September 2009 – Last year State Department Federal Credit Union (SDFCU) recognized that a large percentage of its internally maintained IT hardware was aging and about to hit the normal 3-5 year warranty expiration. Instead of resigning to the standard practice of warranty extension, or purchasing costly new replacement equipment, SDFCU decided to do something different.
SDFCU partnered with Clearpath Solutions Group, a DC-based provider of storage and virtualization solutions, to perform an assessment of their infrastructure. That assessment showed that while the equipment was nearing the end of its warranty life, utilization levels were very low and very good candidates for an infrastructure consolidation.
Clearpath worked with SDFCU to design a virtualization solution which ultimately consolidated a server infrastructure of fifty eight intel based servers, down to just four VMware ESX Servers. They virtualized the servers using VMware, which significantly improved their uptime and allowed for more flexibility and a faster systems provisioning than traditional servers.
Now, instead of spending weeks for procurement, manufacturing and shipping of new servers, plus the time to install and configure them, SDFCU can simply deploy additional virtual servers purely based on the capacity of their new hardware. This allows them to move more strategic IT initiatives forward and focus on their core mission of serving their membership.
In phase two of the project, SDFCU enhanced their disaster recovery capabilities at Ongoing Operations by working with Clearpath to deploy VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) and Ongoing Operations to provide bandwidth, testing expertise, and data center support. As part of the project a second SAN was deployed at Ongoing Operations, a leading provider of business continuity solutions to credit unions, to work in conjunction with SRM. Ultimately this provided SDFCU with a robust and highly available infrastructure, and the capability to fail over in the event of a disaster.
The need for strong data management and disaster recovery capabilities has grown among financial institutions in recent years. State Department Federal Credit Union, which was chartered in 1935 through the efforts of eight employees of the Department of State, has seen their membership increase to more than 67,000 members worldwide. Not only has their membership base grown, but their services and need for leading technology have expanded as well. By leveraging the best IT solutions available, SDFCU is better positioned to serve its members and provide uninterrupted access to credit union services.
Clearpath Solutions Group is a leading provider of IT infrastructure solutions and consulting services to over 300 clients across a wide spectrum of industries. With a focus on data management solutions, Clearpath seeks to empower its clients by providing access to the latest technologies and now an “Infrastructure as a Service” approach to managing business networks. Learn more at www.clearpathsg.com or contact us today at 866-892-3154 to schedule an Infrastructure Assessment for your organization.
Ongoing Operations, LLC is a leading provider of Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Solutions to over 100 credit union clients nationwide. Beyond just backing up credit unions’ key systems, Ongoing Operations takes a holistic approach to business continuity to ensure that all systems and member communication channels stay up and running – no matter what. Learn more at www.ongoingoperations.com.
