Keeping commonly used and frequently updated applications up to date in large enterprise organisations is like doing the washing in a household with multiple teenage children. Just as you load the overworked washing machine with the final batch from the laundry basket, in walks a teenager multitasking on their phone with an armful of clothes to start filling the basket up again.
It’s a similar situation for third-party applications such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Zoom, Microsoft Edge, Bloomberg, Azul JDK, and many, many more. Just as you get to the end of the application management process for the latest version update of one of these applications, in struts the vendor multitasking with their latest marketing initiative and a new app version, starting the process all over again.
As commonly used applications like those mentioned above are updated frequently, the whole scenario is incredibly repetitive and tedious, especially when all or most of the steps in the process are completed manually. It is also resource hungry, so there are negative cost and productivity implications.
It’s Time to Find Another Way
There is no choice but to roll with the situation. The applications in question are often essential, so users must have access to them. Keeping them up to date is also essential for a range of reasons, with security and compliance at the top of the list.
What if you could automate the process?
In busy households, we watch our robot vacuums and lawn mowers while dreaming about a future when robots will also do the washing, drying, and ironing. For third-party application version updates, automation is possible today. And it gets better, as it’s automation where you are in full control.
Introducing Evergreen AI Packaging by Access Capture
At Access IT Automation, we are all about automating tedious, repetitive, and resource-hungry application management processes through our product Access Capture.
Managing version updates for frequently updated third-party applications is one of the use cases for Access Capture. It is new functionality we are bringing to the market that has the potential to deliver significant returns on investment.
Here’s how it works:
- You select the third-party applications that you want to manage through Access Capture’s Evergreen AI Packaging functionality.
- Access capture continuously checks for new version releases of those applications by monitoring websites, folders, or public repositories.
- When a new version is detected, Access Capture downloads the source content to a local repository.
- This automatically initiates the creation of an application request and an API call to package and smoke test the application.
- The repackaged application is then published into a UAT session.
- The product owner is notified that the new version of the application is packaged and ready for final testing and sign-off.
By automating as many of the steps as possible, a process that would have previously taken hours to work through can be completed in minutes.
Proactive Control of Application Release Cycles
Evergreen application management with Access Capture ensures you remain firmly in control of product and application release cycles. For example, you can prioritise applications that frequently patch security vulnerabilities to move your organisation from reactive application management to proactive application control.
In other words, you can get out in front of a problem that is never going to go away – ensuring third-party applications are kept up to date as part of variable, vendor-determined release patterns that you have little control over. Evergreen AI Packaging by Access Capture puts you back in control.
To learn more or to book a demo of Access Capture, please get in touch with us at Access IT Automation today.
