What Does Patch Management Do
Patch management identifies, prioritises, tests, and deploys software updates across an organisation's entire IT estate then verifies compliance and monitors continuously for new threats. That is the direct answer. But the gap between that definition and a well-functioning enterprise programme is where most organisations lose ground. The term 'patch management' is used to describe everything from an IT administrator manually applying Windows updates on a Tuesday afternoon, to a fully automated, intelligence-driven remediation workflow protecting 10,000 endpoints in real time. The functions are the same. The capability gap between them is enormous. This guide explains the seven distinct functions that patch management performs in a complete programme, what each function delivers, what patch management does not do, and how to assess whether your current programme is actually performing all seven. The Seven Core Functions of Patch Management Function 1: Asset Discovery and Inv...