Canada Life puts a patch on security update solution


28 Oct 2004

Canada Life Assurance has implemented a system for managing software patches throughout its offices in Ireland and Germany, serving more than 600 staff.

The firm has rolled out ON iCommand from the security software vendor Symantec, which was installed by a partner company, the Irish IT specialist Cara Group. Patch management is currently a major security concern for IT managers, as it involves keeping track of versions of software installed on user desktops, as well as ensuring that systems are protected with the latest fixes to security vulnerabilities.

The integrated solution uses Symantec’s Enterprise Device Management System for asset management, patch management and deployment across a combination of Windows and Linux platforms in Ireland and Germany, serving over 600 employees. The system provides a full audit of all hardware and software inventory in the company in real-time from a central console located in Dublin. It also provides network auto discovery and software licence usage and management.

It also allows patch scanning, reporting, deployment and remediation (rollback) from a central console providing continuous auto-download of pre-tested patches.

Canada Life required a policy-based, open, scalable, unified solution for managing the full lifecycle of all devices including operating system provisioning, application deployment, ongoing updates and configuration management. This was bandwidth optimised to cater for remote devices and mobile users in a multi-operating system environment.

By Gordon Smith