Government IT faces unique challenges when adopting DevOps: strict compliance frameworks (FedRAMP, FISMA, NIST 800-53), slow procurement cycles, air-gapped environments, legacy tech debt, and cultural resistance. The public sector is increasingly moving toward DevSecOps, embedding security throughout the pipeline via infrastructure as code, policy as code, shift-left security scanning, and continuous compliance validation. Key criteria for tooling include FedRAMP authorization, flexible deployment models (SaaS, self-hosted, air-gapped), built-in policy enforcement via OPA, RBAC, and procurement accessibility through government contract vehicles. Spacelift is highlighted as the first IaC orchestration platform to achieve FedRAMP authorization, supporting Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi, CloudFormation, and Ansible from a single control plane.
Table of contents
Why is DevOps needed in the public sector?The unique challenges of DevOps in the federal governmentA security-first approach with DevSecOpsWhat to look for in DevOps tooling for the public sectorThe first IaC orchestration platform to achieve FedRAMP certificationKey pointsFrequently asked questionsSort: