IT Pros know to clear their calendars right after the second Tuesday of the month. Dubbed “Patch Tuesday,” that’s when Microsoft releases most patches. Microsoft announced they are abandoning that practice and will release patches ASAP when they are available. What it means for your IT Pros…
A benefit of knowing when to expect patches is that patch time could be planned in advance. Now your IT Pros will have to be vigilant about applying Microsoft patches any time of the month. That’s the way it is with Adobe Flash, Java, PDF Reader, and browser patches.
And, patches do you no good until they are installed on your systems.
Applying patches is one of the best things you can do to protect against hacker attacks.
3 Cardinal rules for patches:
First, test the patches. Patches sometimes cause problems, especially Java patches, so they have to be tested. Test them ASAP so you can deploy them ASAP.
Second, use a staged deployment. Patches need to be deployed first to a few machines, then more, then to the rest of your network. That way, if a patch causes a problem, not everyone is down at the same time.
Third, always have a plan on how to “roll back” the patches if they do cause a problem. That’s just another reason to always have good backups and test your ability to restore.
Microsoft says the new “ASAP” patch release proactive will start when Windows 10 is released. That will probably be in July 2015.
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