Unified Techs

End-to-End Automation with AWS, Kubernetes, and Integrated Security Scans Project Overview: Our client needed to streamline and automate the CI/CD pipeline for their Java application, ensuring both code quality and security compliance across the development and deployment lifecycle. Challenges included: ●​ Manual Code Reviews and Security Scans: Code quality and security vulnerabilities were inconsistently addressed, resulting in delays and risks. ●​ Continuous Integration and Delivery: Building and deploying the Java application manually was inefficient, increasing the risk of human error. ●​ Security Compliance: The client required robust, automated security checks for their Docker images and Kubernetes deployment files to maintain compliance. Proposed Solution & Architecture Unified Techs designed and implemented a fully automated CI/CD pipeline using AWS native services, focusing on both code quality and security. CI/CD Pipeline Flow Overview Architecture: The pipeline included the following key stages: ●​ Code Review Automation with SonarQube: When a developer submits a pull request (PR) in the CodeCommit repository, SonarQube automatically analyzes the Java code for best practices and provides feedback to the developer. ●​ Event-Driven Pipeline Triggering: After a PR is merged, an Amazon EventBridge event is triggered to initiate the CI/CD pipeline. ●​ Continuous Security Scanning: ●​ In the security scan stage, CodeBuild pipeline scans the Dockerfile, Kubernetes Helm deployment files using Checkov, and application source code based on incremental changes. ●​ Aqua Security Trivy scans the resulting Docker image for vulnerabilities before storing it in Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR). ●​ Continuous Integration and Build: CodeBuild packages the artifact into a Docker image and ensures the image meets security standards before deployment. ●​ Continuous Delivery: The Docker image is automatically deployed to Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) as a container workload using Helm charts, ensuring a consistent and secure deployment process. Metrics for Success: ●​ Improved Code Quality: Automated code analysis reduced manual code review time and increased adherence to best practices. ●​ Enhanced Security: Integrated security scanning identified vulnerabilities early in the development process, minimizing risks before deployment. ●​ Faster Time to Production: By automating the entire build, security, and deployment pipeline, deployment times were reduced by 50%. ●​ Increased Developer Efficiency: Developers could focus on coding while the automated pipeline handled code quality checks, security scans, and deployments. Lessons Learned: ●​ Automation Enhances Security: Integrating continuous security scans into the pipeline reduced vulnerabilities and maintained compliance. ●​ Efficiency Through Integration: Automating the entire CI/CD process from code commits to deployment improved both speed and reliability.