Back in 2008, the team of WhiteSource was trying to push through the sale of their then software company Eurekify. They encountered several challenges down the road and thus decided that their next entrepreneurial mission would be to save other companies from the same hassle and nightmare. Together they designed a solution to automate all tasks surrounding the use of open-source components—a solution built by a software development team, for software development teams. Now, WhiteSource is the only all-in-one licensing, security, and reporting solution for managing open source components.
It’s everything software development teams need to get the maximum out of using open source components, without the headache, so they can focus on what they should be doing – making beautifully constructed software.
Saving Customer’s Substantial Time and Resources
In 2011, Ron Rymon, Azi Cohen, and Rami Sass founded WhiteSource, an open source security and license compliance management platform. WhiteSource secures and manages the open source components in the software. The platform offers its clients with full control and visibility over the open source usage through real-time alerts, the automated enforcement of policies at different stages of the software development process, and the generation of comprehensive reports. This unique platform supports more than 200 programming languages, making it easy for the customers to develop secure software without compromising on speed or agility.
The WhiteSource Prioritize solution helps customers to focus on real vulnerabilities in its open source code by determining whether proprietary code is utilizing them. This significantly reduces the number of false-positive security alerts and saves its customers substantial time and resources.
Risk Management throughout Various Sectors
Over the years, market has developed immensely that has led to much advancement in the market. One such recent development in the market is the risk management culture throughout the organization. Being one of the leading risk management tool providers, WhiteSource caters to both security teams and software development teams. Both the groups vary differently in its respective sectors thus making risk management requirements different. This sometimes makes it difficult to meet the needs of respective sector, as each focus on different aspect of risk management. Due to catering to vast sectors it sometimes becomes challenging to fulfill all the risk management requirements. Risk management should be owned only by a small group of people, but by everyone within the organization. The companies benefit by embedding risk management throughout the organization, covering all areas and activities.
Serial Entrepreneur Learning Through Errors and Trials
Rami Sass is the Co-founder and CEO of WhiteSource, and one of the brains behind the idea of establishment of the company. The platform is an open source component management solution that allows engineering executives to effortlessly manage the use of open source components in their respective software. Rami himself is an expert and entrepreneur with a background in R&D and product management. He and his team’s idea was to allow developers to focus on building great products and eliminate the hassle.
Prior to founding WhiteSource, Rami became an expert in designing and implementing complex security management and compliance software systems and delivering them to the market for Eurekify and CA. Today with a vast experience in defining innovative products, leading technology groups and growing companies from seed level to business maturity, he has turned into one of the industry veterans. Throughout the journey he has encountered various roadblocks but his belief has been to learn through errors and trials.
“We will continue to help companies secure their applications and lead the open source security space through the continuous innovation of our product,” commented Rami.
Autonomy Fuels Creativity
The success of the company is not an individual’s responsibility but the result of the joint efforts of the team. The best of team members can be achieved when each one of them is given the freedom to explore their creativity. At WhiteSource, the team members are provided with the support they need to do the job while also giving them the full autonomy over their area of responsibility. Autonomy motivates people to think creatively without needing to conform to strict workplace rules. It also builds trust, increases the feeling of belonging, and improves innovation.
Rami further adds, “I believe the best way to learn is through trial and error. This is why I encourage my team not to be risk averse. I tell them that taking risks is a great way to grow as long as you learn from your mistakes and optimize your process while getting the job done.” Thus, the team at WhiteSource is allowed to experiment with the ideas and have the liberty to make mistakes as long as they are learning from it.
Focusing On Simplifying Open-Source Usage
2020 has introduced a shared model of responsibility in risk management. Though risk management is no longer owned only by one team, every department views risk management differently. Being one of the former software development teams, WhiteSource understands how its clients view risk management tools and strive to offer the tools needed to reduce risk without slowing down development. As WhiteSource also caters to security teams, the team is also committed to mitigating the overall risk by helping the companies.
The ultimate goal of the company is to simplify open source usage and make it accessible and reliable so that businesses can harness its power without exposing themselves to unnecessary risks.
