Tag: cloud

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Say Hasta La Vista to Your On-Prem Servers

By Amber Harsin, CEO, Prodigy

Over the past few years, credit unions have spent a lot of time and money making sure they remain attractive to today’s mobile consumer. Credit unions have replaced their archaic core processing systems, upgraded digital banking software and deployed new product sets, all to ensure that the needs of today’s bank anywhere/anytime consumer are met.

For better or worse, our work here isn’t done. Among the many lessons already heaved upon us by 2020, credit unions and their vendors both discovered that they also need to accommodate the anywhere/anytime employee, i.e., the remote employee. With shelter-in-place orders in effect, back-office employees either have to work from home or not work at all. Most all credit unions I know have employees working from home right now. The question is: How easy or hard was it to make that happen?

For credit unions that operate their entire IT infrastructure – including their core – in the cloud, I can tell you it was almost effortless. Let me use Prodigy as an example.

When it became clear that both our CUSO and our credit unions would need to shut down locations for the time being, it was largely a non-issue. Because we maintain all our IT infrastructure in our own private cloud, connecting our employees from the kitchen table is no different than connecting them from a cubicle. We were able to move to a fully remote workforce in the time it took employees to drive home. For our credit unions, connecting remote employees to their core and cloud-based ancillary servers to minimize service interruptions was just as easy. Anywhere access is one of the built-in benefits of a cloud deployment. So it only stands to reason that the more you deploy from the cloud, the better off you are.

When we first talk to credit unions about Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), they can be very hesitant to give up their on-premise servers. It’s almost as if those servers represent some sort of security blanket. Never mind that this particular security blanket consumes ridiculous amounts of time and money that are better spent elsewhere.

What a lot of credit unions decide to do as a baby step is use Prodigy for Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). Using real-time replication of on-prem server data to the cloud, we’re able to offer an affordable solution that, in practical use, rivals much more expensive High Availability (HA) solutions. A number of our credit unions have yet to take the next step beyond DRaaS.

If ever there was a time to get serious about cloud infrastructure, this is it. We now live in a world where being ready for anything means really being ready for anything. The cloud makes that not only possible, but practical. Too bad dealing with murder hornets isn’t as easy as dealing with remote employees.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Things You Can Still Get for a Dollar

A dollar went a whole lot further back in the day. In fact, more than 100 years ago four cents bought what a dollar buys today. Back then a loaf of bread was a nickel and steak was $0.25 a pound.

But don’t give up on George, real value still exists for a dollar.

Here are a few things that cost a buck:

  • Your favorite song on iTunes is still $.99 but you may have to splurge $1.29 for the latest releases.
  • A Krispy Kreme glazed donut is only $.67 when purchased in a dozen. Who doesn’t enjoy a fresh Krispy Kreme?
  • The Dollar Menu at McDonalds, Burger King, or Taco Bell.
  • Beer – specifically PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon). You can still find this hipster delight for under a buck per can.
  • Dollar Shave Club – Your first month is free plus each blade after that costs just a dollar. And their ads are amazing. 
  • 10 meals for hungry kids – At No Kid Hungry your dollar donation to this worthy cause ensures 10 healthy, hearty meals for a child in need. Of course you should probably donate more.
  • A $1 a day donation at Generosity.org or Pure Water for the World brings safe water to two people each month.
  • And, a cloud-based core solution for your credit union. 

Yes, it’s true. CUProdigy, a CUSO staffed by passionate credit union professionals, has leveraged web-browsers and cloud technology to deliver a very modern core data processing solution. Their mantra is to have credit unions “Join the $1 Core Revolution!” and get away from the legacy core software business models.

Here’s CUProdigy’s very simple pricing model: $1 per member per month.  

The $1 includes ALL of their core software, including all future enhancements. CUProdigy doesn’t use a traditional software-licensing model and refuses to do module based pricing. And, if you want a brand new interface or a third-party integration, it’s included too. They won’t charge for their development portion. Likewise, if you want an existing interface or integration they already built, it’s included too. They don’t “resell” something to one credit union that they already created for another credit union. Their whole concept is to create an open ecosystem for technology and a collaborative ecosystem with vendors.

We are honored to have CUProdigy as a Platinum partner and excited to include them in our Network Lounge at the 2018 NACUSO Network Conference in Anaheim next month.