CAST helps accelerate Cloud Migration with new software intelligence
New York and Paris, March 18, 2021 - CAST, the pioneer and category leader in Software Intelligence,
today announced major technological advancements to speed up the time to benefit of migrating application portfolios to the cloud and to reduce cybersecurity risks associated with open source software (OSS) components.
As organizations migrate their most critical workloads to cloud, decisions on which applications to migrate and how are often based on partial data, which results in unexpected roadblocks, delays, risks, and cost overruns. Moreover, those who do invest time to assess application cloud readiness may spend weeks to evaluate a single application.
CAST Highlight, a software intelligence SaaS platform for rapid analysis of application portfolios, assesses cloud readiness and OSS exposures in minutes. Its latest release takes the ability to accelerate migration planning to the next level with the introduction of its unique Portfolio Advisor for Cloud and its exclusive Open Source Software Intelligence Database (OSSIDB).
Portfolio Advisor for Cloud
The most critical and time-consuming aspect of planning cloud migrations is determining if, where, when, and how to take advantage of containers, more cloud native services, platform as a Service (PaaS), and serverless. The Portfolio Advisor for Cloud automatically segments application portfolios comprised of 100s (or even 1000s) of apps in seconds using a model similar to the ubiquitous Gartner 5 Rs. It automatically recommends which applications are the best candidates to Rehost, Refactor, Rearchitect, Rebuild, or Retire using fact-based software intelligence derived from the source code. Users can customize the recommendations and tailor their roadmaps directly within the Portfolio Advisor for Cloud user interface.
The new capability builds on the cloud readiness insights CAST Highlight already provides such as identifying cloud migration blockers and boosters, estimating cloud migration effort, and recommending best-fit cloud native services.
Open Source Software Intelligence Database (OSSIDB)
Understanding the cybersecurity risks associated with the use of OSS components is also required when planning successful cloud migrations. However, the Common Vulnerabilities & Exposures (CVEs) officially reported in the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) often become published months after their initial discovery in OSS, which gives hackers ample time to exploit them before they get addressed. The exclusive OSSIDB from CAST tackles this problem head on. Traditional Software Composition Analysis (SCA) products identify reported CVEs from the NVD and some augment the findings via manual research by human analysts. CAST, on the other hand, automatically identifies possible future CVEs, that are not yet reported, by analyzing the most popular OSS components as soon as they change, detecting Common Weakness Enumerations (CWEs) in them, and classifying them as potential CVEs in its OSSIDB.
The OSSIDB augments the unique SCA insights already available in CAST Highlight such as the Open Source Safety index which combines vulnerability, licensing, and obsolescence risk into a single score, as well as the ability to analyze OSS risk across an entire portfolio and prioritize remediation based on the business impact of each application.
Growing Ecosystem
The advancements announced today by CAST are made possible by its $200M+ investment in its “MRI for software” for automated analysis of the structural condition of software assets, which is now used by a growing range of CAST Business Partners. Blackbelts from Microsoft Azure Services and AWS use CAST for reducing the time to assess application readiness for cloud migration from weeks to days. IBM experts use CAST with their clients for faster and safer application modernization. Other leading global SIs - Accenture, CGI, Cognizant, Infosys, LTI, Wipro; management consultancies - BCG, Bain, EY; and numerous regional CAST partners now leverage CAST to accelerate digital transformation of their clients.
More Flexible Pricing and Packaging
To support the growing global adoption of software intelligence and the explosive growth in the CAST Highlight business, CAST now offers three editions of CAST Highlight – Complete Insights, Cloud Insights, and SCA insights, which allows clients the flexibility to choose the option that best meets their portfolio needs at attractive price points.
For more information, please contact Stephanie Watkins at s.watkins@castsoftware.com
About CAST
CAST is the pioneer and category leader in Software Intelligence, providing insight into the structural condition of software assets. CAST technology is renowned as the most accurate “MRI for Software”, which delivers actionable insights into software composition, architectures, database structures, critical flaws, quality grades, cloud readiness levels and work effort metrics. It is used globally by thousands of forward-looking digital leaders to make objective decisions, accelerate modernization, and raise the security and resiliency of mission critical software. Visit castsoftware.com.