The necessity of real-time patching has come into focus. 2017 was the worst year on record for data breaches. Ransomware and malware including WannaCry exploited unpatched vulnerabilities, and some of the largest breaches ever were a result of unpatched systems left vulnerable for several months. While effective patch management has always been a best practice in IT, the growing number of high-profile attacks on known vulnerabilities has made it clear that patching is no longer a task that can be put off due to a strain on time or money.
Patching has always been a burdensome task which often falls to the bottom of the priority list when faced with limited budgets and resources. Security teams are so stretched that they only investigate 56% of the daily security alerts they face, and when it comes to patching, nearly half of IT professionals report being unable to keep up with necessary patches. This has led to a culture in which patches are regularly left for days or weeks before being applied to vulnerable devices, and now 82% of discovered data breaches are blamed on patches left pending for more than 10 days and up to a year.
While IT managers recognize the risk of unpatched devices, until recently their only options for improving the patch management process have either been expensive or inefficient. On-premise automated patching solutions have been available for many years, but they are cost prohibitive for everyone but enterprise-level businesses. These solutions often take additional time to configure, and do not easily adapt to hybrid environments, making them ineffective for current infrastructures.
Vendor-provided tools such as WSUS don’t have the cost implications of on-premise solutions, but only work for the OS for which they are designed, necessitating additional tools for patching other operating systems. With employees using multiple devices and more companies allowing the use of Mac, Linux, and Windows operating systems, cobbling together a system which relies on several vendor-provided solutions is inefficient and can result in missed patches. Configuration management tools including Chef and Puppet are sometimes used to perform patching updates, but these require complex scripting to automate patching, and are lacking when it comes to reporting on patch status.
A Cost-Effective Patch Automation Solution
The scope of modern attacks and number of operating systems and applications now in use require businesses to move away from manual patching processes, and adopt an automated solution. To reduce time spent configuring that solution, it must be easily set up and manage, work with remote devices and cloud-based infrastructures, apply patches across operating systems and 3rd party software, affordable for any size organization.
Automox is a cloud-based patching automation solution that delivers on all of the above requirements, and provides a modern and comprehensive patching approach, offering more value than existing solutions. Automox has developed a patching-as-a-service model that reduces time spent patching by up to 90%. The lightweight Automox agent can be installed in minutes, and rules are set easily via dashboard so that patching can run automatically, require occasional approvals, or be fully controlled by your IT team. This means even teams with minimal time to dedicate to patching are assured they are always up to date.
With Automox, you also have full visibility of your entire infrastructure. You can see the current patch status and software present on every individual endpoint. You can also deploy software, blacklist software, and provide real time reports on the state of your patches at any time.
If you’re ready to test us out and see how we can save you time and money patching, sign up for a free trial of Automox today. You’ll have full platform access with no endpoint limit, and there is no credit card required.
