Patch Management as a Service
Patch Management-as-a-Service (PMaaS) is designed to help organisations manage the patching process for software and applications. It encompasses functions such as testing patches, prioritising them, deploying them, verifying that they have been installed on all end devices, and, more generally, managing all aspects of patching.
But patching can be a time-consuming – and ineffective – task. So many patches are released to fix so many vulnerabilities that it is easy to fall behind. Every year, more than 20,000 new vulnerabilities are identified – yet the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) records only around 800 of these as being actively exploited. This does not mean that the rest should be ignored, but it does mean that priority should be given to the vulnerabilities that are actively being exploited.
Even that is not easy, as many organisations do not know exactly what needs to be patched. Consequently, IT asset management (ITAM) is becoming an increasingly important security tool and a key feature of many vulnerability management services.
In light of all these challenges, centron has started offering services that take all the work off companies’ hands. Given the time involved and the difficulties associated with it, this is an area where a security service provider could be a sensible option for many companies.
Patch Days
‘Patch Day’ is a term coined by Microsoft. It refers to the day on which software updates are released. Microsoft usually makes these updates available on the second Tuesday of each month.
Once a month, centron holds what are known as ‘patch days’. During these patch days, your systems are checked for security vulnerabilities and updated.
This simplifies patch management and reduces the costs and effort involved in maintaining the systems. As many updates require the computer or server to be rebooted, the number of reboots required can be minimised by applying several patches at a single time.
You will be notified of this by centron via email and can view the latest updates at any time at 'status.centron.de'.