Software is a critical part of almost everything we do today, from the cars we drive to the phones we use. It's no wonder that companies are willing to pay top dollar for the newest and most innovative software. But what many people don't realize is that behind every piece of software is a complex supply chain, one that's essential to keeping our technology running smoothly. In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at what the software supply chain is and why it matters. We'll also explore how companies can better manage it and ensure that their software remains high quality and up-to-date. Stay tuned!
The software supply chain is a complicated web of software development and delivery. In order to understand the software supply chain, we need first to understand a short history of software.
Software is everywhere - it's an instruction set that tells your computer what to do. From single line code or entire operating systems, software has been around since the 60s when computers became more powerful and complex tasks were started being performed with them using programs created through this process called "software engineering." In 1964 – While developing the guidance and navigation systems for the Apollo missions, renowned mathematician and computer scientist pioneer Margaret Hamilton coins the term “software engineering.”
This led to the birth of software engineering, which is the process of designing, building, testing, and maintaining software. Since then, most modern software applications today is developed using a combination of proprietary, open-source, and third-party components, APIs, and protocols.
Then the software supply chain is anything and everything that affects your software. This also includes all the people who write the code, the tools they use, the infrastructure and platforms, the testing environments, and more. It includes all the steps in taking software from its initial conception to its final deployment. In order to ensure everything runs smoothly, securely, fast, and reliably, development and operations teams have to orchestrate and manage a complex software supply chain.
This is a big reason why software development projects have a high-failure rate, in fact According to a 2020 report from the Consortium for Information & Software Quality, unsuccessful software projects cost companies $260 billion, and software systems with operational failures cost $1.56 trillion. - Forbes
The recent string of high-profile security breaches has put the spotlight on the need for better security in the software supply chain. The Equifax breach, in particular, showed how vulnerable enterprises can be when their software delivery process is not up to par. The distributed nature of modern software development, like microservices and service-oriented architectures (SOA), has become so popular because of the promise of faster innovation through distributed work. This fragmentation of development and deployment environments is transforming the game for software providers.
Thank you for reading! I hope this has been helpful. Please leave a comment if you have any questions or would like to share your own experiences with the software supply chain. Stay tuned for future posts where we will explore specific aspects of the software delivery and management process in more detail.