PatchLink Update

• Overview
• Features and Benefits
• Requirements
• Resources
• Pricing

When it comes to network security, don't take chances. PatchLink Update™ is the #1 selling patch and vulnerability management solution trusted by customers worldwide to protect their heterogeneous networks. With its patented Digital Fingerprinting Technology™ and the world's largest repository of patches, PatchLink Update continuously monitors networks to accurately and rapidly assess and remediate vulnerabilities. PatchLink Update ensures end-points are accurately patched and compliant for successful IT and regulatory audits, while reducing IT costs and improving productivity.

Overview:

Quickly and Accurately Secure Your Heterogeneous Network from Threats

PatchLink Update provides rapid patch management, allowing you to proactively manage threats by automating the collection, analysis, and delivery of patches throughout your heterogeneous enterprise to secure end-points. PatchLink has the world's largest repository of patches, including more than 10,000 patches for major current and legacy operating systems and applications. PatchLink Update's agent-based architecture, patch package pre-testing, highly scalable software, and easy-to-use features allow customers to patch 13 times faster than the industry average*.

PatchLink Update's patented Digital Fingerprinting™ Technology provides a highly accurate process for patch and vulnerability assessment, remediation, and monitoring - leaving no systems open to attack. Remediation is fast and accurate with wizard-based patch deployments, support for phased rollouts, rapid verification of patch installs, and more. End-points are continuously monitored to ensure that they get patched and stay patched.

Improve IT and Regulatory Compliance

With PatchLink Update, you can be sure that your systems are effectively patched and compliant for successful IT and regulatory audits. PatchLink Update's patented Digital Fingerprinting Technology ensures that end-points get patched and stay patched by creating a Patch Fingerprint Profile that includes all software, hardware, drivers, and existing and missing patches for that machine. Each end-point is then continually monitored. Administrators can also establish a mandatory baseline to automatically remediate end-points that don't meet defined patch levels - a key aspect of regulatory compliance. And, because many organizations need to demonstrate patch compliance, PatchLink Update includes 21 standard reports that document changes, and demonstrate progress toward internal and external audit and compliance requirements.

Reduce IT Costs and Improve Productivity

PatchLink Update's automated solution reduces the estimated average annual cost for manual patching from $222 to $40 per computer - a savings of over $180,000 per year**. And, because PatchLink creates and tests all patch packages prior to release, the majority of PatchLink customers spend less than one day testing patches before deployment. Relative to a manual approach, PatchLink reduces labor by over 90% from 4,447 to 392 estimated hours annually**.

*PatchLink 2006 Customer Survey based on responses from 350 CIOs, CSOs, IT managers and network administrators worldwide. Industry average based on NIST.

**The Return of Investment of Automated Patch Management by Mark Bouchard, CISSP, former META Group analyst. Estimates are based on an organization with 1,000 computers.

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Features and Benefits:

• Agent-Based Architecture - Protects laptop and mobile devices that are often disconnected from the network and reduces network bandwidth usage
• Inventory Assessment - Identifies and reports all software, hardware and services inventory and supports software distribution
• Automated Agent Distribution - Locates unmanaged network endpoints and deploys the patching agent, ensuring maximum coverage and protection
• Automatic Notifications - Distributes e-mail alerts directly to administrator(s) for proactive security and administrative management
• PatchLink Pre-Testing - Reduces the amount of development and testing required prior to patch deployment
• Patch Fingerprint Accuracy - Ensures the highest level of accuracy in the detection of security vulnerabilities
• World's Largest Patch Repository - Provides the largest repository of tested patches to support all major operating systems and applications used in the enterprise
• Flexible Application Reporting - Audits and reports on the status of the organization's security
• Flexible Scanning and Deployments - Allows the Administrator to control the scanning and patch distribution schedule to minimize business disruptions
• Fully Internet-Based - Communications based upon standard protocols (TCP-IP/ HTTP & HTTPS)
• Group Management - Creates custom computer groups to increase deployment accuracy and IT efficiency
• Highly Scalable - Ensures complete coverage for the largest worldwide networks with high-availability topologies and PatchLink Distribution Point architecture
• Intuitive Web-Based Interface - Enables wide access to an easy-to-use administrative interface
• Multi-Patch Deployments - Delivers multiple patches to multiple computers in one distribution to increase IT productivity
• Multi-Platform Support - Enables security of all operating systems in heterogeneous networks, including Windows, UNIX, Linux, Apple, and Novell
• Patch Compliance Alerts - Automatically alerts administrators when a patch is removed or dropped due to restoring a backup or installing a new application
• Policy-Based Administration - Ensures that all systems meet a mandatory baseline policy - a key aspect of regulatory compliance
• Role-Based Administration - Enables System Administrator to delegate activities to improve productivity while maintaining security
• Subscription Service - Provides secure downloads of pre-tested and pre-packaged patches from a dedicated PatchLink host and ensures no unauthorized packages enter your network

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Requirements:

Desktop/Agent Coverage:

• Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003
• IBM AIX, HP-UX, Macintosh OS X, Red Hat Linux, Sun Solaris, SUSE Linux, Novell NetWare

Minimum Hardware Requirements:

• Processor Requirements: 1.4 GHz Pentium or equivalent processor
• Memory Requirements: 512 MB RAM
• Networking Requirements: A single 100 Mbps network connection (with access to the Internet)
• Disk Capacity Requirements: 36 GB of available disk space

Supported Operating Systems:

• Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003: Web Edition with SP1, Standard Edition with SP1, Enterprise Edition with SP1
• Windows Server 2003 R2: Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition

Note: PatchLink Update must be installed on an Operating System that is not a domain controller and uses the default English - United States Locale configuration.

Supported Database Servers:

• Microsoft® SQL Server 2005: Express Edition with SP1, Standard Edition with SP1, Enterprise Edition with SP1
• MSDE 2000: MSDE 2000 with SP4 (Upgrade only)
• SQL Server 2000: SQL Server 2000 with SP4 (Upgrade only)

Note: PatchLink Update Server installs SQL Server 2005 Express Edition RTM during installation. Therefore, you must not have any database server installed prior to the installation of PatchLink Update.

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Resources:

 

Download the PatchLink Update 6.3 Data Sheet (PDF).