Managed It Services Spotlight Patch Management

Anyone who uses a computer is familiar with the occasional pop-up message when your operating system lets you know updates are available

. In each release Windows has tried to make itself less unobtrusive as far as updates go. It gives you multiple options for dealing with updates ranging from letting you know when updates are available, downloading updates and letting you know when theyre ready to install and the full auto-pilot mode where it downloads and installs the updates without any user interaction.

The process can work well when configured for personal computers. Some of us though are better than others at keeping their computers updated. There are, unfortunately, plenty of others who simply turn off the automatic updates; leaving their computers and data exposed to the latest security threats. As far as your business goes, you cannot and should not rely on your employees to run updates on their computers.

Patch Management is a vital process for businesses, although many businesses overlook it. Patch management is not a single one-time activity. Rather it is an ongoing process that is a critical part of your businesses security management. The scope is not limited to individual computers. For businesses, the scope includes desktops, laptops, servers, firewalls, network routers and switches, software, and other equipment. With the increasing amount of network-connected electronic equipment coming into businesses, the need for patch management is even greater today.

The patch management process covers multiple activities. These activities include maintaining lists of available patches, deciding which patches are appropriate for each system, installing and testing patches once installed, and documenting the patches on each system to assist in troubleshooting later if needed.

A key activity of the process is testing for compatibility and problems before deployment of patches. Simply applying a patch as soon as it is released is not the best-practices procedure for a business, as patches may fix a specific problem, but cause unexpected problems of their own. Unfortunately, many businesses recently learned this lesson the hard way. A routine update released by McAfee, for its popular virus protection software, inadvertently caused an estimated tens of thousands to possibly even millions of computers to crash and become inoperable. Businesses across the world were crippled all due to an improperly tested update.

Putting a proper patch-management solution into place should be a high-priority for your businesss IT security initiative. Partnering with a company that has a proven track record of successful patch management solutions can help ensure your business is properly prepared for todays IT challenges.

Copyright (c) 2010 Karl Muhlbach

by: Karl Muhlbach

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