Read any computer security report today and it will offer the same conclusion: patching – of both operating systems and applications – is the fundamental effort that any organization should undertake to improve its security profile. In order to minimize exposure to vulnerabilities to the fullest extent, an IT department should patch Microsoft applications and operating systems, legacy and third party applications.

However, for IT managers that use Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), the cost and effort to include these legacy and third party applications in the SCCM infrastructure can be prohibitive. Microsoft provides System Center Updates Publisher (SCUP) so SCCM can deliver updates for third party applications, such as Adobe Reader, Firefox and others. But there is a considerable effort needed in order to implement SCUP.

While Microsoft gives you SCUP to add third-party applications to SCCM, you still need to supply data about the actual patches as well as the patches themselves. If you have ever tried to keep up with third- party applications such as Apple, Java, Firefox, and Google, you know these companies don’t release patches on a predictable release cycle of Microsoft’s monthly Patch Tuesday releases. If you do track third-party companies the way Shavlik has for years you know that each vendor will have their own schedule and it’s not very predictable!

As an SCCM administrator you have more than enough to do in your busy day, and adding another task of tracking third-party patch releases is probably not something you want to spend your time doing.  (However, if you enjoy tracking patches, please apply at Shavlik.com, we are always looking for talented, passionate IT people.)  For the rest of you, Shavlik provides SCUPdates- a simple data file that can save time and significantly improve your security by integrating Microsoft and third-party applications into a single workflow. All that is required is to install SCCM and SCUP, and Shavlik will do the rest. If you are interested in learning more or seeing just how easy third-party application patching can be with Shavlik SCUPdates please join me for my webinar on August 3rd at 10:00am CDT.  Register here.

-Nik Patronas