Design and Implementation of a Cloud-Native Automated Certification Platform for Functional Testing and Compliance Validation

Abstract

With the increasing complexity of software systems and the strengthening of a lot of regulation, it is increasingly difficult for a company to test its software is functionally valid and conforms to the regulation. Old-school, manual certification methods are slow, error-prone, and don’t fit the pace of agile and DevOps processes. In this paper, a Cloud-Native Automated Certification Platform (CNACP) which incorporates functional testing and compliance validation in the continuous integration and delivery pipeline is designed and conducted. Based on microservices, containerization, and Kubernetes orchestration, the platform automates the entire certification lifecycle—from conducting the tests to enforcing policies and creating audit artifacts. Compliance as code enables regulatory rules to be embedded as code, versioned and checked regularly - instead of traditional static audit. The system integrates with popular testing and CI/CD tools, which makes the uptake smooth and straightforward, with no need to change the existing way of work. Case studies from healthcare, finance, and government show that CNACP has obviously reduced certification time and enhanced traceability and reliability. With certification integrated in the software development process, the platform enables faster time-to-market, higher software quality and persistent compliance in a scalable and automated form. This points the way towards maturing DevSecOps capabilities, and offers things for organizations to consider as they evolve their certification and compliance models.