CAST was ahead of its time in advocating for software intelligence. Did you face resistance when pitching the idea to enterprises? If yes, how did you navigate that?
Yes, in the early days, there was indeed resistance. Software intelligence was a new concept and many enterprises were focussed on traditional methods of managing software quality and risk.
The biggest challenge was educating decisionmakers about the importance of leveraging data-driven insights to improve software systems. To navigate this, we focussed on demonstrating clear and tangible outcomes – better risk management, improved software performance and reduced operational costs.
The software intelligence solutions address this issue by helping Indian businesses reduce inefficiencies, optimise IT infrastructure and boost developer productivity by up to 25 per cent. These improvements translate into faster software delivery timelines and greater innovation.
Indian customers and partners are already seeing impressive results, including a 20 per cent increase in developer productivity, a 15 per cent reduction in rework, 35 per cent faster ramp-up for new developers and a 50 per cent reduction in software knowledge transition time, with efficiency improvements up to 10x faster.
CAST’s insights are used by top-tier companies worldwide. Any instances of regional or cultural differences in how enterprises approach software quality and risk? If yes, kindly tell us about the same.
Absolutely. We’ve seen varying approaches depending on the region. In North America and Europe, enterprises have a long history of data-driven decision-making and a more well-established framework for software governance. In contrast, in regions like India and parts of Asia, there is tremendous enthusiasm for digital transformation, but there’s still a bit of a gap in terms of awareness of the importance of software quality at an enterprise level.
In India, for example, while the appetite for adopting new technologies is immense, there is a need for more awareness and education around the significance of integrating software intelligence into the development lifecycle. This is one reason why we’re excited about our expansion into India. Software intelligence and its expanding footprint in India further solidifies the country’s role as a key partner in our global vision for sustainable and innovative growth.
Given the rise of software supply chain attacks, how can software intelligence help to mitigate risks that traditional security tools might overlook?
Traditional security tools often focus primarily on the final product or end-user vulnerabilities, rather than the code that makes up the software itself. Software intelligence, however, can provide a deeper and more granular look at the health of software at every stage of its development lifecycle. By analysing software architecture and dependencies, we can detect risks that might not be visible to traditional security measures.
Technical debt, outdated or inefficient code is one of India’s biggest challenges in its journey to become a $1 trillion digital economy by 2030, but software intelligence can help to identify unsafe code dependencies, outdated libraries and risky third-party integrations that could be exploited in supply chain attacks. By providing real-time, proactive visibility into the integrity of software components and how those interact, software intelligence can serve as an additional layer of security to mitigate risks that other tools might miss.
What, according to you, is one cybersecurity threat that the industry is still underestimating? What immediate steps should be taken to overcome it?
Many organisations are still relying on outdated software architectures that have not been updated or patched for years, creating vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit. Organisations focus on perimeter defences and external threats and frequently overlook the vulnerabilities to inherent within their own software systems.
We advocate for a proactive approach to software development and maintenance, and recommend implementing continuous software intelligence practices, such as regular code analysis to identify and rectify vulnerabilities early in the development process, automated testing to ensure that security measures are consistently applied and effective, comprehensive monitoring of software performance and security post-deployment to detect and address issues promptly and collaboration between development and security teams to foster a culture of shared responsibility for software integrity.
What industries or verticals, do you believe, are currently underutilising software intelligence, but could see massive benefits, and how?
As India advances into Digital India 2.0 under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government is increasingly recognising the critical role of software in delivering efficient, secure and citizen-centric services. However, unlike technology or retail sectors, government systems have traditionally underutilised software intelligence, often grappling with legacy infrastructure and the complexity of large-scale digital projects.
With growing digital ambitions, ensuring software quality, security and reliability has become essential. Software intelligence can play a pivotal role in this transformation—by helping to detect risks early, improve system performance and safeguard sensitive public data. In a governance model where transparency, efficiency and trust are paramount, smart software is no longer optional.
With the increasing adoption of AI-driven development tools, your comment on whether human engineers would become more like software curators than coders?
That’s a great question. I believe we’re heading towards a future where the role of engineers will evolve, but they will still play an essential part in the software development process. Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven tools will certainly help to accelerate development and reduce manual coding efforts, but humans will always be needed to provide the creativity, problem-solving and strategic oversight that AI cannot replicate.
India’s 5.2 million developers are central to CAST’s strategy. India’s unmatched developer talent will be instrumental to modernise legacy systems, reduce technical debt and transform digital ecosystems across industries.
Engineers will also be responsible for supervising and interpreting the insights that AI tools generate to make strategic decisions. The role of a coder will transform, but engineers will remain at the heart of innovation.
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