IT management is undergoing a seismic shift. Until not long ago, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and on-prem Active Directory dominated endpoint and identity management.
Today, cloud-first models including Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) for identity and Microsoft Intune for device management are increasingly prevalent. This transition to cloud-first IT management promises greater flexibility and scalability.
Yet, amidst this evolution, the one thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of patch management. In fact, patch management is more critical than ever. In the era of cloud services, mobile devices, and remote work, unpatched systems remain one of the biggest security gaps.
This blog post explores the shift from traditional to cloud-first management and highlights where patching fits into the new paradigm, and why a solution like JetPatch is vital for maintaining security compliance throughout the transition.
From SCCM and On-Prem AD to Entra ID and Intune: The New Normal
For years, Microsoft SCCM was the cornerstone of enterprise device management – deploying software, updates, and enforcing configuration on corporate PCs. It excelled in a world of on-premises infrastructure. But as organizations embraced cloud applications and a mobile workforce, SCCM alone struggled to manage “modern endpoints” effectively. Microsoft answered with Intune, a cloud-based endpoint management solution that, together with Entra ID, addresses the needs of managing devices from anywhere.
Today’s cloud-first IT means devices can be managed via the internet without traditional network boundaries. Entra ID (Azure AD) replaces or complements on-prem AD, providing identity management as a service, while Intune enables unified endpoint management across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
This allows consistent security policies and software updates across diverse devices, whether corporate-owned or BYOD. The introduction of Microsoft Endpoint Manager brought SCCM and Intune under one umbrella, helping organizations co-manage during the transition and move at their own paceMany organizations are now operating hybrid setups – some workloads still managed by SCCM, and others via Intune – as they gradually shift to a cloud-first model.
Where Does Patching Fit?
In the SCCM era, patch management was often handled by WSUS and SCCM deploying monthly updates (e.g., Patch Tuesday updates) to PCs. In the cloud-first era, patching is still a necessary practice: Intune can enforce Windows Update for Business policies, and cloud services like Azure Update Manager can automate VM patching.
However, having cloud-based management doesn’t automatically solve patch management challenges. Companies must ensure that whether a device is on-prem through SCCM or cloud-managed through Intune, it receives timely security updates. This is not just a technical requirement but also a compliance issue – e.g. ensuring devices meet the organization’s security baseline and regulatory requirements for vulnerability management.
Why Patch Management Still Matters
Hint: Security and Compliance
No matter the management model, the fundamental risk of unpatched systems remains. Cyber attackers don’t discriminate whether your device is managed via on-prem tools or cloud tools – they seek out missing patches to exploit. A significant percentage of breaches involve known vulnerabilities for which patches existed. To put it plainly: if you don’t patch your systems, you’re leaving the front door wide open.
Modern IT environments might reduce some hassles (like deploying software via cloud) but they also introduce new ones (like a mix of device types and locations), and there’s no autopilot for patching everything.
Consider these realities:
- According to industry research, about 60% of security breaches involve unpatched vulnerabilities (nilesecure.com). This stunning statistic holds true even as organizations adopt cloud services – many breaches could be prevented by applying available patches. In a cloud-first context, one might assume automatically updated services mean fewer manual patches, but endpoints (servers, VMs, laptops) still require diligence. Cloud providers update their services, but your virtual machines and applications remain your responsibility.
- Patching is getting harder to manage manually. A recent survey of enterprise admins found 71% consider patching overly complex and time-consuming, and 62% admitted that patching often takes a back seat to other tasks
(nilesecure.com). This is a dangerous trend when balanced against the breach statistic above. It implies that as IT teams juggle new cloud tools, they might delay or miss crucial updates, inadvertently increasing risk. - Compliance standards and cyber insurance now scrutinize patch management rigorously. Frameworks like ISO 27001, NIST CSF, and others explicitly require vulnerability remediation (which means patching).
If you move to cloud-first infrastructure, you must prove that your patch management didn’t weaken. In fact, cloud or hybrid setups might require even tighter coordination – e.g., ensuring Intune’s compliance reports or Azure Defender for Cloud’s recommendations show all systems as healthy/patched.
In sum, patch management still matters because it underpins security hygiene. It’s the process that turns the promise of cloud agility into a secure reality by closing known holes before attackers can exploit them.
Cloud-First Doesn’t Mean “Patches Not Required”
One might ask: “If we use Intune and devices get Windows updates automatically, do we still need a patch management tool?” It’s true that modern device management introduces features like Windows Autopatch and automatic OS updates. These are great, but they don’t eliminate the need for oversight and versatility:
- Diverse Environments: A typical enterprise isn’t 100% one OS or one environment. You may have Linux VMs in Azure/AWS, third-party software (Chrome, Zoom, Adobe Reader) on Windows PCs, or even on-prem servers that are not easy to migrate. Intune’s patching focuses largely on Windows OS updates and Microsoft apps. What about all the other software?
A cloud-first approach requires a toolset that can handle heterogeneity. This is where we can help by patching across Windows and Linux, on-prem and cloud, and including third-party app patches, all from one platform.
