February 22, 2026
A developer needs a PostgreSQL database. They file a ticket. It sits in a backlog for two days. A DBA provisions it, sends credentials via Slack DM. Elapsed time: 3 days. Actual need: 5 minutes of configuration. Multiply across every database, cache, queue, and namespace, and manual provisioning becomes the single largest drag on velocity. Self-service lets developers provision pre-approved resources directly, within guardrails the platform team defines.
February 22, 2026
Kubernetes does not enforce security best practices by default. A freshly deployed cluster allows containers to run as root, pull images from any registry, mount the host filesystem, and use the host network. Policy engines close this gap by intercepting API requests through admission webhooks and rejecting or modifying resources that violate your rules.
The three main options – Pod Security Admission (built-in), OPA Gatekeeper, and Kyverno – serve different needs. Choosing the wrong one leads to either insufficient enforcement or unnecessary operational burden.
February 22, 2026
Every container image you deploy carries an operating system, libraries, and application dependencies. Each of those components can have known vulnerabilities. Image scanning compares the packages in your image against databases of CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) and tells you what is exploitable.
Scanning is not optional. It is a baseline hygiene practice that belongs in every CI pipeline.
Scanners pull vulnerability data from multiple sources: the National Vulnerability Database (NVD), vendor-specific feeds (Red Hat, Debian, Alpine, Ubuntu security trackers), and language-specific advisory databases (GitHub Advisory Database for npm/pip/go). Each CVE has a severity rating based on CVSS scores:
February 22, 2026
Compliance as code encodes compliance requirements as machine-readable policies evaluated automatically, continuously, and with every change. Instead of quarterly spreadsheet audits, a policy like “all S3 buckets must have encryption enabled” becomes a check that runs in CI, blocks non-compliant Terraform plans, and scans running infrastructure hourly. Evidence generation is automatic. Drift is detected immediately.
Translate your compliance framework’s controls into specific, testable technical requirements. This mapping bridges auditor language and infrastructure code.
February 22, 2026
Kubernetes Pod Security Standards define three security profiles that control what pods are allowed to do. Pod Security Admission (PSA) enforces these standards at the namespace level. This is the replacement for PodSecurityPolicy, which was removed in Kubernetes 1.25.
Privileged – Unrestricted. No security controls applied. Used for system-level workloads like CNI plugins, storage drivers, and logging agents that genuinely need host access.
Baseline – Prevents known privilege escalations. Blocks hostNetwork, hostPID, hostIPC, privileged containers, and most host path mounts. Allows most workloads to run without modification.
February 22, 2026
This operational sequence takes a default Kubernetes cluster and locks it down. Phases are ordered by impact and dependency: assessment first, then RBAC, pod security, networking, images, auditing, and finally data protection. Each phase includes the commands, policy YAML, and verification steps.
Do not skip the assessment phase. You need to know what you are fixing before you start fixing it.
Before changing anything, establish a baseline. This phase produces a prioritized list of findings that drives the order of remediation in later phases.
February 22, 2026
Your container image contains hundreds of dependencies you did not write. A compromised base image or malicious package runs with your application’s full permissions. Supply chain attacks target the build process because it is often less guarded than runtime.
The goal is to answer three questions for every artifact: what is in it (SBOM), who built it (signing), and how was it built (provenance).
A Software Bill of Materials lists every dependency in an artifact. Two tools dominate.