I just love it when stuff like this happens. I was reading a white paper on cloud
computing security by Hewlett Packard.
The document is titled Securing Your Business in the Cloud; HP
Converged Cloud Security.
The document
(Click
Here for Link) starts out with a pithy quote that says, “The difference between protecting
data in a public cloud versus data in a client organization’s own systems is
like protecting the President in a crowd on the streets versus in the White
House. He still has some protection on the street, but without the ability to
fully control the environment, he is at far greater risk.” That is a really good quote I think to myself. I read on and the credit for the quote is
attributed to “Kevin B. McDonald,
EVP, Director of Compliance Practice, Alvaka Networks.”
Alvaka is not a
big firm, in fact we pale next to the multi-billion dollar HP, but the fact
that they are using our quotes just goes to demonstrate repeatedly over the
years how much Alvaka Networks has become a thought leader in the managed
services, security and IT management & monitoring space.
I feel extra
proud right now.
Smoke testing is a term used to describe the testing process for servers after patches are applied. 
Estimating an average time for patching servers and PCs can be a bit tricky. It can vary from one month to the next, depending upon the number and complexity of the patches released by your software vendors. You must consider all versions of operating systems and have a complete inventory of all your application software to do this job correctly. Our experience has shown that manual patching of systems takes on average of about 1.5 hours each.
This is a basic cost calculator for you to compute your typical monthly cost for patching your servers, PCs, laptops, tablets and associated application software. It also forms the basis for you to begin calculating your Return on Investment for software patching, or for comparison with alternatives to the manual process of patching operating systems and application software—such as Patch Management as a Service, also known as Vulnerability Management as a Service.