Future-Proofing Your Software Supply Chain with SCA Best Practices
5 minute read time
Open source software (OSS) is the backbone of modern software development, empowering industries from finance and healthcare to government and technology to innovate faster and reduce costs. However, this widespread adoption brings a growing and complex web of security challenges.
With open source components making up 90% of the average application, vulnerabilities are a constant threat. Developers download an estimated 1.2 billion vulnerable dependencies every month, giving bad actors ample opportunities to infiltrate critical systems.
Software composition analysis (SCA) has emerged as a critical capability to help organizations gain visibility into their dependencies, evaluate associated risks, and ensure license compliance.
To address the evolving risk landscape, Sonatype's recent webinar, "Future-Proof Your Software Supply Chain: 2025 SCA Best Practices," outlined actionable insights and strategies that leading organizations are using to stay ahead of emerging threats.
The State of Open Source Risk
The attack surface of modern applications is expanding, not just from known vulnerabilities, but also from the complexity of software supply chains, regulatory shifts, and the speed of development.
Key themes covered in the webinar included:
-
The significance of SCA as a foundational part of secure software development.
-
The risk of transitive dependencies hidden in trusted packages is often overlooked.
-
The importance of automation to keep pace with scale and velocity.
-
Shifting security left to detect issues earlier in the SDLC.
-
Cultural alignment across Dev, Sec, and Ops drives adoption of best practices.
Core Strategies for Managing Open Source Risk
Organizations need more than just vulnerability scanning. They need a holistic approach that integrates security across people, processes, and tools. SCA plays a key role in this strategy by enabling visibility, control, and governance over open source components. Consider the following best practices as top priorities.
Set Measurable Security Goals
Quantifiable objectives help teams monitor progress and demonstrate the effectiveness of security efforts.
Metrics to consider:
-
DevSecOps adoption rate
-
Policy violation trends
-
Mean Time to Remediate (MTTR)
-
Fix rates for known vulnerabilities
With SCA platforms, teams can track these metrics in real time and generate reports that align with compliance and audit requirements.
Automate, Automate, Automate
Manual processes cannot keep up with today's development speed. Automation not only increases coverage, but also reduces the burden on developers.
Benefits of automation include:
-
Auto-configuration of security tools to reduce setup friction.
-
Continuous scanning of direct and transitive dependencies.
-
Automated enforcement of SCA policies across pipelines.
-
Automatic pull requests for non-breaking version updates.
-
Policy enforcement and real-time feedback in developer workflows.
Shift Left With Continuous Feedback Loops
Integrating security early, and often, in the development pipeline helps teams catch and resolve issues before they hit production.
Key practices:
-
Embed security scans into CI/CD pipelines.
-
Use developer IDE plugins for real-time insights.
-
Treat early-stage alerts as informational to encourage iterative fixes.
-
Apply stricter enforcement closer to release to avoid shipping risk.
Advanced SCA tools enable this shift-left approach by embedding checks at every stage, from developer IDEs to the CI build pipeline, giving teams real-time insights into security posture.
Smarter Prioritization With Reachability Analysis
Not all vulnerabilities are created equal. Many reside in unused parts of libraries, posing no actual threat. Reachability analysis identifies which vulnerabilities are exploitable based on how code is used, allowing teams to focus on what truly matters.
This targeted approach results in:
-
Reduced alert fatigue.
-
More efficient remediation workflows.
-
Optimized use of security resources.
Building a Security-First Culture
Technology alone isn't enough. The most effective security strategies require cross-functional alignment and a culture that embraces secure development as a shared responsibility.
To future-proof your software supply chain, foster:
-
Buy-in from Dev, Sec, and Ops teams.
-
Seamless integration of security tools into development workflows.
-
Regular reviews of KPIs to track improvement.
-
Executive support for ongoing investments in AppSec.
SCA tools can play a unifying role by offering shared dashboards, policy-as-code support, and audit trails that give stakeholders visibility and accountability.
Proactive Risk Management, Proven Results
Effectively managing software supply chain risks requires continuous dedication. By implementing SCA, organizations can significantly enhance security and resilience.
The most secure organizations continuously adapt by combining:
-
Automation to scale with speed.
-
Continuous integration to catch issues early.
-
SCA-backed prioritization to focus on what's critical.
These strategies not only reduce risk, but also empower developers to innovate without compromise. By embedding security into every stage of the SDLC, and anchoring that effort with robust SCA, organizations can safeguard their applications, customers, and reputations in 2025 and beyond.
Want to hear more from Sonatype experts on how to navigate what's next? Watch the full webinar recording.
Aaron is a technical writer on Sonatype's Marketing team. He works at a crossroads of technical writing, developer advocacy, software development, and open source. He aims to get developers and non-technical collaborators to work well together via experimentation, feedback, and iteration so they ...
Explore All Posts by Aaron LinskensTags
Try Nexus Repository Free Today
Sonatype Nexus Repository is the world’s most trusted artifact repository manager. Experience the difference and download Community Edition for free.