nSyte launches audit tool for open source code

LAFAYETTE, COLO: nSyte Software, a Colorado start-up specializing in software testing tools, today announced the launch of its new product called nQuire which will help software development companies audit code real-time to proactively address the potential inadvertent use of licensed open source software.

Use of open source software has exploded in recent years among software development companies of all sizes. Pressure on companies to keep software development costs low and meet demanding development deadlines has resulted in more programmers looking for ways to crunch more code in less time. The result is that more proprietary software may inadvertently contain open source code, much of which is subject differing and often cumbersome license agreements.

“There’s nothing wrong with utilizing free open source code,” said Philip Bice, vice president of Sales and Marketing for nSyte Software.

“The issue gets tricky, however, when a company needs to certify that there either isn’t any open source in their product or that they have complied with all necessary licensing terms when open source has been used. Ignorance isn’t an excuse and stating that you are compliant only to find out that is not the case can be a costly mistake, both legally as well as from a product reengineering perspective,” he added.

Many outsourced software developers have contracts requiring them to provide details of any known open source software used during development.

The nQuire audit tool works by comparing program coding to date against a database of thousands of the latest known open source software — either on an ad hoc basis or each time a software build is triggered. Any open source code used can be quickly identified to determine what, if any, work-around is required in order to avoid potential open source software licensing issues.

nQuire is a subscription based software audit tool, software developers of all sizes will pay as little as $250 per month to get the protection they need to be legally compliant with open source code licensing, the release added.