BackBox Network Automation for Patch Management & OS Updates

Today, network management is becoming much more challenging due to complex network environments that span cloud and hybrid work settings, a wide variety of vendors that make up an organization’s IT infrastructure, and the ongoing talent shortage in both IT and security industries.

The demand for network management teams to consistently deliver services and maintain networks is only increasing despite these challenges, often forcing teams to allocate the bulk of their time toward administrative work like operating system upgrades and patch management. While these are time-consuming and repetitive for teams, completing these tasks are critical for a network’s success. Thankfully, network automation solutions can aid network administrators by removing the need to complete these essential administrative tasks manually, while adding an additional layer of assurance that these patches and upgrades are being done correctly, in a timely manner, and with a paper trail to prove the status of patches and upgrades.

Automation for Patch Management

Patch management is an ongoing, colossal task for network administrators to manually keep up with. The consequences of falling behind are catastrophic, especially as 87% of organizations have experienced an attempted exploit of an already-known, existing vulnerability. It is crucial for organizations to be completely up to date on what patches are currently installed, aware of which updates are required for what systems, and how to ensure patches have been installed correctly.

Network automation saves network operations teams time by helping to ensure a hardened network infrastructure by automating the implementation of patches and upgrades across your entire network in minutes. An automated approach to patch management helps organizations reduce the size of their attack surface by applying patches to vulnerabilities as the system receives them. It also frees up network operations teams to focus on more complex, growth-focused tasks, instead of focusing on manually applying every patch across the network.

Automation for Operating System Upgrades

The challenge with upgrading operating systems doesn’t come from having to update just one device. It comes from having multiple vendors that have many different types of devices that all need updates. It can be a painful, time-consuming task for teams that are in charge of ensuring all devices are running the latest operating system, and it often gets pushed back due to higher priority items. Compounding all of these challenges, network teams often don’t have total visibility of the entire network and what needs upgrades. And when you fall behind on upgrades and continue to run old operating system versions, organizations become increasingly more vulnerable to a multitude of exploits.

With network automation, teams can set up automated tasks once that will rerun as many times as needed, only changing the file needed to upgrade. Automation also allows for built-in upgrade pre-checks and post-checks to validate you are able to upgrade without any errors. With a solution like BackBox, teams can view upgrades across vendors through a single pane of glass and customize upgrade flows to meet an organization’s needs as they evolve. By automating routine operating system upgrades, network teams no longer have to spend countless hours manually upgrading devices across their organization, all while ensuring the upgrades are successfully completed.

Automation for patch management and operating system upgrades provides network teams with the confidence that networks are secured and running properly. BackBox is here to help you automate and streamline complex tasks, ensure network health and performance, achieve business continuity and do more with fewer resources. Be sure to check out our 30-day free trial to see what the power of automation can do in your network environment.