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 in the back of our minds: What if the
coffee shop was closed? Failure of our own infrastructure proved to be a
reminder of just how breakable everyday items have become.
As the NonStop community returns to its daily routines
following the annual NonStop Technical Boot Camp 2022 (NonStopTBC22), we are
once again faced with the routine challenge of promoting the key attributes of
NonStop. Whereas others in the IT organization may head to VMworld, or the
Microsoft Developer Conference or perhaps a FinTech related event, there is
perhaps more than the occasional sideways glance when we begin to relate our
experience at a purely NonStop event.
And yet, for the NonStop community our key differentiator
and the one that keeps us focused on all things related to NonStop is
availability. There is no middle ground; it’s completely binary. The coffee pot
is working or it isn’t. The light switch turns on the lights or it doesn’t. Our
terminals project our morning logon screen … or they don’t. Perhaps for the
rest of the IT community it simply has become a case that “Everything That Dies
Someday Comes Back.” No disservice to Bruce Springsteen who popularized this
verse but after so many years, has this truly become the mantra of IT
executives?
There were times when those around us would simply
report to management that there happened to be a glitch which by inference
means, nothing to worry about; a small and perhaps inconvenient fault that we
are working to correct. Acceptable? “As long as you found it and are working on
it, no worries,” seems to have become an almost routine response from those in
charge.
However, of late, it would seem that glitch is slipping
a little in popularity. More words are needed as failure continues to wreak
havoc on so much of the infrastructure we have all come to depend upon. Nowhere
is this happening more than with those enterprises that were hardest hit during
the pandemic or those that have struggled to portray a sense of normality when
all else is behaving anywhere near normal.
The headlines that jumped from my working desktop
screen of late go a long way to reinforce this new creativity -
NSW
education minister apologizes for early release of HSC results
“The
NSW education minister has apologized to HSC students after an IT bungle …”
Air
pressure: The new normal for global travel
“These
include the surging cost of fuel (which is pushing up ticket prices), ongoing
performance hiccups …”
Supply
Chain
“When
there's a hiccup in the system, everybody seems to catch the cold …”
Cloud
glitch brings down thousands of websites
“On the flip side, these occasional blips
underline the fragility of its fabric.”
Enter into the vocabulary blips, hiccups, bungles and
even catching a cold. Glitches were once all encompassing but apparently no
longer. Apparently not everything dies completely but rather staggers along in
some degraded manner. When it does come back it’s as if nothing too serious has
happened. Tell that to the students in Australia who saw friends being given
results while they were not the recipients of similar information. And do you
know how important that information is to those students?
Perhaps remarkable by US standard but after sitting for
the final high school exams the results determine your future. From first place
to last, every name is listed in the Sydney Morning Herald. You don’t really
apply for attending the University, the University picks you from the list. It
may have changed in recent times but it is all on merit as depicted by the
numbers that appear against your name in the statewide newspaper. Hearing from
others about their results and seeing none about you; heart-wrenching.
A blip? A hiccup? A bungle? A cold that is caught?
Perhaps glitch really does say it all! There have been many times when Margo
and I have accidently turned onto a road that led us nowhere, but there was
always the option to change course to re-find our way. When mission critical
systems experience any of the above no matter how minor the blips, hiccups,
bungles or worse may at first appear, there are communities on the end of the
line being inconvenienced in a way that can be destructive to the reputation of
the business.
Enterprises thrive when interacting with them presents
no risks to those they serve. This is a message that has been so watered down,
almost dismissed as a concern that has the potential to slowly degrade the most
important message of all. NonStop is fault tolerant. The end devices it
supports and the enterprise links it maintains are super critical to keeping
risks out of the business equation. When all systems creaked and groaned, it
was a regular occurrence to watch a much ballyhooed capability stutter. It was
only a couple of decades ago that promoting a function as being online,
available around the clock was a key marketing differentiator. What’s changed?
As the world moves to reliance on Cloud Service
Providers (CSPs and not to be confused with CSP Security) it is as if we are
returning to the bad old days of the “wild west.” Bless the IT folks when the
system works. But this is all about to change and for the better with where HPE
is taking the NonStop platform. Continue running your mission critical
applications, but this time, in CSP infrastructure? Pursue development and
porting via NonStop-in-a-Cloud? It’s all happening and for those who attended
NonStopTBC22; it is not just a case of cloudware but rather, a soon to be
realized reality.
It was clearly the next step in the evolution of
NonStop; from proprietary to open, standards-based and available running on
real or virtual machines or even in the cloud. Public as well as private! However,
that next step is one that needs to be given serious consideration based on the
requirements of the enterprises. For those committed to clouds the option to
run NonStop in a cloud is ideal.
As for those who are more cautious there is a middle
road that leads them to a further extension of hybrid IT. Either way, NonStop
continues to be as relevant today as it has ever been. When it comes to a blip,
a hiccup, a bungle or even the prospect of catching a cold these glitches as
they are so often referred to become characteristics of other platforms. But
not of NonStop!
As we head into the holiday season with still those
much-desired items to be purchased for many of us there is latent anxiety over
our ability to complete a purchase and to see it shipped on time. We have all
read the Grinch that stole Christmas
and been amused by the story line – but that’s just fantasy, right? Yes,
infrastructure may very well be seen to die and for one day to come back. Let’s
hope that as we get deeper into December, we aren’t a witness to the Glitch that stole Transactions!
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