Top 5 Reasons for a Code Audit

There is no denying the impact that software has had on our lives. The software industry has shown its breadth and width in the last year while it held together a broken economy and provided the infrastructure and services necessary to keep us all connected to the world in quarantine and support the remote workforce. This also means that software is being built, bought, and sold more than ever.
In turn, security measures need to amp up on all sides as hacking technology evolves to outsmart or overrun target applications to gain access as transfers happen more frequently. These are among many plausible reasons to go with a code audit for your application.

But first, what is a code audit?

A code audit is an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of your source code in a software product or app. It is the most critical stage in the security process as it ensures that the code is high-quality, resilient, and agile.

We have seen a rise in requests for code audits over the last year and we have seen many kinds of reasons for reviewing code but the reasons were always the same. While we won't cover them all here, we can get you started with the top five reasons why you need a code audit:

Security

This is perhaps the most important aspect of a code audit as it allows your trusted reviewer to search for any functional gaps or vulnerabilities that could be detrimental to your business or your product. There is nothing worse than the loss of data or access to your product and a code audit will find any backdoors or malicious code in time to save you from wasting precious resources or time on recovery and loss.

Best Practices

We are always looking to the future. There is no growth or progress from standing still and so it is with your product or solution. The key to future development is in the quality of your application's architecture, standards, and patterns using good coding practices. Understanding the current structure of the existing code means that your audit will reveal any unusual patterns or bad patches that could cause instability or stall future development.

Performance

It could be that your product or solution was built well and provided you or your seller with a long period of stability. That doesn't mean you can sleep on reviewing the code to make sure it isn't relying on outdated tools or unknown licenses. It is important to keep your code up to date so that any new security updates will not disrupt your application so you can maintain exceptional response time to end-users.

Scalability/Flexibility

The last thing anyone wants is for their application to be limited in load capacity and thus limiting any potential for growth without another investment in time and resources. That is why this is another very important reason to review the code. The application architecture must be modular and extensible to make it easy to grow and adapt to new features and technologies. It must also function properly in a multi-instance environment so it can scale up and out to accommodate more load as needed.

User Experience

This one leads back to the popularity of headless commerce, which we've written about before. There is no better user experience than the omnichannel expectations of today's consumers. This has only grown in quarantine and so must the ability to use web technologies to adapt to all the different user devices a person can and will use as they move throughout their home. This requires a modern codebase that is fast and friendly, no matter what device, size, or browser.

Now, that may be the top five but those are just there are plenty more. Every product or solution presents its own unique set of circumstances. We understand that more than anyone because we enjoy building them as well as reviewing them. So if you want to learn more about how a code audit can improve your software product or solution, whether you're buying or selling or just rebuilding, we've got you covered! Our experienced software experts would be happy to talk to you about reviewing your codebase. You can trust us to understand that a secure and stable codebase is the best foundation for the growth and well-being of any business. Reach out to us any time!