Software supply chain security is maturing. The practitioners leading that charge deserve more than a customer portal.

DevSecOps teams that have gotten serious about software supply chain security share a common experience: at some point, the technical problem becomes an organizational one. The tooling works. The pipeline integrations are in place. But getting buy-in across engineering, security, legal, and leadership — and sustaining it — is a different challenge entirely.

It's also one that's rarely documented. Vendor documentation covers product capabilities. Analyst reports cover market trends. What's harder to find is practical guidance from practitioners who have already navigated adoption across multiple engineering organizations, aligned competing threat models between DevOps and security teams, or built the internal case for investment at the CISO level.

That gap is what Sonatype Innovate is designed to close.

What Is Innovate?

Sonatype Innovate is a customer advocacy program built for practitioners who are actively using Sonatype products in production. It's not a loyalty tier or a rebranded newsletter. It's a structured community where customers connect with each other, engage directly with Sonatype's product and engineering teams, and share what they've learned across the full DevSecOps spectrum — from Software Architecture and Engineering to Security, DevOps, and Legal.

Participation is built around four areas:

Direct product access. Innovators connect with Sonatype's Product Management, Customer Success, and Technical Support teams. Feedback from Innovate members has shaped platform development. If there's a capability gap creating friction in your workflow, this is the channel to surface it.

Peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. The program creates dedicated spaces for practitioners to discuss what's actually working — not polished case study versions, but the real operational details. Cross-functional collaboration is a core design element, given how often software supply chain security requires coordination across teams with different priorities.

Thought leadership and recognition. The Sonatype Elevate Awards, which recognize outstanding customer achievement in software supply chain security, draw directly from the Innovate community. The program also supports speaking opportunities and content creation for members who want to extend their profile beyond their own organization.

Professional development. Structured learning opportunities covering Sonatype products and supply chain security best practices — useful for teams still building internal depth.

Who It's Built For

Sonatype Innovate is open to Sonatype customers who are actively engaged with the platform. The program spans organizations across financial services, healthcare, technology, manufacturing, and government — and is designed for developers, architects, DevOps engineers, security practitioners, and engineering or security leaders.

You don't need a fully mature program to participate. You need real-world experience and a willingness to engage with peers who share the same challenges.

The time commitment is flexible. Members choose participation activities based on their schedule and interests. Public attribution is never required — the program includes options for anonymous knowledge-sharing and NDA-protected peer discussions.

Why Practitioner Communities Matter in This Discipline

Software supply chain security adoption often stalls not because the technology doesn't work, but because organizations can't find credible evidence that it works for organizations like theirs. CISOs want validated proof. Engineering leaders want operational examples, not theoretical frameworks.

Every practitioner who shares a real outcome, even without a public logo, moves that conversation forward across the industry. In a discipline where implementation friction remains the primary adoption barrier, and where the downstream consequences of getting security wrong range from breaches to compliance failures to supply chain incidents, that kind of peer-to-peer knowledge transfer has real impact.

Getting Started

If you're a Sonatype customer interested in connecting with peers and contributing to the direction of the platform, reach out to your Sonatype customer support representative or contact the program team directly at advocacy@sonatype.com.