Matson & Isom Technology Consulting

It's Patch Tuesday! What does that mean for you?

July 12, 2011

Now, we know that “Patch Tuesday” sounds to some like a good day to start a campaign to quit smoking. For consultants, however, Patch Tuesday is a day for updating computers and servers. Every second Tuesday of the month, Microsoft releases the newest fixes for its Windows operating systems.  At this point, if you are a ProSupport Managed Services client here at Matson & Isom Technology Consulting (MITC), we roll those patches out to your systems so your computers and servers are always up-to-date and secure.

In 2003 Microsoft introduced the idea of “Patch Tuesday” as a way to reduce cost around deploying patches.  “Patches” are a sort of quick repair job for a piece of computer programming that may have a “bug” or a coding error.  Why Tuesday, you ask, instead of one of the other 6 delightful days of the week?  Microsoft chose Tuesday because it wasn’t the first day of the week, which brings its own issues with it (I say poor Monday gets a bad rap), but it was still early enough in the week to have enough time to deal with any ensuing problems before the following weekend.  These patches are for bug fixes, security vulnerabilities and feature enhancements. Officially, patches are only sent out on Patch Tuesday, though if a code fix is critical enough, it may be sent out at any time.

This once-a-month patch management system seems to work well for all involved. Microsoft likes to send patches only once each month to simplify patch management. MITC consultants also like this because the date is known in advance. We can plan ahead and work with our clients to find a convenient time to patch their systems.  Our clients like Patch Tuesday because we can install multiple patches with a single reboot. MITC ProSupport clients have the added advantage of off-hours scheduled patch reboots to maintain as much uninterrupted business workflow as possible. 

This month Microsoft is only issuing 4 bulletins for Patch Tuesday, but it will fix a whopping 22 known vulnerabilities – this is a Patch Tuesday you won’t want to miss. 

If you are interested in having MITC maintain and patch your workstations and servers or need other technology consulting advice, please call (530) 891-9146 or contact us.

Category: General