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It’s all happening and it’s happening, non-stop!

Choices need to be made and I have chosen NonStop. HPE now faces some pretty big decisions and it’s become clear that, driving future NonStop sales will be done with partners!

There are times when many of us are left wondering about the choices we make. There are currently advertisements where actors are left wondering about their own choices and it led me to consider how we managed to arrive at this point of time developing, testing, operating and indeed promoting, all-things NonStop! Once again, I find myself scrolling through the photos on Facebook that were taken during the recent reunion of Tandem alumni and if you are interested in all things NonStop and have as yet not joined the Facebook group, Tandem Computers, perhaps you may want to consider joining. As we head into another round of user events in the run-up to the big one, the NonStop Technical Boot Camp (TBC), and apart from everything that may be covered, it is THE gathering for all those IT folks who have made the choice to continue with NonStop.

Before we go too much further, I am one of those who have made the choice to support and indeed promote NonStop, non-stop! As we all know, HPE loves the technical side of IT but when it comes to marketing well, let’s just say anyone grading HPE’s performance over the past decade would have to note that there is “room for improvement!” Furthermore, it’s tough to get HPE relying solely on selling to the business the merits of working with HPE. For as many years as I can recall, it’s always been about the cool technology. Cool city? I toured cool city in Singapore and there was sure a lot of cool stuff being showcased, but again, no real tangible contribution highlighting how business can produce better outcomes as a result. No, it was all about just how technically innovative HPE continued to be at the expense of all else.

For many years I was on the road almost constantly meeting with NonStop customers and prospects, giving presentations on products as a product manager, even as I championed the cause of regional user groups in my capacity of the ITUG Chairman. As he picture above clearly conveys, my enthusiasm for being on the road, standing in front of a screen and telling a story, never waned through the years and I have to thank my good friend Rick Ploen for sending me this particular picture. The memories certainly came flooding back as I recalled the occasion which I think could have been the offices of Insession Technologies somewhere in Europe. Yes, my hair was darker and there was more of it. And so it goes…

As bleak as I sometimes paint the picture of HPE lately and despite the cautionary tales I tell my clients, there is still much that is happening that is positive and warrants further discussion. After all, HPE has embarked on perhaps the most ambitious course of action any major vendor has ever attempted – not for the faint of heart taking a $130+Billion enterprise to just $20+Billion and yet, once you look past the shareholder value unlocked in the process, there is now a new streamlined corporation with an increasingly flatter organization emerging, an organization that is totally focused on platforms and infrastructure, with the goal of simplifying the adoption of hybrid IT.

“The growth of cloud and industrialized services and the decline of traditional data center outsourcing indicate a massive orientation toward hybrid infrastructure services. As the market becomes dominated by the demand for agility and flexibility, this will drive the shift toward more industrialized, less-tailored options,” comes the word from the folks at Gartner. As reported in numerous publications, Gartner then adds, “However, the growth of hybrid infrastructure services will increase the complexity of selecting the right toolset to deliver end-to-end services in a multisourced environment, especially in a fast-changing digital business environment.” Should we be surprised? As IT professionals are we taken aback by the news that as we lean on hybrid IT to meet the demand for agility and flexibility, resultant systems become even more complex? Yes, it is all happening and the only real question – who is HPE going to turn to for assistance?

But fret not. Of late we are seeing the early signs of how the new HPE plans to go to market for almost all of its products – with partners. You want to know more about SimpliVity? Well, here’s a partner you can talk to. And the message HPE is taking to potential partners? “Join our Partner Ready Program and we’ll team with you to help expand your opportunities and increase the portfolio of solutions you can deliver.” HPE isn’t hiding anything from the marketplace. If you need to access skilled personnel for your upcoming project then you will need to engage a partner that’s local to you and with whom HPE is prepared to funnel its technology to you in a manner that is enhanced by the partner whether through the addition of other products and features or simply services and know-how to make the technology being procured work a whole lot better. It’s all about partners.

If it wasn’t for a steady stream of Congrats on your work anniversary! filling my inbox and all originating out of LinkedIn, I wouldn’t have remembered that when I first chose to tell stories, give presentations, write blog posts and to build a business around all of these activities  that I would be still at it some eight years later. But here we are and the choices I made all those years ago do not look quite as foolish as at first they may have appeared. Recalling my first post of October 7, 2009 that was published so soon after launching Pyalla Technologies, Let's talk ... Back then, I reflected on my choice noting that it was the beginning of a new phase, a change of seasons, of adjustments better aligned with what I really like to do. Now there’s every chance, of course, that remaining independent may change as well – privatizing individuals is just as likely as privatizing companies in this economy.

At that time I also remarked on how for me, it’s a new world and I am having a lot of fun – fortunately, creativity and enthusiasm are still in great demand and I just love to talk (Pyalla?) technologies! Fortunately, the world of NonStop just kept on evolving and providing a lot to talk about for eight years. Partnerships come in all shapes and forms and for me and Pyalla Technologies it’s fortunate that HPE encourages the ecosystem of independent partner bloggers that now follow HPE. So not only is there opportunity to continue to work with NonStop outside of HPE, there are many choices we can make as to exactly how to make a contribution. What hasn’t changed in the eight years is the value NonStop brings to businesses everywhere – the most robust, reliable, available platform on the planet. Bar none!

Shortly we will be publishing the first issue of the second year of the digital publication, NonStop Insider. If as yet you haven’t had the chance to read an issue it is easy to find –
www.nonstopinsider.com There was a lot of cooperation involved in getting this publication up and running but it is just one more example we can point to when it comes to what’s happening with NonStop. NonStop Insider joins a number of other publications both traditional and digital and as such is just one more perspective on NonStop and given today’s questioning of NonStop role in hybrid IT and in simplifying transformation to a hybrid IT architecture well, nothing could be further from the truth. Vendors and users alike are already testing the waters with one vendor already up and running with NonStop X anchoring its clouds as it offers the solution on the basis of SaaS.

It’s all happening and it’s all happening for NonStop and with little additional fanfare, the number of NonStop users is just starting to edge upwards ever so slowly. “New Logos” are being added and among the NonStop vendors partnering with HPE, there is a sense of even more interest in NonStop to come – we are only just scratching the surface of possibilities with virtualized NonStop (vNS) that will make even bigger demands of partners should it all pan out the way I suspect it will. As for the choices we can make, I have already made my choice and it is NonStop for the foreseeable future. So, get ready, it’s all happening and now that HPE is streamlining its business and operational models, it’s all beginning to happen, non-stop!   

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