2. Customer
University Federal Credit Union
www.ucreditu.com/index.asp
Business Challenge
In order to meet customer’s high
expectations, managers sought to increase
the redundancy and reliability of their
communications network. They wanted
to replace a vulnerable hub and spoke
network topology with a point-to-point
meshed architecture. Server and desktop
virtualization initiatives called for increased
bandwidth as did data backups that
ballooned to use up the available nightly
window.
Solution
Managers implemented the CenturyLink
Metro Ethernet service at the credit union’s
14 branches and data centers. The service
provides data transport between branches,
ATMs and the firm’s data centers. Users
access the Internet via the CenturyLink
High-Speed Internet service. Managers
also implemented the CenturyLink
Business Local Phone service to support
200 phone lines.
Benefits and Results*
Reduced telecom expenses by 15 percent
per month to achieve a project ROI within
2.5 years
Increased application performance to•
satisfy customer and user expectations
Timely online banking and ATMoo
application response times help to
retain customers
All but eliminated employeeoo
complaints related to slow data
download times
Boosted branch bandwidth by 233oo
percent (from 1.5 to 5 Mbps)
Increased data center bandwidth byoo
900 percent (from 10 to 100 Mbps)
Enhanced business continuity by•
migrating from hub and spoke to point-
to-point meshed architecture
Eliminated most single points ofoo
failure
Incorporated multiple switchingoo
stations to increase network
redundancy
Meshed topology enables rapid failoo
over to backup data center to avoid
noticeable interruption of customer
services
Consolidation onto single CenturyLink•
data transport, Internet and phone
services reduced administration burden
University Federal Credit Union
University Federal Credit Union (UFCU) operates throughout the Salt
Lake City, Utah metro area. The firm boasts $550 million in assets
and has cultivated a client list that includes 74,000 members. These
customers cover the spectrum of business, individual and student
market segments.
The credit union offers a wide spectrum of services via its 14 branch
locations, 30 ATMs and online banking applications. These include
checking and savings account services, loans, and card services.
Customer expectations require that the credit union’s ATM and online
banking services be available 24x7, and that transactions occur without
delay. Thus, to retain a competitive edge, IT managers need to maintain
a highly reliable network infrastructure capable of supporting application
performance requirements.
FACING THE CHALLENGES
UFCU’s customers and employees rely heavily upon the company’s
data communications network. Branch offices and ATMs access
centralized applications at a data center. Thus, any network outage
would interrupt business operations—to the chagrin of 24x7 customer
users.
“Our network had a hub and spoke setup that left us vulnerable to
single points of failure,” said Steve Slane, VP of information systems
at UFCU. “We wanted to eliminate that vulnerability with a peer-to-
peer topology that would upgrade the redundancy and reliability of our
network services.”
A second IT challenge revolved around the existing network’s maxed
out bandwidth. “The existing capacity wasn’t sufficient to support
our initiative to virtualize our desktops and servers,” said Slane. “We
were also up against the limits of our nightly window to complete data
*These results are unique to this entity and should not be considered an indication of the amount of savings or
improvements, if any, that may be realized by any other entity subscribing to comparable services.
3. “We chose Qwest because their network redundancies
deliver the reliability and business continuity we were
looking for. The performance and scalability of the QMOE
circuits were also attractive. And we’re getting all this at a
lower network cost that will allow us to achieve an ROI
within two and a half years.”
—Steve Slane, VP of Information Systems, University Federal Credit Union
backups. And the lack of bandwidth bogged down daily
data downloads to our branch offices. They weren’t
shy about calling the help desk to complain about that
either.”
In response, Slane’s team developed an RFP to find a
communications vendor who could deliver the reliability,
scalability and price that the credit union’s network
needed.
PROVIDING A SUCCESSFUL SOLUTION
IT managers chose the CenturyLink Metro Ethernet
service from among eight RFP responses they
considered. They implemented Metro Ethernet circuits
at the credit union’s 14 metro area branches—upgrading
legacy 1.5 Mbps circuits to the CenturyLink solution’s
5 Mbps capacity. A 100 Mbps Metro Ethernet circuit
replaced a 10 Mbps connection at UFCU’s data center.
The Metro Ethernet service provides data transport
between branches, ATMs and the firm’s data center.
Additionally, managers implemented the CenturyLink
High-Speed Internet service. Rounding out the solution,
the UFCU IT team installed the CenturyLink Business
Local Phone service to support 200 phone lines.
DELIVERING RESULTS
The comprehensive CenturyLink solutions delivered the
reliability, flexibility and price that UFCU required—all
through a single, easy-to-manage vendor.
ECONOMICAL SERVICES DELIVER GOOD PAYBACK
“The Qwest implementation saved a substantial amount
of money per month on our telecom costs—about 15
percent,” said Slane. “That’s in addition to the increased
dependability of the services we receive, along with the
high level of service we get from them. We figure the
savings will give us an ROI within two and a half years.”
RELIABILITY PROMOTES BUSINESS CONTINUITY
By migrating from a hub and spoke architecture to a
point-to-point meshed network, Slane upgraded the
reliability of his network. “We eliminated a lot of single
points of failure by going with the Qwest solution,” said
Slane. “They further increased the redundancy of our
network by building in multiple switching stations.”
In the event of a failure, the CenturyLink network
solution can failover from the primary data center to
the backup data center. “In that event, we can have
everything back up within a half hour without any of
our members or employees noticing any degradation in
service,” said Slane.
ENHANCED PERFORMANCE AND SCALABILITY
The performance of UFCU’s network also received a
boost. Branch bandwidth increased by 233 percent
(from 1.5 to 5 Mbps) while data center capacity rose by
900 percent (from 10 to 100 Mbps). Consequently, the
firm’s applications have enough bandwidth to operate at
optimal speeds.
(continued on back cover)
*These results are unique to this entity and should not be considered an indication of
the amount of savings or improvements, if any, that may be realized by any other entity
subscribing to comparable services.
