Every IT professional will agree that patch management is critical to ensuring a healthy network. Yet our recent security assessment of 500,000 endpoints showed that only 29% of the devices passed the patch test.  We weren’t surprised.

Keeping up with the volume of patches needed and finding times to deploy them without interrupting other systems and operations are common challenges. While patches are designed to fix vulnerabilities or security gaps in operating systems and application software, staying on top of patch management often requires time and resources IT teams simply may not have.

Easier centralized, automated patch management 

We stepped up to the patching challenge with the release of our new Avast Business Patch Management Service. Delivered through our cloud Management Console and deployed with any of our Managed Antivirus products – Antivirus, Antivirus Pro, Antivirus Pro Plus – the service provides an easy way to centrally set up, acquire, test, approve, and install system updates and patches, right from our console.

Here are just a few of the features and benefits:

• Flexible deployment schedules: Schedule and deploy approved patches at desired times or manually deploy to groups or individual devices.

• Intuitive dashboard: All patches can be easily deployed, monitored, and managed through our Management Console. Quickly view installed patches, missing patches, and patches that failed to install on any device under management.

• Customizable patches: Choose software vendors, products, and the severity of patches to scan and install. Easily create exclusions for applications.  

• Master agent capabilities Download all missing patches to a master agent that seamlessly distributes patches to all managed devices in the network.

• Patch scan results: View patch scan results from the management console that includes information on missing patches, severity levels, knowledge base links, release dates, descriptions, and more.

• Advanced reporting and new console export feature: Easily determine the health and security of device software with a variety of simple-to-configure reports. Export to PDF with one click from the console.

• Automatic scans: Schedule patch scans to run automatically every 24 hours and set patches to deploy automatically every Thursday. These default settings can be modified at any time.

• Patch support for Windows and thousands of third-party applications: Access updates for all Windows operating systems as well as thousands of other third-party software applications from 100 vendors.

• Patch notifications: Receive automated notifications of patching status. From the console, search, sort, and find history of any failed patches.

Beta tested across SMB IT environments

Our customers and channel partners beta tested the new Patch Management Service across a range of IT environments – schools, banks, manufacturing, technology, and more.

Thomas Glass manages IT for Saint Gertrude High School, a private school in Richmond, Virginia and shares, “I’ve been looking for a good patching solution to automate and manage third-party and OS patching. Having the Avast Business Patch Management Service integrated right into the console is a great advantage. Since implementing the service, I have reduced administration time by at least 50% and created a new patch process that improves efficiency and quality of patch updates by 75%.”

“From the patch management display in my console, I can go to device settings and choose the scans I want, schedule the time to deploy these, and access restart options if patches fail for any reason. I receive automated alerts and can quickly search, sort, and gain more detail for any failed patches.”

Is it time to automate and streamline your patch management from one central platform?  Find out more information about our new Avast Business Patch Management Service