What is The Value of DevSecOps?
Hello and welcome to today’s SPK and Associates vlog. My name is Michael Roberts, Vice President of Sales and Marketing here at SPK.
DevSecOps has become a strategic priority for engineering organizations. But with so many platforms and claims in the market, leaders are asking one simple question: What’s the real, measurable value?
Today, we’re going to cut through the noise and focus on the metrics that matter and the things that are most important. We’re going to talk about adoption at scale, cycle time, speed to market, and industry validation. We’re going to talk about the five metrics that prove the value of GitLab DevSecOps.
I’m joined by Darla Kost from our team. Darla, feel free to introduce yourself.
Hi everyone, my name is Darla Kost. I’m a DevOps Engineer at SPK. I’ve been here about a year and a half, doing a lot of GitLab pipeline work. I’m happy to get started.
Michael: Darla is going to share insights into the five data-backed metrics that show why enterprises are standardizing on GitLab for their DevSecOps platform. Let’s dive into the first one.
Enterprise Adoption at Scale with GitLab
Michael: Darla, let’s start with the big picture. From an enterprise adoption standpoint, what does GitLab’s footprint look like among today’s largest companies?
Darla: From an enterprise adoption standpoint, GitLab already has a very strong footprint. More than half of the Fortune 100 companies use GitLab in some capacity.
If that tells you anything, it’s that this isn’t just an emerging or niche platform. It’s trusted by many of the largest and most complex organizations in the world—organizations that have a lot happening day to day.
These companies operate at massive scale, often in highly regulated environments, and GitLab is meeting those needs across the full software delivery and DevSecOps lifecycle.
Michael: This is another area that’s important for organizations evaluating GitLab. They’re looking at scale and the number of users because they want to make sure it’s not a platform that might disappear.
Can you talk about the size of the GitLab user base and what that means for innovation and the open-source component?
GitLab User Base and Community Impact
Darla: Scale absolutely matters. GitLab’s community is one of its greatest strengths.
GitLab has over 50 million users worldwide, which creates a continuous feedback loop for innovation and support. Features are shaped by people actually using the tool across many industries and use cases.
That includes everyone from startups to global enterprises. This level of scale accelerates improvements, helps harden the platform faster, and ensures customers aren’t betting on something that’s standing still or not moving forward.
Cycle Time Reduction and Unified Platform Value
Michael: One of the major promises of DevSecOps is reducing cycle time. I’m a strong proponent of measuring how long it takes to go from concept to production.
What measurable improvements have teams seen after adopting GitLab’s unified platform?
Darla: One of the biggest outcomes we’ve seen is a dramatic reduction in cycle time.
GitLab customers report an average 82% decrease in cycle time, which is significant for organizations of any size—from startups to large enterprises.
This improvement is largely driven by eliminating tool sprawl. Planning, code, CI/CD, security, deployment, and documentation all live in a single platform.
That means less context switching, fewer handoffs between teams, and much more automation embedded directly into the workflow.
Michael: Context switching is something engineering teams want to avoid at all costs.
Speed to Market and Release Velocity
That leads us into the next metric: speed to market. Whether you’re developing a physical product or software, speed is everything—especially for teams under pressure to deliver more with fewer resources.
What results have companies seen in release velocity after moving to GitLab?
Darla: This is where GitLab really shines.
Organizations consistently report up to six times faster time to market after adopting GitLab. When teams standardize on a single DevSecOps platform, they remove friction at every stage—from the initial idea to the production environment.
Releases become more predictable, quality improves, and teams can respond to business needs faster without burning out engineers.
Industry Validation and Analyst Recognition
Michael: Last question. Let’s talk about industry validation.
How does GitLab compare to other DevSecOps platforms in the eyes of analysts like Gartner and Forrester?
Darla: GitLab is consistently recognized as a leader.
Both Gartner and Forrester have repeatedly acknowledged GitLab for its vision and execution in the DevSecOps space. That recognition reflects not only the depth of GitLab’s features, but also its long-term strategy, scalability, and customer outcomes.
Unlocking The Value of DevSecOps with GitLab
Michael: Darla, thank you for answering some very important questions—especially for organizations evaluating GitLab and deciding whether it’s the right platform for them.
Darla: Absolutely. Anytime.
Michael: To recap, we’ve covered why so many engineering organizations are adopting GitLab: strong Fortune 100 adoption, a massive global user base, dramatic reductions in cycle time, faster delivery to market, and consistent recognition from industry analysts.
All signs point to GitLab delivering DevSecOps value at scale.
If you’re evaluating GitLab, planning a migration, or looking to get more value from your existing DevSecOps investment, SPK and Associates helps organizations design, implement, and optimize GitLab in regulated and complex engineering environments.
If you found this content helpful, be sure to like the video and subscribe to the SPK and Associates YouTube channel for more content like this.
Thank you again, Darla, for being here. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next conversation.
