Anyone who was in IT in the late ‘70s knows all too well how IT managers wore pocket protectors and flashed their gold Cross Pen and Pencil sets. Long before Walmart and Costco there were several club-like discount stores where you could shop for deeply discounted Cross Pens. At one time Margo and I even bought deeply discounted Montblanc Meisterstück fountain and ball-point pens. Margo still cherishes hers but somehow in my travels of the ‘90s I managed to misplace my set.
The significance of the presence of gold Cross Pen and
Pencil sets weren’t so much about status or even leadership as much as it was
about culture. They signified a sense of belonging to a profession where it
wasn’t about slide rules and scopes as much as it was about drawing flowcharts
and transcribing intent onto coding pads. You just had to have a good pencil
and then the pen played a role in documenting a cover sheet.
Perhaps it is simply too much time spent on Zoom calls
or maybe the gaps in between Zoom calls when looking at our screen we begin to
reminisce about the times before the global pandemic. As of right now it seems
that there is a lot going on that is pushing the practices of the last two
years into the background and yet, even with the return to in-person events, we
still haven’t warmed to the idea of returning to our cubicles any time soon.
Successfully working from home has changed everything. For some the flexibility
it has afforded them, more time with the family whereas for others it simply
has led to significantly improved productivity.
For NonStop users, sales folks across the
NonStop vendor community have learnt a new set of skills even as they have worked
even harder to maintain relationships fostered over many on site visits and the occasional fine dining experiences. Even the occasional business golf game has lessened in importance
when closing a deal. And let’s not forget that yes, sizable deals continue to
be made despite the limits of Zoom calls and that ever present mobile phone. As
for the NonStop user community, vendors today seem to be graded on ease of
support access whereby they can reach a knowledgeable support resource in an
instant.
While the NonStop community would truly like to see a
greater investment made by HPE in the marketing of NonStop there has been some
positive movements on that score. We continue to see the support by senior
NonStop managers of events worldwide whether virtual or in person. We are
warming to the HPE Community blog and we have many digital publications focused
on NonStop that we can turn to at any time. Then there are community Tech
Forums that organizations like Connect foster with all the signs pointing to
even more to come.
And then there is the cloud, the cloud experience and
even the cloud that comes to you. It seems that one of the biggest take away of
the past two years is just how omnipresent the cloud has become. Real
investments are being made in ensuring data and processes on NonStop systems
can readily access services provided by cloud service providers. Our Zoom calls
may be supported out of a cloud, but more importantly, the data created on
NonStop is being required to find ways to be ingested into the cloud. With as
much focus as there has been of late on data distribution, transformation and
integration you would think that this has been happening for a very long time.
In recent talks with my clients it has become very
clear that two things are heavily influencing the decisions that they are
making. When it comes to investments in support of the future direction of
NonStop, it is all about hybrid platform deployment. It will be about lash-ups
between the hybrid participants. It’s also about turning the attributes of
availability together with massive scale-out capabilities to the benefit of the
business. By this they mean that their solutions need to run on NonStop and
Linux / Windows even as they ratchet up their focus on making sure apps
continue to run and data stays where it’s meant to stay.
In a world that values insights and where voluminous
amounts of data need to be analyzed even when we know it has to take place in
real time, the task is better suited to highly optimized platforms. So much so
that it brings us back to a better understanding of the potential that comes
with marrying a NonStop system to a Cray. Whether traditional systems lashed
together in a rack or simply running virtual over a hybrid server farm with
cloud-like experiences, NonStop does transactions as Cray does analysis.
In the coming months I expect we are going to hear a
lot more about the symbiotic nature of such lash-ups. There is the ever present
concern over the preferred network fabric, in duplicate, but even here there
are initiative within HPE itself that may shine a light on the practicality of
looking at NonStop in this manner. HPE’s move to partner with Striim offers
one bright spot but even the recent announcements by NTI of greater support for
integration is proving a viable solution. And just look at what IR is stepping
up and doing when oversight of such lash-ups is needed!
You would think that you would have to be present at a
major event to find out more of what is happening with today’s modern NonStop
systems. To hear first-hand how well NonStop is aligning itself with the bigger
HPE and how it has moved so quickly into the fray with regard to vertical
solutions as a service such as what we are seeing today with NonStop and
Payments Solutions as a Service. But no; with our tradition of community events
being the gathering place for the NonStop community, going virtual helped to
keep the messages be communicated and going in-person will simply reinforce
much of what we have already heard these past two years. We are entering
another strong period in the history of NonStop with significant upside growth
potential. Have you bought the latest NonStop X4 systems yet?
Working from home now means there is no place for the
trappings of our community. No need to bond over pens and pencils and pocket
protectors and perhaps less of a need to head back out into the world to join
in-person events. And for many, having the choice is a meaningful option that
allows them the opportunity to mingle with the NonStop community on their own
terms. I think that the benefits that I have seen is that with working from
home there has been a lot more time afforded us to simply think about things.
Yes, I still have those gold Cross pen sets but they are tucked away somewhere.
And yet, as a new batch of gels and felt pens and planning notebooks arrived this week courtesy of Amazon, it reminded me in many tangible ways, that as IT professionals the NonStop community relishe discussions on all things NonStop whether over Zoom or in-person. Either way I am out here and open to both so perhaps shortly you will see me on an exhibition floor or in a screen window of a Zoom call but either way, it will continue to be always focused on NonStop.
Will you be just as excited by all things NonStop in 2022?
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