Home > Midmarket CIO Tips > Security for the midmarket > Third-party patch management tools
CIO Midmarket Tips:
EMAIL THIS
 TIPS & NEWSLETTERS TOPICS 

SECURITY FOR THE MIDMARKET

Third-party patch management tools


Serdar Yegulalp
01.11.2006
Rating: --- (out of 5)


Digg This!    StumbleUpon Toolbar StumbleUpon    Bookmark with Delicious Del.icio.us   


This tip originally appeared on SearchWindowsSecurity.com, a sister site of SearchSMB.com.


For many administrators, getting third-party help to manage patches and updates is no longer an option; it's a requirement. In a big organization (a thousand seats or more), managing patches for every single machine, whether a desktop or a server, is not something you can do by hand -- not even at the departmental level.

Microsoft has its own product for deploying updates -- Windows Software Update Services -- which is available for free and uses the pre-existing Automatic Updates component on target computers as a remote agent to deploy updates. It also supports a fairly broad variety of Microsoft products, such as Office, Exchange Server and SQL Server. It is, however, far from the only solution available.

Of the many third-party programs in this space, I've written at length before about Gravity Storm Software's Service Pack Manager, now in revision 7.1. This program caught my attention as being one of the very first third-party applications to do patch management in any form. When installed, you can scan your local network, enumerate each machine on it, and compare the computer's manifest against Microsoft's own recommended list of patches and updates for each detected OS. The program uses an agentless architecture, so there's nothing to install on the target machines; it's a very lightweight and direct way to


Digg This!    StumbleUpon Toolbar StumbleUpon    Bookmark with Delicious Del.icio.us   


RELATED CONTENT
Information security management for the midmarket
Using key risk indicators to sell your information security program
IT security spending a bright spot in '09, with more growth predicted
Gartner: Vetting security of third-party partners in five steps
Locking down security in the move to electronic medical records
Security and risk management in the midmarket
Identity and access management planning guide for the midmarket
Information systems management for the midmarket
CIOs share advice on doing more with less
Get smart about patching security vulnerabilities
A CIO's advice for implementing single sign-on solutions

Risk management for the midmarket
Using key risk indicators to sell your information security program
Gartner: Vetting security of third-party partners in five steps
Security and risk management in the midmarket
Identity and access management planning guide for the midmarket
Get smart about patching security vulnerabilities
Log management tool saves big on network fixes, integrates with IPS
Unified communications: Securing access to OCS
Disaster recovery and business continuity planning: Know the risks
Database security: Who should have access?
San Francisco network lockup justifies CIO fears

Security tools for the midmarket
IT security spending a bright spot in '09, with more growth predicted
Security and risk management in the midmarket
Identity and access management planning guide for the midmarket
A CIO's advice for implementing single sign-on solutions
Options for outsourcing security grow, offer IT budget savings
Network access control: Pointers for getting the knack of NAC
Unified communications: Securing access to OCS
Unified communications security: How safe is it?
Database security: Who should have access?
San Francisco network lockup justifies CIO fears

RELATED RESOURCES
2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems
Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts
Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary


patch a Windows-only environment quickly and effectively -- provided that's all you need.

However, the program's biggest strength is also one of its weaknesses: it's almost exclusively Microsoft-centric. It focuses on finding updates to Windows and many Windows Server systems, such as SQL Server or ISA Server, but it will not track patches for non-Microsoft products. For that, you would need something like Ecora Patch Manager 4.0, a slightly more sophisticated patch management application which encompasses not only Microsoft patches but third-party products as well.

Ecora has a slightly more flexible design than SPM: it can operate in both agent and agentless modes -- in other words, if you're better served by actually having a patch-management agent present on the machines to be patched, you can do that. It also supports a broader range of platforms (including non-Windows machines) than SPM, lets you roll back patches as long as there's support for rollback with the patches in question, and is slightly cheaper: $25 per node, as opposed to a starting price of $33 per node for SPM. If you want to try them out yourself, there's good news in both cases: each program has a free 30-day trial.

About the author: Serdar Yegulalp is editor of the Windows Power Users Newsletter. Check it out for the latest advice and musings on the world of Windows network administrators -- and please share your thoughts as well!


Rate this Tip
To rate tips, you must be a member of SearchCIO-Midmarket.com.
Register now to start rating these tips. Log in if you are already a member.




DISCLAIMER: Our Tips Exchange is a forum for you to share technical advice and expertise with your peers and to learn from other enterprise IT professionals. TechTarget provides the infrastructure to facilitate this sharing of information. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or validity of the material submitted. You agree that your use of the Ask The Expert services and your reliance on any questions, answers, information or other materials received through this Web site is at your own risk.



Mid-market CIO Business Solutions on Data Integrity, Unified Communications, and Virtualization
About Us  |  Contact Us  |  For Advertisers  |  For Business Partners  |  Site Index  |  RSS
SEARCH 
TechTarget provides technology professionals with the information they need to perform their jobs - from developing strategy, to making cost-effective purchase decisions and managing their organizations' technology projects - with its network of technology-specific websites, events and online magazines.

TechTarget Corporate Web Site  |  Media Kits  |  Site Map




All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2007 - 2009, TechTarget | Read our Privacy Policy
  TechTarget - The IT Media ROI Experts