“Working on updates. 32% complete. Don’t turn off your computer.” If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Who hasn’t rushed into work to finish a deadline, or print off a document before a meeting and been greeted with Windows updates? How frustrating!
So how can this be avoided? Some people keep pushing the “restart later” button, hoping to push off the inevitable for as long as possible; all this does is make things worse when time comes to update. The real solution is to automate not only your Windows updates, but all your software’s patches! Listed below are the top three reasons you should be using automated patch management at your business.
Automated patch management is just one of the features included in our Over-Watch Monitoring and Security packages.
1. Patch Management creates a Secure Environment
Remember Wannacry? Wannacry was a ransomware that hit hospitals in Europe hardlast year – to the tune of 750 million dollars. Microsoft immediately released a patch for this exploit, but many machines never updated. In this scenario, automated patch management would have pushed this critical update and kept countless machines safe from attack.
Patch management isn’t just for Windows. A patch is defined as an update to a product, program or operating system that has already been released. This can be done for improved performance, new features, or most importantly to fix a vulnerability. It is critical to keep all your network equipment, computers, servers and applications up to date to ensure that you are as secure as possible!
If your server were compromised, what would several days of downtime cost you?
2. Patch management will save you Time
All the time saved by avoiding interruptions for you end users aside, your IT department (if you have one) is going to be able to free up massive amount of time as well. They will thank you for automating patches. Manually pushing updates for multiple applications to dozens of devices can quickly start to feel like a full-time job. With automated patch management, not only will your IT department have more time for the work that is important to them, but your patches will be deployed sooner. Ask your IT department what their deployment schedule for patches is. Are they checking for new patches daily? If not, you may want to consider taking this task off their hands. Trust me, they won’t mind!
3. Patch management will save you Money
Perhaps the most important detail of all, patch management will save you money! A secure environment helps mitigate the risk of breaches. This means avoiding HIPAA violations, PCI compliance violations, data breaches and downtime. Couple this with all the time your users won’t spend waiting for Windows to update, and all the time your IT department isn’t spending manually pushing patches, and you’ve likely reached quite a sum!
