The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) explains that vulnerability scanners not only keep track of hosts and attributes but also help “identify outdated software versions, missing patches, and misconfigurations, and validate compliance with or deviations from an organization’s security policy.” In other words, they’re doing some of the heavy lifting for you, rounding up relevant vulnerability data, updates, and alerts so you don’t have to.
Even if these solutions are lacking in some key areas, today’s vulnerability assessment tools really do take a lot of the work off your shoulders.