Application security posture management (ASPM) tools continuously manage application risk through collection, analysis and prioritization of security issues from across the software life cycle. They ingest data from multiple sources, maintain an inventory of all software within an organization, correlate and analyze findings for easier interpretation, triage and remediation. They enable the enforcement of security policies and facilitate the remediation of security issues while offering a comprehensive view of risk across applications.
Gartner defines the application security testing (AST) market as the buyers and sellers of products and services designed to analyze and test applications for security vulnerabilities. This market is highly dynamic and continues to experience rapid evolution in response to changing application architectures and enabling technologies. AST tools are offered either as software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based subscription offerings, or less often, as on-premises software. Many vendors offer both options.
Gartner defines Software Composition Analysis (SCA) as a technology that analyzes applications and related artifacts (containers, registries, etc.) to detect open-source and third-party software components known to have security and functional vulnerabilities, are out-of-date for security patches, or that pose licensing risks. SCA products and services help ensure the enterprise software supply chain includes only secure components and, therefore, supports secure application development and assembly