Patch management is a security cornerstone that no IT organization can afford to overlook. Yet many teams struggle to effectively patch endpoints and servers against vulnerabilities using difficult-to-manage solutions like Microsoft‘s System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM).
When critical patches are missed and systems remain vulnerable, the door is left open for cyber attacks to cause major disruption and loss. The risks span far beyond the IT department:
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Costly outages and data loss: According to IDC, the average cost of infrastructure failure exceeds $100,000 per hour across large enterprises. Downtime due to something as preventable as an unpatched server vulnerability can put major revenue streams in peril.
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Breach and compliance penalties: Failure to patch known vulnerabilities is considered negligence in the eyes of regulators. Unpatched systems played a major role in healthcare fines exceeding $30 million in 2022.
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Productivity decline and overflowing help desks: When vulnerabilities disrupt access to applications, business productivity suffers. Overflowing calls from frustrated users divert IT from more strategic initiatives.
Yet despite the risks, solutions like SCCM often fall short in keeping complex technology environments protected:
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Constant server and database maintenance burden IT. Just keeping agents connected across regions can be an uphill battle.
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The number of critical third-party vulnerabilities is exploding, but apps and plugins often fall outside standard SCCM capabilities.
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Cross-platform visibility is limited as more users rely on Macs and mobile devices that live outside the SCCM console.
This article provides a guide evaluating alternatives that strengthen and simplify patching capabilities for today‘s decentralized technology environments and overwhelmed IT teams:
Guide Sections
- SCCM Alternative Solutions Overview
- Key Capability Analysis Across Patch Management Tools
- Importance of Prioritizing Patch Management Now
- Assessing Your Organization‘s Patch Management Needs
First let‘s look at leading options beyond SCCM that IT organizations rely on for protecting critical endpoints and servers across on-prem and cloud infrastructure.
Top Patch Management Solutions Beyond SCCM
1. ManageEngine Endpoint Central
ManageEngine Endpoint Central simplifies cross-platform patching via an integrated suite spanning vulnerability assessment, endpoint security controls and IT asset analytics.
Over 35,000 global customers including Government of Canada, DHL, Zurich Insurance and many more rely on Endpoint Central to secure their hybrid work environments against attack.
Unlike SCCM, Endpoint Central was designed as a pure cloud-based architecture for unified visibility and control:
Key Capabilities
- Automate patching for 850+ applications including custom apps
- Manage Windows, macOS, Linux, mobile and more from a unified console
- Respond to threats rapidly with advanced monitoring and analytics
- Simplify regulatory compliance with out-of-the-box reports
Endpoint Central stands out with extremely lightweight infrastructure allowing remote teams to patch deploy without on-prem servers. As this case study shows, Endpoint Central dropped patch cycles from 4 weeks down to just 4 days for a leading healthcare provider:
2. Heimdal Patch & Asset Management
Where ManageEngine takes an integrated platform approach, Heimdal focuses exclusively on delivering best-in-class third-party patching for added protection:
What Makes Heimdal Unique
- Broad app and plugin support well beyond native SCCM capabilities
- Tiny, encrypted patch packages minimize network disruption
- Transparent patching process with user-defined maintenance policies
- Detailed asset management and risk visibility
Heimdal‘s lightweight, scalable architecture is perfect forregionalized organizations needing to harden apps and OS vulnerabilities across remote endpoints and virtual desktop deployments:
"We needed something cloud-based that could scan and patch quickly without hitting the network too hard. Heimdal‘s widget-based dashboard makes it easy to lock things down in a few clicks." – Joseph Miller, IT Director
Heimdal Patch & Asset Management pricing starts at $3.50 per endpoint per month with discounts available based on license agreement terms.
3. JumpCloud Patch Management
Where both ManageEngine and Heimdal still rely on agents at the endpoint level, JumpCloud takes an agentless approach using directory integration.
The JumpCloud directory platform gives IT teams unified visibility and control via cloud identity management across users, devices and access policies – including automated patching for Mac, Windows and Linux environments.
How JumpCloud Streamlines Patching
- Agentless architecture lowers management overhead
- Role-based patch policies enforce compliance
- Easily automate tasks like shutdowns, restarts post-patch
- Monitoring dashboard tracks status across devices
As this systems integrator shares, pairing JumpCloud‘s cloud directory platform with an advanced endpoint management solution like ManageEngine allowed them to support 25,000 remote workers while keeping management overhead low:
"We rotated patches continuously without worrying about VPN capacity limits. JumpCloud gave us the oversight needed to keep systems hardened without adding endpoint complexity."
JumpCloud offers a forever-free tier covering 10 users with pricing starting at just $2 per user per month. Volume discounts available.
