PATCHKEEPER

Blaster… MyDoom… Melissa… Every few months, there’s a new exploit that cripples thousands of machines all over the globe, and the problem is only getting worse. The bad guys know that thousands of organizations have no way of quickly rolling out patches. The faster they can get their exploits out in the wild, the more systems they can infect… and the more likely they are to make headlines. If you don’t have an automated patch deployment system, your organization is at risk!

Patchkeeper is the automated patch management system that fits your budget and your busy schedule.
With Patchkeeper, you can:

• Automatically track installed and missing Microsoft security patches

• Manage patches by criticality, type, operating system, and more

• Start managing right away with straightforward, intuitive
  interface

• Be confident that your organization is protected!

Where would you rather be next time there’s a major virus outbreak—in the trenches or on the sidelines? Automate and rest easy with Patchkeeper!

Automating Best Patch Management Practices:

Here is a description of how you can use Patchkeeper to automatically manage security patches on your network:

It is broadly recognized the best practice in patch management is to test all patches before deploying them, in case they break applications the organization depends on for its production. Most sys admins have a few systems they use for testing.

1. Create a group called “Test Systems” and schedule Patchkeeper to scan for and deploy missing patches to these systems every day and to also alert you and/or others on your team via email every time a missing patch is identified.
   
2. Go ahead and schedule your other systems to be automatically scanned and updated once or twice a week, but set a condition that only “Certified” patches can be deployed.
   
3. Monitor your test systems and if the newly installed security patches cause no problems, flag them as “Certified” through Patchkeeper’s “Manage Updates” interface. Newly certified updates are deployed automatically the next time a regularly scheduled scan and deployment task comes around.

In this 1-2-3 fashion, you can use Patchkeeper to automatically keep your entire network updated with the latest Microsoft security patches.