ABOUT CREDIT UNION OF COLORADO
Credit Union of Colorado is one of the largest credit unions in the state, and it’s deeply connected to the local communities where its members live and work. The credit union has a here-to-help culture that it demonstrates through financial donations, promotional sponsorships, and employee volunteerism. With more than 85 years of experience, Credit Union of Colorado is a stable, member-owned financial institution with more than $2 billion in assets and more than 150,000 members.
“We offer all the services of a typical bank, with a member-first focus and personalized service. Our IT Infrastructure plays an important role in ensuring that our members can access their services 24/7 online so we are always here to help,” said Kyle Winders, IT Leader of Service Delivery, Infrastructure Services, and End-User Services for Credit Union of Colorado. “We’re also looking to expand to be in all 50 states and exploring what that could look like in the future.”
THE CHALLENGE
Addressing the economics of build versus buy
Credit Union of Colorado wanted new corporate headquarters. The challenge was whether to construct data center space there or use a local colocation facility. The existing headquarters housed one of two onsite data centers, but this infrastructure experienced carrier-based outages that impacted service.
“It was really important for us when we were choosing something that it was going to help us meet our regulations—we have a lot of requirements to meet credit union standards, and some of them prevent us from being able to go fully cloud,” Winders explained. “For example, our core banking platform has to have connectivity through a data center first, and our credit card transactions have to have a physical connection. So we need a stable hybrid option.”
To guide the build-versus-buy decision, a cost analysis evaluated options and determined the total cost of ownership (TCO) and ROI of each. After considering the costs and long-term maintenance of building, a third-party data center was concluded to be more cost-effective and operationally beneficial, and Credit Union of Colorado ultimately chose one of Flexential’s Denver facilities to deploy the environment.
“Flexential’s data center was leaps and bounds beyond most of the others in the area,” said Winders. “The ability to operate in a higher-tiered data center with more intense redundancies was an important selling point. We also really appreciated that they would give us as the customer the option really to scale out business.”
THE SOLUTION
Colocation delivers uptime security to meet regulatory demands
The facility and carrier-neutral approach secures the resiliency of the bank’s systems by ensuring that there is no single point of failure and eliminating carrier-related outages. Flexential backs this approach with a 100% SLA on power, cooling, network, and bandwidth.
Flexential offers physical security that meets the banking industry’s stringent regulations and prohibits unauthorized individuals from accessing the credit union’s assets. Security measures include round-the-clock security and data center technicians to address issues and potential threats. Additionally, Credit Union of Colorado utilizes a locked cage environment, with badged access and a dedicated video security system.
“The efforts and professionalism of the Flexential team have made the contract process and building the cage environment extremely smooth,” said Winders.
