Dedicated Infrastructure for Utility Operational Technology
Diverse Sites
Geographically separated facilities in Virginia and Maryland on different transmission systems and different carrier hotels.
99.999% Availability SLA
Monthly infrastructure commitment with no hardware single points of failure.
SOC 2 Type II
Audited controls, with a mapping to NERC CIP Low Impact requirements available under NDA.
Vetted Tenants Only
Critical infrastructure applications share the platform. Nothing else does.
Known Hardware
Compute, network, and security equipment from US-allied manufacturers.
Stratum 1 Time
GPS-sourced NTP at each site with a published accuracy commitment.
BES Independence
120+ hours of on-site power generation, because BES cyber systems should not depend on the BES itself.
24×7 Security Operations
Security event monitoring staffed around the clock by a specialized managed security operations center.
Hosting Tailored to Utility Needs
Utility software vendors increasingly deliver their products as hosted services. Their customers’ compliance, security, and IT teams then ask questions that general-purpose public cloud was not built to answer: who else is on this hardware, where exactly is it, who made the equipment, when will the infrastructure change underneath us, and what evidence can you give our NERC auditor?
ACS was built to give vendors a good answer to each of those questions. The platform hosts only critical infrastructure applications, publishes its network paths and facility controls to customers under NDA, notifies tenants before infrastructure changes, and maps its audited controls to the CIP standards utilities are measured against.
The result for a vendor is a hosting environment that shortens utility procurement and security review instead of lengthening it.
Transparency Provided by ACS
Known facilities in Virginia and Maryland. Facility design and controls are documented for customers.
Vetted critical infrastructure applications only. Dedicated hardware tenancy is available when no sharing is acceptable.
Compute, network, and security hardware from US-allied manufacturers.
Advance notice of infrastructure changes that affect your environment, and tenant-specific incident notices with OT impact context.
The SOC 2 Type II report, its mapping to NERC CIP Low Impact requirements, and the shared responsibility matrix.
What ACS Does, and What It Leaves to You
ACS provides infrastructure as a service. The vendor keeps full control of its operating systems, application, and customer relationships.
ACS Provides
- Data centers, power, cooling, and physical security
- Server, storage, and network hardware, monitored and refreshed
- Virtual machines, block storage, and virtual networking
- Cross-site replication and disaster recovery capability
- 24×7 platform monitoring and security operations
- Audit evidence and shared responsibility documentation
The Vendor Retains
- Operating systems, patching, and hardening
- Application deployment, updates, and configuration
- Application-level security controls and identity
- Customer support, contracts, and escalation
- Application backups and recovery procedures
The Utility Retains
- System operation: monitoring and control
- Field devices, RTUs, and operator workstations
- User administration and identity providers
- Its own NERC CIP obligations and evidence
Platforms Running on ACS
ACS is the hosting infrastructure behind products from other Accurant Energy Holdings companies.
Grid analytics for electric utilities
Sentient Energy hosts its Ample grid analytics platform on ACS, having moved it from general-purpose public cloud to gain single-organization accountability from hardware to application.
SCADA platform for utilities
Renovo offers its renovo platform as a fully hosted production system on ACS, as an alternative to on-premises deployment, with optional high-availability deployment across ACS sites.
A customer of one of these platforms? See what ACS hosting means for you.
Hosting a Utility OT Product?
Tell us what you run and who you serve. We’ll walk through the platform, the shared responsibility model, and the audit evidence your customers will ask for.