Protecode Launches System 4

Market Wire, July, 2010

Protecode, Inc., a solution provider for managing open source software licenses, today announced Protecode System 4, the latest refinement of a suite of capabilities that enables all sizes of enterprise businesses — small, medium and large — to efficiently and cost-effectively identify open source content in their source code and determine their licensing obligations. System 4 installs as a simple overlay on existing design, development and testing environments without changing any existing workflows.

The core of System 4 is the Protecode open source reference database that matches source code against a comprehensive list of 450,000 open source software projects. Using a modular architecture to enable a wide variety of deployment possibilities, System 4 comprises a set of lightweight clients installed throughout an organization with minimal overhead on IT infrastructure and technical staff. System 4 can be easily customized for individual company divisions, product lines, or geographic offices with this architecture, including centralized or project-level user group, role, permission and license policy administration.

“Despite the increased use of open source and other third-party software, Protecode is among only a few vendors capable of analyzing code through its use of source code signature databases,” said Jay Lyman, enterprise software analyst with The 451 Group. “Software such as Protecode’s System 4 can enable enterprises to adopt and use open source software more effectively and safely.”

“In the last year some big names have been involved in legal cases because they overlooked their open source license obligations. We developed Protecode System 4 to prevent that sort of problem,” said Mahshad Koohgoli, CEO, Protecode. “Now organizations can scan all incoming source code and outgoing software products to make sure their licensing view is up-to-date and their legal obligations are being managed.”

Protecode System 4 delivers substantial improvements in three key areas: scalability, a new user interface and improved data relevance. Enterprise users can now instantiate multiple virtual instances of Protecode System 4 enabling different groups within an organization to set up their own open source management systems with specific roles and intellectual property policies. System 4 offers a completely revised web UI that delivers streamlined download, installation, and configuration as well as substantially improved navigation of software components and corresponding license obligations for greater ease of use and efficiency.

Additionally, Protecode System 4 provides multiple dimensions of analysis targeted to business, technology and legal domains. Aside from generating a comprehensive software inventory report, the system fully cross-references all licensing and copyright attributes to illuminate the full set of licensing obligations the enterprise is legally responsible for and includes significant algorithm advances to ensure highly accurate identification of open source code.

Protecode System 4 is available now.

About Protecode
Protecode provides a comprehensive solution for managing open source software licenses
change management software