There is an abundance of developers in the software development Dubai industry; something which flourishes with several development sectors rising and falling every year. Despite the industry being so vast, even small changes can have major impact

Changes like the recent increase in demand for ASP.NET development services and the gradual fall of LAMP development services in the Middle East indicate that certain trends can potentially bring unimaginably big changes to the industry. Among all those changes, there are still a couple of things that simply are being kept from changing either deliberately or otherwise - Code Security. 

Not all software developers in Dubai actually give due importance to securing their code. Large enterprises have their own security policies to protect their code. But smaller ones tend to stick to the basics when it comes to keeping their source codes safe. Defending or securing the code is important as writing the code itself. 

Here are 3 steps recommended by experienced developers in the ASP.NET development services domain to protect your software.

Patent the software

Many businesses agree that patenting concepts and ideas surrounding a source code is a wise move and an ongoing process. However, in practice, many businesses fail at this. Even giants like Facebook and Twitter failed to patent things that really mattered. It's best to patent everything including the developers' research and the components of the code that'd be valuable to peers and competitors. 

Non-disclosure clauses

The developers should be prepared to defend their intellectual property concerning the software source code they wrote. However, this won't be enough to keep trade secrets secret. Even a copyrighted property can have its secrets revealed. This is why comprehensive non-disclosure agreements are a necessity. The developers should have such an agreement between their clients and partners, in addition to adopting strict copyright practices regarding sales contracts and licenses. 

Software escrows

Sometimes clients would want assurances from developers that if something was to happen to the development company, the clients would still be able to use the software given to them without any obligations or hassle. This typically entails customers seeking access to the source code so that they could seamlessly utilize the software even in worst case scenarios where the development firm shuts down. 

Still, it's not a great practice to give customers access to the source code. To alleviate this predicament, the software developers and customers can use a software escrow service. 

A software escrow service stores the source code securely with a third party escrow company until an event (for example, bankruptcy) mutually agreed upon by the developers and their clients come to pass. This way the developers won't have to give customers the access to their source code while the customer can rest assured that they would still be able to use the software even if the developers are out of the picture. Almost every leading application management services company offers escrow services today. 

Conclusion

It's always best to get professional legal advice when it comes to securing the source code and protecting trade secrets. There are many things developers can do aside from those that are mentioned in this article. The bottomline is that source code security is not to be taken lightly.