Security Benefit's AWS Cloud Operations Transformation: DevSecOps Automation, Governance, and Secure Infrastructure Management
About Security Benefit
Security Benefit is a leading retirement solutions provider focused on helping customers achieve long-term financial security through innovative retirement and investment solutions.
The organization places strong emphasis on security, governance, compliance, and operational excellence across its technology platforms. As its AWS environment expanded, Security Benefit required a standardized and secure approach to provisioning, governing, and operating cloud infrastructure at enterprise scale.
Executive Summary
Security Benefit partnered with ITTStar to modernize and standardize AWS cloud operations through a comprehensive DevSecOps automation and governance transformation.
The initiative focused on replacing manual infrastructure provisioning with standardized Infrastructure as Code (IaC), strengthening cloud governance, embedding security controls into deployment pipelines, and automating operational activities associated with AWS infrastructure provisioning.
ITTStar implemented a centralized automation framework using Terraform, GitLab CI/CD, Checkov, OpenID Connect (OIDC), Active Directory integration, and CyberArk onboarding automation. Reusable Terraform modules and approval-based CI/CD workflows enabled consistent and repeatable infrastructure deployment, while automated validation, mandatory tagging, security scanning, and deployment safeguards strengthened governance and reduced operational risk.
The solution established a scalable CloudOps foundation that enables Security Benefit to manage AWS infrastructure through automation, policy enforcement, secure authentication, standardized provisioning, and centralized Infrastructure as Code practices.
Customer Challenge
Security Benefit faced several operational, security, and governance challenges within its AWS environment:
Manual Infrastructure Provisioning
EC2 provisioning involved multiple manual approval cycles, while infrastructure resources were created and managed through manual processes. This increased provisioning effort, introduced configuration inconsistencies, and limited resource visibility.
Governance & Compliance
Mandatory business tags were not consistently enforced across resources. Infrastructure standards varied across teams, making resource ownership, auditability, and compliance tracking more difficult.
Security Risks
Static AWS access keys were being used within CI/CD pipelines, creating credential-management risk. Limited automated code validation also increased the possibility of infrastructure security misconfigurations.
Infrastructure Change Risk
Critical infrastructure resources could potentially be deleted unintentionally, requiring stronger controls around destructive infrastructure changes and administrative approvals.
Operational Complexity
Existing AWS resources were largely managed through the AWS Console, while multiple VPC environments increased deployment complexity. Active Directory domain joining and CyberArk onboarding also required significant manual effort during server provisioning.
ITTStar's Solution
ITTStar designed and implemented an enterprise-grade AWS DevSecOps and CloudOps automation framework focused on standardization, governance, security, repeatability, and operational efficiency.
Infrastructure as Code & Automated Provisioning
ITTStar developed reusable Terraform modules and established a centralized GitLab repository and CI/CD pipelines for AWS infrastructure deployment. Approval-based workflows introduced controlled infrastructure provisioning while reducing dependency on manual AWS Console operations.
Automated Governance & Tag Enforcement
Mandatory business metadata — including Application, Environment, Cost Center, Business Unit, and Owner tags — was incorporated into the deployment process. Pipeline validation automatically blocks infrastructure deployments that fail defined governance requirements, improving ownership, auditability, and cost allocation.
DevSecOps Security Controls
ITTStar integrated Checkov, Terraform validation, formatting and quality checks, security misconfiguration detection, branch protection, merge-request approvals, and SAST/DAST controls into the CI/CD workflow. This enabled security and compliance checks to occur before infrastructure changes were deployed.
Secure AWS Authentication
ITTStar implemented OpenID Connect (OIDC) authentication between GitLab and AWS, eliminating the need for long-lived static AWS credentials within CI/CD pipelines. Short-lived token-based access provides a more secure mechanism for automated AWS deployments.
Infrastructure Change Protection
Custom Terraform safeguards identify destructive operations during plan reviews, require business justification, and enforce administrative approval before critical infrastructure deletion can proceed. This reduces the risk of accidental resource deletion and uncontrolled infrastructure changes.
Advanced Provisioning Automation
ITTStar automated VPC selection based on server naming conventions, Active Directory domain joining, CyberArk onboarding, and ownership tagging. Terraform concurrency controls were also introduced to prevent state conflicts and support safe, controlled infrastructure deployments.
Existing Resource Modernization
Hundreds of previously unmanaged AWS resources were onboarded into Terraform using Terraformer, establishing centralized Infrastructure as Code management and reducing reliance on manual AWS Console operations.
