Service Description
ITS provides access to Lumension Patchlink Services to allow departmental computer administrators to deploy Patchlink agents to their managed systems and then use these agents to scan and inventory computer systems, assess the vulnerability status of the systems, and deploy patches and software updates on a large scale in a managed environment. There are several benefits to using Patchlink. First, System Administrators benefit by being able to automate the assessment and reporting of the status of computers in their care. With this tool they can easily determine which computers need which patches and then automate the deployment of these patches using Patchlink. Where they previously had to physically visit each computer to apply upgrades and patches they can now provide these services remotely through Patchlink without leaving their office. This makes them much more effective at keeping their assigned systems up-to-date. This leads to a second benefit, which is a benefit to the university. Since System Administrators can be more effective with this tool they can take on responsibility for managing more computer systems, thereby reducing the overall cost of desktop computer management for the university. A final benefit of the use of Patchlink is to reduce the number of computer vulnerabilities that may result in a security breach of sensitive data. Such breaches are very expensive to remediate and while there is no way to prove that the university saved a specific amount of money by avoiding a particular data breach, it is clear that improved patching reduces the risk of such incidents. Service implementation and support include:- Console access to Lumension Patchlink Services with an assigned Business Unit Role that allows management of only those computer assets having Patchlink agents assigned to that role.
- 24 x 7 technical support, including centralized monitoring and management via ITS Network-Security Operations and the ITS Service Desk
- Customer ability to generate various Patchlink reports defining the present patch/vulnerability status for the business unit
- Hardware and software components required to provide the Lumension Patchlink service
- A defined Business Unit Role that identifies the assets that can be managed by that role.
- Online access to current versions of Patchlink agents for all available operating systems.
Hours of Availability
This service is available to customers 24 x 7, excluding planned outages, maintenance windows and unavoidable events. Maintenance windows are used only when needed for planned changes that have gone through the ITS Change Management Process. In addition to the Standard ITS Maintenance Windows, site-specific and service-specific changes may be coordinated with customers at non-standard times. Regular maintenance windows are defined as:- Wednesdays from 11:00 a.m. until Noon but are only invoked when Patchlink servers have critical patches pending, typically once or twice a month.
Customer
UNC-Chapel Hill campus