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.

A new report from IDC emphasizes just how critical autonomous compliance is for companies to ensure that their digital infrastructure environments are consistently hardened, resilient, and compliant. Leaders who prioritize compliance optimize company efficiency while reducing risk. The IDC PeerScape report outlines the best practices of these leaders, who, by implementing autonomous compliance, better protect their businesses.

Government agencies are facing a rising need for changes to their IT infrastructure. This need is becoming even more urgent as they continue to migrate operations to the cloud. Leveraging modern cloud applications and resources within an existing legacy agency environment requires IT agility to maintain the balance of security while keeping pace with an agency’s mission.