In today’s hybrid, always‑on digital landscape, resiliency is no longer a “nice to have” – it’s a non‑negotiable requirement. IT teams and solution providers are under increasing pressure to keep critical infrastructure running securely, efficiently, and without interruption. Proactive cybersecurity management is key. Yet everyday reality tells a different story: outages, rising cyber threats, and growing complexity continue to threaten IT continuity.

Recent industry research highlights the urgency. According to Forbes, 1-minute offline costs up to $9,000. In high-stakes sectors, that number can soar past $5 million per hour. And we need to consider that many companies – 60% – report at least one cybersecurity intrusion in their operational technology environments[1].

Against this backdrop, the mandate is clear: cybersecurity management is essential. IT stacks must be proactively monitored, managed, and secured – remotely, consistently, and at scale.

Why the Network Management Card is essential for critical infrastructure management

IT environments, whether distributed edge sites, regional data centers, or centralized facilities, depend on the uninterrupted operation of critical infrastructure assets such as UPS systems, PDUs, environmental sensors, and cooling equipment. Any failure in this power chain can cascade into significant business outages and data loss or corruption.

Schneider Electric’s Network Management Card (NMC) is the foundation that connects critical infrastructure devices including UPSs and PDUs to your monitoring tools, dashboards, and automated workflows. Without an NMC, you cannot remotely monitor or manage a UPS or PDU.

The Schneider Electric NMC is secure by design and independently certified to the IEC 62443-4-2 SL2 cybersecurity standard by TUV Rheinland.

Firmware management is critical for cybersecurity

Proactive firmware management is critical to optimize your company’s cybersecurity posture. When speaking to our customers, they clearly tell us that firmware management is both time-consuming and risky. Our customers asked us these questions:

• “Where do we even find the latest firmware?”
• “How do we know we have the latest update applied?”
• “How critical is this update so I can plan appropriately?”

Our customers clearly needed our help to solve their concerns and that is why Schneider Electric developed the Secure NMC System (SNS) Tool designed specifically to strengthen NMC cybersecurity and operational integrity. It accomplishes this mission by centralizing firmware management across your fleet of NMC-connected UPS and PDU devices.

The NMC and the SNS Tool form a cybersecurity foundation

The Schneider Electric Network Management Card delivers the connectivity and control required for resilient operations, while the Secure NMC System Tool ensures your devices remain secure, compliant, and up to date. Together, the NMC and the SNS Tool form a cybersecurity‑focused foundation that supports any modern IT monitoring approach.

From the SNS Tool dashboard, customers can view any out-of-date or vulnerable devices running older versions of NMC firmware. Customers get notified via the Notifications Panel when new firmware updates are available. The correct firmware is automatically made available for the correct device, and the update process can be initiated in one click.

Why does this matter? This functionality solves one of our customers’ top pain-points: “I can’t even tell which devices are compliant.”

And to save time, the SNS Tool enables mass firmware updates, so you get cybersecurity compliance without the overhead, and you reduce your operational risk with the right NMC firmware automatically matched with the correct device.

How does the SNS Tool fit within the EcoStruxure IT software portfolio?

EcoStruxure™ IT monitoring and management solutions give real‑time insight into the health and performance of the critical infrastructure in your IT environments. Our portfolio of software solutions provides flexibility to choose the best fit for your environment, whether on premises, cloud-based or part of a suite of complimentary solutions.
 
 The bottom line is if you use in-house or third-party tools to manage your critical infrastructure, proactive firmware management capabilities are a blind spot. We recommend that you add the SNS Tool to your management suite to boost your security resilience. However, if you already use EcoStruxure IT Data Center Expert or IT Expert today, your NMC cybersecurity management is part of your solution, so you are protected.

A whopping 85% of CEOs say cybersecurity is critical for business growth – Gartner (2025 CEO & Senior Executive Survey). Schneider Electric remains committed to providing the right options to ensure cyber resilience for critical infrastructure fits seamlessly into your operations without adding unnecessary overhead or risk. To see for yourself, a one-year subscription to the Secure NMC System Tool is included with all new Schneider UPS and PDU devices. Learn more today at www.se.com/secure-nmc.

[1] Fortinet – 2024 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report