OpenLogic: Open Source Scanning On The Rise

The use of open-source software is clearly on the rise in the enterprise, as evidenced by the momentum of a key player offering a critical service for enterprise adoption of open source: open-source scanning.

OpenLogic, a provider of open-source scanners, open-source governance solutions and community-backed open-source support for the data centre and the cloud, today announced that it saw a more than 730 percent increase in the number of files scanned in first quarter of 2012 from the same period in 2011.

Rise of enterprise open source

Open-source scanning tools have become increasingly important for the enterprise, as the use of open source continues to grow. Gartner reports that more than half of enterprises have already adopted open-source software.

Scanning tools are essential for helping organisations identify which open-source components they are using and how to comply with open-source licence obligations in order to avoid legal disputes.

OpenLogic offers open-source scanning products and services engagements that help enterprises safely manage and leverage open-source software. OpenLogic helps customers understand how much open source it uses, where specific open-source packages are used, and what needs to be done to ensure compliance with open-source licences.

“OpenLogic has become a trusted open-source partner for hundreds of Fortune 500 enterprise customers, as well as medium-sized businesses,” said Steve Grandchamp, chief executive of OpenLogic, in a statement. “Our enterprise customers applaud our open-source scanners’ speed and accuracy and appreciate that our product road map is driven largely by customer input. Our agility has enabled us to conduct scans on millions of files quickly and accurately for our growing number of customers.”

OpenLogic features software as a service- (SaaS-) based scanning solutions, including two open-source scanning tools and a platform for reporting open-source licence obligations.

Free scanning tool

The company’s OSS Discovery is a free open-source scanning tool that finds the open-source software included in internal applications and installed on corporate workstations and servers. OSS Discovery does not require access to source code; thus it is useful for taking inventory of open-source software in deployed applications or on servers and desktops.

Meanwhile, OSS Deep Discovery scans source code and binaries to identify open-source code and licenses, even when the open-source code has been modified or copied. OSS Deep Discovery is useful for enterprises that are engaged in merger and acquisition activities or that distribute software or products containing software.

OSS Deep Discovery can be licensed for in-house use, or OSS Deep Discovery scans can be performed as a service by OpenLogic.

For its part, the Open Source Licence Compliance Module is an add-on feature of OpenLogic Exchange (OLEX) that enables enterprises to report on open-source code – and the associated licence obligations – included in products or applications.

The Open Source Licence Compliance module integrates with OSS Deep Discovery, as well as third-party source-code scanning tools. It provides a list of open-source licence obligations based on how the open-source code was used, and it highlights any potential licence conflicts.

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