Policy as Code Implementation

We select the right policy framework for your stack: Open Policy Agent (OPA) for Kubernetes and general-purpose policy evaluation, HashiCorp Sentinel for Terraform Enterprise, Checkov and tfsec for Terraform Open Source, AWS Config Rules for runtime AWS compliance, and Kyverno for Kubernetes-native policy. Most environments benefit from layered enforcement — pre-deployment scanning in CI plus runtime evaluation in production. We implement both layers.

We build a library of policies tailored to your compliance requirements. Common policies: all storage must be encrypted, no public network exposure without WAF, all containers must run as non-root, all databases must have automated backups, no IAM users with console access (SSO only), and all resources must have required tags. Each policy includes: a human-readable description, the compliance requirement it satisfies, the enforcement action (deny, warn, audit), and test cases that verify the policy works correctly.

Policies run as a gate in your CI/CD pipeline. Terraform plans are evaluated against OPA/Checkov policies before terraform apply executes. Kubernetes manifests are validated against Kyverno/OPA policies before deployment. Docker images are scanned against security policies before push. Non-compliant changes fail the pipeline with clear error messages explaining which policy was violated and how to fix it. Developers learn compliance requirements through immediate feedback.

Policies are version-controlled in Git with the same review process as application code. Changes require approval from the security or compliance team. Policy exceptions are tracked with expiration dates and justifications. We implement policy testing — unit tests that verify policies correctly allow compliant configurations and deny non-compliant ones. Policy coverage reports show which compliance requirements have automated enforcement and which still rely on manual review.