On the sixth stop of a multi-city tour, ISMG and Sonatype visited San Francisco for an engaging discussion on how to mitigate risks introduced by open source software. Sonatype CMO Matt Howard discusses the relevance and value of this application security conversation.

The reason why this topic resonates so well across sectors and regions? "Because software is the last path for differentiation in every industry," Howard says, "and whether you know it or not, every business in the world today is largely a software company."

In an interview following the SF event, Howard discusses:

Why the open source topic resonates so well; The maturity of the SF crowd; The value of these roundtable discussions for attendees and sponsors alike.

A proven executive and entrepreneur with over 20 years experience developing high-growth software companies, Howard leads Sonatype's corporate marketing, strategic partnering and demand generation initiatives. Prior to Sonatype, he co-founded, developed and successfully sold two software companies. Earlier in his career he led sales and marketing at USinternetworking (acquired by AT&T) and Groove Networks (acquired by Microsoft) where his teams distributed workgroup collaboration products to enterprise customers.