Game of Codes: A choose-your-own adventure story

It’s a startup tale as old as time.

Continuously iterating on your product means that you’re constantly adding new features or capabilities. After all, which founder doesn’t want to serve their customers in the best, most up-to-date way possible?

However, doing so comes with a ton of hard work. You need to get software engineers on board and work on tight deadlines so that you can push out these new features in a timely manner. There’s a name for this entire process: the software development life cycle.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to step into the shoes of a software engineer that’s going through this cycle, now you can.

Understanding the trade-off

Congratulations on completing the software development life cycle for your fictional app’s new feature!

In hindsight and with context, it might be easy to know which is the correct option to take. However, engineers can often overlook bad code or vulnerabilities in external resources because it’s simply not feasible and time-efficient to check everything as thoroughly as they need to. For instance, an entire team of developers would have to write thousands of lines just to add a new feature.

“You also won’t have knowledge of every single vulnerability that’s out there. It’s just too much for a person to check through one by one,” says Emanuel Rian, customer solutions consultant for infrastructure modernization at Google Cloud.

Emanuel Rian, customer solutions consultant for infrastructure modernization at Google Cloud / Photo credit: Google Cloud

In some cases, poor code security could be attributed to how some companies, especially young startups, may be unaware that they must implement processes to prevent it or simply don’t have enough resources to do so.

And once even a single line of bad code gets injected, it spoils the entire bunch.

“Imagine that you’re cooking spaghetti and accidentally use sugar instead of salt. Even if it looks fine visually, the spaghetti itself will taste horrible,” says Rian.

That’s why it’s important to have the right security tools even during the earliest stage, he adds.

“I’d usually recommend adopting secure development processes as early as possible. If you don’t and your application gets more complex, potential security issues can cause a greater negative impact and affect your company’s reputation too,” Rian points out.

“It’s not only an important point for startups. Any company that produces its own software should look at adopting tools to protect their entire software development life cycle.”

And as you could probably tell from your earlier adventure, this is a critical move to fend off all the dangers that can lurk around every corner of the software development process.

Google Cloud’s Software Delivery Shield is a solution that protects companies’ software development life cycle from beginning to end. Its safeguarding capabilities went up a notch now that Mandiant, a leading threat intelligence firm, is part of Google Cloud.

Beyond cybersecurity solutions, Google Cloud offers a suite of other resources to help both companies and individuals.

One such resource is a learning platform called Google Cloud Skills Boost, which helps users gain the skills and knowledge needed in their tech careers. If you’re looking to expand your capabilities and take yourself to the next level, you can sign up to enroll in your first learning activity here, and enjoy free access to learning activities for the following month if you sign up before July 19.

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This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.