The power of dependency updates
Give your devs what they need to get proactive with dependency updates.
Challenges
Obvious doesn’t mean easy
Keeping dependencies current is one of the most effective AppSec methods available, since it prevents vulnerabilities from entering the code base at the outset. It should be a no-brainer, but updating dependencies is a complex task that takes time and often introduces technical debt.
Security risk vs. dev deadlines
There’s a reason devs prioritize developing applications over running maintenance checks—applying updates takes time, especially if an update requires reworking your code.
The complexity of context
Especially in a complex dependency tree, it’s difficult to even know what libraries or packages are out of date. Manually looking for updates is time-consuming and unrewarding work.
Merge anxiety
Updates may not always be compatible with existing code, and without total confidence in merging an update, devs worry that an update will break their app.
Opportunities
Remove the risk. Reap the rewards.
As a critical tool to shrinking technical debt and the application attack surface, dependency management isn’t an individual developer matter. It’s an organizational problem that needs to be solved in a more efficient and secure way.
Full-scale automation
Automated dependency updates streamline and optimize your devs’ entire dependency management process.
Centralized responsibility
Deploying automated tools organization wide not only shifts responsibility from individual developers, but also ensures consistency across all applications and simplifies the development process.
Merge confidence
Providing devs with a calculated merge confidence rating for each pull request allows them to immediately submit high-confidence updates and significantly cut their workload.
The solution
Mend Renovate
Reduces risk, improves code quality, and cuts technical debt by automatically ensuring all dependencies are kept up to date.