It feels good to be targeted sometimes.

The small shop that I work for is large enough to need automation, but not large enough to need the sorts of automation that I've researched so far. SUS was very welcome, it replaced the SMS server that we were trying to use, but took way to much time to implement, and the hoping that people would visit Windows Update on a regular basis. SUS now allows me to know that systems have been updated when I need them to be (and it successfully did that with XP SP2 just this week). However it only does windows updates. I think I'm about to be pleased:

Available now as a public beta, WUS was recently evaluated by Mandy Andress of Network World's Lab Alliance (see link below) who pronounced it "a definite improvement over Software Update Services, the product it replaces," as well as "a credible alternative to existing patch management products such as BigFix and PatchLink for cost-conscious, Windows-only shops." This last means that, while very good, WUS is not as feature rich as many of the third-party commercial products available to you.

[ What's inside Windows Update Service ]

Isn't it great that there are journalists who take time time to report this sort of thing... ;)