What is policy as code?

Policy as code explained

The definition for policy as code (PaC) or policy-as-code is a policy management approach of code for defining, automating, managing, and enforcing policies for governing cloud native environment operations and their resources. It is an application for managing policies, rules, and requirements, methodologies, and procedures that helps secure an enterprise’s infrastructure. 

Policies from a policy as code approach are updated, shared, defined, and enforced by leveraging code. It is easily repeatable and idempotent, allowing systems to produce the same outcome, including if the same file, event, or message was received repeatedly.  

What does policy mean?  

To better understand the meaning of policy as code, it helps to first understand “policy”. The definition for a policy is a set of rules and requirements, procedures, criteria, and conditions that are established to produce a desired result or maintain a status quo or condition. 
For information technology, policies stipulate the rules (etc.) for how systems can or should be configured, accessed, secured, and modified, and how systems should respond when their conditions are fulfilled. 

How does policy as code work? 

Policy as code works by demonstrating policies and rules as preconditions for testing a given application. These policies are written in a high-level, computer or human language, often as a scripted, readable file.  

The language used by the policy as code must be compatible with the tools that the enterprise is leveraging. It does not have to be a programming language, although Python can be used. Other examples of languages used for policy as code are:

• JSON, a language-independent data format derived from JavaScript 

• Rego is a declarative policy language used by the Open Policy Agent (OPA)  

• YAML, a human-readable data serialization language

After the policies are written, they are uploaded as files or code into a policy engine, a software or hardware system that leverages queries and is programmed with specific policies. The policy engine consumes the input policies, then processes data against the policies to deliver warnings, alerts, or queries. 

Policy engines can be leveraged to determine the optimal type of application security testing (AST) based on their delivered results, and when and where the AST should be applied. 

Benefits of policy as code 

Policy as code offers enterprises a variety of benefits, especially when compared to the alternative of manually managing policies and rules (etc.). As enterprises increase system automation, the speed and scale of cyber resilience, security, and compliance can struggle to keep pace with system updates, leading to systemic vulnerabilities and disruption. Policy as code helps enterprises stay aware of any deployments that do not meet their operational requirements, often by warning enterprises or blocking the deployment. 

Here are several other policy as code benefits: 

Productivity and efficiency
Policy as code removes many manual policy processes, such as ticketing or policy enforcement, which eliminates approval bottlenecks and allows policies to be updated and shared dynamically.  Automated policy as code processes help enable fast feedback loops, reduce deployment times from days to hours or even minutes, and minimize configuration mistakes and other human errors made from manually managing a system.       

Because policies are often uploaded as scripted, readable files, it’s simple for systems to quickly and consistently run validations on them. Policies can also be enforced, shared, and updated automatically at a virtually unlimited scale.

Security and compliance
One of the many policy as code tools that come with PaC adoption includes automated compliance checks. This automated process provides enterprises with a regular compliance assessment for identifying and proactively addressing potential adherence issues or drift. Regularly running these compliance checks helps enterprises to both meet established compliance requirements and minimize the risk of compliance violations and non-compliance incidents. 

Because much of the human element is removed from automated compliance checks, so too are many of the pain points that used to come with them. PaC tools can provide enterprises with audit trails that detail who did what and when they did it. 

Challenges of policy as code

Despite all the benefits of policy as code implementation, it is not without its challenges. Here are several policy as code challenges that enterprises may encounter on their journey to policy as code adoption: 

Human resistance and skill gaps
If your enterprise’s IT teams have only leveraged traditional manual compliance processes, then they may be resistant to transitioning to an automated policy as code compliance process. These IT teams may also require additional policy training or policy as code language training to help them with managing and writing policies as code. Enterprises that begin leveraging policy as code should have open communication with their IT teams and emphasize the benefits of policy as code for improving compliance, cyber resilience, security, and efficiency, including helping save time and resources for otherwise very resource-intensive processes.  

Complexity
Managing a burgeoning number of policies can be a challenge due to the policies’ scaling complexities. Even with the optimal policy frameworks and tools, enterprises can still struggle to maintain consistency and clarity in their policy definitions. 

Enterprises implementing robust policy management frameworks and looking to avoid compliance gaps should provide their IT teams with plenty of structure, resources, and training to make the policy adoption process as streamlined as possible.  

Integration
IT teams looking to integrate automated policy checks into their prior continuous integration and deployment pipelines should leverage additional resources for configuration and testing. It behooves enterprises to verify that the policy tools and frameworks their IT teams will be using are compatible with their policy as code development and deployment processes. 

The policy as code integration process may necessitate changing workflows and leveraging new technologies specifically for managing and writing policies as code, which also have their own challenges. 

Different languages
Deciding which of the many different languages your IT team should use when creating policies for policy as code is challenging. Because of policy as code’s many complex languages, it may benefit your enterprise’s IT team to choose a few standardized policy languages and then manage version controls and coordinate updates across different repositories and platforms. 

Mediocre policies and automation
If a policy is created that is half-baked, very restrictive, or otherwise poorly designed, then it can create issues between your enterprise’s development teams and security teams. These issues can result in delays in development or deployment and can require implementing workarounds. 

Similarly, policy as code automation is not without its challenges and necessitates proper testing. The solutions for these challenges are similar: enterprises should maintain open communication with IT teams and leverage continuous policy as code training. IT teams should validate policies in isolated environments to identify and test for any potential issues before their actual deployment.