- Visibility and Control: Relying solely on automatic updates (be it Windows Update for Business, or auto-patching features in cloud providers) can create visibility gaps. You might not have a single pane of glass to see which patches failed or which critical updates are missing across your estate. JetPatch provides real-time visibility into patch compliance status across all endpoints. That means even with Intune updating devices, JetPatch can validate and report on compliance, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
- Security-Driven Patching (Policy and Conditional Access): In modern management, conditional access and compliance policies are central. For instance, Intune compliance policies can declare a device non-compliant if it’s missing critical updates, and then Azure AD Conditional Access can block that device from corporate resources. But those policies alone don’t fix the issue – they just ring the alarm. You still need to remediate by installing the patches.
JetPatch closes the loop: it helps you remediate non-compliance by deploying the required patches, bringing devices back into compliance so users can regain access. In other words, cloud management can detect or enforce compliance, but you need a robust patching mechanism to achieve compliance.
JetPatch ensures that the “missing update” scenario is resolved quickly, keeping users productive and systems safe. This synergy between JetPatch and cloud security policies exemplifies why patch management remains crucial.
- Rapid Response to Threats: When a new critical vulnerability (think “zero-day”) emerges, organizations need to respond immediately. Cloud services might take time to roll out their own fixes, or auto-update processes might not act fast enough.
A dedicated patch management solution like JetPatch allows your IT SecOps team to push out emergency patches or configurations (e.g., a mitigation script) rapidly to all affected systems. This agility is essential in a cloud-first world where threats propagate quickly across global networks.
How JetPatch Ensures Security Compliance in a Cloud-First World
JetPatch was built to address the challenges of modern patch management head-on. As companies pivot from traditional setups to cloud-first environments, JetPatch acts as a bridge and an enhancement to native tools like SCCM or Intune. Here’s how JetPatch helps ensure security compliance throughout this evolution:
- Unified Patch Automation: JetPatch provides a single, automated patching process across hybrid environments. Whether a server is on-prem behind SCCM or a laptop is Azure AD joined and managed by Intune, JetPatch can automate patch acquisition, testing, deployment, and verification. Its micro-agent architecture gives real-time control and feedback from each endpoint.
This means no device is left behind. Administrators can define patch policies once and apply them everywhere, with the platform handling the complex matrix of OS types and locations.
- Compliance and Reporting: Because JetPatch emphasizes security and compliance, it comes with built-in reports and dashboards that map to compliance requirements. Need to show that 95% of critical patches are applied within 14 days? JetPatch can track and report that.
It focuses on vulnerability mitigation and can even integrate with vulnerability scanners to prioritize patches that close high-risk findings. This security-first approach ensures that moving to cloud management does not mean losing sight of patch compliance – in fact, JetPatch strengthens it by constantly monitoring and reporting on the patch posture.
- Seamless Integration with Modern Tools: JetPatch doesn’t force you to choose between old and new; it integrates with both. For example, it can take asset data from Azure, deploy agents via Intune as described, and also work alongside SCCM if you’re in a co-management scenario.
If you still use on-prem AD and modern Entra ID in tandem, JetPatch can consolidate information from both. Integration with ITSM tools means your cloud-driven processes (like a ServiceNow workflow for change management) remain intact as JetPatch plugs in automated patch tasks within those processes.
- Security-Focus vs. Broad IT Management: One might wonder, why not just use Intune or SCCM alone for patching? The answer lies in specialization. According to PeerSpot’s analysis, “JetPatch holds an advantage in streamlined automation and security focus, while Microsoft Configuration Manager excels in its comprehensive IT management capabilities.”
In other words, JetPatch specializes in patch management and vulnerability remediation, emphasizing security and compliance. This specialization means JetPatch often delivers patches faster, with less admin effort (thanks to automation), and catches issues that might require custom scripting in other tools. For an organization embracing modern, cloud-first IT, JetPatch provides that focused layer of defense to ensure endpoints are not just managed, but truly secure.
- Supporting the Transition: During the transition from traditional to cloud-first, JetPatch can actually reduce disruption. Instead of reengineering your entire patch process when moving from SCCM to Intune, JetPatch remains a constant – it will orchestrate patching regardless of whether an endpoint is registered in SCCM, Intune, Azure Arc, etc.
For example, as you migrate a workload from on-prem to Azure, JetPatch can simply start handling it via the cloud connector without skipping a beat. This consistency means IT teams have one less thing to worry about amid transformation.
Conclusion
The move from traditional on-premises management to cloud-first IT management is not just a technological shift, but a cultural one for IT departments. It brings many benefits: easier scalability, remote management, improved end-user experiences, and often lower infrastructure costs.
However, it also underscores a timeless truth in IT security: Patch Management still matters – perhaps even more so when your network extends beyond a single physical location and into the cloud. Keeping systems updated is non-negotiable for security, compliance, and operational resilience.
Automated patch management is a crucial tool for organizations in this cloud-first journey. It ensures that as you modernize identity with Entra ID and device management with Intune, your patch management process is elevated alongside, not left behind. By adopting JetPatch, enterprises can confidently embrace cloud-based IT management without compromising on security. Patches will be applied on time, compliance requirements met, and cyber risks mitigated proactively.
Don’t let your patching practices lag in the race to cloud-first IT. Help your organization automate and optimize patch management in this new paradigm. To learn more about how JetPatch integrates with your modern IT stack and to see it in action, request a demo or visit our Knowledge Center for detailed guides.
