Cisco plans patch days
Network appliance vendor Cisco has announced that in future it will release updates for its IOS router operating system twice a year, on a scheduled patch day. The fourth Wednesdays in March and September have been chosen. The first Cisco patch day will be 26th March.
Cisco is apparently introducing the patch days as a result of customer feedback. Customers want to improve their ability to plan for update testing and deployment. The company emphasises that security advisories and their corresponding updates would also be released independently of this schedule where necessary to patch critical security holes.
Microsoft and Oracle also have patch days in order to allow administrators to plan and simplify company-wide installations of software updates. Microsoft has a monthly patch day cycle, while Oracle patch days are quarterly.
See also:
- Patch day announcement on the Cisco security website
(mba)