It’s a call no IT or security manager would want to take: “Our systems are down, and we can’t figure out the cause.” After hours of going through and fro the IT security, the answer starts becoming clear: an unpatched vulnerability was exploited, bringing operations to a halt!
Every unpatched system is a potential target for cybercriminals to enter your network. And all enterprises find it difficult to implement a patch management solution. But why?
It’s not just about installing updates when they pop up. Even a few people push it for other days, which later turns into months. There’s a whole process involved when enterprises go for remediating risks; it can be prioritization, sync with third-party vendors, or even testing.
How do you tackle this challenge when there are so many solutions on the market? To help you get a clear understanding of all the solutions, we have provided you with a Comparison of a few tools.
Key Features of an Effective Patch Management Tool
When evaluating patch management tools, it’s essential to understand what makes one truly effective. A reliable solution goes beyond simply applying patches—it should provide comprehensive, automated, and continuous management of updates across the entire network.
Here are the key features that should be considered while choosing a patch management tool:
- Comprehensive Coverage: The tool should be able to support various operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, and macOS, and third-party applications. It must also ensure that all systems and software are accounted for and patched promptly.
- Automated Patch Deployment: An effective patch management system automates the patch deployment process to minimize human error and delay. This ensures that patches are applied consistently and quickly, reducing the attack surface.
- Patch Testing and Rollback Capabilities: Before deploying patches broadly, it’s critical to test them in a non-production environment. A solid patch management tool allows you to test patches and offers rollback options in case something goes wrong during deployment.
- Patch Prioritization and Scheduling: Not all patches need immediate attention. The tool should be able to prioritize patches based on their severity and potential impact while allowing deployment scheduling to minimize disruption to business operations.
- Detailed Reporting and Compliance Tracking: Patch management solutions should generate comprehensive reports to track the status of deployed patches, identify vulnerabilities, and demonstrate compliance with industry standards and regulations.
Now, let’s dive into the specifics of each tool
Brief overview of each tool
- SanerNow Patch Management
SecPod SanerNow is an all-in-one vulnerability and patch management solution designed to simplify and optimize your patching workflow. It scans for security risks and missing patches while fully automating the detection and deployment of patches. Backed by a comprehensive vulnerability database, SanerNow supports all major operating systems and third-party applications, offering an intuitive and user-friendly interface.
- Ivanti Patch Management
Ivanti Patch Management helps IT teams manage and automate patch deployment across a wide range of devices, operating systems, and third-party applications. The software scans devices to identify missing patches, evaluates the risks of unpatched vulnerabilities, and ensures that patches are deployed promptly to minimize security threats. However, it faces many integration issues and is difficult to understand in the first go.
- Microsoft Intune Patch Management
Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based unified endpoint management (UEM) solution that helps businesses manage and secure devices, applications, and data across a variety of platforms. It provides integrated patch management for Windows devices to configure, deploy, and monitor security patches from a single console. Having support for only Windows devices is not ideal when attackers are becoming more sophisticated every day.
- Azure Patch Management
Azure Patch Management, a part of Azure Automation, is a cloud-based solution designed to simplify and automate the process of managing patches for virtual machines (VMs) running in Microsoft Azure, as well as on-premises systems. However, it’s mostly limited to Azure devices or environments and is not cost-effective.
- ConnectWise Patch Management
ConnectWise provides centralized control over patching, enabling businesses to ensure that their systems and software are always up to date with the latest security fixes. The platform supports a wide range of operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and third-party applications, making it a versatile choice for diverse environments. It‘s mostly suitable for small device counts only.
- Kaseya Patch Management
Kaseya Patch Management is a comprehensive solution designed to automate the patching process across a wide variety of endpoints. The tool enables IT teams to deploy patches automatically, schedule updates, and track patch status. It’s a complicated setup, and limited reporting makes it not an ideal choice.
- AWS Patch Management
AWS Patch Management is a service within Amazon Web Services (AWS) that helps automate the process of patching virtual machines (VMs) and other instances in the cloud. It is part of the AWS Systems Manager suite, which enables businesses to automate patch deployment. However it is also limited to AWS resources and is complex.
- Atera Patch Management
Atera’s patch management tool allows businesses to automatically deploy patches for operating systems and software, reducing the workload on IT teams and minimizing the risk of security vulnerabilities. However, it supports only the Windows operating system and is not suitable for larger environments.
- SentinelOne Patch Management
SentinelOne automates patch deployment and detection, enabling IT teams to identify and fix vulnerabilities in real-time. It provides detailed visibility into patch status, helping administrators track which patch status is being used. However, it does not support third-party applications and is known to be complex.
- Action1 Patch Management
Action1 is a cloud-based patch management solution designed to automate and streamline the patching process across an organization’s IT infrastructure. It provides centralized control over patch management for Windows, Linux, and third-party applications. It is heavily dependent on cloud support and may not be suitable for on-prem devices.
Conclusion
Choosing the right patch management tool is like shielding your IT network from any chances of cyberattacks. For businesses seeking a comprehensive, automated solution that covers patch management for a wide range of devices, SanerNow is a strong contender.
Ultimately, the right choice for your organization will depend on your existing tools, infrastructure, the complexity of your IT environment, and your specific patch management needs.