Patch Management is not only crucial for preventing errors, but it’s also an essential part of maintaining security. Following a few patch management best practices can help prevent vulnerabilities within your business, such as cybercrime, and keep your software and other devices running smoothly.
The Right Tools to Assist with the Patch Management Process
Your success is only as good as the tools you use. This is why you want reliable patch management software. This software will set up protections across all your networks and servers and monitor for threats that hackers may try to exploit. Another way this software can help is by identifying servers posing a risk and closing those loopholes.
The health of your IT infrastructure depends on whether you have reliable patch management software. This is why it’s the most critical tool in your arsenal.
Is Your Patch Management Policy Being Followed?
The best way to know for sure is to set up your patch management software so that it automatically distributes updates to your software. This way, you don’t have to monitor your employees to ensure they’re doing it.
Setting up automatic updates is especially as studies are finding hackers are getting faster at sneaking into your servers. For instance, a Ponemon survey found that “Organizations’ patching process is under greater pressure because they have less time to patch vulnerabilities before being attacked.”
Test Your Patch Management
Before you launch your patches, you’ll want to test them. Sometimes, they don’t successfully install, or they don’t function with your software.
Often, patches fix a bug in the system. Once you roll out your patch management, you should check to ensure it did properly fix that issue.
Leverage Reporting Tools
Another best practice is to leverage reporting tools to report patch-level compliance. This includes compliance reporting software. Typically, these include templates that automatically generate reports for you. However, if you need to customize them, that is also usually an option. If this seems complicated, a good IT services company can help.
Keep an Eye on Errors
Keep an eye on errors to ensure effective patch management. If there are any errors, you’ll want to document them. You’ll want to monitor your patch update until the next one rolls around, so this is a continual process. Patches can fail, even after a successful installation. So don’t let one good test cause you to drop your guard.
Patch Management Improves Your Security
Patch management best practices improve your security and efficiency in the long run, so they’re well worth the effort. They do take a lot of time, though. That, combined with the risk they can pose to your security, is why it’s a good idea to hire an IT service provider to oversee all of it for you.
FUSE3 has IT experts ready to tackle any project you send our way. We can help keep your projects within budget, guide your communications, and ensure timely completion. It’s why our customers keep coming back to us!