A week
spent interacting with folks far-removed from NonStop and yet well-informed on
all things IT; as time wound down, there was little to argue about – NonStop continues
to reward those who step back to look at the big picture!
If you have been following Margo and me on Facebook you
will know that we have spent the past ten days on the road. This time, the
plans we put in place earlier this year didn’t take into account the dates for
NonStop regional user group events so no, our travels didn’t include
participating in events back on the east coast. Instead, we were off to the
southwest where our destination was Albuquerque, New Mexico. We had wanted to
catch up with some ex-Tandem folks we knew as well as find time for talks with
other professionals and with prospective new clients. Always a fun thing to do
for Margo and me!
While I am focused very much on all things NonStop, from time to time it is good to get the perspective of others not quite as close to HPE and NonStop as we are. To this end, a couple of items that came up proved consistent no matter who we talked to – there is a very big disconnect between the industry, the press and even analysts with what is actually happening within enterprise data centers. Ignoring for the moment a small number of enterprises attracting headlines with their pursuits, for almost every other data center it remains “business as usual” with nearly all of them continuing to upgrade their traditional systems even as they are being told about the financial benefits that come with deploying hybrid configurations that include clouds.
Apparently the only way a cloud finds an audience within enterprise IT is when a solution under consideration comes with an option to be configured within a cloud, either as a private cloud on-premise or a vendor’s managed cloud. One such example that is becoming better known among the NonStop community is the work that OmniPayments has done with its product offering OmniCloudX, but apart from that ambitious program and yes, with the success it is already achieving, not much else is happening that involves NonStop. Seriously? Quite to the contrary, as we continue to see NonStop rack up new wins for NonStop X systems even as some of the biggest NonStop users on the planet are electing now to bring in NonStop X systems to meet their future transaction processing needs.
I have always marveled at those artists painting extremely large works of art, even sculptors, as they too tackle a giant piece that is destined for public display, but even they have to step back sometimes just to take a look at the progress they have made and to keep track of proportions as well as ensure minor details haven’t been omitted. Perhaps the most famous statue here in the US is the Statue of Liberty even though for those who have made the journey to black hills of South Dakota, Mt Rushmore is equally as impressive. However, while the work is under way on any major art project should you stop and take a look, the early stages can prove very misleading.
Point is, there is always a need to take a step back from what is the task at hand to ensure it is coming together as conceived and for many IT professionals it appears that this has become a lost art and the repercussions are continuing to be felt to this day. Just think security, for instance, and the doors we simply leave open. Don’t bother me I know what I am doing and I will get to that option / issue / routine shortly … And when it comes to NonStop we are truly blessed to have as many places to turn for help should we elect to take a couple of steps back to take in the vista no matter it’s progress towards completion.
More recently, I have been marveling at just how many sources exist today that carry information about NonStop. Almost every vendor operating in the NonStop marketplace has a web site where you can find a blog that is current and informative. Sometimes even provocative, but all in a good cause – to get us thinking. Indeed, many of my own posts on vendor sites through the years are phrased to essentially “tweak your nose” as one commentator reminded my audience. Not to be taken literally, of course, but rather to get us all thinking about alternate perspectives on well-known issues. A reminder too, if you like, to take a step back from the products and features for a much wider view of the role NonStop plays in your enterprise.
In addition to the many blog sites there are numerous newsletters that vendors write designed to throw the best light possible on their own activities, be that an upcoming event or the latest data sheet. And then, there are the publications – traditional and more recently, digital, that have developed followings of their own. There is no lack of places to turn to for current information on NonStop with the only remaining challenge being just how widely we distribute the many articles and commentaries about NonStop and how much energy we put into keeping our IT brethren as well informed as we are. NonStop isn’t all that it might seem – it is a lot more. And its purpose remains unchanged – to provide enterprises with the most available platform in the marketplace and the only truly, out of the box, Availability Level 4 (AL4) option, according to IDC.
Of course, the publication dearest to our hearts is NonStop Insider – an ambitious project we started a year ago. We have just published the anniversary issue as we kick off the start of year two and what an issue it turned out to be, celebrating a couple of firsts. It proved to be our biggest issue to date with some twenty contributions. It also included a first from Micro Focus (by our good friend Ron who is part of Micro Focus) as well as a first from HEP NonStop (by another good friend, Frans). Their focus was on security and NS SQL/MX – so yes, check it out.
