USERS crafted its clustering system with CACHE relational database tools from InterSystems Corp. in Cambridge, Mass. Hackett says four of the 160 credit unions running USERS core processing software in-house have so far made the switch to the clustering system. Community First Credit Union in Appleton is running its USERS DataSafe system on an Alpha DS47 server, a DS25 server and a storage access network system (SANS). Scott Steinfort, the CU's vice president of systems and technology, says his CU made the move to the clustered setup when it was replacing its Alpha 4100 server, the core of a venerable (in technology terms) system that had been in place for almost seven years. "We had gotten the life we could out of that one and it was time to upgrade the system in general, and clustering was one of the things we wanted to look at, really, because our membership has zero tolerance for down time," Steinfort says. That growing membership also places additional demands on the system as home banking, telephone response and ATM services are expanded. The $832 million credit union has just opened its 13th traditional branch and has four branches in local high schools, one in Fox Valley Technical College, one in a veterans' home and another in a retirement facility, Steinfort says.

While one of the first USERS clients on the new system, Steinfort says the installation and launch in late May was not problematic. "USERS had everything set up in advance and they really were ready to go. They brought the system in, tested all the connections, expanded the network for gigabyte capabilities, started about 1 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon and were done by 5:30 that evening," the Community First vice president says. "It's been running solid ever since. And the only time we have downtime is for service pack updates that require a database structure change," Steinfort says. "We've also seen a great increase in performance, especially with the speed of the DS47. We have jobs that were taking an hour that are now down to 20 minutes."

The DS47 is used for the primary production processing, while the DS25 server is generally used for back-office functions and batch-intensive jobs, although either server could handle the entire load on its own. Hackett says USERS sees credit unions considering the move to a clustered system when running out of capacity on their current system or simply looking to improve reliability. "We'd certainly like to see all our in-house users on clustering, but it's not feasible for all credit unions," the USERS VP says. "In my realistic world, if a credit union is over $500 million in assets, it's something they should be looking at. Especially if they're looking at ways to separate themselves as they're getting closer to that $1 billion mark. Having the reliability of clustering could help take them to that separation point," Hackett says. He adds, "The investment is significant in terms of hardware, but I have to admit I struggle at time with how to put an ROI on it. "For instance, what about the member who wants to do his Internet banking at 2 a.m. and the system is down for maintenance? We know a lot of people do their banking at those times. And how about on a Friday afternoon, and the server crashes and the other one stays up and running? How do you put an ROI on that?" Hackett says that scenario already has occurred at one of his client credit unions. "It was the 15th of the month and a Friday and the hardware failed on one of the servers," he says. "Well, the other one was up and running, so all the members who were there on line were able to walk out with a receipt from a real transaction instead of just a piece of paper."

Indeed, having the two-server setup provides that sweetest of sweet spots for an IT administrator. "I think the best thing I can do for everybody else here is for them to not know I'm here," says Steinfort at Community First. "There are no questions. The system's available." –[email protected]