Think You Can’t Afford Consistent Patching? Try TuxCare Instead

January 17, 2023 - TuxCare PR Team

Look, everyone knows that it’s a tough act. Thousands of CVEs are added to the list every month – all in the context of a technology environment that grows relentlessly in complexity. In the meantime, your restricted IT budget means you’re likely stuck with limited SysAdmin resources that just can’t keep up with the pressure.

The result: you’re leaving your applications and services vulnerable because you don’t get around to patching in time. It comes down to resources, and it’s no surprise that organizations conclude that they simply don’t have the resources to patch consistently.

However, there is a simple solution that takes the pressure off patching teams – and it won’t break the bank. Let’s take a look at how live patching from TuxCare can help you to meet your goals for consistent patching.

Why Does Consistent Patching Become Unaffordable?

It simply comes down to a lot of pressure on limited resources. Sysadmins have an enormous workload to deal with and patching is just one of the many tasks that sit in the in-tray.

And, because of a rapidly growing list of vulnerabilities, patching also happens to be one of the most time-consuming tasks. A new patch doesn’t come along once a month or so – it happens every day, multiple times a day.

It doesn’t take much before consistently patching and responding to vulnerabilities within a short window looks like something your organization simply cannot afford, for a range of reasons:

Time and resources: Patching requires dedicated time and resources to identify and assess the vulnerabilities that need to be patched, and to deploy the patches. It’s a huge drain on resources when manual patching is still used. This time-consuming and resource-intensive process clashes with the realities of limited staffing and a tight IT budget.
Downtime: In most cases, applying patches requires systems to be taken offline or restarted, which can result in lost productivity and revenue. This can be especially challenging for organizations that rely on their systems to be continuously available – which describes so many organizations today.
Complex environments: Organizations with large, complex IT environments have an enormous volume of systems and applications to patch, which is challenging to manage given the volume of vulnerabilities. This can also increase the risk of issues arising from the patching process, such as compatibility problems or downtime.

On many levels, it can look like it simply can’t get done: that there’s no way patching can be performed consistently. With unlimited resources – sure – patching can be done consistently… but unlimited resources just isn’t a reality, even where organizations have dedicated patching teams.

What’s Different About Patching Using TuxCare?

Sometimes technology experts can end up doing things the same old way for no apparent reason, even when there’s a better alternative out there. This includes manually applying patches – and only doing so once downtime is scheduled. This process can lead to months of delays before a patch is applied, leaving a wide vulnerability window.

TuxCare’s live patching solutions ensure that your systems are always up to date with the latest Linux vulnerability patches. Thanks to live, in-memory patching, patches are deployed automatically in the background while your systems are running, without requiring any scheduled maintenance or reboots from your team. It means that you can now afford to patch consistently:

Limited resources matter less: With TuxCare, patching happens automatically in the background and requires minimal intervention from your team. Installing TuxCare is simple too: all it requires is running a single script, and patching continues in the background. One step is all it takes, and once TuxCare’s patching is running, consistent patching no longer depends on staff resources.
Downtime becomes a non-issue: Thanks to TuxCare’s live patching capabilities, patching occurs while the service is running – whether it’s the operating system kernel, an open-source library, or a database. Teams no longer need to schedule inconvenient downtime, and there is no longer a question about the ability to afford downtime.
Simplify the environment: Automated, live patching takes a complex problem – applying patches for thousands of new vulnerabilities every month across a complex environment – and simplifies it by automatically patching, and by patching without causing disruption.

Live patching from TuxCare takes many of the cost problems out of the patching equation. Staff resources are no longer an issue, downtime is minimized – and it simplifies a costly IT security problem.

So you might ask: what does TuxCare cost? TuxCare is affordable, with our core KernelCare Enterprise service coming in at under $5 per server per month. It’s a fraction of the cost of obtaining live patching through extended service contracts from an Enterprise Linux vendor.

To wrap it up, TuxCare’s range of live patching services turns consistent patching from something critical, but unaffordable, into something that’s simple, easy to accomplish – and affordable.

Summary