Credit Union Cloud Cores
by. Kirk Drake
If you have been reading our prior posts on Credit Union Cloud – we have been covering a variety of educational topics regarding the infrastructure and impact of cloud computing on credit unions. Last time we focused on the key infrastructure required to provide a credit union cloud. This week we will be focusing on how cloud will impact credit union cores, primarily from the credit unions perspective.
Service Bureau DOES NOT = Cloud
It seems like we regularly come across core providers that think moving a credit union to a service bureau is the same as moving the credit union to cloud. There a number of problems with this but the biggest issue in my mind is that most likely it only addresses one aspect of the credit unions business. Certainly using service bureau is utilizing cloud technology and getting data offsite into a scalable environment. On the flip side – it generally leads to less flexibility for the credit union. It also doesn’t tackle many of the other systems the credit union needs to run its business.
We recently moved a client using a service bureau environment to a credit union cloud. Ultimately, the only difference to the service bureau provider was that the credit union VPN was delivered to OGO instead of the credit union. OGO took the connection, added e-mail, virtual desktops, a phone system, telecom lines, file servers, share point, and four or five application servers for things like ALM software or Lending Software. All the stuff that OGO provided is where we think most of the cost savings and performance improvements are for credit unions who want to utilize a credit union cloud.
In-house DOES NOT = Private Cloud
Most of Ongoing Operations clients run in-house cores. The cores are located on some legacy piece of equipment and sit locally at the credit unions shop. Historically, this was because credit unions wanted to own and operate the core and having it local was key for performance. In reality, neither of these are issues any more. Moving the in-house core to your credit union cloud provider is easy and often solves some big problems. There are drawbacks too. The main issue that seems to be solved is that now your in-house core can sit in line with the cloud platform – meaning things like virtual desktop or inter-application performance is still good. There are several advantages in doing this:
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