WSUS Background

Microsoft provide three sets of patch management tools for three different market segments, as follows:

Home users and small businesses with no full time IT staff - Microsoft provide two free services: Windows Update, for OS updates, and Office Update, for updating Microsoft Office client products.
Medium businesses, and independent departments of larger organisations - Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). In effect, WSUS is a corporate version of Windows Update and Office Update, enabling the administrator to approve and deploy patches based on corporate guidelines.
Enterprise Organisations - Microsoft Systems Management Server provides a complete solution to patch management, and a whole lot more.

Most home and small business users that have good Internet connections can use the Windows Update site at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ to keep the OS up to date, and the Office Update site at http://office.microsoft.com/officeupdate. Both sites continue to be free, although some users might find it convenient to get the larger updates via CD, which are generally available.

WUS is aimed at organisations large enough to have at least a part time IT professional managing their systems but below the size where the features of SMS can justify the costs involved.

Last Modified 3/22/05 6:36 AM

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