SCA vs. SBOM: How They Differ & Why They Work Best as a Team
Data breaches cost organizations an average of $4.88 million globally—with U.S. companies facing even higher costs at $9.36 million per incident. But the real concern is the explosive growth in supply chain attacks, which saw a staggering 540% year-over-year growth from 2019 to 2022 and doubled again in 2024. Yet most organizations struggle with a fundamental question: Should we invest in software composition analysis (SCA) tools, software bill of materials (SBOM) management, or both?
This article breaks down how SCA and SBOM differ and why they are most effective when used as complementary tools.
SCA vs SBOM TL;DR
- SCA
==Automated software scanning tool that analyzes all components/dependencies and structure of your applications - SBOM
==Standardized and interoperable application component inventory that acts as source-of-truth for numerous supply chain use-cases - Business Impact: Together, SCA
+SBOM:- Reduces zero-day vulnerability disclosure response time from days to minutes
- Saves developers time by automating security, compliance, legal, etc. feedback
- Meets compliance requirements of frameworks like FedRAMP, EU CRA, etc.
- Bottom Line: You need both—SCA generates the deep structural raw data, SBOMs create actionable insights across your organization
SCA vs. SBOM: Basic Definitions
What is Software Composition Analysis (SCA)?
SCA automatically identifies and profiles all software components (both direct and transitive dependencies) in your applications—like running your codebase through a CT scan that reveals the internal structure of your software. It automates the previously manual codebase review and documentation process or reverse-engineering a compiled binary to determine its composition.
For a deeper dive on SCA, check out our Introduction to SCA.
Note: Often SCAs definitions include the ability to identify and track vulnerabilities but this isn’t precisely true. The SCA process detects individual components and a separate vulnerability scanning process matches the software components against publicly disclosed vulnerabilities (e.g., CVEs).
What is a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM)?
An SBOM is a document that stores metadata about an application. It includes data, such as,
- dependencies,
- supply chain relationships,
- known vulnerabilities,
- OSS/proprietary licenses,
- compliance requirements—
- really anything you might want to track about a software artifact.
Beyond acting as documents, SBOMs are also an interoperable data standard. Two primary organizations manage the SBOM standard, OWASP (CycloneDX format) and the Linux Foundation (SPDX format). By standardizing on common data fields and types (e.g., JSON/XML), the software ecosystem is able to use an SBOM generated by any supplier to power a number of diverse use-cases (see below).
Has your interest been piqued? Get into the nitty-gritty with our Introduction to SBOMs.
SCA vs. SBOM: Key Differences
Outside of these basic definitions, SCA and SBOMs differ a few key ways:
- Purpose & Benefits: Saving time for developers & operations vs. generating actionable insights for entire software supply chain
- Use-cases: How they are applied in real-world supply chain use-cases like security and compliance scenarios
SCA vs. SBOM: Purpose & Benefits
Understanding these tools starts with their core purposes, but the real value emerges in how they complement each other.
SCA
Key purposes and benefits:
- Saves developer and DevSecOps team time from manual dependency review by automating software decomposition process
- Enables scaling of software composition scanning—SCA can automatically be run at multiple stages of DevSecOps lifecycle (e.g., development, build, stage, production) to detect supply chain drift or malicious injection
- Creates deep transparency (direct and transitive dependencies) into software supply chain of individual artifacts
SBOM
Key purposes and benefits:
- Allow seamless supply chain ecosystem integration by utilizing standards-based, interoperable data format
- Enables real-time insights into software supply chain through centralized inventory and automated analysis
- Used as scalable source-of-truth for software supply chain use-cases, including:
- Security
- Compliance
- Licensing
- Etc. (see below for specific use-cases)
Use-cases
SCA Use-cases
- Continuous monitoring: SCA integrates into multiple stages of CI/CD pipelines to create a record of how composition of a software artifact changes over time.
- Deep transparency: Define direct dependencies as well as transitive dependencies (dependencies of dependencies) to recursively map the supply chain of an artifact.
- License discovery: Identify software licenses explicitly attached to a supply chain component.
SBOM Use-cases
- Regulatory compliance: SBOMs help organizations automate software security compliance with standards like FedRAMP, cATO, SSDF and PCI DSS.
- Incident response: Security teams use SBOMs to quickly determine whether software is affected by newly discovered vulnerabilities.
- Proactive, shift left development: Developers generate SBOMs to get automated and incremental feedback from other stakeholder departments like security, compliance, legal, etc.
Shared Use-cases
- Risk management: Both tools help organizations reduce security risks by increasing software transparency and risk analysis.
- Regulatory audits: Companies use SCA and SBOM together to meet compliance standards.
- Vulnerability tracking: SCAs identify components, SBOMs document the components and vulnerability scanners match the components to known vulnerabilities.
