If you are in charge of a network of computerized devices, no matter how small or primitive you think they might be, proper patch management is absolutely necessary to your continued online security. Whether you are in charge of company smartphone networks or traditional computer networks, patch management should always entail downloading and installing any new updates and patches to your system as soon as they are released. As it is quite unrealistic to expect individual humans to be perfectly vigilant about patch management on their own, it should be a priority of any network administrator to add automatic patch management programs to each of the devices that they are responsible for, lest sensitive company data, the network, and some of the hardware itself become compromised in the aftermath of a preventable virus or hacker attack.

The first thing you need to do is take an inventory of each and every unit on your network that requires an automatic patch management tool. Make sure you know which operating system runs on each unit, and the version of each operating system should be noted as well, whenever applicable. Search for compatible automatic patch management programs online for these particular operating systems, and install your patch management software of choice on each applicable unit once your final decision has been made. If you have more than one OS or version thereof, you may very well need more than one automatic patch management program to keep everything up to date. Again, compatibility in software should be of paramount concern.

Once the installations have been completed, go ahead and make sure that your new patch management programs are all installed and working correctly. If everything is running as it should be, your network should be secure for a long time to come!