How to push security earlier into the dev process

A new crop of products is emerging that aim to implant security best practices and compliance checks as early and often as possible when new infrastructure is spun up in the cloud or when new applications are launched in a rapid development environment.
The idea behind these products is that security should be incorporated into the entire life cycle of resources being used or applications being developed. Some vendors contend that too often security assessments are either not performed, or they