By Ray Birch
TAMPA, Fla.—Just as credit unions are questioning making investments in branches, they also need to be taking a hard at the dollars they spend to upgrade technology infrastructure and the space used to house on-site systems, according to one person.
Hugh Smallwood, CTO of Cloud at Trellance, told CUToday.info an increasing number of credit unions have been solving the dollar dilemma by turning to cloud-based solutions.
“I was recently at (Mitchell Stankovic’s) Underground Shattered event during which panelists started talking about aging infrastructure in this country, the aging infrastructure of government facilities,” Smallwood said. “Credit unions are in a similar place. A lot of credit unions are facing aging architecture—old technology architecture and infrastructure. Credit unions are looking at reinvesting in physical facilities and ongoing infrastructure. Now is a fantastic time to consider cloud products or platforms instead of making that kind of traditional investment.”
Smallwood explained that Trellance has been working with credit unions that are looking at making the move to the cloud.
“We’ve been helping credit unions for a long time with their technology journey, with our Cloud Division specifically,” he said. “They’re going into credit unions that have not broken down that barrier to entry and have not had any experience, or the skill sets, to start that migration to the cloud.”
Instant Everything
Why make the move? Smallwood reminded that consumers now demand “instant for everything.”
“They have low tolerance for any sort of downtime at all,” he said. “Even if your online banking site is down for minutes, that can be seen as a problem by members. You saw what happened to that credit union in Florida (VyStar) whose website was down for a while—all of the members posting on social media, talking to newspapers and complaining to the credit union. Being down can be a massive problem.”
Hugh Smallwood
Built-In Redundancy
However, with cloud services there is lesser chance that downtime will occur and, if it does, the downtime should be minimal to the redundancy built into cloud platforms, Smallwood asserted.
“A lot of times, if you are implementing technology on premises, it’s typically cost-prohibitive to build in the kind of redundancy you get from the cloud,” Smallwood said. “Instead of going out and buying servers and storage, and even a building—having generators, batteries and all that infrastructure that you're responsible for, the cloud can be a better solution—and it offers so many layers of backup already built in, and disaster recovery is built in.”
Smallwood said too many CUs are hesitating in making the shift to the cloud.
“A lot of credit unions are afraid to take that first step, because of the whole concept of turning loose their data,” he explained. “Just the thought of ‘I don’t want my data out of my hands.’ They're concerned the data could get stolen. But, in fact, their data is more secure in the cloud than on their premises.”
Issue to Be Aware Of
Not only are the security concerns overblown, according to Smallwood, who said there’s an issue they should be aware of.
“While credit unions are concerned their data in the cloud is out of their hands, I would say 90% of the partners they’re working with are using the cloud, which means the data the credit union shares with them is in the cloud, as well,” he explained. “A lot of credit unions are using the cloud and don't even really consider that's happening through a third party.”
Trellance is a Microsoft direct cloud service provider, with no middleman, Smallwood stated.
“We have directly partnered with Microsoft and we're very focused on cloud services right now,” he said. “Microsoft has a fabulous suite of products. When you buy that license you get so much that you can use besides just e-mail. We're partnering with credit unions to help them understand the value of the collaborative tools. And we’re helping them make the transition. We're committed on the cloud side to use the Microsoft Azure platform.”
Full Offerings
Smallwood noted that Trellance expanded its services with the acquisition of CURise and the addition of a talent solution.
“Recent acquisitions of 2020 Analytics and Ongoing Operations have fully rounded out our technology offerings,” he said. “The addition of the Cloud line of business will allow credit unions to access cloud solutions built and customized for their needs. Four new offerings—Cloud Solutions, Information Security, Telecom Service, and Disaster Recovery—will allow credit unions to reasonably scale and reduce costs. Further, the overall increased focus on technology will allow Trellance to help credit unions with automation and reduce redundancies.”