Black Duck Code Center Accelerates Component-Based Software Development in the Era of Open Source Software

Product family expansion optimizes software development and approval workflow, enabling management of security, licensing and other issues related to external code

WALTHAM, Mass., January 28, 2008—Black Duck Software, the leading global provider of products and services for accelerating software development through the managed use of open source and third-party code, today announced Black Duck Code Center, a revolutionary open source software component selection, approval and tracking system designed to enable software development organizations to maximize benefits from the reuse of open source and other third-party software components. With the addition of Black Duck Code Center, the company’s solutions lead the industry in addressing life cycle challenges associated with application development using externally developed components.

Companies are increasingly mixing internally developed code with code from open source communities, partners, vendors, outsourcers and other third-parties. In this emerging era of component-based software development, a company’s ability to effectively manage code from external sources is fast becoming as, or even more important than, its internal development capability.

“Development organizations are struggling with the task of managing processes related to use of open source and third party code in software development. Keeping track of security vulnerabilities, usage policies and code approval workflows are challenges facing most large-scale development shops,” stated Julie Craig, senior analyst at Enterprise Management Associates. “They must also understand numerous software licenses, which, in many cases, contain obligations that conflict with their organizational policies. Black Duck Code Center seeks to provide companies with visibility and policy governance around component-based development.”

Black Duck has shipped the new product to several major technology companies and open source software industry leaders and anticipates general availability in Q1. “Navica is pleased to be an early access customer for Black Duck Code Center,” reported Bernard Golden, CEO of Navica. “Software developers want to shorten development cycles by leveraging open source and third-party components available for download. The greatest challenge for companies is managing the software development supply chain. Black Duck Code Center uniquely provides visibility and control of the development supply chain and will become an indispensible part of the software life cycle.”

Accelerates Software Development Workflow

Customers can configure Black Duck Code Center to work with the unique component usage policies that they have in place. The product makes such policies less labor-intensive to support and standardizes communications between engineers, legal, finance, security and other teams.

Joe Niski, analyst with the Burton Group, said: “Enterprises can’t afford to ignore the many benefits of open source software, but they can’t afford to ignore the risks. Words like ‘governance’ and ‘compliance’ make developers cringe. Automating the process of selecting and provisioning approved open source components presents the path of least resistance—they make developers’ jobs easier while providing the auditing and accountability management needs.”

Industry surveys document increasing reuse by developers of open source and other freely available third-party code to compress engineering schedules. However, many companies have reacted to this trend by erecting barriers to discourage leverage and reuse.

“In the initial phases of the software industry’s uptake of open source software, we witnessed enthusiasm from software engineers, but caution on the part of development managers because of the policy issues and risk associated with this approach,” observed Douglas Levin, chief executive of Black Duck Software. “With the introduction of Black Duck Code Center, companies will be able to manage these issues efficiently and effectively, enabling them to maximize open source component reuse within their development organizations.”

For additional information about Black Duck Code Center, please visit blackducksoftware.com.

About Black Duck Software

Black Duck Software is the leading global provider of products and services for accelerating software development through the managed use of open source and third-party code. Black Duck™ enables companies to shorten time-to-market and reduce development and maintenance costs while mitigating the risks and challenges associated with open source reuse, including hidden license obligations, security vulnerabilities and version proliferation. The company is headquartered near Boston and has offices in San Francisco, Amsterdam and Hong Kong, as well as distribution partners throughout the world. For more information, visit www.blackducksoftware.com.

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