Patch management is a critical process within any organization, and a lack of it can have serious security and productivity issues. Take the case of the WannaCry ransomware that created millions of dollars in loss for enterprises of all sizes. In particular, it affected SMBs and even led to the closure of many businesses due to their inability to pay the demanded ransom.
If you're wondering why we're talking about ransomware, it's because the creators of this malicious tool used a vulnerability in unpatched Windows operating systems. In 2017, Microsoft identified a vulnerability in its operating system and created a patch for the same. Unfortunately, many companies failed to install this patch, and this is what made them the victims of the WannaCry ransomware.
One of the reasons why many companies didn't install the patch was because the entire patch management was manual. An admin had to look out for the patch availability and manually install them, failing which, the organization was a plum target for cybercriminals.
Now, the larger question is what do you learn from this mistake?
Automate patch management, so patches are downloaded and installed as they become available!
Many automated patch management tools like the ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus are highly efficient in automating patch deployment across Windows, macOS, and Linux devices. It also provides support for 950+ updates across 850+ third-party applications for comprehensive coverage. Plus, it's available for both on-premises and cloud applications, so you can protect your entire infrastructure with a single tool.
Read on as we talk about the features of Patch Manager Plus, its benefits and limitations, and pricing, to help you decide if this tool is the right fit for your organization.
Features of ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus
ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus is a comprehensive patch management and deployment tool that can keep your devices and applications up-to-date. Here's a look at its important features.
Comprehensive Patch Management Process
ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus automates the entire lifecycle of patch management, so you can sit back while your devices stay updated. It starts with detecting the available patches and scans endpoints to know if they need patching. After knowing which devices need what patches, it downloads the patches from their respective source.
A key aspect of patch management is testing, as it's always possible for one or more integrated apps to malfunction with a new patch. To reduce the chances of such problems, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus tests patches before deploying, and in the process, can also mitigate any associated security risks.
Once the patch is clear, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus automatically deploys the patches on the respective endpoints. Finally, it generates reports about the success or failure of deployments, to give you complete control and visibility into the process.
As you can see, this tool is comprehensive and handles all aspects of patch management.
Multiple Environments
ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus works well across multiple devices and operating systems. It can deploy patches seamlessly on servers, laptops, VMs, and desktops while you control them all through a single interface. This tool also works well on Windows, Linux, and Mac devices. Besides devices, it can patch more than 850 applications, both in the cloud and on-premises.
Needless to say, Patch Manager Plus is a one-stop patch management tool that can be used across many environments and devices.
Customized Views
With Patch Manager Plus, you can view just the information you want. Its dashboard provides three views: Patch view, System view, and Detailed view.
The patch view simply lists down the names of patches and their versions while the systems view tells you which systems were updated and the patches that were deployed in each. The detailed view is where you can get all the comprehensive information you need about patches, the date and time of deployment, test results, success or failure rate, and more.
Depending on what you're looking for, you can choose the appropriate view.
Decline Patches
After all that we have talked about so far, this feature may sound confusing, but it's important to know that sometimes, you may want to have the option to decline installing patches. This feature is necessary to prevent some functionalities from breaking. Also, it may help to roll back changes in case something goes wrong.
With Patch Manager Plus, you have the control to granularly decline patches. You can decline them for a specific group of computers, for certain applications, and even for individual patches, depending on the situation and reason. You can even delay patches to prepare the environment and the applications dependent on the patch.
Such high levels of granularity and flexibility make it easy to plan and implement patching as per your organization's specific needs.
Flexible Deployment
Patch Manager Plus provides flexible deployment options that match your current requirements. At any time, you can create patching policies that enable the tool to automatically patch only specific devices or applications. It even allows you to schedule patch deployment ahead of time to ensure that your employees' productivity is unaffected.
You can also modify the policy at any time, and can even have multiple deployment windows for the same policy. Such flexibility is what makes Patch Manager Plus a popular option for automating patch deployment.
Now that you know the features, let's see how they can benefit your organization.
Benefits of ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus
Below are some of the key benefits of ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus.
Comprehensive Control and Visibility
Though Patch Manager Plus automatically takes care of patching your network, still, you need visibility and control over the process. This is where reports and audits help.
Patch Manager Plus generates detailed reports that list down the patches, the success/failure of deployment, test results, and other pertinent information needed to know the current state of your operations. It also offers customizable dashboards that act as a single pane to view all the information you need about patches. You can use advanced filters to drill down to specific information about the patches and their deployment processes.
Besides these, Patch Manager Plus also generates the reports you need to comply with different audits and standards.
