Open source policy management: How Sonatype supports security at scale
4 minute read time
As organizations rely more heavily on open source components, software composition analysis (SCA) has become essential for identifying risks. But visibility alone is not enough. What turns insight into action is effective policy management: the ability to define and enforce rules that govern how software is built.
In the Forrester Wave™: Software Composition Analysis Software, Q4 2024, Sonatype was named a leader not only for its software supply chain security capabilities, but also for its strength in policy management.
Forrester called out Sonatype's ability to set policies across the entire software development life cycle (SDLC), as well as our differentiated support for blocking malicious packages, governing license and vulnerability risks, and visualizing policy decisions where developers work, such as an integrated development environment (IDE), browser, or continuous integration (CI) pipeline.
In the third of our four-part series on the Forrester Wave report, let's explore how Sonatype's policy management capabilities help organizations create scalable, consistent, and automated open source governance practices.
Why policy management matters in modern development
Policy management is at the heart of secure software development. It's not enough to know that vulnerabilities or risky components exist. You need clear guardrails that help teams make informed decisions quickly, without slowing down innovation.
That's where open source software policy management comes in.
With hundreds or even thousands of components entering the development pipeline, organizations need to define rules for what is acceptable, from license types and security posture to component age and usage patterns. Those rules must then be applied consistently across environments.
Forrester noted that Sonatype allows policy to be "set for each SDLC stage for vulnerability, license, and open source health conditions," a capability critical to secure, enterprise-scale software delivery.
How Sonatype enables effective open source policy management
At Sonatype, policy management is more than a checklist. It's a framework built into the fabric of the Sonatype Platform, most notably through Sonatype Lifecycle and Sonatype Repository Firewall.
Here's how Sonatype helps you define and enforce policy at scale.
Reference policies and customization
Sonatype Lifecycle ships with reference policies, templates that provide a strong starting point for enforcing open source governance best practices.
These reference policies are aligned to common risk domains:
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Security vulnerabilities
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License types and obligations
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Component age and popularity
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Operational risk and project activity
You can customize these policies based on your organization's risk tolerance, legal requirements, or business needs. Policies can target applications based on criteria such as stage, lifecycle phase, and user-defined tags.
Enforcement across the SDLC
With Sonatype Lifecycle, policy enforcement isn't limited to build time.
You can apply rules and surface violations during:
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Development (via IDE integrations)
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Source control (with SCM tools)
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Build and CI (in Jenkins, GitLab, GitHub Actions, etc.)
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Production monitoring (through continuous scanning)
This enables shift-left security while still preserving control throughout the pipeline.
License governance and legal clarity
License compliance is often a blind spot in open source usage. With Sonatype's Advanced Legal Pack, legal teams can define policies for specific license types (e.g., copyleft, permissive, custom) and understand obligations at a granular level.
Our policy engine maps licenses to associated obligations and provides guidance on risk level and remediation, helping organizations navigate the complexity of open source software license policy management.
Developer-friendly experiences that drive adoption
Policy rules are only effective if developers understand and respect them.
That's why Sonatype integrates policy feedback directly into the tools developers already use.
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IDE plug-ins show policy violations inline during development.
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Browser extensions surface component health when browsing open source registries.
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CI/CD integrations provide automated enforcement and safe alternatives.
Sonatype even suggests remediation options, helping developers quickly choose a healthy component that meets policy without breaking builds.
See why Forrester named Sonatype a leader
Our leadership in policy management reflects years of focus on developer experience, automation, and secure-by-default software development.
Sonatype is proud to be named a leader in the Forrester Wave™: Software Composition Analysis, Q4 2024. To see how we stack up across categories, and why enterprises trust Sonatype to protect their software supply chains, download the full Forrester Wave™ report.
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 ...
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