UpKeep: A New Feature of NWG Manage

When a new patch, CVE or upgrade becomes available, the decision of whether to adopt the latest version is rarely cut and dry. You have to consider the source of the information; the advantages of new features vs. the risks of it breaking something else in your environment; whether the new version is stable vs. too bleeding edge; and of course, what you should do if something goes awry.

If you’re a busy security professional (who, let’s face it, already has too much on their plate), you don’t want to have to constantly worry about these things. Fortunately, if you’re an NWG Manage customer, we think about them for you.

As part of NWG Manage, we’re committed to keeping customer devices up and running securely, 24/7, 365 days a year. We’re also committed to continually looking at ways to ensure our service meets and exceeds customer expectations.

That’s why we’re excited to introduce UpKeep: a new and improved process for how NWG upgrades and maintains customer devices, including how we communicate about those updates.

Why the change

While we’re constantly weighing these kinds of decisions for our customers and discussing them among our team, we realized we didn’t have a consistent process for reviewing updates on a regular basis. We also saw a need to communicate more proactively with our customers about the status of their devices, including whether we think an upgrade is necessary and why (or why not). Lastly, we identified some places where this process commonly goes wrong for customers (like challenges scheduling time for maintenance) and came up with practical ways to address them.

Our team of seasoned security pros and customer service aficionados have been hard at work the past few months envisioning what this process should look like going forward, and UpKeep is the result of those conversations.

What NWG Manage customers can expect with the new process

Maintenance Windows

If you’re an NWG Manage customer, the first change you’ll see is that we’re going to start scheduling monthly maintenance windows for non-critical upgrades (critical upgrades will always be handled as soon as they arise).

During these windows, we’ll apply any upgrades that we feel are necessary to keep your devices on the latest stable version. Because upgrades can sometimes cause outages, we’ll work with you to schedule upgrades for a day/time that will be least disruptive to your business.

Notifications

We will also start sending regular notifications when vulnerabilities or upgrades to customer devices are released, including those that are critical. These notifications will let customers know what action (if any) we’ll take. Notifications will include:

• Whether we think an upgrade is necessary
• If it’s critical vs. if it can wait until the next regular maintenance window
• The reasons behind our decision and any additional context we think would be helpful

We’ll also be in communication as your maintenance window approaches, sharing reminders, letting you know what changes we’ll be making (if any are needed), and when those changes are complete.

Other changes coming soon

This is just the beginning. Other improvements we’re working on behind the scenes include:

• Ways to increase our team’s efficiency in assessing available upgrades and comparing them against the device types we manage
• More ways to share notifications, including settings that customers will be able to adjust according to their preferences
• More information regarding our typical decision logic, including the sources we find most reliable in making these decisions

Let’s chat

Whether you’re a current NWG Manage customer with questions or feedback, or you’d like to talk with us about whether our approach to managed security services is right for your business, we’re eager to hear from you. Schedule a call here.

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Published By: Scott Smith, Vice President of Security Architecture, NetWorks Group

‍Publish Date: June 26, 2025

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