DataCore, a leader in software-defined storage, today announced that Saginaw, Michigan-based United Financial Credit Union has met its IT and data storage objectives with DataCore’s software-based SANsymphony-V storage virtualization platform. A DataCore customer for more than three years, United Financial Credit Union is a firm believer in software-defined storage (SDS), giving DataCore a “5” or “Excellent” rating (on a scale of 1-5) in these key areas: cost-containment, productivity improvement, better capacity management, better performance management and better data protection management.

“Software-defined storage with DataCore has been transformative as far as enabling a better IT environment and easier IT management,” stated Andrew Frantom, IT manager at United Financial Credit Union. “Productivity-wise, we have the flexibility to spin up a new server in a matter of hours for new products or newly identified needs, without having the additional worry of rack space, data redundancy, etc.”

Prior to DataCore, United Financial Credit Union had multiple physical servers with direct-attached storage resources that were not fully usable (as the capacity was not pooled through storage networking) as well as a quickly growing data footprint. The company was replacing multiple hard drives in servers and quickly running out of the ability to expand its storage.

In order to overcome this scenario, United Financial Credit Union implemented VMware and DataCore. The company went from having individual, physical servers – to a virtualized environment with virtualized storage. For United Financial Credit Union, server virtualization went hand-in-hand with software-defined storage (storage virtualization) from DataCore Software. The IT department did not want to even fathom trying to manage a virtual environment without the added flexibility of shared, virtual storage.

“We value customers like United Financial Credit Union who are using DataCore’s software-defined storage technology to define their storage and tailor it to meet their specific needs,” stated Steve Houck, chief operating officer at DataCore Software. “United Financial Credit Union serves as a testament to other financial services organizations that DataCore is offering game-changing technology for their businesses. Typical DataCore customers experience striking improvements in IT service levels, while markedly reducing how much they spend on storage –often reducing storage costs by 75 percent.”

United Financial Credit Union provides affordable, friendly, and quality service to its members and is committed to the long-term financial stability of its credit union members and their families. DataCore has enabled the IT team at United Financial Credit Union not only to utilize its storage capacity without wasting resources, but has also has allowed the company to gain much needed redundancy for its data – and thereby ensuring uptime and non-stop business operations for these valued customers.

United Financial Credit Union currently runs dual DataCore servers at its main branch for data redundancy and high availability, as well as a DR site replicated over the WAN. This has enabled the company to meet the requirements of its Auditors and Examiners as far as data protection.

Moreover, IT Manager Andrew Frantom underscores the fact that the credit union’s ability to purchase a block of storage and to assign it as needed has helped the company reduce wasted resources on storage capacity.

For a “Voice of the Customer” profile including an at-a-glance look at the IT environment, visit – http://www.datacore.com/testimonials/united-financial-credit-union