Security Service Federal Credit Union revitalizes data storage with IBM System Storage DR550

Since 1956, Security Service Federal Credit Union (SSFCU) has provided its members with competitive financial products and services. Founded in San Antonio, TX, to serve the financial needs of the U.S. Air Force Security Service Command, SSFCU now serves a diverse membership of over 600,000. The organization has seen phenomenal growth, especially in recent years, expanding to 42 locations across Texas and Colorado.

To deliver world-class financial services to its members, SSFCU relies on a robust IT infrastructure. Data storage is a key component of the infrastructure, allowing the organization to archive images of loan contracts, signature cards, account agreements, check items and other documents. SSFCU uses IBM Content Manager and IBM Content Manager OnDemand to help manage this critical data.

Surpassing capacity
After a period of rapid growth through acquisition, SSFCU found it had surpassed the data storage capacity on its optical data storage and retrieval system. "There were only a finite number of slots for storage," explains John McFall, SSFCU’s assistant vice president, network services. "We essentially had optical platters external to the jukebox that had to be manually mounted when the requests were made for that data."

As a result, end users were experiencing long wait times for access to images--up to a minute in some cases and up to a day in others. "We had to put a 24-hour window on certain images," says Mike Martin, network administrator at SSFCU. "We had one full-time person who was dedicated to retrieving images--just checking platters in and out all day."

The team was also facing maintenance and reliability issues with the system, which was nearing end of life. "Ongoing maintenance was a struggle," McFall recalls. "We had to find alternative solutions for archiving this data."

Designed for data security
For help in developing and implementing a new storage solution, SSFCU turned to IBM Premier Business Partner Mainline Information Systems, a vendor they had worked with for nearly a decade. Mainline evaluated the organization’s requirements, including its stringent data retention and security policies, and recommended the IBM System Storage DR550 information retention system.

IBM System Storage DR550 is designed to provide a security-rich, scalable and cost-effective information retention solution for medium and large enterprises, supporting the archival of a broad range of data formats. DR550 is a policy-based data retention system where data is maintained as non-erasable and non-rewritable until deletion is permitted by retention policy.

"Our policies call for non-modifiable storage of the data for the duration of the retention period," says McFall. "We liked that the DR550 is a kind of ‘black box’ solution, if you will. Once the data is written, there is no tampering."

Dramatic benefits
McFall says the IBM solution has met the organization’s storage goals, starting with adding much-needed capacity for SSFCU’s growing image archive. "I don’t have to worry about whether I’ve got free platters so data can be written every day of the week," he reports. Improvements in reliability and manageability have also had an immediate impact, freeing up administrators for work on other projects.

But perhaps the most dramatic benefit has been the improvement in response time. Users now have quick access to the data they need, as opposed to waiting for hours, setting work aside until the necessary images are available.

"There’s no more waiting in line for a platter to be mounted," says McFall. "Requests are handled almost instantaneously. That’s why the DR550 has been extremely well received, not only from an IT perspective but by everyone in the organization. It allows them to do their jobs."

For more information
Contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner. Visit us at: ibm.com/systems/storage

For more information about Security Service Federal Credit Union, visit: www.ssfcu.org

For more information about Mainline Information Systems, visit: www.mainline.com