Easy to Use
A highlight of Patch Manager Plus is its usability. The dashboard is intuitive and requires no specialized knowledge to navigate. Furthermore, all the information is readily displayed, and you can even drill down to the details you want. All these aspects make Patch Manager Plus a good addition to any organization, as it can be used by users of varying technical knowledge. The learning curve is short, and no prior tech background is needed to use this tool.
Summary at a Glance
Sometimes, you may just want a summary of the status of patch management and not the entire information. Also, you may not have the time to sift through all the patches or systems. In such cases, the dashboard summary comes in handy, as it provides a quick few lines about the state of your infrastructure.
The visual depiction helps you to quickly understand how many patches are missing and what's their severity. You can even know how many deployments failed and how many require a system reboot for the changes to take effect. The best part about these dashboards is that they can be accessed through a web-based browser, so you can access all this information on the go.
Audits and Compliance
Patch management has a big bearing on your overall security, and this is why most compliance standards mandate audits in this area.
The good news for you is, Patch Manager Plus provides the information in the audit format, so you can easily comply with standards like SOX, HIPAA, PCI, etc. The two important reports it generates for auditing are System Health Policy and Vulnerability Assessment.
The System Health Policy report identifies systems that are not patched and hence, don't meet the security requirements of compliance standards. It also calculates a score for the overall system health based on the number of high-priority patches that were not deployed, the number of missing patches, and the severity of patches that were deployed. As a part of your internal audit, you can evaluate which patches and systems were not updated and can do the same. Also, you can improve the health score to meet compliance.
Likewise, the Vulnerability Assessment report calculates the current state of vulnerability of your systems, so you can ensure that all systems have the latest patches installed. You can even set automated email alerts to monitor and track the progress of patching, to meet compliance.
Well-tested
It's always a good practice to test patches before they are deployed to ensure that they come from the right source and don't contain any malicious code that can harm your device. This is where Patch Manager Plus helps, as it thoroughly tests each patch for any security vulnerabilities before deploying them on devices.
Minimal Maintenance
If you opt for the cloud edition, you don't have to worry about the underlying hardware or even updating Patch Manager Plus, as these are handled by ManageEngine itself. This means, no worries about maintenance, and you don't have to spend money or have a dedicated team for patch management.
Good Customer Support
ManageEngine offers good customer support for both technical and general questions. Most of the time, emails are answered within a few hours and the technical assistants are knowledgeable and professional.
Along with phone, chat, and email support, ManageEngine also has extensive documentation that users can leverage for FAQ setup and configuration. You can also create tickets through the portal and they are also resolved quickly.
In all, Patch Manager Plus provides a ton of benefits for your organization in the form of updated devices and applications that reduce security vulnerabilities and meet compliance requirements. But before you jump in, let's quickly look at a few limitations, so you can make an informed assessment of its capabilities for your organization.
Limitations of Patch Manager Plus
Like any tool, Patch Manager Plus also comes with its share of limitations.
- The reporting and customization options can be better.
- The error messages of Patch Manager Plus are not clear.
- No clear idea of the roadmap, and the overall development of new features is slow.
Thus, these are the limitations, and next, let's move on to pricing.
Pricing
Patch Manager Plus offers three editions:
The free edition is suited for SMBs with less than 20 computers and five servers, while the Professional edition works well for computers that are connected to a LAN. The Enterprise edition, on the other hand, is ideal for computers that are connected to a WAN and offer advanced services like patch testing, antivirus updates, and more.
Moreover, you can choose between cloud and on-premises versions, and both have free trials. Click here for a free trial of the cloud version and here, for the on-premises version.
Final Verdict
Overall, Patch Manager Plus is an excellent tool for automating patch deployment and management, so you can avoid the security vulnerabilities that come with non-patching. It comes with many features that streamline patch management while giving you control and visibility over the entire process. Plus, its customized views and dashboards help you to better understand the current state of your systems. Its easy-to-use interface works well for all employees, while its reports help with compliance.
When you compare the benefits and limitations, clearly the limitations are fewer, and they are also mostly good-to-have features rather than show-stoppers. Hence, you can say that Patch Manager Plus is a good choice for automated patch management, regardless of your organization's size.
Bottom Line
To conclude, patch management is an important process for any organization, but the manual process may be ridden with oversights and errors. To avoid the pitfalls of not patching your devices and applications, consider using automated patch management tools like ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus. This tool comes with many advanced features to automatically detect, test, and deploy patches, and at the same time, generate the reports you need for visibility. In all, a handy tool for automated patch management. Start a 30-day free trial.
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