- Legal exposure management: SCAs identify components and licenses, SBOMs are analyzed to determine if any dependencies expose the organization to legal consequences.
Here is an easy reference table with the key differentiators:
| SCA | SBOM | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Application component scanning tool | Application supply chain document & interoperable standard |
| Purpose | Decompose and report on software components and structure | Store software metadata (e.g., components/structure) in scalable and interoperable format |
| Use-cases | • Continuous software monitoring • Deep supply chain transparency • Automates component license discovery | • Automates regulatory compliance audits • Zero-day disclosure incident response • Proactive, shift left development practices |
| • Cybersecurity risk management • Regulatory compliance audits • Vulnerability management • Legal exposure management | ||
| Compliance | • Not explicitly named but effectively required by all modern compliance standards (e.g., FedRAMP, cATO, PCI DSS, etc.) | • Explicitly required by EU CRA, US EO 14028, etc. • Not explicitly named but effectively required by all other modern compliance standards (e.g., FedRAMP, cATO, PCI DSS, etc.) |
Interested to learn about all of the software supply chain use-cases that SBOMs enable? Read our new white paper and start unlocking enterprise value.
Strengthening Security & Compliance: Why SCA & SBOM Work Better Together
SCA and SBOM serve different but complementary roles in a risk management strategy. When used together, they provide:
- Deep supply chain transparency and large enterprise use-case breath: SCA provides deep analysis of software supply chains while SBOMs serve as the source-of-truth for numerous supply chain use-cases that generate enterprise value for departments across the organization.
- Regulatory compliance support: All modern cybersecurity regulatory frameworks require both proactive vulnerability detection (SCA + vulnerability scanning) and software component tracking (SCA + SBOM).
- Enhanced supply chain security: Using SCA’s real-time scanning alongside SBOM’s dynamic inventory analysis and reporting ensures organizations maintain a secure software supply chain even during a crisis like a zero-day disclosure.
How SCAs help generate SBOMs
When an SCA tool scans a software artifact, it executes deep dependency resolution and component enumeration:
- extracting package manifests,
- analyzing binary signatures, and
- constructing complete dependency graphs—including transitive relationships.
This metadata extraction process generates structured component inventories containing:
- precise package identifiers (CPE, PURL),
- version specifications,
- cryptographic hashes, and
- hierarchical dependency mappings.
The SCA scan result is then inserted into a standardized SBOM format—typically either SPDX or CycloneDX—creating machine-readable documents.
An SBOM can then be enriched by utilizing a vulnerability scanner to run a match function comparing the component version inventory against one or more publicly available vulnerability databases like National Vulnerability Database (NVD), GitHub Security Advisories, and vendor-specific databases. To help illustrate these relationships, see the diagram below.
Tips & Tools for Combining SCA & SBOM in Your DevOps Lifecycle
1. Automate SCA & SBOM Integration in CI/CD
Security best practices start with automation. Integrate SCA into your CI/CD pipeline to scan for vulnerabilities before deployment and configure SBOMs to generate automatically with every build. Automating both ensures continuous security checks while maintaining development velocity.
Tools to try: Anchore Secure enables automated composition scanning, vulnerability scanning and policy enforcement directly in CI/CD workflows while Anchore SBOM centrally stores, manages, and analyzes them.
2. Align SCA & SBOM with Risk Management & Compliance Policies
Define clear security policies for detecting and mitigating vulnerabilities flagged by SCA. SBOMs should serve as the source of truth for software composition, ensuring compliance with licensing requirements, regulatory frameworks, and internal security policies.
Tools to try: Anchore Enforce automates compliance checks by applying customizable policy packs that evaluate security, license risks, and regulatory requirements in your SBOMs.
3. Monitor SBOMs for Newly Discovered Vulnerabilities
A deployed SBOM is not static—security teams must continuously monitor it for newly disclosed vulnerabilities. By cross-referencing SBOM data against the latest vulnerability intelligence, organizations can proactively mitigate risks before they become exploits.
Tools to try: Use Syft to generate SBOMs and Grype to scan SBOMs for vulnerabilities in real-time. For enterprise-grade continuous monitoring and vulnerability remediation, Anchore SBOM combined with Anchore Secure provides deep insights, runtime context, and secret/malware scanning.
4. Ensure Development Teams Use Both Tools Effectively
Security is most effective when seamlessly integrated into development workflows. Teams should be trained on how to interpret SBOM data and vulnerability reports, ensuring they can act on security findings early in the development lifecycle.
Tools to try: Anchore Enterprise combines SCA, SBOM management, vulnerability scanning, and policy enforcement into one unified platform, making it easier for development and security teams to collaborate.
Learn about the future of SBOMs and how the evolution is impact all things software supply chain—including security!
