Consider all the tools, software, and solutions your business uses. How can you keep all of them secure and up-to-date? Automated patch management is key, as it ensures your systems and software remain fully updated without IT teams needing to spend their days managing every update.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at automated patch management, how it works, and why automated patching is important.
What is Automated Patch Management?
Automated patch management is the automation of testing and deploying patches and updates across systems and devices. This includes scanning systems to identify missing patches, testing the patches to ensure they work without causing unexpected issues, installing them everywhere applicable, and providing reports on the patch deployment.
Automatic patching helps streamline updates and patches, improving security across your network without wasting time that IT agents would otherwise spend on manual patching. As such, it helps maintain both security and efficiency.
Why is Automated Patching Important?
Cybersecurity is vital for organizations of all types, and proper security requires consistent upkeep and maintenance. The risk of unpatched software is too great to ignore. As hackers and other bad actors constantly search for vulnerabilities to exploit, businesses need to be just as vigilant at fixing potential weak points before a cyber attack can hit them.
However, rolling out updates and installing patches across large environments can be a time-consuming process, taking time and resources away from IT departments. Automated patching addresses this issue by taking the burden away from the IT department and handling the process automatically.
As a result, automated patching results in several benefits, including:
Improved security, as it keeps your systems and software secure and up-to-date.
IT compliance, as security standards and regulations require companies to keep their systems updated with the latest security patches.
Operational efficiency, since IT teams no longer need to dedicate extra time and effort to mass updates.
How Does Automated Patch Management Work?
Automated patching is a process consisting of a few key steps. These help ensure that not only are a business’ systems up to date, but the patches are working as intended and any issues can be identified well in advance. These steps are:
1. Patch Discovery
First, the patch automation tool scans the endpoints to determine if any patches are missing. While these scans are typically scheduled to run automatically, users can scan on demand.
2. Patch Assessment
The next step is to test and approve the patches. These tests install the patches in a smaller environment to determine if there are any unexpected errors or anomalies they can cause, so potential problems can be identified and addressed before rolling out the patches across the system.
Patch assessment also includes prioritizing which patches should be deployed first, in cases where there are multiple patches for various tools and solutions across the system. Patches are typically prioritized based on severity, with the most critical systems and security flaws receiving the highest priority.
3. Patch Deployment
The third step is to deploy the patches across the system. This is an automated process, typically scheduled for a time when the installation will cause the fewest disruptions to business processes. Administrators can define the policies, schedules, and targets to ensure patches roll out in a timely and non-disruptive manner.
4. Reporting and Monitoring
Just because the patches are deployed doesn’t mean the work is done. After the patches are installed, it’s still important to monitor the deployment results and automate reports to identify any issues, changes, or other anomalies.
Top Benefits of Using Automated Patch Management Tools
So, what are the benefits of automated patch management? Automating the patch management process has many positive effects on productivity and security, including:
Time Savings: Automating patch management saves time that IT agents would otherwise spend manually installing patches across devices, freeing them up for more pressing matters.
Increased Security: Patch management automation helps ensure your security is up to date and closes any potential vulnerabilities before they can be exploited, thus reducing the risk of cyber attacks.
Reduced Human Error: When you’re manually updating your systems and installing patches, it’s easy to make little mistakes that can have big consequences, like forgetting to install a patch on some devices. Automation reduces the risk of these human errors.
Compliance: Security regulations aren’t just recommendations. It’s essential to comply with your industry’s regulations, which means having fully updated security throughout your organization, and automated patch management helps ensure you’re always up-to-date.
Major Challenges When Automating Patch Management
However, automated patch management is not without challenges. There are complexities and risks to consider, including:
Compatibility: Businesses utilize several tools and solutions, many of which must work together. Updating software can occasionally result in compatibility issues, which is why it’s important to test updates before rolling them out across an organization.
Testing: Testing is the most time-intensive aspect of patch management and often requires the most manual work. As such, it can often be overlooked or neglected, but doing so can lead to unexpected technical issues. At the same time, taking too long to test can also leave systems vulnerable, so they need to be both fast and efficient.
Resource allocation: IT departments only have so many resources, and while automation frees up time and agents, there are still other considerations. Network bandwidth and infrastructure must be considered, as well as how much companies can invest in patch management. Careful planning and scheduling are important to minimize both the impact on networks and the allocation of resources.
Legacy systems: Older, legacy systems can present multiple challenges. Automated patch management tools may not support them, or worse, they might not even be receiving support and patches, which can create severe security vulnerabilities. In these cases, organizations should consider if they can be replaced and upgraded to a more modern system with up-to-date security.
Choosing the Right Automated Patch Management Software for Your Organization
When you’re looking for automated patch management software, you need to find one that fits your business and meets your organization’s needs. Consider these factors when shopping for a solution:
IT environment: How big is your IT team and what resources do they have? It’s important to find a tool that fits nicely into your IT environment.
Size and scalability: Not all solutions are one-size-fits-all. Consider the size of your network and the number of devices you have to support and make sure you find a solution that can meet the challenge. Growing businesses also require a scalable solution that can keep up with their growth.
Security requirements: Businesses have different security regulations and requirements depending on their industry, so it’s important to find a solution that meets your security requirements, such as HIPAA compliance for healthcare and medical companies.
Ease of use: The entire purpose of patch automation is to make deploying patches and updates easy. If the software isn’t easy to use, it’s not doing you any favors – make sure you find a user-friendly solution.
Vendor support: When you purchase software, do you want a vendor that will provide customer support and troubleshooting along the way, or one that sells to you and disappears? Buying a solution from a reliable vendor with great customer support ensures you’ll have an experienced team ready to assist you every step of the way.
Pricing: IT teams often struggle with their budgets as it is, and while automated patch management can provide many benefits, some organizations may hesitate before investing in it. Be sure you find a solution with a price that meets your budget while still providing the features you need.
How can Splashtop Automate and Accelerate the Patch Management Process?
If you’re looking for a powerful solution that lets you manage all your devices and endpoints, including patch management and automatic updates, Splashtop has everything you need.
Splashtop AEM (Autonomous Endpoint Management) is built to automate tasks and streamline IT operations, ensuring your endpoints are fully patched and secure. This includes real-timepatch management and automated updates, allowing you to update multiple endpoints as soon as patches become available. Splashtop AEM also provides a centralized dashboard, so you can monitor your patches, endpoints, and IT compliance from a single, user-friendly interface.
With Splashtop AEM, you can:
Automate Patch Detection and Deployment: Scan for missing patches, evaluate severity levels, and automatically deploy updates for Microsoft, macOS, and third-party applications like Adobe, Zoom, and Google Chrome.
Schedule Updates with Precision: Create custom patching policies and schedules that align with your business hours and minimize disruption to end users.
Maintain Visibility and Control: Monitor patch status, track deployment success, and generate audit-ready reports through an intuitive dashboard.
Prioritize Critical Updates: Identify and push out security-critical patches immediately to reduce exposure to zero-day vulnerabilities.
Support Remote and Hybrid Environments: Apply patches seamlessly to endpoints regardless of where your users are located—at home, on-site, or traveling.
In short, Splashtop AEM empowers IT teams to enforce patch compliance and maintain a strong security posture without the overhead of manual intervention.
Want to learn more? You can experience Splashtop for yourself today with a free trial.