1. A computer program product for software version recommendation, the computer program product comprising: a non-transitory computer recordable-type media containing computer executable program code stored thereon, the computer executable program code comprising: computer executable program code for receiving information from an updates agent operating at a target machine that specifies a current state of installation of a software instance operating at the target machine and other software components installed and active at the target machine; computer executable program code for analyzing the received information using, in combination, at least one predefined machine-specific rule specified with conditions by which to request the updates agent operating at the target machine to enforce a state upon the software instance at the target machine responsive to the updates agent capturing a startup attempt, and a set of available updates metadata specified for a combination of the target machine and the updates agent operating at the target machine; computer executable program code for identifying information pertinent to the combination of the target machine and the updates agent in accordance with the analyzed received information; computer executable program code responsive to a determination to send the identified information as a recommendation to the combination of the target machine and the updates agent, for sending the recommendation to the combination of the target machine and the updates agent, and where the pertinent information identifies a fix to the software instance to ensure consistent performance across a set of target machines, the recommendation further comprises requesting the updates agent to prevent operation of the software instance until the fix is installed; and computer executable program code responsive to a determination to not send the identified information as the recommendation to the respective target machine, requesting the updates agent on the respective target machine to perform specific operations, comprising requesting the updates agent on the respective target machine to cache a rule outcome locally on the respective target machine and invalidate a cache on the target machine on one of a specified event and a predetermined scheduled basis.