Patch management

Patch management identifies, evaluates, tests, deploys and verifies updates for operating systems, applications, firmware and devices. Installing everything immediately is not always safe, but indefinite delay preserves exposure; priority should consider severity, exploitation, asset importance, dependencies and compensating controls. Inventory and support status are prerequisites because a console only reports devices it knows and can reach. The process defines owners, windows, backups, pilots, exceptions, rollback and handling of failures. Some changes require restart or prerequisites and may affect compatibility. Validation confirms the installed version and service operation, not merely job completion. Measures should separate pending, excluded, failed and unseen assets. A device absent from the report is not evidence of a patched device, so coverage must be reconciled with authoritative inventory.