More data center operators are telling us the same story: IT security reviewed the network, found rack PDUs still connected to it, and flagged them for removal. If that’s happened to you, replacing every flagged rack PDU isn’t the only path to compliance - there’s a way to keep monitoring those same PDUs securely, without a network connection.
IT security flagged your rack PDUs for removal from the network - what can you do about it?
You don’t have to replace a rack PDU just because it can no longer stay on the network. RF Code’s R170 and R175 rack PDU monitoring tags let you keep monitoring power at the rack level while creating a secure air gap between the PDU and your network - no network connection required. Because you’re not buying and installing new rack PDUs, you avoid the cost, the security certification process, and the data center downtime a hardware swap would otherwise require.
The trend I’m seeing with rack PDUs in enterprise data centers
Over the past several months, more of our customers have come to us with the same story. Their IT security team ran a network audit, found legacy rack PDUs still connected to the network, and issued a notice that those PDUs no longer meet current security requirements and have to come off the network.
Naturally, the first question is whether that means replacing the PDUs. Nobody wants to do that. A rack PDU replacement means new hardware costs, a security certification process for whatever replaces it, and - the part customers dread most - data center downtime to swap the PDU in every affected rack. For an enterprise data center with PDUs across dozens or hundreds of racks, that adds up fast in both dollars and operational risk.
Why are rack PDUs being flagged for removal by IT security?
Rack PDUs get flagged for the same reason a lot of other network-connected data center hardware eventually does: a device that was compliant when it was installed years ago doesn’t necessarily meet the security requirements IT teams enforce today. A legacy rack PDU with a network card or an embedded management interface is a network-connected endpoint, and every network-connected endpoint is something IT security has to account for in its attack surface, keep patched, and monitor.
When a rack PDU can’t be updated to meet current standards, or when keeping it on the network is judged not worth the ongoing security risk, IT security’s straightforward answer is to require it be removed from the network. That’s a reasonable call from a security standpoint - but it leaves data center operations with a real problem: how do you keep monitoring rack-level power once the PDU is no longer talking to the network?
What are enterprise data center operators doing about it?
Most of the operators we talk to don’t want to replace flagged rack PDUs, and they don’t have to. Instead, they’re moving from network-connected PDU monitoring to a wireless monitoring solution that reads power data from the rack PDU without putting the PDU itself back on the network.
RF Code’s R170 and R175 rack PDU monitoring tags are built for exactly this. Here’s what that shift typically looks like:
-
The rack PDU comes off the network, satisfying IT security’s requirement.
-
An R170 or R175 tag is attached to the rack PDU and reads its power data directly.
-
The tag reports that data wirelessly, creating a secure air gap between the PDU and the network - there’s no network path back to the PDU at all.
-
Rack-level power monitoring continues uninterrupted, with no data center downtime to install the tags and no PDU replacement to budget for.
Because the R170 and R175 tags cost a fraction of what a new rack PDU would cost, extending the life of a legacy PDU this way is also a straightforward way to cut the cost of the whole project compared to a like-for-like PDU replacement across every flagged rack.
👉 See how R170 and R175 rack PDU monitoring tags work: rfcode.com/power-monitoring
Do you have more questions?
Contact us any time for a no obligation chat about monitoring your rack PDUs securely, without replacing them.