From servers to storage, networks to databases, software to analytics and more, recent technological advances have unlocked the delivery of cloud computing, or over-the-internet computing services. These advances are transforming the way business is conducted as cloud computing is a big shift from the traditional way businesses think about IT resources.
The power of cloud service providers like Microsoft Azure and others is being leveraged to create hybrid server environments, and programs like sales software, email and file storage that have traditionally been housed locally are increasingly based in the cloud.
Just more than a decade old, cloud computing technology is being embraced by organizations of all sizes and varieties — from massive global corporations to tiny, bootstrapping startups, non-profits, health care organizations, government agencies and more. Whether hosting a website or blog, storing, backing up or recovering data, analyzing that data for patterns to make predictions, delivering software on demand or creating new apps and services, the adoption of cloud computing offers myriad benefits for users of Windows, Mac or Linux operating systems.
Not only does the cloud eliminate the cost of buying, operating and managing hardware and software, most cloud services can provision a significant amount of IT infrastructure in mere minutes. The speed offered by cloud computing provides businesses increased flexibility and decreases the pressure surrounding capacity planning. In addition to cost and speed, the ability to scale elastically as well as the increased productivity, performance and reliability associated with cloud computing are all motivations for organizations turning to cloud computing services.
As companies continue this shift to cloud services, the way their employees access company data has changed as well. In the United States, 43 percent of the workforce spends at least some time working remotely, according to a Gallup report. While cloud computing and an increasingly remote workforce both provide financial and productivity benefits, they also present a number of challenges surrounding patch management and network security.
We all know that staying up to date on our patch management is crucial to protecting our networks from known vulnerabilities, but despite Windows and other operating systems releasing patches on a regular cadence, many companies do not quickly install the necessary updates. In fact, nearly half of all Windows users are still running the outdated Windows 7, rather than the more up-to-date Windows 10.
Making matters worse, according to Volume 18 of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, 5,000 to 6,000 new vulnerabilities surface each year — an average of 15 per day. Individual operating systems or applications may have hundreds of new vulnerabilities each year, and they all need to be patched in a timely manner.
Today, countless legacy patching solutions stumble in their quest to meet the demands of modern networks, and these options can cause more issues than they solve. With more than 81 percent of the global desktop operating system share, the prevalence of Windows operating systems signal an apparent need for a solution that identifies, downloads and applies patches for all Windows systems.
With today’s hybrid infrastructure and growing remote workforce, cloud-native patch management solutions offer several advantages over on-premise or vendor-provided solutions. Take Automox for example. Our cloud-native automated patching solution can be installed on thousands of endpoints in mere minutes to detect and remediate unmatched vulnerabilities.
Once deployed, the Automox agent will set an encrypted, persistent connection and provide you with complete visibility of every endpoint in your infrastructure. Existing patches can be immediately applied, and new patches can be applied within hours of their release according to flexible rules set by you. In addition to patching Windows, Automox also patches Mac OS X and Linux operating systems as well as popular third-party applications.
Automox for Easy IT Operations
Automox is the cloud-native IT operations platform for modern organizations. It makes it easy to keep every endpoint automatically configured, patched, and secured – anywhere in the world. With the push of a button, IT admins can fix critical vulnerabilities faster, slash cost and complexity, and win back hours in their day.
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