The complexity of the "software supply chain" has exploded and continues to grow. Think of the software product you buy as a car that has just rolled off the assembly line. While the car as you know it is branded by the automaker, many of the components within (i.e. brakes, batteries, tires, even software too) come from other providers. Likewise, software is a mix of proprietary source code created by the vendor, commercially licensed code, and open source code. Open source components have a wide-range of licensing styles with unique permissions and restrictions. This makes it difficult to generate a complete and accurate inventory of what is used in the software - a software bill of materials (SBOM).
Just as it is very economic and productive for an automaker to use OEM suppliers, likewise, it is very smart for software developers to leverage open source software (OSS). Faster development, greater reliability, better user experiences, and more time to innovate are a few top benefits.
But to take advantage of OSS projects, software developers need to manage both the legal and security risks inherent to integrating third-party components. Software Composition Analysis (SCA) brings order to the chaos by giving software developers confidence that they know what's in their code, that they are adhering to the OSS licenses, and that they can identify and remediate any security vulnerabilities.
With the invention of AI-generated code, SCA has never been more critical to software vendors. SCA tools must be advanced enough to not only detect OSS components, but even identify code snippets belonging to OSS components that may have been copied-pasted from AI code generators like ChatGPT, GitHub CoPilot, or Google's AlphaCode 2 to name a few.
SCA also requires expertise. Skilled and knowledgeable open source auditors are necessary to fully leverage the tools, make accurate identifications and classifications, and assess risk levels.
Software Composition Analysis (SCA) is a crucial process that helps organizations identify, assess, and manage open source components within their software applications. With SCA tools, businesses can achieve several benefits, including identifying open source components, assessing security risks, ensuring compliance with licenses, and enhancing overall software quality.
The complexity of the "software supply chain" has exploded and continues to grow. Think of the software product you buy as a car that has just rolled off the assembly line. While the car as you know it is branded by the automaker, many of the components within (i.e. brakes, batteries, tires, even software too) come from other providers. Likewise, software is a mix of proprietary source code created by the vendor, commercially licensed code, and open source code. Open source components have a wide-range of licensing styles with unique permissions and restrictions. This makes it difficult to generate a complete and accurate inventory of what is used in the software - a software bill of materials (SBOM).
Just as it is very economic and productive for an automaker to use OEM suppliers, likewise, it is very smart for software developers to leverage open source software (OSS). Faster development, greater reliability, better user experiences, and more time to innovate are a few top benefits.
But to take advantage of OSS projects, software developers need to manage both the legal and security risks inherent to integrating third-party components. Software Composition Analysis (SCA) brings order to the chaos by giving software developers confidence that they know what's in their code, that they are adhering to the OSS licenses, and that they can identify and remediate any security vulnerabilities.
With the invention of AI-generated code, SCA has never been more critical to software vendors. SCA tools must be advanced enough to not only detect OSS components, but even identify code snippets belonging to OSS components that may have been copied-pasted from AI code generators like ChatGPT, GitHub CoPilot, or Google's AlphaCode 2 to name a few.
SCA also requires expertise. Skilled and knowledgeable open source auditors are necessary to fully leverage the tools, make accurate identifications and classifications, and assess risk levels.