2,700
assets modernized to the cloud
1,150
mappings moved to the cloud
Positioned
for improved data governance and quality
Virginia Credit Union (VACU) is committed to supporting its clients throughout their financial lives by being their trusted provider of financial services and helping them achieve greater success. Eager to stay one step ahead of market disruptions, VACU joined forces with Informatica to modernize its entire data environment to the cloud.
"We wanted to stay ahead of the game, and that meant disrupting the way we collect, manage and govern our data to thrive in the cloud."
We saw the writing on the wall
VACU is in the business of building confidence, specifically, building its members’ confidence throughout their financial lives by delivering services and guidance they can trust, every step of the way. To achieve this, VACU needs to have the utmost confidence in its own processes and operations, especially the data and insights that drive its decision-making.
With many of its IT vendors poised to modernize their solutions to the cloud, Enterprise Data Management Director, Phillip Hillis, decided to futureproof VACU’s data environment and proactively modernize its complete data and infrastructure to the cloud.
“We saw the writing on the wall and didn’t want to get forced into a cloud migration,” says Hillis. “We decided to stay ahead of the game, and that meant disrupting the way we collect, manage, and govern our data to thrive in the cloud.”
“We didn’t just shift our data to the cloud, we transformed the way we work and have no intention of looking back. Working with Informatica gave us the confidence to take that leap, and we look forward to building on that foundation even further.”
Completed cloud modernization
An Informatica customer since 2012, VACU moved its on-premises PowerCenter workloads to Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC). Using Migration Factory, the business successfully converted 2,700 assets and 1,150 mappings to IDMC. This full conversion enables its teams to rapidly build data pipelines in the cloud and serves as a game-changer to extract, transform, and load business data efficiently in a centralized cloud data platform.
A dedicated team of three, including Hillis, kicked off VACU’s cloud modernization journey in July 2022. By September 2023, they had modernized their business’ entire on-premises environment to the cloud, including a full conversion of the business’ data assets and mappings.
This enabled VACU to shut down its previous on-premises servers, saving significant maintenance costs and overhead - a sign of its commitment to future-proofing the business and evolving with customers’ needs.
“We didn’t just shift our data to the cloud, we transformed the way we work and have no intention of looking back,” says Hillis. “Working with Informatica gave us the confidence to take that leap, and we look forward to building on that modern cloud-native data foundation even further.”
Empowered to delight customers in a cloud future
With cloud management and automated upgrades, VACU freed itself from the cycle of frequent server upgrades, saving expensive management resources and time while also eliminating system downtime. A longtime SQL and Microsoft shop, the business relied on these servers to run 100% of its Informatica environment, but the upgrade process had become time and labor-intensive and often led to system downtime. That all changed with the move to IDMC. Upgrades now occur automatically, saving time and costs, with Hillis and his team simply receiving an email to alert them that the process is in motion.
For additional impact, VACU worked with Informatica to standardize its API development processes to allow the business to receive data and files in different formats from internal and external sources, and to work with that data in a single, user-friendly environment. These enhancements will make it easier for teams to get valuable business data into VACU’s dashboards, business reports, analytics processes and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform.
“Informatica was instrumental in helping us work out the technicalities of building a standardized API process. The ability to auto tune our data will have transformational impact on our data environment, setting us up for future success,” says Hillis.
A two-way learning experience
VACU’s partnership with Informatica goes far beyond technology. Hillis and his employees met with their support team three times per week throughout the IDMC implementation, working together to roll-out the solution in phases to reduce risk. They started the modernization journey with easy-to-convert assets and mappings first, in order to learn and gain the confidence to migrate the rest of VACU’s data environment.
This close collaboration delivered value to both VACU and Informatica. Taking feedback from Hillis and his team, Informatica made a number of enhancements to IDMC, which helped to improve its performance not only for VACU, but also for other users.
“It’s rare that a vendor takes and then implements your feedback, but Informatica is no ordinary partner,” says Hillis. “The fact that our input played a role in helping to shape IDMC shows how committed they are to delivering the best solutions possible to their customers.”
Next up for VACU is a focus on cloud data governance. Hillis and his team plan to consolidate their governance tools onto IDMC. With information on everything from loan origination to customer credit history to payment mechanisms—all centralized in a single environment—VACU’s teams will be able to gain deeper insights into their data marts, thereby improving their reporting and analytics.
“The move to IDMC continues to strengthen our business, positioning us to help VACU members bring their financial ambitions to life both today and into the future,” says Hillis. “Those relationships will only improve as we work with Informatica to gain more control and extract new value from our data.”
Inside the solution
More Success Stories
CNA connects and protects its data in the cloud
Freddie Mac Boosts Home Lending Efficiency as Demand for Mortgages Grows
Yamaha revs business in the cloud
Modernize PowerCenter to Intelligent Data Management Cloud in minutes
