I went to the board, laid out my plan to move us forward with a foundation that allowed us to compete, along with the value proposition of this new technology. I knew the answer was hyperconvergence, but it was still a very young technology with not many players and at face value looked expensive. A truly “set it and forget it” system that would not require my team to neglect our main job of deploying bank services and helping customers. We needed a solution that was designed from the start for performance, ease of configuration, and management, with a backup system built in that really worked. Looking back at this experience, I knew I was not going to repeat that decision again at Altamaha. The pieces fit together-sort of-but it took a lot of care and feeding to make everything function smoothly. Plus, it took forever to restore a backup in the event of a crisis. The units did a post process to de-duplicate the data and this often ran into the next day’s backup window causing more delays. The backup process with ExaGrid didn’t fix our backup window issues either. This was the early days of disparate equipment being put into a single cabinet and calling it “converged.” It was still the same old problem of managing multiple vendors, configuration nightmares, and trying to figure out whose problem it was when things went wrong. There was no way we could move ahead with our existing equipment, and it was my job to find a suitable upgrade path and to get it approved by our board.Īt my previous position, we had moved our IT infrastructure from a traditional server environment to Cisco UCS, NetApp storage, and ExaGrid backup appliances. We were running Windows Server 2003 on physical servers and backing up to removable disks that had to be driven offsite. When I took the job of CTO, I realized our technology was years behind and we had a lot of work to catch up to our competitors. I wanted to go back to a smaller financial institution that had a true community focus, and I found that at Altamaha. I came to Altamaha in 2014 after five years at a regional bank that absorbed my previous employer in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. With assets of $170 million, we very much remain a community bank that directly serves the needs of residents and businesses. We now operate four locations in Uvalda, Hazlehurst, and Vidalia. This entity evolved in the Brogdon State Bank and was sold to a group of local investors when Milton retired in 1972. I realize that the newest tech and flashing lights often get attention, but finding a solution that combines cost, value, and ease of use-while meeting your business objectives-is the way to go.Īltamaha can trace its history back to 1946, when Milton and Wallace Brogdon started a private bank in nearby Uvalda, Georgia. While smaller banks don’t have the IT budget of a Wells Fargo or Bank of America, we can provide the same caliber digital services as the major players.Īs CTO and Senior Vice-President of Altamaha Bank and Trust, it’s my job to find the right balance between technology and customer service, and do so within the budget available to a smaller, people-driven financial organization such as ours. Can you help me?" and you want them to have that same friendly experience when they go online. You want your customers to come in and say, "Here's what I need. Chief Technology Officer at Altamaha Bank and TrustĬommunity banking is about building personal connections.
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