By
Jyoti Tejpal
Designed for small to medium businesses Solution helps to deploy multiple applications Execute scripts Remotely execute commands to Windows systems Updates simultaneously to multiple Windows PCs
Detects vulnerabilities & patches them instantly Endpoints fully secure Scans missing patches Downloads updates & deploys them on endpoints from a centralized cloud-based console Supports major OSs & third-party applications
Provides additional layer of security Application level complements Endpoint security Identifying critical vulnerabilities Easy to deploy patches Integrated with Avast Business Cloud Management Console Single console for SMBs.
Patch Management Software provides IT teams install security patches to get business endpoints and networks up to date. A patch is a solution update comprising a code which is inserted into the code of an existing program. It provides IT personnel detect and avert potential security risks and issues with previous software releases.
Patch management is the procedure to distribute and apply updates to software. The patches are required to correct errors in the software. Common areas that will require patches are operating systems, applications, and embedded systems. While vulnerability is detected after the release of a piece of software, a patch is used to fix it. By doing so, it helps in ensuring that assets in the environment are not susceptible to exploitation.
Security: Patch management fixes vulnerabilities on the software and applications which are most susceptible to cyber-attacks, helping the organization reduce its security risk.
System uptime: Patch management confirms the software and applications are kept up-to-date and run smoothly, supporting system up time.
Compliance: Organizations are mostly required by regulatory bodies to maintain a certain level of compliance with the continued increase in cyber-attacks. Patch management is a important piece of adhering to compliance standards.
Feature improvements: Patch management can go beyond software fixing bugs to include feature and functionality updates. Patches can be critical to ensure that the latest and greatest product has to be offered to you.
Secure environment: When regularly patching vulnerabilities, it provides a system to manage and decrease the risk that exists in your environment. It offers protection to the organization from potential security breaches.
Happy customers: If the organization is selling a product or service which needs customers to use the technology, organisation knows how crucial it is that the technology actually works. Patch management is the process of fixing software bugs, which helps keep your systems up and running.
No unnecessary fines: If your organization is not patching and, therefore, not meeting compliance standards, you could be hit with some monetary fines from regulatory bodies. Successful patch management ensures that you are in compliance.
Continued product innovation: Organisation can implement patches to update the technology with improved features and functionality. This can offer the organization with a way to deploy the latest innovations to the software at scale.
The patch management process has following steps :-
Improved security: Patch management tools constantly analyze security gaps across a network and fix them by installing the required patches immediately. This keeps the network and its connected endpoints safe from new and evolving threats.
Enhanced performance: Even a small bug can lead to downtime and impact employee productivity. Regular installation of new patches can provide help and address the concern by automatically detecting and fixing bugs. This increases the performance of existing applications and increases the work mode by making systems faster and more stable, in turn improving employee productivity.
Support for IT team: Patch management tools allow IT teams to remotely install patches into servers and endpoints. This helps in eliminating the requirement of physically visiting every system, saving time which can be put to a better use for monitoring other critical network operations.
Automatic patch deployment: Automatically helps in installing the latest patch releases and keeping systems up to date.
Automatic scans: Continuously scanning all systems in real time for security issues and other upgrade requirements.
Network-wide management: Managing patch deployments from a central system for all applications connected to a network.
Vulnerability scanning: Scanning endpoints to check that systems are more vulnerable to threats.
Custom patches: Creating and installing customized patch codes as per requirement.
Remote access/control: Accessing and controlling systems from a remote location.
Most products in the market are priced on per device, per month basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price. A premium product is priced higher and include additional features, like advanced policy feature, rule-based patching engine, and SAML authentication.
Scanning flexibility: The tool you wish to buy should have the capability of scanning network applications while simultaneously deploying missing patches. This is all the more necessary when you have a complex network infrastructure with teams working remotely across time zones. Therefore, flexibility in application scanning and patch installation should be a key consideration during software purchase.
Intelligent patch deployment: Checking whether the preferred software can deploy patches automatically or they require a human intervention for the task. The tool should be able to analyze intelligently the bandwidth and other network settings before installing updates. It should segregate patches as mandatory or regular and accordingly set up installation policies. It must also define a sequence where multiple patches are to be installed to ensure one patch doesn’t overwrite another.
Impact on business performance: Installation of patches must not be impacted by the productivity of the business or result in downtime. So it’s crucial to choose a non-intrusive software that scans systems in the background without affecting production. The solutions can even postpone automatically the installation of patches when they detect a slow network.
Patch management market to continue to grow: The global patch management market is expected to be valued at $1000 million approximately in coming years . Increasing vulnerabilities and deployment of third-party applications are the key factors driving the overall growth. In the coming years, more organizations are expected to use patch management software for managing the issues.
Integration with other IT management suites: In the future, patch management tools will be integrated into other IT operations management applications. It would allow sellers to provide a holistic IT management tool that will organize and manage the entire software life cycle, from deployment to expiry.