We also received and published words of encouragement. Frans opened his contribution, SQL/MX Update – Frans Jongma (HPE), with the very warm, “Let me start with congratulating NonStop Insider with their first anniversary. I think this format is great to provide information at a regular – i.e. monthly- basis.” And of course, our good friends at TCM opened their contribution, Happy Anniversary NSI and Roll on TBC ’17, noting how NonStop Insider, “had a clean and simple mission: to reach out to the NonStop community and provide a platform to share and learn about every facet of NonStop, from every corner of NonStop.”
TCM then added that, “Over the last year we’ve been delighted to see this mission realized. We’ve heard from the Vendors; companies just like TCM who provide much of NonStop’s supportive backbone including services, applications and tools. TCM has enjoyed both contributing and consuming NSI for the last year and wishes it well for the years to come. We are proud to have been a part of this magazine’s journey as it grows into a respected and valued member of the NonStop community.”
While I am focused very much on all things NonStop, from time to time it is good to get the perspective of others not quite as close to HPE and NonStop as we are. To this end, a couple of items that came up proved consistent no matter who we talked to – there is a very big disconnect between the industry, the press and even analysts with what is actually happening within enterprise data centers. Ignoring for the moment a small number of enterprises attracting headlines with their pursuits, for almost every other data center it remains “business as usual” with nearly all of them continuing to upgrade their traditional systems even as they are being told about the financial benefits that come with deploying hybrid configurations that include clouds.
Apparently the only way a cloud finds an audience within enterprise IT is when a solution under consideration comes with an option to be configured within a cloud, either as a private cloud on-premise or a vendor’s managed cloud. One such example that is becoming better known among the NonStop community is the work that OmniPayments has done with its product offering OmniCloudX, but apart from that ambitious program and yes, with the success it is already achieving, not much else is happening that involves NonStop. Seriously? Quite to the contrary, as we continue to see NonStop rack up new wins for NonStop X systems even as some of the biggest NonStop users on the planet are electing now to bring in NonStop X systems to meet their future transaction processing needs.
I have always marveled at those artists painting extremely large works of art, even sculptors, as they too tackle a giant piece that is destined for public display, but even they have to step back sometimes just to take a look at the progress they have made and to keep track of proportions as well as ensure minor details haven’t been omitted. Perhaps the most famous statue here in the US is the Statue of Liberty even though for those who have made the journey to black hills of South Dakota, Mt Rushmore is equally as impressive. However, while the work is under way on any major art project should you stop and take a look, the early stages can prove very misleading.
Point is, there is always a need to take a step back from what is the task at hand to ensure it is coming together as conceived and for many IT professionals it appears that this has become a lost art and the repercussions are continuing to be felt to this day. Just think security, for instance, and the doors we simply leave open. Don’t bother me I know what I am doing and I will get to that option / issue / routine shortly … And when it comes to NonStop we are truly blessed to have as many places to turn for help should we elect to take a couple of steps back to take in the vista no matter it’s progress towards completion.
More recently, I have been marveling at just how many sources exist today that carry information about NonStop. Almost every vendor operating in the NonStop marketplace has a web site where you can find a blog that is current and informative. Sometimes even provocative, but all in a good cause – to get us thinking. Indeed, many of my own posts on vendor sites through the years are phrased to essentially “tweak your nose” as one commentator reminded my audience. Not to be taken literally, of course, but rather to get us all thinking about alternate perspectives on well-known issues. A reminder too, if you like, to take a step back from the products and features for a much wider view of the role NonStop plays in your enterprise.
In addition to the many blog sites there are numerous newsletters that vendors write designed to throw the best light possible on their own activities, be that an upcoming event or the latest data sheet. And then, there are the publications – traditional and more recently, digital, that have developed followings of their own. There is no lack of places to turn to for current information on NonStop with the only remaining challenge being just how widely we distribute the many articles and commentaries about NonStop and how much energy we put into keeping our IT brethren as well informed as we are. NonStop isn’t all that it might seem – it is a lot more. And its purpose remains unchanged – to provide enterprises with the most available platform in the marketplace and the only truly, out of the box, Availability Level 4 (AL4) option, according to IDC.
