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How to Choose the Right Patch Management Solution

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Patching systems and applications is a painful task. IT admins know it and unfortunately, so do hackers. Making sure that every system and application is always on the latest code is a difficult problem to solve. IT organizations have been struggling with this task for over two decades now and with more applications being released, there has never been a more critical time to get patching right. As a result, IT organizations are wondering how to choose the right patch management solution for their organization.

An unpatched system or application is one of the easiest paths into an organization’s network. Hackers can work with exploits that are publicly available so it isn’t difficult for them to figure out how to compromise your system if it’s vulnerable. This process has accelerated over the past few years because more exploits are being found in a wide variety of software. The challenge then becomes how IT organizations can quickly, systematically, and safely patch all of their system and applications. Solving this problem has been a significant challenge for IT admins.

Here are some of the critical requirements that IT organizations should consider to pick the right patch management solution for them.

Platforms – Today’s IT landscape is heterogeneous. Microsoft Windows has historically been the operating system platform of choice. More recently, that has changed. Today only one in five devices is Windows. That means that Mac, Linux, and other devices, are infiltrating the enterprise. You’ll want to make sure that your patch management solution can cover all of the major device operating systems that your organization has and can quickly bring new technologies online as well.

Applications – With more applications in use at organizations, it is more of a challenge to ensure that they are always up-to-date. Major applications such as Adobe and Microsoft Office are major concerns, but so are frameworks that many application leverage such as Java or .NET. With so many different types of applications being used throughout an organization, this challenge can quickly spiral out of control. Any patch management platform will need to help support your key applications and ensure that they are up to date regardless of their location.

Cloud or on-premise – As more IT infrastructure moves to the cloud, combined with an increasing number or remote users, a patch management solution will need to be capable of handling systems and applications wherever they are. Cloud infrastructure such as AWS is becoming a common issue for organizations and ensuring that cloud servers are patched has become a critical security issue, especially since more and more users are not all located at office locations. Without a domain to connect to, a user’s system and applications are largely out of the purview of traditional IT management tools and processes. A modern patching solution will ensure that cloud, on-premise, and remote systems will all be centrally managed.

Ease of use – Today’s IT tools are changing. With easy to use and deploy solutions via SaaS-based platforms and app stores, IT has a lot of options to make sure that they are leveraging the easiest to use systems. The overhead of installing, configuring, and managing an endpoint patch management system can be significant. IT departments are under more pressure for resources and budget than ever before, so finding a platform that is efficient is critical. The answer to those issues in today’s IT landscape is to leverage cloud and SaaS-based patch management solutions.

In the past, patch management solutions were largely been based on platform. Microsoft WSUS had been the most popular solution because Windows was the most popular platform. Over time, as AWS and other Infrastructure-as-a-Service solutions emerged, the challenge to find patching solutions increased. Configuration management solutions such as Chef, Puppet, Salt, Ansible, and others have been used to solve the problem. Unfortunately, these approaches are do-it-yourself solutions with a great deal of coding required.

Today’s organizations are searching for new, more efficient solutions. Automox built the first multi platform, SaaS-based, modern patch management solution. Supporting Windows, Linux, and Mac, as well as a wide variety of applications, Automox is the modern approach to patching and security. Our simple, easy to use web-based interface and licensing model make it a favorite for IT organizations.

About Automox

Facing growing threats and a rapidly expanding attack surface, understaffed and alert-fatigued organizations need more efficient ways to eliminate their exposure to vulnerabilities. Automox is a modern cyber hygiene platform that closes the aperture of attack by more than 80% with just half the effort of traditional solutions.

Cloud-native and globally available, Automox enforces OS & third-party patch management, security configurations, and custom scripting across Windows, Mac, and Linux from a single intuitive console. IT and SecOps can quickly gain control and share visibility of on-prem, remote and virtual endpoints without the need to deploy costly infrastructure.

Experience modern, cloud-native patch management today with a 15-day free trial of Automox and start recapturing more than half the time you're currently spending on managing your attack surface. Automox dramatically reduces corporate risk while raising operational efficiency to deliver best-in-class security outcomes, faster and with fewer resources.