As part of its ongoing commitment to business resiliency, CU*Answers, the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based cooperative CUSO, is now activating “burstable capacity” on its core IBM servers that support an online user base of nearly two hundred credit unions.

According to CU*Answers Vice President Scott Collins, the CUSO is leveraging “functionality that is built-in by IBM as part of their enterprise-grade Power i servers.” Collins continued, “The IBM Power i servers that run our core data processing business allow for elastic capacity on demand (ECoD) as a fundamental component of their IBM I operating system. ECoD allows our CUSO to activate memory and/or processors on a daily basis as our business needs dictate. This allows us to grow into our server capability without the larger expense of permanently upgrading its capacity.”

Collins concluded, “IBM has always been a great foundation for our online business, and the ability to step on the accelerator interactively when we need to has taken their value proposition to a new level.”