What Is Policy-as-Code?

3 min. read

Table of Contents

Defining Policy-As-Code
Policy-as-Code vs. Infrastructure as Code
Benefits of Policy-as-Code
How to Use Policy-As-Code
Policy as Code FAQs

Policy-as-code is an approach to policy management in which policies are defined, updated, shared, and enforced using code. By leveraging code-based automation instead of relying on manual processes to manage policies, policy-as-code allows teams to move more quickly and reduce the potential for mistakes due to human error.

At the same time, a policy-as-code approach to domains like security makes it possible to define and manage policies in ways that different types of stakeholders – such as developers and security engineers – can understand.

This page explains how policy-as-code works, why it’s important, and how to leverage it within the context of security.

Defining Policy-As-Code

To understand what policy-as-code means, you must first understand the definition of a “policy.”

In this context, a policy is any type of rule, condition, or instruction that governs IT operations or processes. A policy could be a rule that defines which conditions must be met in order for a code to pass a security control and be deployed, for example. Or, it could be a set of procedures that are executed automatically in response to a security event.

Policy-as-code is the use of code to define and manage rules and conditions. Under a policy-as-code approach, teams write out policies using some type of programming language, such as Python, YAML, or Rego. The specific language usually depends on which policy-as-code management and enforcement tools you are using.

When engineers need to make updates, they do so by modifying the existing code. They can also share the code with others to give them visibility into their policies using version control systems (VCS). And, last but not least, they can use a policy-as-code enforcement engine to ensure policies are met. An enforcement engine may be a standalone policy-as-code code, or it could be built into a larger platform.

Policy-as-Code vs. Infrastructure as Code

The concept of policy-as-code may sound similar to Infrastructure as Code, or IaC. IaC, which uses code-based files to automate infrastructure setup and provisioning, has been a common practice for IT operations teams for years.

Whereas IaC is beneficial to IT operations teams who need to provision infrastructure, policy-as-code can improve security operations, compliance management, data management, and far beyond.

Benefits of Policy-as-Code

Compared to the alternative – which is to manage rules, conditions, and procedures manually – policy-as-code offers several critical benefits:

Efficiency: When policies are spelled out as code, they can be shared and enforced automatically at virtually unlimited scale. This is much more efficient than requiring engineers to enforce a policy manually each time it becomes necessary to do so. Updating and sharing policies are also more efficient when the policies are defined in clear, concise code rather than being described in human language that some engineers may interpret differently than others.
Speed: The ability to automate policy enforcement also means that policy-as-code results in faster operations than a manual approach.
Visibility: When policies are defined in code, it’s easy for all stakeholders to use the code to understand what is happening within a system. They can review alerting or remediation rules simply by checking which code-based policies are in place, for example, instead of having to ask other engineers and wait for a response.
Collaboration: By providing a uniform, systematic means of managing policies, policy-as-code simplifies collaboration. This includes collaboration not just within the same team, but also between different types of teams – especially between developers (who are accustomed to thinking and working in terms of code) and specialists in other domains, like security or IT operations.
Accuracy: When teams define and manage policies using code, they avoid the risk of making configuration mistakes when managing a system manually.
Version control: If you keep track of different versions of your policy files as they change, policy-as-code ensures that you can revert to an earlier configuration easily in the event that a new policy version creates a problem.
Testing and validation: When policies are written in code, it’s easy to validate them using automated auditing tools. In this way, policy-as-code can help reduce the risk of introducing critical errors into production environments.

How to Use Policy-As-Code

The easiest way to take advantage of policy-as-code today is to adopt tools that natively support policy-as-code for whichever domain you want to manage via a policy-as-code approach.

For example, in the realm of security, Prisma Cloud, Bridgecrew, and Checkov allow teams to define security policies using code. They can also automatically scan and audit policy files in order to detect misconfigurations or vulnerabilities prior to deployment. This approach is one way that these tools streamline cloud security posture management.

You may also want to explore tools like Open Policy Agent, which aims to provide a common framework for applying policy-as-code to any domain. To date, however, vendor adoption of community-based policy-as-code frameworks like this remains limited, which is why seeking out vendor tools with native policy-as-code support is the simplest path toward implementing a policy-as-code approach to security or any other IT domain.

Policy as Code FAQs

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a method of managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable definition files, rather than physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools. It enables developers and IT professionals to automatically manage, monitor, and provision resources through code, thus improving consistency and reducing manual errors. IaC supports cloud services' scalability and flexibility, ensuring that infrastructure deployments are repeatable and standardized.

Compliance as Code is a practice where compliance specifications are written in code and integrated into the automated deployment pipeline. It ensures that IT infrastructure and applications adhere to regulatory and security standards continuously, with compliance checks codified for automatic and repeatable validation processes. This approach minimizes human error and reduces the time and effort required for compliance audits.

