We’re letting you know of some upcoming changes to the Patch Status dashboard in N-central Analytics.
What is happening?
On June 20th, 2025 the Patch Status dashboard in N-central Analytics will no longer be available. This includes any custom dashboards created from the Patch Status dashboard and any schedules created for both.
The Patch Audit Log and Patch Lifecycle (Compliance) data models in Direct Data Access are unaffected.
Why is this happening?
Last year we released the Patch Compliance dashboard which allows us to better show the status of patch compliance at a point in time, the most common patch related use case among our partners.
To avoid confusion by having two dashboards that appear similar but answer different questions we have made the decision to end of life the Patch Status dashboard.
How does this impact you?
This depends on your patch analytics and reporting needs, and how you currently use Analytics to achieve them.
Already using Patch Compliance
If you are already using the Patch Compliance dashboard or have made custom dashboards from it, there is nothing you need to do. Your 7 default dashboards will become 6, but the Patch Compliance dashboard remains available and unaffected.
Using Patch Status or custom versions
If you have been using the default Patch Status dashboard, or custom versions of it, we’d recommend you start using the Patch Compliance dashboard as soon as possible. You may still want to create a custom version of the Patch Compliance dashboard depending on your needs and should leave yourself some time to implement this. We’d recommend that you don’t compare the data between the two dashboards however. Due to the underlying difference in how the data is modelled the numbers will rarely be the same.
Using Direct Data Access
If you are primarily using Direct Data Access for your patch analysis and reporting you will still be able to use the older data model but may want to assess if your use case is to understand the sequence of patch status changes or to understand the patch compliance at a point in time and make sure you are using the appropriate data model (see below).
What is the difference between the two dashboards and data models?
The Patch Status dashboard uses a data model that tracks each patch status change that occurs, like an audit log. This is useful if you need to e.g. provide evidence as part of an insurance claim. However, all statuses and status changes are treated equal making it difficult to identify where in its lifecycle a patch is.
The Patch Compliance dashboard uses a data model that aggregates the status changes by patch and is aware of the relationship between patch statuses, making it easier to understand where in the ‘lifecycle’ a patch was at a given point in time.