Alternative Solutions Overview
Beyond the solutions highlighted above, leading platforms like SolarWinds, NinjaOne and Automox all offer compelling alternatives to SCCM patching:
| Platform | Key Strengths | Infrastructure Model |
|---|---|---|
| SolarWinds Patch Manager | Intuitive dashboards, broad app/OS support, automated workflows | On-prem or cloud |
| NinjaOne | Unified for endpoint management, monitoring and patching | Cloud-based |
| Automox | Rapid patching, visibility across endpoints, integrates with SCCM | Cloud-based |
Carefully evaluating product strengths relative to your organization‘s scale, tech footprint and workflow needs is key in determining what solution(s) are best beyond the limitations of SCCM.
Now let‘s analyze how SCCM alternatives compare across some of the core requirements of patch management.
Key Capability Analysis Across Patch Management Solutions
With vulnerabilities rapidly proliferating across apps, plugins and operating systems, relying on manual processes puts IT teams in constant reactionary mode.
The best SCCM alternatives provide policy-driven automation for proactive, scalable protection. Core requirements include:
Breadth of Patch Support
With SCCM focused primarily on delivering Windows OS patches via Microsoft Update, coverage gaps often emerge, especially on non-Windows devices and popular apps like Zoom, Slack and browser plugins.
Leading alternatives highlighted here expand patch support for 1000+ third party programs on Windows, Mac and Linux – Kemp, Squirrel, Adobe Creative Suite and more.
Cross-Platform Transparency
As reliance on Macs, Chromebooks and mobile devices expands with remote/hybrid work, IT needs unified visibility into patch compliance beyond Windows-first tools.
Solutions like ManageEngine Endpoint Central, Automox and others outlined provide this through cloud-based console access showing detailed patch status across operating systems.
Policy-Driven Automation
Manual scanning and patching quickly falls behind with endpoints spread across regions – or when IT teams are pulled in too many directions.
SCCM replacement options enable policy-driven automation for everything from scan frequency to maintenance windows to enforcing reboot post patching. Critical patches get applied promptly in a centralized manner.
Security and Access Controls
In the rush to deploy patches, it‘s also key they first go through proper testing without opening up new attack vectors. Cloud delivered patches also create potential networking risks.
Tools featured here enable approving patches against specific runtime environments and usage policies before broad automated deployment with protection like perfect forward secrecy encryption.
Compliance Mandate Support
In regulated industries like healthcare and finance, failure to meet patching requirements results in heavy penalties.
Robust alternatives provide out-of-the-box compliance reporting that proves patching systems are working as intended. API integrations with SIEM and analytics tools also help track protection levels across the threat landscape.
Why Prioritizing Patch Management Now Is Critical for Every IT Organization
Recent high impact vulnerabilities like PrintNightmare and Log4J along with explosive endpoint growth demonstrate the risk of patch management falling down the priority list. Consider gaining executive buy-in on evaluating SCCM alternatives by sharing perspectives like:
Patch velocity is rapidly accelerating
According to Flexera‘s 2022 Vulnerability Report, the number of disclosed vulnerabilities jumped by 25% YoY. At current IT staffing levels, keeping manual processes in lockstep is an impossible task.
Cloud compatibility challenges remain
With infrastructure now spanning on-prem data centers alongside AWS, Azure and SaaS apps, no single tool provides the integration coverage needed for unified patching.
Compliance scrutiny is heating up
Government regulations like HIPAA in healthcare and PCI DSS for merchants now include mandates like applying critical patches within 15 days. Non-compliance results in heavy fines.
Emphasize that today‘s complex, decentralized IT environments require a cloud delivery model for scalable, unified patching capabilities across platforms old and new.
The outcomes for prioritizing patch management now include:
Risk Reduction
- Lower vulnerability exposure stopping attacks like ransomware
Cost Optimization - Avoid outages and boost system performance
Productivity Lift - Keep users working securely and without disruption
Use the talking points above to help gain stakeholder alignment on evaluating SCCM alternatives that strengthen defenses now by automating patch management.
Key Considerations for Finding The Right SCCM Alternative
With risks and costs top of mind, where should IT organizations focus evaluation efforts? Key considerations include:
Breadth of Platform Support
Consider current team skill sets — are staff resources primarily Windows focused? Prioritize options providing Mac, Linux, mobile visibility.
Infrastructure Distribution
For mainly on-prem environments, tools like SolarWinds with integration capabilities may suit. Hybrid infrastructure warrants cloud-based tools.
Business Critical Apps
Do options support patching gaps SCCM misses like Chrome, Zoom, Adobe CC? Prioritize by vulnerability risk.
Compliance Requirements
Heavily regulated organizations should weight integrated auditing/reporting capabilities more heavily.
Tool Consolidation Potential
If managing multiple point solutions today, evaluate platforms like ManageEngine that consolidate functionality from vulnerability scanning to device controls.
Finally, take advantage of trial offers provided by vendors in this guide to get hands-on before buying. With stakes so high when it comes to keeping complex environments protected, taking time to evaluate alternatives clearing addresses limitations organizations face with SCCM for today‘s threat landscape.
The hours invested upfront can pay dividends for years via more resilient, cost optimized infrastructure protected against attacks and outages – ultimately enabling users and the business to keep running without disruption.
