In the summer of 2024, one of the largest IT outages in history took out laptops, kiosks, point of sale systems, and other systems around the world. All because of a faulty software patch deployed to millions of systems all at once. The outage was estimated to cost Fortune 500 companies $5.4 billion.
The takeaway is clear: the technological landscape has changed dramatically over the last decade. Software updates shifted from being an optional improvement to an absolute necessity for introducing new features, securing against vulnerabilities, and optimizing performance. Yet companies still struggle with the challenges of software deployment — especially at the edge of vast and intricate networks. Mistakes can range from simple disruptions to highly-publicized, catastrophic outages. In other words, the risks of faulty software patches and mismanaged updates have never been higher.
But with the right tools and strategies in place, you can mitigate these issues and take control of software updates, avoiding potential disaster. Mastering Software Deployments at the Edge is a real-world user guide to understanding the risks of poor update management, why staged deployments are critical to repeatable updates, and all the tools you need to get the job done.
