MicroScope™

UL 827-A – Empowering Monitoring Stations the ability to Transition Operational Technology to a Hosted Environment 

Written by Victoria Ferro, President, Micro Key Solutions, October 5th, 2022

UL827-A permits current UL827-A Monitoring Stations and Security Operations Centers (SOC) the ability host and deliver monitoring related services to other monitoring stations and SOCS – which also earn that rating. The UL827-A also allows data centers that are NOT currently UL827-A Monitoring Stations to host these services FOR Monitoring Stations and SOCs while maintaining a UL listing.

UL827-A Monitoring Stations can choose to offer services such as physical structure, location (especially important for Disaster Recovery Requirements), hosting of hardware (receivers), and software (software receivers and automation software). The offerings can be fully hosted or hybrid (some services remain at your UL location in addition to some being hosted).

The UL827-A Monitoring Center or Data Center can offer the listed services as Active-to-Active, which means the signals are sent to both data centers actively for both centers to process data. They can also offer an Active-to-Passive set-up, where the center acts as a “back-up” for DRC and only receives signals in the event of a failure to the primary site.

Why is this important to Monitoring Centers and SOC’s? This opens a world of operational possibilities while offloading the technical burden of operations to a 3rd party.

Interested in UL827-A Monitoring or transitioning your current technology to a hosted environment? Partnering with the RIGHT provider is imperative.

Some question to ask potential partners.

• Is your datacenter UL827-A certified?
• What is the Disaster Recovery Plan in the event of a work stoppage issue with the primary Telecomm Provider?
• How many different connection points are integrated in your Disaster Recovery Plan?
• Do you have a redundant, UL827-A Certified center located at least 400 miles from the primary center?
• Is there an automated fail-over to the secondary location?

This UL requirement empowers monitoring stations to expand their internal infrastructures and creates new opportunities to take advantage of new technologies that may have been cost prohibitive in the past.

For a deeper understanding of UL827-A, be sure to tune in to the Lock Stock and Barrel podcast episode with our guest, Peter Giacalone, as we discuss this topic at length!

Victoria Ferro, Micro Key President, is excited to present the first episode of Lock, Stock & Barrel! It’s a Micro Key On-Air spin-off dedicated to monitoring stations and the megatrends surrounding the monitoring industry as a whole. Episode 1 features industry expert Peter Giacalone! He will get you up to speed – and perhaps even excited – about the potential benefits UL 827A brings to table. Take a listen and let us know what you think!

Listen Here or on your favorite podcast platform.