win-win for those sweating the details of this EO, and also the government that issued it. Going forward, it would be fortuitous to lay a framework for handling a wide distribution model of IoT applications housed on containerized software and determining the cost-benefit in relation to a federal adoption scale.
