A funny thing happened on the way to the big event!

 

With the change in weather across North America more cars are heading out onto the freeways. The US Interstate system remains a marvel even all these years after it first appeared guaranteeing as it were that given the opportunity everyone can drive everywhere.. It matter little, apart from time constraints, the distance to be travelled as there is always a road that will take you there with a minimal fuss. Looking ahead to the big event and by this I mean the upcoming HPE Discover 2022 event in Las Vegas, it will be just another opportunity to hit the freeway.

When it comes to big events there is no location where the tag fits any better than Las Vegas and perhaps there is no other showcase for all that is the best of HPE than what you find on display at the Venetian and Palazzo hotels. Did we mention that the Venetian canals there complete with the Rialto Bridge? Situated between both hotels you will find the Venetian Expo (formerly referred to as the Sands Expo), a cavernous venue where all things HPE will be on display in the exhibition hall even as escalators move attendees between the many floors where presentations take place.

As yet we haven’t decided which car we will be driving as even with a late June date you never know what you will encounter as you cross the Rockies. If you missed reading about our most recent bizcation that took us to the west coast, then you missed reading of our mid–spring encounter with the snow that blocked our passage at the most inconvenient time. Look for the post to our social blog, Buckle-Up, No risk! No win! With many other chances taken!  This time we aren’t expecting anywhere near the same level of drama even as we are anticipating experiencing drama of an entirely different variety on arrival to Las Vegas.

For many years there was scant reference to NonStop at HPE Discover. While not a dramatic uptick in actual presence on the floor of the exhibition hall, nevertheless for 2022 there will be a lot more NonStop covered than I have experienced previously. Of course, we will have to see how it all pans out but early indications are that with the help of Connect, there will be at least two days of presentations, intimate theatre style, in the exhibition hall itself. For those planning on attending make sure you familiarize yourself with the venue as time will always be at a premium and the exhibition hall covers a lot of territory.

What’s really exciting me about participating in this year’s HPE Discover? As it so happens in the weeks that have just passed and with what’s looming ahead of us before HPE Discover 2022 kicks off it has been the content of local and regional events where the messaging of some of my clients has undergone yet further evolutionary transition. You might think of this as being along the lines of a funny thing happening to me on the way to the show, but it is more meaningful than that. We continue to hear about gaining insights and of data being the currency of business even as more recently we heard HPE CEO Antonio Neri talk of how “Enterprises need to be more data-first in all that they do; but data is a wasted asset if you cannot get insight from it.”

In other words, data that is freshly created on NonStop can see its value deteriorate over time unless it is moved to where it’s needed most. And the best way to move the data out of NonStop and to integrate with data created in other places within the enterprise is to look for an asynchronous messaging technology. This has been a theme of mine for some time but what is evolving before our eyes is a technology that is both popular as it is open and this is where Apache Kafka comes into play.

“If you're unfamiliar with Kafka,” posted Christian Posta, Principal Middleware Architect/Specialist, Red Hat, to TechBeacon.com, What is Apache Kafka? Why is it so popular? Should you use it? “It's a scalable, fault-tolerant, publish-subscribe messaging system that enables you to build distributed applications.” Attributes that should appeal to all NonStop users looking to ensure data created on NonStop can be tapped to better support the creation of business insight.  

“My colleagues in the enterprise and I are starting to see a common trend across companies of all backgrounds,” said Posta. “They are starting to realize that to build the digital services that will disrupt and innovate, they need access to a wide stream of data, and that data must be integrated.” This said, what really hit home in my travels of late is how the NonStop community needs to know a lot more about the options available to them as there are now a couple of paths that they can choose.

Where HPE Discover 2022 is being held struck me as perhaps more relevant than it otherwise might appear: The Venetian and the Palazzo. Nothing could shout more loudly about Italy and its historic past than names like this. There are Marco Polo ballrooms as well suitable for a range of general sessions. Across the street, there is another reference to a much earlier aspect of Roman society as you will find The Forum and a great place to visit in between sessions.

However, it will be inside HPE Discover exhibition hall where the NonStop community will witness a new forum enjoying its hard launch as Connects newest Tech Forum, Business Integration and Analysis. With a focus on getting data out of NonStop while it is fresh, integrating and distributing data to where it’s needed for analysis and for creating the insights business needs, support of Kafka will be among the highlights covered in the launch presentation.. And if you joined virtual GTUG recently and caught the presentation by NTI’s Craig Lawrance, you will have seen how big a role Kafka is playing within NTI’s DRNet®

“It became an understandable goal for all of us here at NTI,” said Tim Dunne, NTI’s Global Director Worldwide Sales, “to look at providing a comprehensive solution that would allow data created on NonStop to be integrated with other data and processing products.”  DRNet®/Unified for Business Integration represents the latest product package from NTI and as such, takes advantage of the Change Data Capture (CDC) methodologies inherent within DRNet®

“One way to view how we are leveraging the internals of DRNet®,” said Dunne is to view the solution as having “a backend focused on CDC pulling data out of NonStop with a choice of multiple frontends that can deliver to another instance of DRNet® or to pretty much anything else that the NonStop user needs their data to be delivered to, be that a data warehouse or a solution such as Kafka, Splunk>, ELK and more.” The message should be very clear; we are modernizing NonStop in that we are helping strip away any possible association with silos of the past.

DRNet® does Kafka! A message that is beginning to resonate across the NonStop community. As one of my NonStop sources told me, “solutions that bring value to a NonStop customer that otherwise cannot be filled (by solutions we already offer) than we would be foolish not to entertain them.”

But here’s the thing about messages and deliverables. What came out of the GTUG event was the apparent disconnect with what was being discussed about Kafka and the availability of product today. For some time now, Dunne has been telling NonStop audiences that you can run with Kafka right now. And not just talking, but successfully wrapping up PoCs for NTI customers where support for Kafka is part of the DRNet® product they already are licensed to use.

To be sure, I will be highlighting this reality in my own presentations at user events in North America. And with the launch of the Tech Forum Business Integration and Analysis at HPE Discover 2022 I will be on stage providing even more information on this capability of NTI together with insights I have about other vendors committed to providing additional support for Kafka. It will be one of the highlights of the Connect sessions from the exhibition floor I have to believe, as there really is something very positive about providing the NonStop community with a forum that is tailored to their needs for data integration. Look for the presentation Value your data! Move your data! Analyze your data! Currently scheduled to be held on Tuesday June 28 at 3:30pm.

For many years in London and New York there was a very popular musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Satirical in format to the point where it was as much vaudeville as it was classical taking its cue from much earlier works by Roman playwrights. Yet, as HPE Discover 2022 draws near, as farcical as this musical was, I cannot help but recognize that there can be no mistaken identity where NonStop is concerned. NonStop remains the premier solution for mission critical applications where its transactional data is the freshest in the enterprise. Surely, providing that data to where it’s most needed is a priority and that’s no laughing matter when all is said and done.

And if you happen to be attending the upcoming MATUG or BITUG events then you will get to see a sneak preview of what I will be covering in June. Make sure you register for HPE Discover 2022 and see you all in a month’s time!