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Author: Jason Firch, MBA / Last Updated: 05/22/2023
Reviewed By: Josh Allen
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To centralize your patch management, you employ a streamlined approach involving automation and central servers that uniformly distribute updates across your organization’s IT infrastructure. This not only improves efficiency and consistency in patch application but also enables rapid deployment of updates, reduces downtime, and enhances compliance reporting.
What You’ll Learn
Continuous patching has become the new normal.
With technologies like AI and ML being weaponized, the time between vulnerability disclosure and exploitation is narrowing to hours and even minutes.
Unpatched vulnerabilities can cost $300,000 or more for small businesses, presenting a significant financial threat.
Centralizing patch management processes is an important step to streamlining your patch management program is quickly and efficiently remediating vulnerabilities.
In this article, we will explain what centralized patch management is, its benefits, and how to create a centralized patching strategy.
We will also discuss how to centralize patching based on the operating system and highlight some important tools that could be of benefit to you.
Centralized patch management is a streamlined approach to applying updates to an organization’s systems and applications. This process typically involves automation and central servers that distribute patches across the organization’s IT infrastructure.
In a decentralized patch management setup, individual systems or departments are responsible for their own updates.
While decentralized patch management can offer more control at a departmental level, this can lead to inconsistencies in patch application, as some departments may be more diligent than others.
Learn More: How To Automate Your Patch Management
Centralized patch management can significantly increase efficiency by reducing the time and resources needed to manage patches.
Here are a few reasons why your organization might consider centralization:
A centralized system streamlines the deployment process, reducing the time IT staff spend on manual updates.
This time saved could be refocused on other critical tasks, leading to overall improved productivity in the team.
For instance, instead of each team member individually patching their allocated set of devices, a centralized patch management tool could automate the process, applying patches simultaneously across all systems.
All systems can be updated consistently and uniformly under a centralized system.
It ensures that every device is running the same version of the software helping to prevent conflicts.
A centralized approach also helps maintain a consistent environment, which simplifies troubleshooting and reduces the likelihood of errors occurring due to software inconsistencies.
Sadly, software inconsistencies often led to system issues or security vulnerabilities.
Apply patches rapidly, reducing the window of opportunity for potential attackers.
Through centralized management and with the help of automation, organizations can respond more quickly to identified vulnerabilities.
On average, it takes 60 – 150 days for organizations to remediate a vulnerability, depending on criticality.
In addition, it takes organizations 6 MONTHS before they identify the vulnerability in their systems.
This means a vulnerability, like Log4j, could be sitting on a network for up, if not longer than, a year before it’s fixed.
By centralizing your patch management, you gain the ability to strategically schedule updates during off-peak hours.
A centralized approach allows for the uniform application of patches across your systems, decreasing the risk of disruptions caused by inconsistent updates.
Also, by promptly addressing security vulnerabilities through a centralized system, potential downtime due to security breaches is reduced.
This streamlined approach to patch management not only mitigates business disruptions but also boosts overall productivity, effectively helping your business maintain smooth operations.
With all patch management tasks unified, it’s easier to provide comprehensive, accurate reports on the patch status of all devices within the network.
This streamlined approach simplifies the otherwise time-consuming and complex task of manually compiling these reports, particularly in industries where regulatory compliance is paramount.
By ensuring that software updates and security patches are consistently applied across the entire infrastructure, organizations can better meet auditing obligations and maintain compliance with industry regulations.
Organizations enhance real-time visibility for security, auditing, and project management teams, enabling swift threat responses and efficient project execution.
This also provides leadership teams with up-to-date security and patch status, promoting informed decision-making.
Creating a centralized patching strategy is an essential step toward building an effective patch management program.
It requires thoughtful consideration of the existing IT infrastructure, network bandwidth, and operational downtime.
The compatibility of patches with existing software and systems must also be taken into account to prevent disruption.
In addition, adequate resources must be allocated for testing patches and training staff.
Finally, defining and adhering to a patch management schedule that aligns with the operational demands of the business is critical to ensure minimal impact on productivity.
The sections below will guide you through the creation process step-by-step.
Learn More: Top 9 Patch Management Challenges (Solved ✓)
The first step in creating a centralized patching strategy is to perform an inventory of all systems.
This allows organizations to understand the full scope of their IT environment.
The inventory identifies all systems, their software, and configurations, helping you to know what needs patching and when.
An inventory aids in determining system dependencies, preventing disruption due to incompatible patches.
It also helps in prioritizing patches based on the criticality of systems.
This policy should clearly define each team member’s responsibilities within the patch management process, including IT staff and any other involved personnel.
It should explain how the system works, the schedule for patch deployment, the prioritization of patches, and protocols for emergency situations.
The next step is to identify the right patch management software or tool for your organization.
When making a selection consider factors such as:
The IT department at a financial institution decides to shift to a centralized patch management system.
If this new patching system isn’t well-integrated, it could lead to:
If you want to avoid that scenario from happening to you then always conduct thorough testing in a controlled environment.
In addition, keep updated documentation of your existing systems, implement new systems gradually starting with less mission critical parts, and adhere to industry standards for interoperability.
If you’re still unsure or need hands on keyboards to help you out then consider consulting with a managed security provider for their expertise.
Begin by installing the software, which could be on a centralized server or distributed across multiple servers depending on your infrastructure.
Next, you’ll configure the server settings to align with your security policies and operational requirements.
The last critical step is deploying agents on client machines.
These agents facilitate communication between the central server and the endpoints, enabling the scanning for vulnerabilities and the application of patches.
Remember, the process should be carefully planned to avoid disrupting business operations, and thorough testing should precede full-scale deployment.
Kick off the testing phase on a small subset of devices to ensure the system’s ability to accurately detect security vulnerabilities and successfully apply necessary patches.
During this phase, you may also uncover any compatibility issues with current software.
Once initial testing is successful, broaden the testing parameters gradually, putting more strain on the system to evaluate its performance in realistic conditions.
This step-by-step approach facilitates issue identification and system setting adjustments, thereby ensuring your patch management system is up to par and ready for comprehensive network deployment.
Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of your patch management process.
This includes actively monitoring the system for successful patch installations, identifying any vulnerabilities that may have been missed, and noting any areas where the process could be enhanced.
PurpleSec is making significant strides with its cloud-native automated patching service.
This service is designed to help organizations manage and remediate vulnerabilities swiftly and efficiently.
PurpleSec leverages cutting-edge automation and AI technologies to deliver end-to-end detection and remediation.
This seamless coordination between Security Operations (SecOps) and IT Operations (ITOps) teams ensures vulnerabilities are addressed from the moment they’re discovered until they’re fully remediated.
This level of automation not only accelerates the patching process but also reduces the manual workload on IT teams.
PurpleSec’s solution integrates effortlessly with an organization’s existing technology stack, allowing for easy configuration and automation of the vulnerability management lifecycle.
Furthermore, PurpleSec offers a virtual machine package or security device with a simple one-day setup process, ensuring a quick and efficient deployment of its patch management services.
PurpleSec’s patch management services provide continuous monitoring, automated vulnerability patching, and risk-based prioritization.
The platform’s expert-defined remediation library delivers the right fix for any vulnerability, speeding up risk remediation and ensuring critical cyber risks are addressed promptly.
This proactive approach to vulnerability management helps organizations reduce risk and maximize the return on investment of their security initiatives.
Jason is a proven marketing leader, veteran IT operations manager, and cyber security enthusiast with 10 years of experience. He is the co-founder and CEO/CMO of PurpleSec.
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