Companies that deal with data and information exchange should make patch management part and parcel of their operations. This is important for any company whose top priority is the security of data and related information. With patch management, you can have peace of mind in the knowledge that your data and information is safe. Moreover, it is in line with government laws. It will also ensure maximum productivity and effectiveness in your business. While manual patch management works just fine, automating the process solves a host of problems associated with the process.
Some of the benefits of automated patch management include:
Ensuring Top Notch Security
The main reason why companies want to have automated patch management is for security. It ensures that the organization’s systems do not have vulnerabilities that will let in malicious malware programs or people who would want to vandalize the network or systems.
If you apply security patches in a timely manner, it will tremendously reduce the risk of having security problems like security breaches, data theft, data loss, reputation issues and even avoid legal penalties. Automating patch management addresses this problem since it will be done on time every single time.
Improves Efficiency and Productivity
The productivity of a company improves in many ways when patches are used on a system. Most of the times, patches will come with performance enhancements or crash management for the products the patches apply to. This will lead to a significant boost in productivity. Improved security also helps improve the level of productivity. In most cases, the greatest damage done by malware is the theft of computer resources that are used to run the malicious scripts. Consequently, the network can be slowed down, or critical business applications can break down. In extreme cases, the whole system could get completely compromised and require rebuilding from scratch. This, in turn, affects productivity a great deal.
Compliance with the Require Laws and Regulations
Compliance has currently become one of the driving forces of the implementation of patch management solutions in organizations. The law requires that companies take measures to protect the integrity of the data of their employees, customers and partners. The most affected by these laws and regulations are government institutions, companies that offer financial services and health care organizations. You ought to familiarize yourself with the laws and standards governing your industry in terms of patch management. Failure to comply with standards can lead to legal issues. Your company can incur endless losses, legal and financial penalties, lose opportunities or even shut down completely.
Saving Time
Automated patch management helps save a lot of time. This is because the time required for analyzing, preparing and deploying patches is cut down. Many administrators spend their night and weekends trying to analyze and test security patches. This process consumes a lot of time -not forgetting the additional time needed to deploy the tested patches. When you use automated patch management, important aspects of patch management are simplified saving you a lot of time.
Keeping Up With New Features
Patches can come with new features that will add to their functionality or even extend support for extra platforms. Many organizations take this as an opportunity that will assist them to extend and improve their services.
While the cost of automating patch management may seem prohibitive at first, the cost is actually worthwhile in the long run. The increase in productivity and enhanced data security will have an impact on the bottom line of your company. Patch management is a must have in your company. You can read BP testimonials to see how it has worked for others.