The Basics and Benefits of Automated Patch Management
First of all, what is patch management?
Generally speaking, patch management is the procedure of identifying IT vulnerabilities and bugs in applications, software, or systems installed on endpoints within the network and fixing them by deploying patches.
As you may have already guessed, automated patch management, in principle, bears little difference compared to patch management, apart from one point — automation. It comes as no surprise that patch management is strongly recommended to be automated. If you don’t take advantage of delivering patches swiftly, then someone else will take advantage of your existing security vulnerabilities — as simple as that.
H2 What is a patch management procedure: best practices
It is vital to note that IT vulnerability and patch management go hand in hand. The latter is the remediation of the former. And as with all remedies, patch management presents itself in the form of best practices to secure the stability and wholeness of a company’s IT infrastructure.
The efficient and effective patch management procedure includes:
- IT Assets Inventory (patch management starts with inventorying all the endpoints, workstations, servers, or systems within the network to take a glimpse of the scope of a company’s IT environment.)
- Grouping (Dealing with applications and software one by one is not an option. This is why it is crucial to break IT assets into groups or categories.)
- Priority List (IT working hours are rarely smooth sailing. Many things happen simultaneously; therefore, an IT admin has to know what’s his top priority.)
- Policy Creation (With clear priorities, it is easier to set up somewhat of the hierarchy of IT tasks and duties.)
- Patch Testing (Before delivering patches, IT departments invent a real-like IT environment to test patches as some of them can do more harm than good.)
- Patch Deployment (Patch distribution is key to securing the workflow of a company’s IT infrastructure.)
- Monitoring and Reporting (There’s no final destination in patching as the patch management procedure is a never-ending one)
Here’s a quick tip from us: all of these practices are usually part of a patch management service — such a solution is able to automate nearly every step down the road, only notifying IT specialists when necessary.
H2 The benefits of patch management: an automated approach
We are here not to sing the praises of automated patch management. However, it deserves all the credits when it comes to scaling up IT productivity and optimizing IT workflow.
Remote work and remote
work environments have taken center stage, and they don’t seem to go away anytime soon. For enterprises, such a tendency meant an inevitable transition to the digital space. It arguably opened new windows into the business world, but it also created a lot of difficulties in the domain of IT security.
Having an automated patch management tool appeared to be one of the IT necessities. The centralized system significantly unloads IT admins’ workflow and thus helps IT specialists focus on those tasks requiring their direct involvement.
Here’s the list of the benefits of patch management:
- Automated patching: there are numerous methods to automate patch distribution. Depending on your priorities, let your patching tool do the rest while IT specialists dedicate their working hours to the most vital duties.
- Templates creation: templates are of great help to save up time and effort. It is often easier to modify the old templates than start the whole thing from scratch.
- Scheduled Delivery: as you know, the less downtime, the better. Scheduling patch delivery windows is a sure-fire way of preventing the workflow from any disruptions during working hours.
- Instant notification: once something suspicious is detected, your IT department gets a warning, meaning that they stay alert round the clock.
- Self-reporting: the patching solution itself prepares a report on its recent activities, highlighting points worth attention.
- Continuous monitoring: security doesn’t have such a luxury as days off. The automated patch management service takes good care of IT security within interruption.
