Welcome to part 2 of our Patch Management Basics series. In part 1—Learn patch management—we covered what patch management is, how it’s different to vulnerability management, and what the components are that make a good patch management program. In this article, we’re going to go a step deeper and explore the features that make up the best patch management solutions.

OpsRamp’s Operating System Patch Management module is a flexible, yet powerful capability provided to all OpsRamp platform customers or licensed separately. With our SaaS-based OS Patching solution for Windows and Linux endpoints, you can automate the entire patch management process from identification of missing OS patches to the process of patch installation.

Leaving software unpatched is one of the most basic, unforced errors an executive can make, but companies large and small keep learning this the hard way. Keeping software up-to-date is harder than it seems, so even when execs are aware of the importance of patching, the sheer volume of needed fixes and the high error rate mean that not every company stays protected.

There is an increasing amount of technology used by businesses, from applications to entire networks. More technology means that there are more opportunities for errors or vulnerabilities in these systems to be exploited. With all those opportunities, it’s no wonder why these technological errors continue to be exploited by experienced hackers. What’s worse is that, according to Ponemon, 37% of businesses aren’t even scanning their IT environment for these vulnerabilities.

Since the number of malware attacks continues to rise every year, effective patch management is more important now than ever before. In fact, a recent Market Data Forecast report on the patch management industry claims that “the global patch management market size is forecasted to grow USD 1084 million by 2027 from USD 652 million in 2022, growing at a CAGR of 10.7% between 2022 and 2027.” Learn more about patch management and its multiple benefits in this overview.

In today’s increasingly complex IT and networking environments, automated patch management is a critical component to maintaining business operations and keeping organizations secure. Organizations are constantly under threat, with the average seeing 497 cyberattacks every week, and automated patching is one part of cybersecurity hygiene that helps reduce an organization’s attack surface.

As the saying goes, “You don’t know what you don’t know”. So, in this blog, I’m going to look at five things in N-central that you might not know exactly how they work—or you might not know about them at all.

Let's face it: no one likes patching. When I was a practitioner, we always put off patching until it was absolutely necessary. Until a business need – such as updating an application version or support ending for a version – arose, we didn't patch because "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." We all know this is a bad practice; let's remind ourselves why. The longer a system goes without being patched, the more changes will accumulate.