Real Time View

Travel has always been a part of our lives. Whether business or leisure, rarely did a week pass this year where we weren’t in planning mode for one trip or another. Not for Margo or me is the thought of heading out through the front door on our way to some destination ever giving us pause to wonder why? As our bags are brought up from storage to reside near our wardrobe, our imminent departure begins to look real. Even as our respective cultures differ on so many fronts where we find consistency is in seeing the world. Culture can be tough to define. Perhaps the best description of culture I came across was: Customs, laws, dress, architectural style, social standards and traditions are all examples of cultural elements. Deconstructing into these elements is helpful but might be a bit too vague for some. Although it is hard to argue with the role customs and social standards play in defining culture. Then again, there are plenty of other obvious examples. We have car culture; w...

  Creator: Simon Alvinge  |  Credit: Getty Images / iStockphoto After moving into our newly built home in northern Colorado, we cycled through many Kuerig coffee makers. It took a couple of years and a lot of trials and errors with more than one Kuerig coffee maker finding its way down into storage. Were we insane not to realize it wasn’t the coffee machines as we tried one after the other with no resultant changes in results? Eventually, having called in the electrician, it proved to be a faulty circuit breaker. “When these breakers were first installed there were a number of them that were problematic,” was the only response we were given. For Margo and me, take away our morning coffee and expect unpredictable behavior to follow. In fact, on any given day, it takes us three coffees before we can rationally face the work day. However, as much as we made adjustments to our schedules – a quick trip to Starbucks became the norm – there was always that fear lurking...

Events tend to develop their own momentum as their programs unfold. Whether it is just a one day roadshow or a more elaborate gathering, the energy created through the almost constant interaction of the attendees is enough to stimulate side conversations that explore topics that may arise following keynote sessions and major platform and solutions updates. This was definitely the case with NonStop Technical Boot Camp 2022 (NonStopTBC22) where the NonStop community came together for its annual conference. There are other HPE conferences held throughout the year that call on us to commit time and money for an opportunity to hear the latest news on all things related to HPE and to the IT industry, however, for the NonStop community to have the opportunity to participate in a conference solely focused on NonStop continues to elevate NonStopTBC22 to a position of being the premier event of the year. With a program created to touch on almost every aspect of interest to the NonStop community ...

With his opening words, “It’s not where we are headed but how fast we will get there,” the boss of all things NonStop, Jeff Kyle, set the tone for the latest NonStop Technical Boot Camp (NonStop TBC 22). “We are a platform and not a server; the platform we are perfecting for mission critical applications. We create the data and we transact the data!” Jeff referenced the ongoing expansion into new markets, including manufacturing, retail and transportation but equally as important for the NonStop community Jeff referenced digital transformation and highlighted how we are all going through this digital transformation on our way to modernization and yes, it’s truly all about the data. “NonStop as a platform is a critical component of digital transformation and the innovation we are bringing to NonStop (is a further illustration) of how NonStop is now a platform.” Among Jeff’s opening slides happened to be one titled, “The Data Realities of Digital Transformation” where the business object...

When I was in high school there were the usual visits to the career guidance center. Actually, not so much a center as it was a room where a counselor would entertain students, listen to their likes and dislikes and offer some measure of guidance as to what should be considered as a possible future career path. When it came my turn it was more of a case of throwing a dart at the board. I was clueless. However, it was during my time at Normanhurst Boys High School in suburban Sydney Australia that the first inklings of where my career might take me surfaced. Inklings, but at the time not passions, began when family friend took me to an insurance company as its first computer was being deployed. The year was 1963 and the IBM mainframe being installed was an IBM 650 - sold in the 1953-1962 period – as the IBM 360 product line really didn’t get rolling until a year or so later. I took a souvenir from that visit back to school; a white paper tape full of holes. I kept hold of that simple ro...

Margo and I have tried to attend as many gatherings of the NonStop community as possible. This has meant a lot of driving was involved even as we did resort to flying sometimes. How else can you get to London other than perhaps by boat? You might even say that it is the whole package we find so attractive; the travel, the dining, the conversations the events themselves. There have been times where we have considered scaling back our participation, but then again, as we unpack from one trip or the other we immediately start debating the pros and cons of solutions presented at such events. This month it was Canadians’ turn to hold a regional event. CTUG, or to call it by its full name, the Canadian Tandem User Group, is an ever present reminder of times past and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing for them to do. The NonStop community enjoys a history few other mainstream vendors can possible duplicate. Maybe, SHARE, the IBM mainframe groups enjoy a similar heritage and as I have a firs...

As we get deeper into the last month of the quarter, which for some may also be the last month of their financial year, it is inevitable that we look back at what happened in 2022. It’s a time when measures are taken to finish the year on a high note even as there will be those reviewing their product mix against changing market conditions. There is never a good time to change course and yet, staying the distance can be every bit as detrimental. But perhaps as we look back at the year, there will be conversations started that will need to be revisited as scattered among the many stories we hear are surprisingly numerous gems to be uncovered. For Margo and me these last couple of months means we will be toiling for long hours at the tasks at hand. Not so much on keyboards as on steering wheels. With the return to in-person events we have a desire to attend as many as we can even if we do succumb to the long-haul flight every now and then. But as story tellers, there is a constant need...