CastleCops® - Microsoft Vows to Fix Patch Problems

Microsoft will whittle down its stable of patch management tools from eight to two by the end of the year, according to the software giant's chief security strategist.

During his keynote at Microsoft TechEd Tuesday, Scott Charney put it simply, "patch management is broken." Charney, who served as cybercrime chief at the Department of Justice for eight years, then vowed to repair the damage and ease the headache of patch management.

Patch management has become a problem for end users, not only because of the number of patches Microsoft issues, but also because of the number of different tools organizations have to deploy.

Two Tools

Microsoft has eight installer technologies available to users. Charney said that number would be reduced to two by the end of the year--one for the operating system and one for applications.

"We will eventually have one tool across the entire platform," said Charney. He added that the appearance of the tool would coincide with the release of the Longhorn operating system, which is expected in 2005.

"One or two tools would be manageable," says Velda Wooten, supervisor of the client support group for American National Insurance in Galveston, Texas. "With several different tools, the tools themselves become hard to manage." Wooten manages some 1,800 desktops and is currently working in-house to design her own tools to help with the patching process.

Others say cleaning up the tool glut will likely result in better-patched systems.

"One tool for the OS and one for applications probably means that more admins will do patch management," says Cary Shufelt, Windows network architect for Oregon State University. "It's about time Microsoft did this."

Source: PC World


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