The Challenge
The hospitality company with thousands of hotels worldwide recognizes that keeping its software up to date with the latest security patches is vital to both cybersecurity and regulatory compliance. In particular, the company’s IT security policy requires that all software on all corporate computers is updated to the latest versions of OS and third-party apps such as Adobe Reader, Chrome and Java.
To monitor how closely each hotel adheres to that security policy, the central IT office uses vulnerability assessment technology that scans all the computers at each location for unpatched vulnerabilities and tracks risk scores over time, and provides local IT offices with reports on this data.
However, with only WSUS to help, patching the detected flaws promptly was quite difficult: The local IT team had to deploy most updates manually, which was very time-consuming and increased the risk of human errors, and patching devices that employees took home was especially challenging. To overcome these issues, the company started looking for a cloud-based patch management solution.
The Action1 Solution
The company chose Action1 for its robust patch management capabilities and ease of use. Moreover, they appreciated that it is a cloud-native platform that works equally well for in-office and remote endpoints, and can be used from any device that has browser.
The Benefits
Improved security and reduced IT workload. With Action1, the local IT team quickly developed an automated patch management program that ensures timely update of all corporate devices for strong security — and also saves the team a day of work every week on patch management. “Now our monthly risk report from the central office always has a good number, indicating that our IT security is healthy,” says Information Technology Manager at the global hospitality company. “Moreover, because Action1 saves us so much time, we are now able to focus on more strategic tasks such as improving operations and processes within our IT team.”
With Action1, we save a day per week on patch management, while ensuring that our IT environment is more secure. And we can now focus on more strategic tasks.
All-in-one solution. The IT team also appreciates that Action1 includes multiple valuable tools that they did not expect to get. In addition to ensuring robust patch management, the team can now deploy software, provide remote employees with IT support, run scripts, and inventory IT assets — all through the same easy-to-use interface. They note that Action1’s comprehensive feature set help them feel more confident because they have now more visibility and control over their endpoints.
