APC by Schneider Electric are global leaders in UPS, server room and battery backup solutions for home offices, and businesses. Their tagline ‘Life is On’ perfectly sums up their ethos.
As with many tech firms, APC are keen to stress the importance of updating your IT infrastructure. As part of a maintenance schedule, you should always be looking to update equipment with the latest firmware and adopt a policy to do this regularly.
Importance Of Firmware
Many people will buy a device and never even think to update it. Why would they? After all, updates can often bloat out a device or restrict use on features people like. But what people fail to realise is the security implications. Through firmware updates, manufacturers are pushing out updates that fix potential security flaws that may not have been apparent on initial release. On top of this firmware updates fix bugs within the software; often streamlining processes that hardware has to run.
If devices are running on a network that could go down during the update process then it’s important to architect the network so that these are redundant. When it comes to managing the network, vulnerabilities can lead to data loss, and then privacy becomes an issue. This data could include login credentials, customer records, emails and more.
As discussed in our recent Netscout blog, more and more devices are being rolled out to the market that are network savvy and easily controlled from remote locations. This is where firmware has an impact, and remaining update keeps such systems stable.
APC recently released their PowerChute Business Edition v9.5. It is a network management software that allows remote access to Smart-UPS UPS (when utilising the SNMP Network Management Card 2). The package allows for safe system shutdowns, energy management across servers and workstations and prompts when irregularities occur. Given the control that this package offers, APC have released it to the market for free. They want to make network management as simple as possible; they look after and fully appreciate the workloads many technicians are under. To support this, APC releases firmware updates to make sure the Smart-UPS and Network Management Cards talk and transmit data as efficiently and securely as possible.
If you’re currently running APC Smart-UPS with a network card installed, why not checkout APCs free offering here, and see how it can make your life easier.
We’re huge fans of APC’s innovations and stock a wide range of SMART-UPS. You can check out some of their great products via the links.
If you require any further details, please do not hesitate to call us.
