Updates shouldn’t come just once a month

There is a notable hoo-har in various corners of the tech world once per month as Microsoft releases a round-up of updates for Windows. It’s become known in the trade as ‘Patch Tuesday’ (because they happen on the second, sometimes fourth, Tuesday of the month).

For those whose job it is to be on top of such things, this is important and they have to pay attention. Security fixes need to be carried out before any vulnerabilities in the software are exploited by the less friendly denizens of the internet.

In fact, in some circles, the day has become known as ‘Black Tuesday’ and not everyone is a fan of this approach.

But of course Microsoft’s ubiquitous platform isn’t the only piece of software that has to be maintained and updated; other programmes that can be just as crucial to a business go through this same process on an ongoing basis – they just don’t necessarily wait until a certain day each month to release their fixes.

That’s why we at Bespoke Computing are not in the habit of simply checking in for software releases once a month. Our customers are far more likely to find we’re carrying out updates for them once a week. If we don’t it’s because we’ve satisfied ourselves that there’s nothing which needs doing.

This is no hit-and-miss process that calls on our team to do the odd trawl of the vendor websites for news and downloads.; we use a specialist platform to centralise the monitoring and deployment of updates to all of our clients, based on the software we manage for them. That makes it our job to ensure your operation is always up-to-date with security and stability fixes for your software – and it means that’s one less thing you, as a busy business person, have to worry about.

In the process, we are able to sample test patches on a selection of computers if there are any concerns about deploying them straight away. And unlike an automated update, we’ll hold them back if there are any concerns at all! And problems do happen…

Of course servers need updates too and they can be more critical than individual machines, leading to down time that needs to be planned for minimum disruption. The last thing anyone wants is a bad patch on a crucial server.

As a business grows it can be surprising how many different systems and bits of software it can come to rely on. If you do an audit you might be surprised at what you’ve got and how out of date some of it could actually be (and whether you have licenses for all of the copies you’re using…).

Christmas is looming and we very much hope you have a great one. Maybe, though, this coming New Year is the time to get some help in bringing your software under control – without waiting for a Tuesday once-a-month…