This article is intended for IT managers and other people responsible for patch management, maintenance of software.
Patch management and software maintenance
Regularly performed software maintenance is a necessity. It is either enforced by legislation and helps prevent security issues, failures, and outages caused by old software bugs. Software maintenance means running updates and upgrades, which are released by software manufacturers and remove software bugs and vulnerabilities, or improve speed, performance, or functionality.
Aptien will make software maintenance planning easier for you by
helping you plan all maintenance activities plan and confirm their execution.
- allows you to set and monitor maintenance plans for different types and kinds of software
- allows confirmation of upgrade or update execution
- you keep a clear operational log for each software
Setting up a maintenance plan for any kind of software
You can compile a software maintenance plan individually for different types of software. When creating your maintenance plan, you establish individual maintenance activities in one of three options:
- maintenance activities common to all software in the record
- maintenance activities common to a certain type of software (for example, graphic programs, security systems, accounting systems, communication, ...)
- individual maintenance plan only for specific software
When setting up maintenance plans, you also choose whether it is a one-time activity or whether it is periodically performed maintenance, for which the repetition system automatically monitors and alerts to fulfill this period.
- one-time maintenance activities
- periodic, repeated maintenance activities
Clear annual maintenance plan
When planning, an annual outlook of maintenance activities will help you, in which you will get an overview of what maintenance activities await you, so you can, for example, better plan their ordering. The overview shows all maintenance activities in the following 12 months. You can export the overview to an excel table and continue working with it.
Confirming the execution of updates and patches
Once you have a maintenance plan set up, for each piece of software you can confirm the completion of maintenance activity and add patch protocols, or other proof of completion.
- Confirmation of performed patches, updates, upgrades, testing or other maintenance
- Log and history of performed patch and maintenance activities