ZEBRA SYSTEMS: CZECH IT PROVIDERS LAG BEHIND IN THE USE OF AUTOMATED PATCH MANAGEMENT

Available MSP tools allow to significantly reduce labor and security risks

PRAGUE, May 24, 2022 – ZEBRA SYSTEMS, a distributor of N-able solutions in the Czech, Slovak and Southeast Europe markets, said that only 38% of Czech IT providers use automated patch management for their customers – significantly less than elsewhere in the world. This fact represents a challenge for Czech IT administrators and a significant opportunity to reduce patching labor and increase the level of security of customer IT infrastructures with the help of available modern MSP tools.

What are the key current challenges in patching:

• According to a local survey by ZEBRA SYSTEMS, only 38% of Czech IT providers have automated patch management activities so far, while in a global study by N-able, 68% of respondents reported this.
• According to another global study by Acronis, 70% of IT providers have automated patch management, but they are not taking advantage of its full functionality – for example, few of them are complying with the maximum recommended 72-hour time from patch release to patch installation.
• 46% of Czech IT administrators leave updates to users.
• Attacks on un-updated systems were among the top three incidents dealt with by Czech IT providers in the last year (ZEBRA SYSTEMS).

“One of the obstacles to the spread of automated patch management is the lack of awareness of the capabilities of modern MSP tools,” said Ondřej Šabata, Sales Engineer for N-able solutions at ZEBRA SYSTEMS. “Recently, for example, Microsoft announced that in the second half of the year it will release the Windows Autopatch tool enabling automated patching of Windows and Office. Yet similar tools have been available for a long time, and unlike Microsoft’s solutions they have no requirements for a specific edition of Windows and often bring other benefits. For example, patch management within N-able N-central and RMM can patch other OSes and third-party software.”

Patch management integrated into N-able N-central allows IT providers to gain visibility into a customer’s network and manage patches from a single central dashboard. The module monitors software from Microsoft and other software vendors and automatically installs patches based on importance and settings, either immediately or during set time intervals. The solution also automatically generates reports that provide an overview of activities performed and the basis for any audit or security incident analysis.

More about N-able’s automated patch management can be found here.