What is Patch Management?
PATCH MANAGEMENT is a piece of software that needs installing on every PC, Laptop, Tablet & Server in your organization or business. It is designed to collect security updates (and some feature updates) from the vendor(s) (the makers) of the software installed on your PC and apply them automatically on a planned schedule. In most business examples, Microsoft Windows and Office Software are the most important, but there are also many other software applications installed on business PCs and they need to be considered too.
How does Patch Management Software work?
Patch Management software works in the background on your device, regularly contacting the Vendors of your software and asking them whether there are updates to apply. When updates need to be installed, they are automatically installed based on a time schedule. In most business examples, Patch Management Software is centrally configured by your IT Support provider, to ensure that the updates are applied at the appropriate levels and at the right time.
What are the business benefits of Patch Management?
Compliance
The ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) state that an organization must have Patch Management software in place on all their devices. In the event of a data breach or data loss, this could be considered negligent if you didn’t have Patch Management and your organisation could legitimately have afforded it.
Time Saved
Without Patch Management software, you would need someone to go to each device in the network and manually apply all of the updates for all of the different applications. There are hundreds if not thousands of updates released each year. Added to this, the person updating the machines would need to remember exactly which updates to apply and when – the Patch Management Software solves this by setting a central policy.
Cost Effective
Patch Management solutions needn’t be particularly expensive. A couple of pounds per computer per month should get you a reasonable level of cover.
Is Patch Management all I need to protect my business?
The simple answer to this is No – plain old No! You can find out more about the layers of IT security in this other blogpost – IT Security
Summary
If you have any queries about how your business should deal with Patch Management, or you have questions about it that need to be cleared up, we can talk more via our Contact page.
ESP provides IT Support packages, mainly to Sheffield-based businesses, but also to other organisations (including charities) across the region, and the UK. Those organisations wishing to better protect themselves against the various threats that exist in today’s world should get in touch today.
