Is Your Computer Wearing Old Software?

March 16, 2021

By Dan Libonati, Senior Solutions Architect

Spring is on its way. So why is your computer wearing (or running) outdated firmware or software?  This month, CPP saw a few customers that had issues with the solutions they have deployed in their datacenters.  As a 30-year veteran of the IT industry, I have witnessed several times customers claiming to have issues in their solutions.  Only to find out these “issues” are a result of not keeping up with maintenance or patching of the deployed solutions. Patching is normal maintenance of any system or device.  You wouldn’t put 50k miles without changing the oil in your car’s engine, so why would you wait to patch production systems in your datacenter?

Keeping up to date with systems maintenance is essential when a problem does arise.  It keeps the vendors from making the standard support statement like “upgrade to the latest versions and call us back if you have the same problem.”    This investment in time to keep systems at current supported versions will reduce the amount of time troubleshooting problems within the environment. When a problem does arise, the vendor can get to work looking at the issue, instead of pouring through logs and discovering that a driver or software is not at supported level.

Companies both small and large should have maintenance plans or windows to get this work done. That will allow them to be proactive and use IT as revenue building tool for the business, not just a cost center. Maintenance should be factored into every project or implementation plan.

If you don’t know where to start, reach out to your CPP sales representative.  We can provide the necessary services to do a gap analysis of your environment and provide a blueprint statement of work to get your systems to current maintenance versions.

BTW, it might a good time to check the batteries and the dates of your smoke detectors in your home if you haven’t in a while. These are life saving devices for you and your love ones. They require maintenance as well.