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Perforce Software announced the launch of Helix, a source code management (SCM) and content collaboration platform that brings distributed workflows, Git management, advanced threat detection and new deployment options to enterprises building Internet of Things devices and digital media.
Helix is hybrid version management software that supports both distributed and centralized version control. The platform includes a cloud edition, Helix Cloud, which provides file storage, sharing, collaboration, and versioning through a Web-based interface.
“With Helix, we wanted to serve the complex and sometimes conflicting needs of IoT development,” Chris Hoover, global vice president of product and marketing for Perforce, told eWEEK. “From shoes that monitor workouts to self-driving cars, today’s products reflect the combined efforts of many contributors that use different tools and different workflows. Achieving our goal meant helping companies building these products to coordinate the efforts of teams including software development, physical design, electrical design, and multimedia.”
Helix is designed to pull these threads together by supporting both centralized and distributed workflows for software development, including a comprehensive Git ecosystem, Hoover said.
“It supports large binaries. It meets enterprise needs for scalability and reliability, and it includes unique security features that protect intellectual property in ways no other SCM system can.”
Helix supports the pure Git-based workflow, while also making it possible to manage projects. GitSwarm provides a Git experience that synchronizes with the Helix Versioning Engine for visibility, security and control, according to the company.
The platform includes advanced repo management capabilities, pull requests, issue tracking, and Web hooks, plus security features that include project visibility controls, protected branches and permissions.
In addition, advanced behavioral analytics within Helix automatically detect potential IP theft across all accounts, projects and assets in the Helix platform, while monitoring all file/IP movement and user interactions to protect against IP theft, Perforce said.
The platform also allows users to pinpoint high-risk projects, suspicious staff and compromised accounts, and also accurately identifies anomalous behavior.
“The cliché is that software is eating the world, and we believe that this trend is true and will continue. This means that the software and hardware will become less and less differentiated,” Hoover said. “Traditional purely physical objects such as shoes will increasingly feature embedded software, and traditionally purely software products will increasingly extend to include hardware, such as insurance algorithms monitoring individual driving habits to assess rates in real time.”
The company plans to roll out the Helix platform over the course of the coming weeks, while Helix DVCS and Threat Detection capabilities are available immediately. Helix Git management software is in beta release and will be available for production use shortly.