Breaking the CI/CD bottleneck: Scaling Embedded DevSecOps with containers and automation

Embedded development is changing. Products are smarter, more connected, and more safety-critical than ever. But while the devices evolve rapidly, the processes behind building them often don’t. Many embedded teams are still stuck with rigid CI/CD pipelines, manual handoffs, and toolchains that can’t keep up with the complexity of modern development.

That’s the bottleneck we set out to break in our recent webinar, “Breaking the CI/CD Bottleneck: Scaling Embedded DevSecOps with Containers and Automation.” Together with my colleagues Shawn Prestridge, David Källberg, and Ben Tsai, we explored how DevSecOps practices, containerization, and automation can unlock massive efficiency for embedded teams, without sacrificing safety, security, or compliance.

When DevOps entered the mainstream, it promised speed and agility. But in the embedded space, things aren’t quite that simple. You’re often working with legacy architectures, strict certification requirements, and highly customized environments. The result? CI/CD pipelines that can’t scale, integrations that break, and teams wasting time debugging problems that should have been automated away.

Why DevSecOps is the missing piece

That’s where DevSecOps comes in. It’s more than just a buzzword, it’s a mindset shift. It means building security and compliance directly into the development workflow, not bolting them on at the end. It means shifting testing left, using static analysis early, and embedding secure boot, IP protection, and firmware encryption from day one. And it means creating a unified, architecture-agnostic process that works across development, QA, and deployment.

Containers: The game-changer for embedded CI/CD

For embedded teams, containers are the breakthrough technology that make all of this possible. With Docker, you can standardize environments across cloud runners, local desktops, and on-premise servers. No more “it works on my machine.” No more guessing which tool version caused the build to fail. Just consistent, reproducible pipelines that run anywhere.

Why tools aren’t enough: you need a platform

But tools alone aren’t enough, you also need a platform that’s purpose-built for the needs of embedded developers. That’s where IAR shines. With our platform, teams can use C-STAT to catch bugs and enforce coding standards before a single line of code hits the build. C-RUN catches stack overflows, memory leaks, and other critical runtime issues that slip through testing. Embedded Trust bakes security into your workflow with automated signing and encryption. And with support for over 20 architectures, including Arm, RISC-V, RX, and RL78, you're never locked into a single vendor or toolchain.

A real demo: One repo, three architectures, zero hassle

In the webinar demo, we saw this in action. David Källberg walked us through a live setup where a single GitHub repository ran pipelines for Arm, RISC-V, and RL78 devices, each with their own static analysis, build, and secure packaging steps. Everything was containerized, and everything just worked. Pipelines ran in GitHub Actions using both self-hosted and cloud runners, with security and compliance checks embedded from the very start.

Start small, Scale smart

What this shows is that embedded DevSecOps doesn’t have to be intimidating. You don’t need a massive team or a total overhaul. You can start small, build on what you already have, and introduce automation and security at a pace that makes sense for your team. With containers, orchestrators like GitHub and GitLab, and IAR’s flexible toolchain, you can scale without breaking things, and meet safety and security standards with confidence.

In a world where software defines more and more of your product’s value, the ability to iterate quickly, trace changes, and deliver high-assurance code isn’t just a competitive advantage. It’s a necessity. And with IAR, you don’t have to compromise between quality and speed.

Explore the IAR platform for yourself

If you’re ready to take the next step, I invite you to explore our platform for yourself. Visit iar.com/try-platform, request your trial, and see how embedded DevSecOps can help your team go further, faster and safer.

Want to dive deeper? Watch the full on-demand webinar and discover how IAR is helping embedded teams break through CI/CD barriers and scale with confidence.

Let’s build what’s next, together.