My team manages a wide range of applications for different departments, but it's challenging since each application has its own update process—and we often rely on users to tell us when an update is needed. We'd prefer a more proactive approach, but currently only some of the vendors provide a notification system. How do you handle keeping track of updates for the applications you support?
5 Answers
We use a combination of RSS feeds, GitHub Subscriptions, and if all else fails, browser automation to keep up with updates. Honestly, managing all these different applications can feel like a full-time job, which is why we lean towards web applications whenever possible.
I automate update tracking with PDQ, which comes with a built-in list of about 20 applications. I also created a script to scrape release notes from supplier websites, and I've integrated an API to show both the installed and latest versions in our ITSM system. We compile a list of apps to update every month, and it works like a charm—especially with 100 apps in play!
I've been using a self-hosted change detection app that checks for updates on specific app pages and notifies me when something changes.
We recently started using Action1, which has been great! It notifies us about updates for a lot of the apps we have, plus security vulnerabilities. If an app isn’t in their repository, you can upload the installer, which helps a lot. For the others, we just check the official websites every now and then.
PatchMyPC has been our go-to for handling updates for over 90% of our applications. For the rest, we rely on vendor notifications via email.
Totally agree! We implemented Action1 in our organization too and it has made things much easier.