[geeks] Policy for system / package upgrades in Enterprise

[Katrina Gawas]

Hi All,

We are trying to set policies for system / packages upgrade in our
company. Currently most of our systems have Ubuntu 8.04LTS server.
What do you think should be the policies in regards to the following:

* Upgrading of packages? Say as per some requirement developers needs
java6u20 on production machines and currently Ubuntu 8.04 LTS only
supports java6u6. There is one view from our IT head that one should
upgrade the OS to keep up with the package requirement. Is this
correct/viable?
* Upgrading of OS? Ubuntu 8.04 LTS support will be available for a few
more years. What should be the proposed OS change cycle. Or should
only parts of the OS stack be updated as per requirement?
* Should any of the above policies vary if we want to strictly
implement ISO 27001 considerations (http://www.iso27001security.com/).

Thank you in advance,
Katrina