Reference Architecture Diagram + Narrative (change without chaos)
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ SOURCES OF TRUTH │
App Repos (Git) │ IaC Repos (Net/Cloud) │ Policy-as-Code │ Images/Helm │
└───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┘
│ │
▼ ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ CI STAGE (BUILD & VERIFY) │
│ • Static code scans (SAST) • IaC lint/validate │
│ • SBOM build & sign (SLSA) • Unit/contract tests │
│ • Image build & sign (Sigstore/Notary) │
└───────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
│ attested artifacts (SBOM + signature)
▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ SECURITY GATES (PRE-DEPLOY) │
│ • Secrets scan (no hardcoded) • Vuln/License gates │
│ • Policy-as-Code (OPA/Conftest): │
│ - Residency tags - Network guard rails │
│ - ZT access rules - DLP/data-handling labels │
└───────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
│ pass → promote / fail → fix PR
▼
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ CD STAGE (APP + NET + CLOUD CONFIG DEPLOY) │
│ • GitOps controllers (ArgoCD/Flux) watch desired state branches │
│ • IaC: Terraform/Pulumi/Ansible for cloud/Net/SASE/SD-WAN │
│ • Progressive delivery: canary/blue-green/feature flags │
│ • Change windows & CAB integration (ITSM) │
└───────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
│ drift detection + rollback hooks
▼
┌───────────────────────────────────────────┐ ┌────────────────────────────┐
│ RUNTIME ENVS (Prod/DR/Edge) │ │ PLATFORM CONTROLS │
│ • K8s/VMs/Serverless • Network policies │ │ • IdP/MFA • PAM/JIT │
│ • Service mesh (mTLS) • ZTNA connectors │ │ • HSM/KMS/PKI • Vault │
│ • SD-WAN/SASE policy applies at deploy │ │ • SIEM/SOAR • AIOps │
└───────────────────────────────────────────┘ └────────────────────────────┘
Telemetry & Evidence ──► AIOps (SLO/SLA) • SIEM/SOAR (events) • ITSM/CMDB (changes) • GRC/WORM (audit)
Narrative (how you change fast without breaking the covenant)
1) Purpose & posture
- Objective: Ship application, network, and cloud changes safely and predictably across all domains (#1–18) with attestation, policy enforcement, and instant rollback.
- Posture: Everything-as-code (apps, infra, network, SASE), Git as the single truth, signed artifacts, policy-as-code gates, and observable outcomes tied to SLAs and compliance.
2) Sources of truth (syntax of intent)
- Separate Git repos for apps, IaC (cloud/network/SASE/SD-WAN), policies (OPA/Rego), and charts/images.
- Branch strategy (main/dev/hotfix) and PR reviews standardize intent before pipelines fire.
3) CI + attest (semantics of integrity)
- SAST, dependency scanning, SBOM generation and image signing produce attested artifacts.
- IaC validation (terraform validate/plan, security linters) prevents misroutes, open security groups, or data-residency violations—before they exist.
4) Security gates (law at the gate)
- Policy-as-Code (OPA/Conftest) checks:
- Region tags & data-sovereignty flags,
- Zero-Trust exposure rules,
- DLP labeling requirements for data paths,
- Least privilege on cloud roles/routes.
- Failure sends developers actionable findings in the PR pipeline; success promotes to controlled branches.
5) CD + GitOps (grammar of deployment)
- GitOps controllers (ArgoCD/Flux) reconcile desired state → runtime, constantly detect drift and auto-heal or open a change ticket.
- Progressive delivery (canary/blue-green/feature flags) limits blast radius; network & SASE policy commits ride the same pipeline (IaC for routes/VRFs/segmentation/ZTNA).
6) Runtime & platform controls (pragmatics)
- Service mesh (mTLS), ZTNA connectors, network policies, and KMS/Vault secrets are applied atomically with app/config releases.
- PAM/JIT gates privileged actions (rollouts/rollbacks), recorded for audit; IdP/MFA enforces who can merge what.
7) Telemetry, evidence & rollback (truth under pressure)
- AIOps watches SLOs (latency, error rate, MOS, SCADA metrics); regressions auto-trigger rollback/pause plus ITSM incidents.
- SIEM/SOAR consumes pipeline and runtime events; GRC binds each release to immutable evidence (WORM) for PCI/HIPAA/NERC/… audits.
Reference KPIs
- Change lead time: ≤24 h (critical fixes ≤2 h)
- Change failure rate: ≤2% (progressive delivery)
- Mean time to rollback: ≤5 min (one-click GitOps revert)
- Drift mean time to detect: <60 s
- Policy conformity (pre-prod gates): >98%
Minimal BOM (aligned with prior matrix)
Git, CI runners, SAST/DAST/dependency scan, SBOM + signing (Sigstore/Notary), OPA/Conftest (policy-as-code), Terraform/Pulumi/Ansible, ArgoCD/Flux (GitOps), feature-flag service, Service mesh (mTLS), ZTNA connectors, SD-WAN/SASE IaC modules, Secrets/Vault + HSM/KMS/PKI, IdP/MFA + PAM/JIT, SIEM/SOAR, AIOps/Observability, ITSM/CMDB, GRC + WORM audit store.