Why You Should Get Started with the Rego Policy Language

The Rego policy language is the backbone of Open Policy Agent (OPA), the policy enforcement tool that helps simplify cloud-native development at scale. With OPA Rego policy, the result is a reduced manual authorization burden, improved accuracy, and quicker time to market. 

But yes, there’s a learning curve, which makes Rego a main barrier to using OPA. You might be hesitant about the time investment needed to learn a new, highly specified language. Still, knowing Rego can better prepare you for the age of policy as code. 

Read this article to uncover our top five reasons to get started with Rego now:

1. Cloud-native development is here to stay

Cloud-native development enables teams to build and run applications directly from the cloud for increased flexibility, scalability, and reliability. According to a Styra report, 97% of IT decision-makers say their organizations are planning to increase their use of cloud-native and open-source technology over the next year. 

A report by Gartner forecasts that, by 2025, cloud-native deployment will account for more than 95% of new digital workloads. Cloud systems are highly distributed and often heterogeneous, posing unique challenges to DevOps teams because unified authorization across the cloud-native stack becomes more critical than ever.

2. OPA Rego works across your entire tech stack

Policy decisions are ubiquitous in the cloud-native environment. For example, an authorization decision is required every time that:

• A microservice runs an API call on another microservice.
• A developer tries to deploy a new resource on Kubernetes.
• A system or user runs a query on a database.
• A developer tries to deploy code through a CI/CD pipeline.

OPA streamlines operations with its unified and agnostic approach. You can apply OPA Rego policies to a broad array of use cases, including microservices, Kubernetes, and Terraform.

3. Policy as code is the de-facto standard for cloud authorization

The complexity of cloud development increases the need for a policy-as-code approach that streamlines authorization across the tech stack. Policy as code removes manual policy enforcement because the rules and conditions are written into code. This process becomes more agile and responsive to changes in roles and entitlements.

Open Policy Agent uses Rego programming language to enforce policy as code across your entire cloud-native ecosystem. Unified policy management brings the following benefits:

• Improved efficiency: Centralized management allows for seamless updates across the entire tech stack, allowing developers to release code quickly. It’s more efficient and gives you more control and visibility across the environment. 

• Increased visibility and control: Different workgroups with their own processes and rules lead to silos across different departments. A single place to manage policies helps improve visibility, giving more control over the environment. 

• Enhanced accuracy, security and compliance: Automated policy management minimizes the chances of human errors. As the World Economic Forum’s 2022 Global Risks Report highlights, 95% of cybersecurity incidents can be traced to human errors. In addition to improved security, automation speeds up audits, easing compliance burdens.

Policy-based access management (PBAM) is already an established market, but it’s expected to grow even more, per KuppingerCole analysis. This market report highlights that increased concerns with cybersecurity issues drive new opportunities for PBAM – another reason to learn more about Rego/OPA. 

4. The Rego language comes with a rich community and resources to get you started

One of the benefits of Rego language is its purpose-built declarative approach. Rego has its foundation in the Datalog, which is a query language. Rego code are easy to read and write because they ask questions on data, allowing OPA to make policy decisions about whether or not data complies with it. Different inputs trigger different results, leading to different policy decisions. 

In addition, there’s a rich community of developers using Rego and eager to exchange information and get you covered. For example, the Styra DAS Rego Policy Builder makes development much easier – even for those with a limited coding background. This tool offers a point-and-click interface for OPA authorization rules. As a result, you don’t need to learn custom coding to deploy OPA.

You can easily add or delete rules. The tool also guides you through the conditions for each rule.

Ready to start coding with Rego? Check out our post on how to create your first set of Rego rules. 

5. Leverage your career with Rego code skills

Our 2022 Cloud-Native Alignment Report indicates that, for 63% of decision-makers, training employees to use cloud-native and open source tools represents a big challenge. Another factor to consider is the shortage of software developers and engineers in the U.S. market. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts a 22% growth in software development job opportunities between 2020 and 2030.

These reports suggest the growing value of developers who work with cloud-native software. Considering the increased importance of authorization within cloud-native development, the ability to use Rego to manage policy as code is going to be essential.

Get Rego and OPA training with Styra

Styra Academy offers courses that teach you everything you need to excel at OPA policy authoring. Enroll for free now and learn about Rego principles, rules, expressions and more.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is policy-based access management (PBAM)? 

Policy-based access management (PBAM) uses authorization policies to make decisions about who or what can access what type of resources or data. For an in-depth look at this topic, read our blog on the PBAM market.

What is Rego programming language?

Rego is the purpose-built language used to write policies for Open Policy Agent (OPA). Rego is based on Datalog language, but it expands its capabilities.

What is Datalog language?

Datalog is a declarative programming language derived from Prolog. 

What is a declarative programming language?

A programming language is declarative when it indicates the required result (what needs to be achieved) rather than the steps on how to achieve it.