Microsoft's Windows Update Services Looms On The Horizon

With Windows Update Services (WUS), Microsoft hopes to reduce a lot of the pain and expense surrounding patch management. WUS is a software platform that is installed on a Microsoft Windows Server and handles the patching process for both the server and connected client PCs.

WUS is built around several components. The central component is a Windows server specifically designated as a WUS server. That system will manage the patching process, reporting and overall updating. Patches and patch information arrive from Microsoft Update, a Web-based service offered at no charge to Microsoft customers. Another component is the Windows update agent, which handles the application of updates to client systems.

To prevent WUS from gobbling up all available bandwidth when downloading patches, Microsoft employs a technology called Background Intelligent Transfer Services (BITS) 2.0. BITS schedules uploads and downloads to maximize the use of idle bandwidth, preventing a serious impact on Internet throughput.

Initial Test Center trials have shown that WUS is easy to install and manage, and the product's Web-based interface is user-friendly and intuitive. Integrated reporting keeps system managers keenly aware of the patch status on all Windows PCs on the network. What's more, WUS handles updates to a plethora of Windows products, including Exchange, Office, SQL Server, MSDE and various versions of the Windows OS. Microsoft plans to add support for several more software packages in the future.

There are already several products on the market that handle the patching process, but what makes Microsoft's offering unique is that it is free. That fact could threaten many companies that produce patching software and management tools, and could also affect the bottom line of solution providers profiting from patching services.

The advent of WUS will cause solution providers to rethink how they profit from managing client systems. Luckily, several options exist to help solution providers profit from WUS. First, WUS is a technology meant for system administrators, and in many cases, solution providers have taken on that role for their customers.

WUS also employs extensive reporting capabilities, giving integrators the opportunity to monitor and manage the patching process. WUS also allows patches to be deferred until an administrator feels confident that a patch offers immediate benefits. These elements combined allow solution providers to continue profiting from patching while reducing their workloads. WUS' reports can be used to generate billing or authorization information, while solution providers can still offer expertise on how and when to patch systems.

WUS is not a revolutionary technology. Instead, it is an evolutionary technology that should prove to be a good replacement for Microsoft's Software Update Services (SUS) and other patching technologies. Third-party patching products should still play a role in many organizations' IT departments, since those products patch software beyond Microsoft's offerings. There are also many IT departments that do not use any Windows-based software products, and therefore have no need for WUS.

Solution providers whose customers do use Microsoft's software can download a public beta of WUS from Microsoft's Web site.