Security as Code involves integrating security practices into the software development lifecycle by codifying security policies and controls. It allows for the automated assessment and enforcement of security within the CI/CD pipeline, ensuring that security checks are an integral part of the software delivery process, rather than an afterthought. Tools like automated vulnerability scanners and configuration management systems are employed to keep applications secure from inception through deployment.

Configuration management is the process of systematically handling changes to a system in a way that ensures integrity over time. It involves the maintenance of records and updates to software and hardware components, ensuring that systems are consistently configured and any changes are traceable. Centralized configuration management tools such as Ansible, Puppet, and Chef automate the deployment and operation of infrastructure, enabling scalability and reliability.

Automation scripts are coded procedures that execute tasks without human intervention. They are essential for automating repetitive and complex operations across IT environments, increasing efficiency and reducing the likelihood of human error. In cloud computing, automation scripts are used to provision resources, manage deployments, and orchestrate workflows, often within tools like Terraform or through cloud provider scripting interfaces like AWS CloudFormation.

GitOps is an operational framework that takes DevOps best practices used for application development, such as version control, collaboration, compliance, and CI/CD, and applies them to infrastructure automation. The core idea of GitOps is using Git as a single source of truth for declarative infrastructure and applications. With Git at the center of the CI/CD pipeline, teams can make pull requests to accelerate and simplify application deployment and operations tasks.

Continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) is a method of software delivery that introduces automation into the stages of app development. The main concepts attributed to CI/CD are continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment. CI/CD integrates regular code changes into a shared repository, automatically runs tests, and pushes code to production environments. This practice reduces manual errors, shortens the development cycle, and improves software quality.

Immutable infrastructure is an approach to managing services and software deployments on IT resources wherein components are replaced rather than changed. Once deployed, the infrastructure is never modified; instead, any updates or changes are made by replacing servers or containers with a new version. This paradigm minimizes inconsistencies and potential security vulnerabilities due to configuration drift or manual interventions.

Code security encompasses the methods and tools used to protect against vulnerabilities within software code and prevent unauthorized access or changes to the codebase. It involves practices such as static and dynamic code analysis, code signing, and the use of secure coding standards to ensure that software is developed with a strong emphasis on security from the outset.

A code audit is a comprehensive analysis where source code is examined to discover bugs, security breaches, or violations of programming conventions. Conducted systematically, code audits help maintain the health of the codebase, enhance security, and ensure compliance with coding standards and industry regulations.

Policy enforcement is the process of implementing and ensuring adherence to defined policies within an IT environment. It involves actively managing access controls, resource utilization, and operational behavior to ensure that all actions align with the established security policies and compliance requirements.

Declarative configuration specifies the desired state of a system without outlining the steps to achieve it. The system's underlying management tools are responsible for executing the necessary actions to maintain the declared state. This approach contrasts with imperative configuration, which requires scripts or commands to describe the process to reach the desired state.

Version control systems are tools that track changes to files by keeping a record of modifications and who made them. They are essential for collaborative software development, allowing multiple contributors to work on the same codebase simultaneously without overwriting each other's work. Version control systems facilitate rollbacks, branching, and merging, and help resolve conflicts when merging contributions.

Configuration drift prevention ensures that the state of infrastructure remains consistent with its defined configurations over time. By automating the deployment and operations processes and routinely reconciling the actual state with the desired state, drift prevention tools like Puppet, Chef, and Ansible detect and correct discrepancies, thereby maintaining system integrity and security.

Code review policies establish standards and procedures for systematically examining source code by peers before it merges into the main codebase. These policies enforce best practices in coding, identify potential security vulnerabilities, and improve code quality. They often specify criteria for reviewer assignment, review scope, and the conditions under which code is approved or rejected.

Policy Definition Language (PDL) provides a formal syntax to write policies that govern system behavior, manage access, and enforce compliance. PDLs, such as the one used in Open Policy Agent, enable clear articulation of rules and automated policy enforcement across different stages of software development and deployment, ensuring consistent application of security practices.

Infrastructure as code templates are pre-defined scripts or files used to automate the provisioning of IT infrastructures. Written in languages like YAML or JSON, IaC templates describe the resources and configurations needed for an application, allowing for consistent and repeatable environment setups across development, testing, and production.

Automated governance integrates policy enforcement within the continuous integration and deployment pipeline, ensuring that changes adhere to company and regulatory standards automatically. It employs tools and practices that monitor and control IT environments, reducing manual oversight and providing real-time compliance assurance. Automated governance enables quick identification and remediation of issues that deviate from established policies.