On April 12, 2022, speakers from CU*Answers were invited to participate in the annual CU*SOUTH Visionary Conference, held this year in Pensacola Beach, FL to share with the audience details about 24/7 data center operations across the CU*BASE platform. Attended by more than 100 credit unions professionals representing financial institutions on the cuasterisk.com network, presentations were aligned around the theme of the “Power of Community”. As a credit union-owned CUSO and cooperative, partners on the cuasterisk.com network collectively manage core processing operations across multiple data centers.

“The focus of this year’s presentation,” said Jim Lawrence, VP of Operations and Business Continuity at CU*Answers, “was centered on consistency and resilience at the core. With more than 300 credit unions currently on the CU*BASE platform across six time zones, processing data local to the credit union requires careful coordination and orchestration of more than 8,000 automated jobs, with continuous monitoring and response when conditions warrant. Being ready for disruptive events involves a robust Business Continuity program with regular training and testing.”

High availability rollovers are conducted every six months involving all partners, including CU*Answers, CU*SOUTH, CU*NorthWest, and Site-Four to redirect live CU*BASE core processing to alternate data centers for a minimum of one week before returning to the production data center. “Unique to our rollover/recovery exercises is that every credit union and every member participates,” added Lawrence. “These live production rollovers represent the ultimate preparation test.”

Information about the CU*Answers Business Continuity Program including reports detailing the results of each rollover and recovery effort are available on the CU*Answers website. Included on the website are suggestions for credit unions to enhance consistency and resilience for business operations.