Free Patching Solution Becoming Platform

Version 3.0 of Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)-Microsoft’s free tool for centrally authorizing and distributing Microsoft OS and application patches-is a modest upgrade from its predecessor, WSUS 2.0. It offers an improved management interface, better reporting capabilities, and more efficient support of complex network topologies. However, under the covers, WSUS 3.0 contains a strategic improvement: APIs that give developers access to new capabilities not exposed in the user interface of the base product, thereby transforming WSUS into a platform that can be extended to provide additional management functionality.

Role Expanding

WSUS 2.0 is Microsoft’s free software-update management solution that gives organizations centralized control over applying Microsoft updates and third-party driver updates instead of configuring each computer’s Windows Update Automatic Update (AU) agent (which come with Windows 2000 SP4 and all later OSs) to update the computer directly from the Microsoft Update Web site. WSUS is popular with organizations that have at least one IT professional whose duties include keeping PCs up to date with the latest Microsoft updates, but it can scale to serve organizations of any size.