Cloud Security Alliance Releases Guidance on Microservices Architectural Pattern for a Repeatable Approach to Architecting, Deploying Secure Systems

Document designed to help application developers, architects develop a vendor-neutral reference architecture foundation

SEATTLE – Aug. 31, 2021 – The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining and raising awareness of best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment, today announced the publication of Microservices Architecture Pattern: A Proposed Architectural Pattern to Engineer Trustworthy Secure Systems. With the goal of developing a vendor-neutral reference architecture foundation that can be broken down into software architecture patterns, the document describes the key elements of the Microservices Architecture Pattern (MAP) and how they should be designed and deployed to shift security and compliance left via a continuous compliance-as-code approach.

Developed by the Application Containers and Microservices Working Group, the guidance gives application developers and architects, as well as anyone responsible for or interested in application containers and microservices security, a repeatable approach to architecting, developing, and deploying MAP. It contains all the information necessary for a microservice to operate independently and communicate with other microservices as it evolves to become an application component.

“With this document, we are attempting to span the last leg of ‘shift left’ by applying control overlays to software before the code exits the development environment. To ensure that security is properly embedded from the very beginning of the development process, it’s imperative that teams can debate security and software design simultaneously,” said Anil Karmel, the paper’s co-editor and Application Containers and Microservices Working Group co-chair.

The Application Containers and Microservices Working Group was established to conduct research on the security of application containers and microservices and publish guidance and best practices for the secure use of application containers and microservices. The working group builds upon the work done by the joint NIST/CSA Applications Container Security, developed by the NIST Cloud Security Working Group. Individuals interested in becoming involved in the future research and initiatives of this group are invited to do so by visiting the Join page.

Download the full document.

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About Cloud Security Alliance
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining and raising awareness of best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment. CSA harnesses the subject matter expertise of industry practitioners, associations, governments, and its corporate and individual members to offer cloud security-specific research, education, training, certification, events, and products. CSA's activities, knowledge, and extensive network benefit the entire community impacted by cloud — from providers and customers to governments, entrepreneurs, and the assurance industry — and provide a forum through which different parties can work together to create and maintain a trusted cloud ecosystem. For further information, visit us at www.cloudsecurityalliance.org, and follow us on Twitter @cloudsa.