Windows 10 patch management comes to EMM in VMware AirWatch 9.1

Ideally, businesses can take a unified endpoint management approach to managing their mobile devices and PCs with one platform. AirWatch 9.1 moves closer to that goal. IT professionals who want to take a unified approach to managing endpoint devices just got one more reason to do so in VMware AirWatch 9.1. The new version of VMware's enterprise mobility management (EMM) software adds Windows 10 patch management capabilities, allowing IT admins to see which PCs are up to date on their operating system patches and which aren't. AirWatch is the first EMM product to offer this kind of feature; previously, organizations that used EMM to manage PCs an approach known as unified endpoint management (UEM) would have to use a separate tool for Windows 10 patch management. "It reduces the administrative burden," said Willem Bagchus, messaging and collaboration specialist at United Bank Inc., an AirWatch shop in Parkersburg, W.Va. "The less consoles you have to look at, the better." Many Windows shops today use Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) for Windows patch management, whether they use AirWatch, Microsoft Intune or another EMM tool. "Even with Microsoft, you have to use two different platforms," said Robby Hill, founder and CEO of HillSouth, a Microsoft and VMware partner in Florence, S.C. "[AirWatch 9.1 Windows 10 patch management] would be cutting-edge. We don't see that in the market right now." HillSouth uses AirWatch to implement security policies, such as geofencing, on its Windows 10 2-in-1 devices containing sensitive data.