Home Articles Web design & development Why you must keep your web & software applications up-to-date
Why you must keep your web & software applications up-to-date
Last updated March 2020
The digital applications that you use regularly don’t exist alone. To work, they require other technologies to support and run alongside them. All these are likely to have been written by 3rd party developers. Having just one outdated technology in the environment could hamper the success of your software applications or website. One out of date and buggy application can have a knock-on effect, such as broken functionality.
Like most other products, there is a ‘shelf life’ to digital application solutions. Developers can easily work on upgrades for your existing system, but at some point, new major versions will be launched. Your software or website will become outdated and eventually reach the end of its life. From this point, it will no longer be supported by the 3rd party developers. You won’t benefit from any new features and, more importantly, you won’t receive any new bug fixes or security updates.
Security
Security updates will fix vulnerabilities in systems to prevent them from being exploited by unauthorised users. Phones, tablets, computers, browsers and indeed websites use code to function, and it’s weaknesses in the code that hackers can exploit.
As technology is always being improved and functionality added, hackers follow suit by looking for new loopholes and vulnerabilities in the code. These holes need to be ‘patched’ and it is the security updates that provide these patches to keep your systems secure. Any breaches to your site’s security could have huge implications not just for your website, but also the business. Data can be stolen, or applications broken, leading to downtime.
If you do not have the time or expertise to install the updates and maintain the security of your website, find a company that will provide web hosting and manage the security updates as part of the package.
Reduce the risk of bugs
All too often, software and websites that are at the heart of what keeps organisations ticking are not updated or properly maintained. When left unchecked for too long, code can become outdated which in turn causes bugs. These can limit the functionality of an application or stop it from working altogether. An updated, well-maintained application is likely to be more efficient and run for longer.
Remain compatible
Code must be properly maintained to stay up-to-date with its environment. For example; as operating systems, web browsers and CMSs are updated, the code that makes up your application must adapt to keep up with the changes that make up its environment. Code may no longer be able to work with the surrounding technologies as it was initially designed to do, and bugs will occur.
Enhance the user experience
Updating your applications ensures you are benefiting from the latest technologies and the most innovative functionality possible. The application will also be more efficient, faster, more secure and easier to work with. This will enhance the user experience of your software and website.
Conclusion
The longer updates are left, the higher the chance of something going wrong. This may be due to vulnerabilities being found by hackers or key functionality breaking as it becomes out of date with its environment. To keep your software or website solutions secure and operating smoothly, you need to install updates promptly after release. Ensuring they are integrated properly.
At Alberon, we proactively work to keep our client’s applications current with regular security updates included as standard in our web hosting and maintenance packages. Our servers provide a secure and robust environment to any application in. It is a familiar environment for our developers to conduct and test updates to ensure they are integrated properly before putting them live.
