Even as the finishing touches were put on the upcoming September issue of NonStop Insider, it proved too hard to ignore the observations about NonStop, analytics and the age of insight!
The telltale signs of summer coming to an end are beginning to become apparent here in Northern Colorado. In a matter of a few days’ time, snow is predicted with a forecast maximum temperature of only 39 degrees, Fahrenheit (4 C), and summer isn’t truly over nor has Fall arrived. Too bad about those last lazy days of summer being spent around a lake or on your favorite bike trail – change is on its way and there’s little we can do to stop it. On the other hand, it’s hard to reason with the season, or so Jimmy Buffett sang some time back.
Driving
to my local car service center, a warning message appeared – overdue service,
8/2020 – which was the first indication that anything was required, raised an
eyebrow. Standing by the service center desk I was politely informed that it
would be several weeks before the car could be serviced as all the SUVs
suddenly showed up wanting a winter-prop service. Seems that in today’s highly
connected world our cars know more than their drivers about what servicing they
require. No more flashing lights but rather, a forceful reminder that with our
apparent driving style, attention was needed and yes, it had to be done right
now!
In
a world where we are seeing more interest being paid to providing management
with insightful information, it’s hard to know that important information will
flash by unexpectedly, or where. Will I be told that I have left the kettle on
and that the iron is still connected and getting hotter by the minute? I cannot
tell you how many times I have turned the car around to check on that iron just
on the possibility that I did leave it on. But today, as IT professionals,
providing insightful information carries more important information than a
potential ironing board mishap.
Can
we call it insight when our credit card fails to process a transaction due to
lack of funds? On the one hand, it’s a not too subtle way of informing us to
either pay the bill or top up the account. Either way, it’s hard insight! As
for something more useful would be text messages many of us already receiving –
particularly if you use Starbucks – telling us that we have run too low and
that a top-up has automatically been done for us. An example of soft insight!
You may not agree as to what’s hard and what’s soft but for most of us, it’s
tied to the degree of embarrassment we feel at the time.
For
the NonStop community our lives have been very much focused on executing the
transaction. Ever since its introduction many decades ago, NonStop has been
prized for its ability to relentlessly process transactions with no downtime,
ever! For making sure what is initiated by an end-user runs to completion
without interruption or mishaps of any kind. The fact that NonStop is built,
form software through to the hardware, as a total fault tolerant package, has
served us all well for many decades. But what’s happening with NonStop when
those same transactions could benefit from having additional insights to draw
upon? What are our options for improving on a simple yes, or no?
I
haven’t heard anyone argue with the benefits of having access to additional
information – enriching the interaction, if you like – but the question
remains; do we run any kind of analytics processing on NonStop systems? Perhaps
not! And analytics are, after all, key to how we obtain insight. After years of
building data warehouses and populating data lakes, ponds, streams whatever, it
is the power of the analytics engines that deliver the goods. By this I mean
there is a lot of choice out there when it comes to analytics engines but none
run on NonStop. And for good reason – they are CPU intensive in a way that is
at the opposite end of the processor-devouring spectrum than what’s needed to
complete you average transaction.
For
quite some time there have been discussions about whether or not to add a GPU
to Nonstop specifically to run analytics. Or perhaps a custom box akin to a
CLIM added specifically as a type of co-processor onto which CPU intensive work
can be offloaded. Then there is the concept of peer processor whereby a capable
Ethernet connection to a Linux box ensures the heavy lifting is done when
needed and without disrupting the transaction processing under way on NonStop.
Well architected, the peer processor could fail on occasion without any
downtime taking place on NonStop.
Then
again, such discussions can become a never-ending story. Arguments for and
against could continue where such vacillation could ultimately prove unhelpful.
Transactions on NonStop, in combination with analytics, need to be addressed,
and soon. This is the topic covered in the upcoming September 2020 issue of
NonStop Insider. Look for the regular column, HPE NonStop Corner – one
partner’s perspective. And check out what comes about when we reach that “AHA!”
moment.
Whichever
way you look at it, there are ways to address combining the world of
transaction processing with analytics. It’s a technology that holds the promise
of separating all the so-so-run companies from those that grow more rapidly.
Figuring out the best way to serve an end-user has always been the goal of
business and it was in such a pursuit that so much of the mundane devices we
interact with today came about – the ATM, the POS, the smartphone and much
more. Every time we walk up to a self-service device its presence has come about
because the enterprise recognized there were transactions we felt more
comfortable doing with a device than interacting (and facing disparaging looks)
with and from a human.
But
maybe we don’t need to fuss too much over the pros and cons of combining NonStop
with co-processors. What is now making it more interesting is that when we look
at combining the world of transaction processing with analytics, suddenly
consuming analysis on the basis of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) makes even more
sense. In fact, some of the peer approaches under consideration may in fact
involve connectivity between NonStop and a cloud environment – private or
public depending upon our appetite for secure processing – whereby analytics is
tapped as and when it’s needed. Not all transactions benefit from a lengthy Q
and A that otherwise might be initiated.
Analytics,
and for all the discussions we may be having about the intersection of
transaction processing with analysis, is in its infancy and we are only seeing
early baby steps being taken by most solutions. However, no matter how far they
reach and how quickly they get there, the important thing is to be aware that
even with NonStop, it’s best to take some early steps to reconcile both worlds.
Enterprises need to be better prepared for what’s to come and in an age of
insight, as HPE keeps reminding us about, we can’t have NonStop developers
ignoring the need to tap analytics.
For my money, analytics server up as we need them, on the basis of SaaS, is
looking likely to be the best bet. Simplicity may be the key driver as might be
agreed-upon, open APIs allowing ease of access and operation. Perhaps too it’s
going to come from knowing more of what NonStop’s development peers within HPC
can offer. Perhaps it’s in the coming world of GreenLake that we find some
answers. Ultimately, our transactions need feeding; where, and how, the
insights are provided that enterprises will value most suggests that simply
executing the transaction will not be enough.
Looking at the forecast for Colorado, you may not need a weatherman to tell you which way the wind blows; just look to the mountains. Or as Jimmy Buffett sang, “the wind is blowin’ harder now … there’s white caps on the ocean.” When it comes to the weather, we can see for ourselves that changes are taking place. We don’t need a flashing icon on our dashboard either to know we need to change the oil; it’s simply the right time to do it.
As
for NonStop, analytics, SaaS, private clouds, virtualization – it’s all there.
The pieces have taken on form and now it’s just up to us to decide how to
pursue the integration of transactions with analytics. Shouldn’t we at the very
least start a conversation within our own IT organization and yes, shouldn’t we
use this as just one more opportunity to talk openly of how far NonStop has
come in the decades that have past its introduction all those years ago?
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