Keep Every System Current and Compliant Without Manual Toil
Managed patch management takes the operational burden of patching off your IT team — ensuring OS, application, and firmware patches are applied consistently, on schedule, and with the testing rigor needed to prevent patch-induced outages.
What RLM Delivers on Managed Patch Management
Unpatched systems are the most common entry point for security breaches. Managed patch management provides the discipline, automation, and documentation that manual patching processes consistently fail to deliver at enterprise scale.
How We Approach Managed Patch Management
We work Managed Patch Management the same way each time: establish the baseline, test the market properly, negotiate on evidence, and stay involved through implementation.
Patch Policy & Compliance Requirements
We define the patch policy framework — patching cadence by system tier, testing requirements before production deployment, emergency patch procedures, and the patch compliance metrics that demonstrate regulatory compliance.
Tooling Evaluation
We evaluate patch management platforms — Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, Ivanti, Qualys Patch Management, Automox, and others — against your OS mix, cloud and on-premises footprint, and automation requirements.
Change Management Integration
Patches are changes — they require change control, testing, and rollback capability. We design the integration between patch management and your ITSM change management process.
Compliance Reporting Design
Patch compliance reporting is required for SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA. We design the reporting framework that demonstrates patch compliance to auditors with minimal manual effort.
Managed Patch Management Evaluation Criteria
These are the dimensions we have seen separate a Managed Patch Management deployment that works from one that quietly becomes shelfware.
Coverage Across OS & Platforms
Patch management must cover Windows, Linux, macOS, and container images — plus third-party applications and firmware. Evaluate coverage completeness for your specific OS and application mix.
Test-Before-Deploy Rigor
Patches that cause system instability are worse than no patches. Evaluate the testing cadence — lab validation, staged deployment, canary group — before production patch deployment.
Emergency Patch Capability
Critical zero-day vulnerabilities require emergency patching outside the normal cycle. Evaluate the emergency patching procedure — decision authority, deployment speed, and rollback capability.
Rollback Capability
When a patch causes problems, the ability to quickly roll back is critical. Evaluate snapshot-based rollback, package version downgrade, and the time required to reverse a problematic patch.
Cloud vs. On-Premises Coverage
Cloud workloads require different patching approaches than on-premises systems. Evaluate whether the platform handles cloud-native (EC2, Azure VMs, GCP instances) alongside traditional on-premises systems.
Patch Compliance Reporting
Audit-ready compliance reporting requires evidence of patch status, deployment history, and exception tracking. Evaluate reporting completeness for your compliance frameworks.
"Our migration was stalled for months. RLM came in, assessed the gaps, and helped us select a managed services partner that got us across the finish line in 60 days."
We are paid by the provider you choose, which means we have no reason to steer you toward any particular one.
Where This Matters Most
Sector-specific considerations we see repeatedly in cloud and managed services engagements.
A Sample of the Cloud & Managed Services Providers We Evaluate
RLM is vendor neutral. These are among 600+ providers in our evaluation set — inclusion here is not an endorsement, and we are paid by the provider you choose, not by any provider in particular. How that works →
Where Do You Want to Start With Managed Patch Management?
Start with a no-cost conversation with an RLM cloud advisor — vendor neutral, no agenda, just clarity on the right path forward.
Talk to a Cloud Advisor