How Patches Have Revolutionized Network Updates

Patches are an essential part of any network’s security procedure. They provide updates for outdated pieces of software and can ensure the safety of confidential data as well as helping you improve the speed of your network by benefiting from new software features.

Patches Taking Precedence

One of the ways that patches have revolutionized network security updates is that they prioritize the specific patches in order of which patch needs to be most urgently updated. For example, once the patch management software has scanned and detected network vulnerabilities, then it can also analyze which weakness needs the most attention and is of course the biggest potential threat to your security.

Timing of Patches

A great feature of these patches is that they can also be timed to suit your schedule. If you do have a lot of computers within your network then it is likely that it could take a long time to detect vulnerabilities and then deploy patches. It can also take a long time to install and re-boot your computers to make sure that the patches take effect. Fortunately, the timing of the patches means that they can update and then restart the computer themselves at times when employees aren’t working on them therefore minimizing downtime.

Automation

One of the main advantages of various patch management solutions is that they can offer an “automation” option which means that you don’t have to manually install patches on a regular basis. Although you can ensure that you get notifications about the type of patches you are installing, you don’t have to constantly find the appropriate patch and install it yourself as the software does it for you.

Coverage of All Software

Although Patch Tuesday may not cover all software packages, a range of third party patch management applications will ensure that your network is covered with security updates even if they are not Microsoft. This means that you don’t need to worry about different software vulnerability as it gives you much better overall coverage.

Testing

A great thing about patch software is that it will always test patches and scan for vulnerabilities before they are applied to your network. This means that you will only ever have updates that you need so that time isn’t unnecessarily wasted deploying patches that don’t need to be there.

Download and Deploy

You can either opt to spend a lot time trying to find and download a patch yourself or simply automate patches so that this is done for you. The deployment of a patch will only occur if a weakness in your network is detected. When this vulnerability has been discovered, the patch management software will then find patches that can fix the detected problem and update your network. This can save so much searching time for you and your IT support workers that patch management software is considered one of the best ways of both keeping your network safe as well as maximizing productivity within the workplace.