For over a decade, the underlying technology that CU*Answers has chosen to drive its application suite has been the IBM System i server. The Grand Rapids-based CUSO, known for providing CU*BASE processing services to credit unions will be moving to the POWER6 i550 server.
According to CU*Answers, the technology that continues to drive the backbone of its core application suite has been the IBM System i server, which has consistently been one step ahead in its technological advancements, providing considerable reliability and scalability. The CUSO also stated it has helped several of its self-processing credit unions and business partners deploy new Power6 technology in advance of its move to a POWER6 i550 server.
Several benefits cited by the CUSO for moving to the New System i POWER6 Servers include the new processors ability to handle virtually unlimited growth potential. Recent announcements made by IBM have expanded the upgrade path for the POWER System i server family to more than 15 times CU*Answers existing i5 processor throughput. Additionally, the new servers come with IBM Service/Education vouchers, which CU*Answers utilized heavily during the past half-dozen years, and anticipates that these vouches will be utilized by the Systems and Programming teams to engage IBM Professional Services resources for education, performance analysis, and consulting on advanced IBM applications like Web Query.
CU*Answers is currently upgrading both the Production (PROD) and High Availability (HA) systems in anticipation of May 23rd, when it will bring the new production server online.