Why AWS?
AWS provided the scalable infrastructure, security capabilities, identity controls, and operational flexibility required for Security Benefit's enterprise DevSecOps transformation.
Scalable Infrastructure
AWS compute, storage, and networking capabilities provide a flexible foundation for standardized infrastructure provisioning across Security Benefit's environments.
Security & Identity
AWS IAM capabilities combined with OIDC authentication enable secure, short-lived access to AWS resources without maintaining static AWS credentials in CI/CD pipelines.
Automation
AWS integrates with Terraform and GitLab CI/CD, enabling Security Benefit to automate infrastructure provisioning and apply repeatable configurations across environments.
Governance
AWS resource tagging, IAM controls, and standardized Infrastructure as Code practices improve resource ownership, accountability, auditability, and governance.
Operational Management
AWS services and automation capabilities enable Security Benefit to move from manual console-based infrastructure administration toward a centralized, controlled, and repeatable cloud operating model.
Why Security Benefit Chose ITTStar
Security Benefit selected ITTStar for its expertise in AWS DevSecOps, Infrastructure as Code, cloud governance, security, and enterprise automation.
AWS & DevSecOps Expertise
ITTStar combined AWS knowledge with Terraform and GitLab CI/CD capabilities to establish a standardized infrastructure provisioning framework.
Security-First Automation
ITTStar embedded security validation, OIDC authentication, approval workflows, and destructive-change safeguards directly into infrastructure deployment processes.
Governance & Compliance
Mandatory tagging, policy validation, approval controls, and centralized IaC management enabled Security Benefit to establish stronger governance over AWS infrastructure.
Enterprise Automation
ITTStar automated previously manual activities including EC2 provisioning, VPC selection, Active Directory domain joining, CyberArk onboarding, and ownership tagging.
Through this approach, ITTStar enabled Security Benefit to standardize infrastructure operations while strengthening security, governance, and operational consistency.
Impact & Results
The AWS CloudOps and DevSecOps transformation delivered significant improvements across infrastructure operations, governance, security, and automation. Since the source case study does not provide validated numerical percentages, these outcomes are expressed as demonstrated operational improvements rather than estimated metrics.
Standardized Infrastructure Operations
A centralized Terraform and GitLab CI/CD framework established consistent, repeatable, and auditable AWS infrastructure deployments across environments, reducing dependency on manually created infrastructure.
Strengthened Governance & Compliance
Automated enforcement of mandatory business tags, code validation, branch protection, approval workflows, and infrastructure standards improved resource ownership, auditability, governance, and compliance enforcement before deployment.
Improved Cloud Security
OIDC-based authentication eliminated long-lived AWS credentials from CI/CD pipelines. Integrated Checkov, SAST, DAST, Terraform validation, and security checks enabled potential security issues and infrastructure misconfigurations to be identified earlier in the deployment lifecycle.
Reduced Infrastructure Change Risk
Terraform deployment safeguards detect destructive changes, require business justification, and enforce administrative approvals before execution, reducing the risk of accidental deletion of critical AWS infrastructure.
Faster and More Consistent Infrastructure Provisioning
Automated EC2 deployment, intelligent VPC selection, Active Directory domain joining, CyberArk onboarding, and resource tagging reduced manual provisioning activities and improved server readiness.
Centralized Management of Existing AWS Infrastructure
Hundreds of previously unmanaged AWS resources were brought under Terraform management using Terraformer, reducing dependency on manual AWS Console operations and improving infrastructure consistency and visibility.
Improved Deployment Reliability
Terraform concurrency controls prevent simultaneous infrastructure changes from creating state conflicts, improving the safety and stability of enterprise-scale infrastructure deployments.
Scalable CloudOps Foundation
The standardized automation framework provides Security Benefit with a foundation for future capabilities including self-service provisioning, policy-as-code, compliance automation, FinOps controls, and AI-assisted infrastructure operations.
About ITTStar
ITTStar is a customer-centric AWS Advanced Consulting Partner delivering cloud and digital transformation solutions using AWS technologies.
ITTStar helps organizations modernize and operate AWS environments through cloud automation, Infrastructure as Code, DevSecOps, security, governance, monitoring, cost optimization, and operational excellence.
By combining AWS expertise with enterprise automation and cloud-native technologies, ITTStar enables customers to build secure, scalable, standardized, and operationally efficient AWS environments.