During the week of March 7, 2022, recovery teams at CU*Answers will engage in an annual test to restore and operate check processing services from CheckLogic systems at the secondary data center as part of a robust business continuity program. To test the resilience of the service, members of the item processing team run through an entire day of processing on the restored systems, parallel to the production environment, and compare results to validate the success of the exercise. Daily operations conducted during the test include:

• Download files from the Federal Reserve Board (FRB)
• Perform check processing repairs and rejects
• Create and submit transmission files for all client segments (online, inhouse, etc.)
• Download and process return files (core response) from CU*BASE
• Create return files for the FRB

“Conducting regular disaster recovery exercises for all critical business functions is the true test of any Business Continuity Plan,” states Jim Lawrence, VP of Operations and Business Continuity at CU*Answers. “Recovery Time and Recovery Point Objectives (RTO/RPO) are not met once the technology is restored. It’s not until business unit operations are able to perform their tasks to an acceptable performance level can you call the test a success. This requires repetition and practice to achieve the desired level of business resilience.”

CU*Answers schedules and conducts recovery exercises and live production rollovers every six months involving all online credit unions to test their capabilities. With every test, gaps and weaknesses are identified and corrected. Gap analysis reports for each exercise are published and available from the CU*Answers website. Also available on the website are details about the CU*Answers high availability program, including information and resources to assist credit unions in the design and testing of their own continuity and recovery programs.