How does everyone here manage 3rd party apps when updates are released? Do you have some opern source or commercial solution to deploy or do you let the programs autoupdate? Or, do you just ignore them?

I use Microsoft's WSUSv3 for m$ updates. I love it. I can manage all m$ related patches, service packs, etc. from one place. Many apps I can deploy via active directory or logon scripts...

Though, as my network is growing, I need to work smarter and not harder. One of my main goals this year is to find some way to centrally manage most software packages.

I know there are 3rd party apps out there like Numara Deploy, GFI network security scanner, microsoft's solution (don't remember the name off hand) but they're all every expensive.

Whenever possible, I'm all about hacking together open source software and making a solution work. However, I feel this time I'm going to just to bite the bullet and buy some commercial solution.

Please tell me what you do to manage these apps.