Gartner Identifies Virtual Forge as Cool Vendor in the SAP Ecosystem

HEIDELBERG, Germany, July 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Heidelberg-based Virtual Forge GmbH is 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 has always been an important topic", said Dr. Markus Schumacher, CEO of Virtual Forge. "For us, being awarded this title validates our belief in SAP Security being a must-have for every customer and that we have the right solution in the market."

     (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20110708/467093-a )

     (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20110708/467093-b )

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 Cool Vendor report. In this report, Gartner focuses on introducing new, interesting, and innovative vendors with their products and services. "Being named a Cool Vendor by Gartner is an acknowledgement of the many years of research that our team has invested in the field of SAP Security", said Andreas Wiegenstein, CTO of Virtual Forge, 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. It also prioritizes all defects, ensuring effective issue handling. The integration of CodeProfiler into the ABAP development process (TMS/ChaRM and approval workflows) allows companies to efficiently enforce their requirements and achieve compliance at the process level.

Virtual Forge's ABAP security suite contains guidelines for secure ABAP programming, CodeProfiler and trainings. Customized consulting packages ensure a successful implementation. SAP AG itself uses CodeProfiler for internal QA since 2010.

About Virtual Forge GmbH

Virtual Forge GmbH is an independent security product company based in Heidelberg, Germany. Its employees are leading experts in the area of SAP application security. Their 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 Virtual Forge's 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. These solutions are applied in industries such as defense, pharmaceuticals, banking, oil & gas, automotive, engineering, health care, agriculture, and insurance.

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, as they enable users to do things they couldn't do before;
• Impactful, meaning that they have, or will have business impact (not just technology for the sake of technology);
• Intriguing, because they caught Gartner's interest or curiosity during 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, April 2011.

Press Contact:
Tracey Stross
+49(0)6221-868900
tracey.stross@virtualforge.com
http://www.virtualforge.com