CU*Answers, the West Michigan-based core data processor, recently completed all 2020 scheduled IBM Power i hardware and software upgrades across all partner and client self-processing networks. Upgrades included installing nine new machines and upgrading to IBM’s v7.3 operating system across the network.

The work represents hundreds of hours of planning and execution and will position the extended network for maximum performance, reliability, and availability during a disaster for these critical member service delivery platforms. Work also included multiple live high availability rollover tests to verify new and upgraded high availability machines were ready to take live financial transactions if situations required.

“It’s remarkable we were able to hit our goal of completing this work on our 2020 schedule, given the challenges presented by COVID-19,” explains David Wordhouse, EVP of Technology. “We were not able to travel to multiple client sites given restrictions, which pushed our team to develop and improve remote approaches, which proved themselves over and over this year. It was important to us to maintain forward momentum and cross the finish line with these upgrades even during this COVID-19 season.”

CU*Answers maintains and manages twenty IBM midrange computers throughout its network and provides ongoing management, maintenance, and high availability services for IBM Power i computers.