If you belong to the Navy Federal Credit Union, then you know how challenging it must be to run the company. Think about all the headaches involved in bringing banking to military personnel around the globe, sometimes in battle zones. The Credit Union, which has over $41 billion in assets, and 185 bank branches worldwide has many challenges that it’s CIO Jerry Hermes talked about recently.

“Our overseas branches are primarily in naval bases; when the ships aren’t there, neither are the sailors, so if there are no family or support staff present, then a branch may be closed for weeks at a time,” explains Navy Federal CIO Jerry Hermes. “We don’t have a huge global [IT] footprint, but we do have to have telecommunications in some fairly remote areas.”

Hermes, who has been with Navy Federal Credit Union for about a year and a half now, has a technology team of over 600 people. He has implemented a new system as well as new monitoring technologies to the company since joining forces with them. In addition to moving to the cloud, Hermes has rolled out the latest versions of Microsoft Windows 7 and Office 2010 throughout the company. They are also pushing forward with many new mobile technologies. Internally they have been using Droid applications, which they have found more convenient than iPhone in most cases. Navy Federal Credit Union clearly prides itself on being with the times technologically speaking.