Understanding Patch Management's ImportanceOctober 31, 2017

The tried-and-tested practice in the IT industry is keeping your systems updated — always. It's an important decision to have a patch management specialized for your whole company and for your specific IT functions as well.

Patch Management Definition

Upgrades for software applications and systems that you have on your computers and network devices are called 'patches". When you have an ongoing plan for managing patches that can help your business or organization to deal with changes efficiently is a Patch Management.

Reasons Why You Need Patch Management

1. Reporting

   If you want to know the updates on your security posture and systems anytime, a good patch management applications can issue an intensive reporting.

2. Compliance

   A good patch management solution can assure all of your systems updated and simplify your compliance to any internal policies or external requirements such as PCI.

3. Third Party Application Patching

   Deploying patches for the third party applications among their systems is a major challenge to IT companies. Third party apps can be managed by patch management applications just like how they operate other systems.

4. Supportability

   There are a couple of companies with networks that are no longer in a supportable condition if they fail to update their patching and service packs. Getting a very good patch management solution guarantees that won't happen.

5. Vulnerability Scanning and Correction

   Keeping up with security updates is one of the the essential reasons to have patch management. Administrators who are using patch management applications can scan and report vulnerabilities, giving them the ability to test patches and exert updates immediately.

Problems of not Having Patch Management

There are no perfect infrastructure and information systems — most especially when they are newly released in the market. The number of vulnerabilities discovered over a long time can seriously damage the coherence and security of information, and with the proper patch management, you can prevent these problems.

A solid patch management means a network is persistently monitored when there's an event the system becomes vulnerable. It's a great chance to quickly resolve any problems. Any types of attacks — even if it's minor — can bring your company down. Be vigilant and careful.