To update or to not update?
- by Massimo
Since starting working where I am working now, I've been in an endless struggle with my boss and coworkers in regard to updating systems.
I of course totally agree that any update (be it firmware, O.S. or application) should not be applied carelessly as soon as it comes out, but I also firmly believe that there should be at least some reason if the vendor released it; and the most common reason is usually fixing some bug... which maybe you're not experiencing now, but you could be experiencing soon if you don't keep up with .
This is especially true for security fixes; as an examle, had anyone simply applied a patch that had already been available for months, the infamous SQL Slammer worm would have been harmless.
I'm all for testing and evaluating updates before deployng them; but I strongly disagree with the "if it's not broken then don't touch it" approach to systems management, and it genuinely hurts me when I find production Windows 2003 SP1 or ESX 3.5 Update 2 systems, and the only answer I can get is "it's working, we don't want to break it".
What do you think about this?
What is your policy?
And what is your company policy, if it doesn't match your own?
