Patch management secures PC clients and servers from being exploited by bad actors. It reduces the risk of data breaches, which could cost organizations $4.88 million per incident. However, both PC clients and servers require unique patching approaches because each is designated for different purposes. Often, security teams need help implementing a unified patch management strategy that works for both PC and servers.

Key differences when patching PC clients vs. servers

Naturally, servers bear higher security risks and can’t afford a breach or downtime. On the other hand, PCs allow individual employees to connect and exchange data securely with servers. While PCs don’t share the same security burden as servers, they often have numerous apps installed, which widen the attack surface. And this could collectively increase an organization’s security risks.

Given the unique roles of servers and PC clients, you’ll need to be tactful when patching both types of devices. For servers, it’s important to ensure that patching doesn’t disrupt the apps or services instrumental to the functionality of other connected devices. Typically, security teams create a sandbox environment to test the patches before applying them to the server. Also, it’s best to have a server failover in place if the patching somehow didn’t go as planned.

Meanwhile, patching on PC clients is more straightforward. The goal is to quickly patch vulnerable software that employees use and, preferably, do so without interrupting their workflow.

Patch management challenges for PC clients and servers

As you’re aware, server downtime can bring operations to a halt, which results in productivity and financial losses for organizations. Such an outage could be caused by a malicious exploit or a patching that went awry. Therefore, balancing server uptime and continuous protection is a key challenge in patch management for servers.

As for PC clients, the challenge lies in the numbers and how they’re spread over different locations. While a PC outage is less likely to cripple an organization, unpatched software can become a gateway that leads to a server attack that does. Moreover, it’s harder to keep track of applications that employees install and if they strictly obey the organization’s security policies.

Best practices for effective patch management

By now, you’ve probably realized that consolidating patching workflow for both PC and servers is extremely challenging — if you’re using a conventional patch management solution. Server patching, particularly, must be performed diligently to prevent downtime. Similarly, security teams need a better way to inventorize the fleets of PC workstations and promptly secure them.

Securing both servers and PCs with effective patch management, though challenging, is possible with these practices:

• Assess the security risks that servers and PC workstations pose to your organization.
• Create a patching policy and schedule for the respective devices.
• Use an automated patch management software that caters to both PCs and servers. It allows you to scan all software installed, track patch availability, and update them promptly without manual intervention.
• Monitor software vulnerability and compile reports for compliance audits.

Whether you want to patch servers, PCs, or both, SecTeer is ready to help. Our patch management solution, VulnDetect, can automatically identify vulnerable software, patch them, and generate comprehensive reports.

Contact us to schedule a demo now.