Heidelberg-based Virtual Forge GmbH was named “Cool Vendor 2011“ in the SAP ecosystem. This title is awarded annually by Gartner, the leading international information technology analysts. For Gartner, a „Cool Vendor“ is a company with products or services regarded as innovative, impressive, and groundbreaking. “SAP Security was always an important topic”, said Dr. Markus Schumacher, CEO of Virtual Forge. “For us it’s a confirmation that SAP Security is a must-have for every customer and that we have the right solution in the market.”

Virtual Forge received the award for its SAP solution CodeProfiler. The tool analyzes ABAP code and automatically detects security and compliance vulnerabilities. In its current report “Cool Vendors in the SAP Ecosystem, 2011”, Gartner states that this tool gives ABAP developers full control over their code now [1]. Every year, Gartner analyzes new products and services for unsolved challenges which are fit for use in the business world. The results of this research go into their so-called “Cool Vendor” report. In this report, Gartner doesn’t claim to list all vendors in a certain technology area. Instead, the report focuses on introducing new, interesting, and innovative vendors with their products and services. “Being Cool Vendor is like an acknowledgement for many years of research that our team has invested in the field of SAP Security”, said Andreas Wiegenstein, who is CTO of Virtual Forge and responsible for research and development.

About CodeProfiler

Virtual Forge CodeProfiler quickly and easily discovers security vulnerabilities, back doors, performance bottlenecks, as well as maintainability problems in ABAP code as well as third-party programs and add-ons. It automatically detects and prioritizes these problems, ensuring effective issue handling. Integration of CodeProfiler into the ABAP development process (TMS/ChaRM and approval workflows) guarantees enforcement of your requirements and compliance on the process level.

Virtual Forge’s solution portfolio contains guidelines for secure ABAP programming, CodeProfiler, TMS/ChaRM integration as well as trend analyses in SAP BI/BO. Customized consulting packages ensure a successful implementation. SAP AG itself has recently chosen CodeProfiler for internal use.

About Virtual Forge GmbH

Virtual Forge GmbH is an independent security product company based in Heidelberg, Germany. Our employees are leading experts in the area of SAP application security. Our unique ABAP security knowledge has been captured into CodeProfiler, the first static code analysis tool with data- and control-flow capabilities for ABAP security and compliance testing. CodeProfiler and related products of our ABAP security suite enable companies to develop business applications that meet state of the art security and compliance standards.

Worldwide, companies running SAP have improved their ABAP development lifecycle with Virtual Forge's ABAP security suite. Our solutions are applied in industries such as defense, pharmaceuticals, banking, oil & gas, automotive, engineering, health care, agriculture, and insurance. Virtual Forge also cooperates with renowned ISVs. SAP has recently licensed CodeProfiler for internal use.

About Gartner's Cool Vendors Selection Process

Gartner's listing does not constitute an exhaustive list of vendors in any given technology area, but rather is designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness of a particular purpose.

Gartner defines a cool vendor as a company that offers technologies or solutions that are: Innovative, enable users to do things they couldn't do before; Impactful, have, or will have, business impact (not just technology for the sake of technology); Intriguing, have caught Gartner's interest or curiosity in approximately the past six months.

References

[1] Gartner, Inc. “Cool Vendors in the SAP Ecosystem, 2011” by Thomas Otter, Thomas E. Murphy, Christian Hestermann, Jeff Woods, John Hagerty, Tim Payne, Nigel Montgomery, 15 April 2011.