Of course, the publication dearest to our hearts is NonStop Insider – an ambitious project we started a year ago. We have just published the anniversary issue as we kick off the start of year two and what an issue it turned out to be, celebrating a couple of firsts. It proved to be our biggest issue to date with some twenty contributions. It also included a first from Micro Focus (by our good friend Ron who is part of Micro Focus) as well as a first from HEP NonStop (by another good friend, Frans). Their focus was on security and NS SQL/MX – so yes, check it out.
We also received and published words of encouragement. Frans opened his contribution, SQL/MX Update – Frans Jongma (HPE), with the very warm, “Let me start with congratulating NonStop Insider with their first anniversary. I think this format is great to provide information at a regular – i.e. monthly- basis.” And of course, our good friends at TCM opened their contribution, Happy Anniversary NSI and Roll on TBC ’17, noting how NonStop Insider, “had a clean and simple mission: to reach out to the NonStop community and provide a platform to share and learn about every facet of NonStop, from every corner of NonStop.”
TCM then added that, “Over the last year we’ve been delighted to see this mission realized. We’ve heard from the Vendors; companies just like TCM who provide much of NonStop’s supportive backbone including services, applications and tools. TCM has enjoyed both contributing and consuming NSI for the last year and wishes it well for the years to come. We are proud to have been a part of this magazine’s journey as it grows into a respected and valued member of the NonStop community.”
If as yet you haven’t checked out this bumper issue of
NonStop Insider then check out Volume 2, Issue 1 at the NonStop Insider web
site:
http://www.nonstopinsider.com/2016-2/october-editorial/
And make sure you read Margo’s editorial page before checking out each of the contributions and while on the web site, consider becoming a subscriber as we sure do appreciate all your support. And so the work on the next issue begins which you will see published just as you head to this year’s NonStop Technical Boot Camp, being held for the first time just outside San Francisco.
Shortly Margo and I will be back behind our desks in our new offices in Windsor, Colorado. Just down the road from HPE’s major campus in Ft Collins, a place we often drive past on our way to the mountains. HPE focus on NonStop continues to be very real and we see a very bright future for NonStop X systems as they seem to still find their way into data centers worldwide. We also see a future for virtualized NonStop (vNS) as it develops traction with telcos worldwide. As for a bigger future for NonStop – X and V – well, we may have to step back a little to grasp the full scope of its potential, but it is there. Already beginning to take shape.
As additional paint is added to the canvas I expect to see a much different form begin to appear but that is a picture I will happily discuss when we next meet at TBC! In the meantime, don’t let up with communicating the value proposition of NonStop to you peers and don’t stop reading the really good supporting material now out on the web. NonStop may not be what it seems; quite the contrary, when you give it serious consideration, it is a whole lot more!
http://www.nonstopinsider.com/2016-2/october-editorial/
And make sure you read Margo’s editorial page before checking out each of the contributions and while on the web site, consider becoming a subscriber as we sure do appreciate all your support. And so the work on the next issue begins which you will see published just as you head to this year’s NonStop Technical Boot Camp, being held for the first time just outside San Francisco.
Shortly Margo and I will be back behind our desks in our new offices in Windsor, Colorado. Just down the road from HPE’s major campus in Ft Collins, a place we often drive past on our way to the mountains. HPE focus on NonStop continues to be very real and we see a very bright future for NonStop X systems as they seem to still find their way into data centers worldwide. We also see a future for virtualized NonStop (vNS) as it develops traction with telcos worldwide. As for a bigger future for NonStop – X and V – well, we may have to step back a little to grasp the full scope of its potential, but it is there. Already beginning to take shape.
As additional paint is added to the canvas I expect to see a much different form begin to appear but that is a picture I will happily discuss when we next meet at TBC! In the meantime, don’t let up with communicating the value proposition of NonStop to you peers and don’t stop reading the really good supporting material now out on the web. NonStop may not be what it seems; quite the contrary, when you give it serious consideration, it is a whole lot more!
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