Patch Management

With the number of security threats increasing exponentially every year, keeping up-to-date on the latest security and software patches is critical. At the same time, with the increased frequency of patch releases, the process has become labour intensive and demanding. Dimension Data’s Patch Management Service ensures that organisations are always updated with the latest security and software patches to reduce the impact of viruses and vulnerabilities.

Dimension Data has developed a structured, automated a patch management service that follows the following process:

• Notify. Microsoft notifies their Premier Support Services (PSS) clients of new patches being released.
• Identification. Dimension Data reviews the patches that are necessary for installation in your organisation, based on the knowledge we have of every desktop in your environment. This information is updated through the patch assessment that is conducted monthly.
• Risk Assessment. Dimension Data and a customer representative reviews the impact of not implementing the patch and prioritise the deployment of patches. Determine which patches are to be deployed across the organisation.
• Packaging. Automated packaging of patches for deployment to each user. The packaging is based on the results from the risk assessment. Determine the date for deploying the packages.
• Deployment. Notify affected users and remind them to have their desktops available for deployment (if their desktop does not support wake up). Deploy the packages based on the time and date determined in the packaging process. Record the desktops where the patches were deployed to.
• Verification. Generate a list of both successful and unsuccessful deployments. Produce a plan to deploy unsuccessful patches to those desktops and revert to deployment process.
• Compliance. Run a patch assessment and identify those desktops where the patch was not installed successfully. Produce a plan to deploy the patches to those desktops and revert to deployment process.