Different vendors develop the operating system, database, applications and tools.
It is essential to our success that the College plan a strategy to incorporate updates of these commercial products and to manage Amherst-specific applications. They deliver frequent enhancements and 'fixes', requiring the annual installation of new releases and the weekly application of software 'patches'. It is vital that functional users from the affected application areas thoroughly and promptly test patches and new releases before they are installed on the production server.