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Why are Patch Management and Change Management Important?
Alvaka Networks has arguably the best and most sophisticated patch management process in the Orange County, Los Angeles County and possibly the US. Not many firms can deploy vast quantities of patches to valuable high availability servers and PCs with smoke testing qualify control while following the sun globally during selected narrow service windows.
Change Management
Change management is vital to every stage of the patch management process. As with all system modifications, patches and updates must be performed and tracked through the change management system. It is highly unlikely that an enterprise-scale patch management program can be successful without proper integration with the change management system and organization.
Like any environmental changes, patch application plans submitted through change management must have associated contingency and backout plans. What are the recovery plans if something goes wrong during or as a result of the application of a patch or update? Also, information on risk mitigation should be included in the change management solution. For example, how are desktop patches going to be phased and scheduled to prevent mass outages and support desk overload? Monitoring and acceptance plans should also be included in the change management process. How will updates be certified as successful? There should be specific milestones and acceptance criteria to guide the verification of the patches' success and to allow for the closure of the update in the change management system....
40% of Hospitals Self-Declared as Struggling Financially Due to IT Problems
“94% of the surveyed hospital CFOs self-identified as “struggling”, report that delayed or failed implementations in other IT systems, particularly EHR, have drastically impacted the organization’s financial position.”
That is what is says in the third sentence of a fascinating press release I just read from healthcare market research firm Black Book Market Research. The press release goes on to cite a number of other statistics from their research including stats that many healthcare CFOs are expecting to lose their jobs by 2016 and that there will be a trend to start hiring CEOs from outside healthcare.
I have witnessed some of the reasons for the IT troubles at healthcare companies:
· Healthcare companies on the whole have been laggards in adoption of fresh information technologies.
· IT personnel at most healthcare organizations themselves are behind the curve on...
How Easily Could the Sony Breach Have Been Prevented?
Check out this short video of Jonathan Sandler of STEALTHbits talking about how their technology would very likely have kept Sony out of the headlines.
Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas a Happy New Year to All of You
Thank you so much for all your support in 2014. We are already planning for 2015. Many of you may have already gotten calls from me as I contact you to get feedback on a [...]
Bonus Depreciation Was Just Raised to $500,000 for 2014
We wrote to you three weeks ago to remind you of your $25,000 for tax deduction and bonus depreciation on certain IT and other assets. We have a news flash, the senate just passed a [...]
What nineteen audiences in twelve months taught me?
Navigating Fear in the Security and Compliance World
In advancing technology it is fear of having a project go sideways, over budget or fail to accomplish the stated objective that has many frozen. What if that technology we recommend doesn’t work as we hope? What if it is something required by law (such as encryption in healthcare) that we fear an unknown outcome so much that we won’t act? What if we miss a key component of a project or underestimate the effort required and the entire project goes over our budget?
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