Taking Back Control of the Software You Depend On

Across security and engineering teams, the stories tend to sound the same. A late notification about a new vulnerability. An audit waiting first thing in the morning. A release that cannot miss its deadline. The pace is relentless, and the stakes continue to rise. Delivery cannot stop, yet proof is still required that the code, the data, and the systems behind them are secure.

In conversations like these, a single theme comes through again and again. Control. Not control for its own sake, but control that brings clarity when the pressure is highest. Control that lets leaders answer hard questions quickly and keeps the team moving without adding friction.

The Open-Source Dilemma

Open source is the backbone of modern software. You use it because it saves time, and it lets your team stand on the shoulders of a global community. The hard part is the day after you ship. A new issue is disclosed. Someone asks where that library came from and which version is in production. You open a spreadsheet that no one fully trusts. You start tracing dependencies. You ask two more teams for their notes. An hour goes by.

This is not a failure of intent. It is a gap in visibility. Most teams inherit components from many places. Some updates are delayed because other work is louder. Over time, you collect a stack of unknowns. When a critical flaw is announced, the scramble is real and expensive. The lesson is simple. Open source management is not a nice-to-have. It is part of basic security.

SBOMs: The New Language of Trust

The Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) has emerged as a key tool in addressing these challenges. At its core, an SBOM is just a clear list of what is inside your application. When a new flaw is made public, you want three answers fast. Do we use the affected component? Where is it running? Who owns the fix? An accurate bill of materials turns that from guesswork into a short conversation. It also helps you respect licenses and gives customers confidence that you know what you are shipping.

Regulatory bodies like NIST and CISA now recommend SBOMs as a best practice, and industries such as healthcare and automotive are starting to require them for safety and liability reasons. 

Creating and maintaining these inventories takes discipline and the right tools. The payoff is time back when it matters: fewer meetings, fewer blind spots, and faster decisions.

Data Sovereignty: From Compliance to Strategy

As open-source management becomes a strategic priority, organizations are also taking a closer look at where their data resides and who has jurisdiction over it. Where data lives affects who can look at it and which laws apply to it. Customers ask where findings are processed and where reports are stored. Regulators do the same. The answer is both about control and about trust. Some teams are comfortable with public cloud services. Others need everything to stay inside their own boundary or within a national region. Both paths are valid. What matters is that you choose a setup you can defend to a customer, an auditor, and your own board.

Data sovereignty, the idea that data is subject to the laws of the country where it’s stored, is no longer a footnote. According to a recent Gartner report, more than 70% of countries have introduced or are drafting data sovereignty laws. These regulations are reshaping how organizations store, transfer, and process data, especially in cloud environments. For many, this means shifting toward localized infrastructure or on-prem solutions to reduce exposure to foreign surveillance and stay aligned with national laws.

But beyond regulations are larger issues of trust. A Cisco survey found that 92% of consumers want their personal data stored within their home country. For businesses, that preference translates into stronger customer relationships and a competitive edge.

When sensitive code or scan results are processed in third-party environments, visibility and control can slip away. For security teams, this is a dealbreaker. The ability to run critical operations like vulnerability scanning and remediation entirely within a trusted boundary is critical.

A Short, Practical Playbook

Like many others, your organization is probably weighing the best approach to improving open-source control and maintaining the right amount of data sovereignty.

Start by making the unseen visible. Keep an inventory of the components you rely on and make it easy to search. Let developers validate findings where they write and review code. Shorten the loop between a report and a working fix.

Decide where your sensitive work should run. If you need everything inside your own walls, plan for that. If you can use cloud services, set clear rules for what goes where.

Measure your time to understand and your time to fix. Share those numbers. Aim to make both smaller every quarter.

How We Are Responding with AppScan 360º

At HCLSoftware, we built AppScan 360º Version 2.0 to support the kind of control you need. With this cloud-native application security platform you can run the full set of tests on your own infrastructure. You can keep open source analysis and SBOM generation inside your trusted boundary. You can connect results to the places where developers work so they can see, reproduce, and fix issues without a long back-and-forth. The goal is simple: Clear visibility, faster decisions, and less noise.

Contact HCLSoftware today to schedule a demo of HCL AppScan 360º Version 2.0 or visit us online to learn more about the range of application security testing solutions available.