Vulnerabilities come in all shapes and sizes and while operating system patch management has largely been simplified with tools like WSUS, there is still a high degree of risk due to many popular third party applications and the lack of any centralized patching mechanism for maintaining those installations.  Vendors such as Adobe and Mozilla regularly release updates for their software packages, but managing those updates has been an arduous task for many system administrators.  Until recently, the only centralized option was to create your own MSI packages and deploy them via group policy or SCCM.

Today there are a number of patch management applications designed to help address this problem.  Listed below are the major players in this arena including some major features and pricing information, when available.  Additionally, all of these solutions have demo or trial versions available.

Solarwinds Patch Manager
http://www.eminentware.com/index.html
* Integrates with WSUS or SCCM directly, no separate console
* Also provides asset inventory
* Does not require a local agent install on the client nodes

Desktop Central 8
http://www.manageengine.com/products/desktop-central/non-microsoft-patches.html
* Cost is $545 per 50 nodes
* Limited 3rd party app support
* Web based management console

Lumension Patch and Remediation
http://www.lumension.com/vulnerability-management/patch-management-software/overview.aspx
* Cost is $22/node
* Support for wide range of OS’s including OSX
* Widest range of 3rd party app support

VMware vCenter Protect Essentials Plus
http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vcenter-protect/overview.html
* Used to be called Shavlik
* Also provides asset inventory
* Does not require a local agent install on the client nodes

Tivoli Endpoint Manager for Patch Management
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/endpoint-patch-mgmt/
* Cost is $20/node
* Support for wide range of OS’s including OSX
* Can patch remote workstations not on the local network

Posted by:
Sean Waugh, CISSP, MCSA
Network Administrator
Lead Technical Auditor
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