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Software Licensing: Protecode Announces Enhancements to Open Source Software Management Suite

By Anil Sharma, TMCnet Contributor

Protecode (News - Alert) Inc., an innovative provider of open source license management solutions, has made major enhancements to its open source software management suite.

Officials with Protecode said that Protecode System 4, a software licensing solution that allows organizations to adopt and manage open source and third-party software attributes throughout the development cycle, now includes new reporting capabilities, workflow enhancements, and integration with additional development platforms.

According to company officials Protecode System 4's enhancements to its standard reporting options now allow security vulnerabilities associated with scanned software packages to be highlighted.

Company officials said that once all external software content is identified, Protecode System 4 reports on any known security vulnerabilities as reported by common security vulnerability databases such as the National Vulnerability Database (NVD), CERT, and others.

Protecode System 4 can also identify and highlight encryption properties associated with the identified open source packages in a report.

"IDC (News - Alert) has seen demand for open source burgeoning with a volatile economy and increased maturity on the part of available software and communities. As this occurs, the need for management of open source becomes a key aspect of the Application Lifecycle Management process," said Melinda Ballou, program director of IDC's Application Lifecycle Management Service, in a statement.

Ballou said that new capabilities that simplify usage and reduce manual effort in determining code composition and that help support compliance obligations make it easier for organizations to leverage open source code, which reduces development efforts, development time and helps minimize risk.

Back in August, Protecode announced several major enhancements to its existing Protecode System 4 software licensing management software.

System 4 now fully supports the Software Package Data Exchange (SPDX) standard, and also includes a package pre-approval workflow application, Code Administrator.

Sponsored by the Linux Foundation (News - Alert), SPDX is the result of a collaborative effort to create a standard format for communicating the components, licenses and copyrights associated with a software package.