You may or may not recall the days of walking around the office with a jumpdrive to add new software to your org's devices, one at a time. It took forever...talk about a resource-suck.
You're probably not still doing that today (we hope), but if you haven't stopped doing manual work to deploy software or you're using an on-prem solution to execute, it might be time to make the next jump – to automated cloud deployment.
Why? Automation for routine tasks gives IT team precious time back and reduces the frequency of human error. The transition to the cloud has further expanded automation's benefits to plenty of other important IT tasks ripe for increased efficiency.
As we talk about frequently on our blog, patch management is a top contender for cloud automation. Of course, that’s for good reason… patch management is essential for minimizing your attack surface and keeping your cybersecurity game on point.
But software deployment is definitely a top candidate, too.
Why is software deployment so complicated to begin with?
Managing software deployments across hundreds or thousands of devices is a massive undertaking. Three primary factors contribute to the complexity:
The variety of devices present in company networks is ever-expanding with the growth of distributed work and BYOD
For organizations reliant on their on-prem infrastructure, the increase in remote network access by employees has reduced how often they’re “behind the firewall” – limiting your ability to deploy software, triage, and access out-of-network devices
SaaS application adoption and its expanding footprint (including sales and marketing tools, support ticketing systems, HR tracking, and cloud-based file-sharing solutions) has IT scrambling to maintain yet another delivery method for software
Each of those variables contributes to making deploying software across all of your devices a huge, lengthy, and sometimes infuriating task. And many companies still rely on outdated or unscalable solutions to manage remote software deployments.
While a wide range of tools is available for software deployment, many are complex, don’t address all deployments, and add extra manual work. Take a tool like SCCM, for instance. It’s costly and requires ongoing management. Plus, it’s ineffective for managing multiple operating systems and third-party applications.
To effectively deploy software across modern infrastructures, which include remote devices, cloud servers, multiple operating systems, and applications, companies must also look to the cloud and automation.
Today you’ve got options. You may fear that automating software deployment in the cloud will make your stack look like the Tokyo Metro system – but fear not. You can clear out that complexity and automate tasks across each device in real time by consolidating to a single tool for both patch management and software deployment, for all your systems.
Let’s look at why you should consider cloud-based automation when it comes to software deployment.
The benefits of automated cloud-native software deployment
Using the cloud for software deployment, updates, and management gives you the ability to quickly and easily deploy software to remote devices without the need for additional infrastructure or VPNs.
Modern applications require constant updates. Cloud-based automation gives IT teams control to deploy any new software, at scale and with ease.
You can automatically enforce deployments and updates across all devices to make sure your critical software is installed with the latest versions.
With automated installations, reduce the complexity of software deployment while raising the confidence of success with complete visibility across all of your devices.
What to look for when shopping for automation tools
Depending on the complexity of your environment, we recommend you look for an automation and software deployment solution that works across OSes, including Windows, macOS, and Linux.
That way you can capitalize on the best benefits like time savings, increased productivity, and a reduced attack surface by using a single tool to address your entire environment.
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