Remember the words from that
song long ago by the New Jersey band, The Young Rascals? One of their most
popular releases of the late 1960s? For many of my readers it may well be the
case of “perhaps not!”, but the song How Can I be Sure might be viewed
as topical when addressing the HPE NonStop Community. In particular, the
opening verse:
How can I be sure
In a world that's constantly changing?
How can I be sure
Where I stand with you?
For the NonStop vendor community,
the talk of the day is about ecosystems. It’s about the creation of software
partnerships that are themselves ecosystems. Viable alternatives to other
ecosystems that perhaps have come about a bit like topsy – “growing quickly
without being noticed.” It has become less of a secret of late that, following
the unveiling of partnerships by the NonStop team as a direct result of its Showcase
initiative, those NonStop vendors not participating in Showcase are coming to
terms with a landscape that is very much changed.
At face value, it could be
viewed by the NonStop user community as simply a transformation that puts these
NonStop independent vendors on the outer. As a group, the perception may be
that they have been sidelined, left to look in on deals that are being made. A
constantly changing landscape that is favoring only the NonStop team. After
all, as has become common knowledge, any incentive for the NonStop sales team
to reference or promote a product outside of Showcase can only be viewed as
detrimental to their own personal income stream.
But here’s the deal; now
that this changed landscape is being understood by the NonStop independent
vendors, there is no thought of abandoning the NonStop marketplace. In fact,
its quite the opposite. The NonStop independent vendors I have talked to see
this as a challenge and an opportunity to step up and take on the singular
ecosystem that the NonStop team projects today.
And for this, the NonStop
user is benefitting from these NonStop independent vendors rising to the
occasion. Not to be outdone, there is at least one additional software
ecosystem emerging and potentially others that will follow. These ecosystems
are forming around key product options for the NonStop user and are attracting
other NonStop independent vendors occupying adjacent marketplaces. For those
who missed last year’s NonStop TBC 2023 conference, you would have mixed the
emergence of one of the first software ecosystems taking shape that are clearly
prepared to take on the challenge that is coming from the NonStop team.
At the upcoming pan-European
E-BITUG event next week, I have the privilege of being the first to provide a
vendor plenary session immediately following the HPE NonStop sessions. There
will be an interruption as attendees break for coffee but I am hopeful for a
good turnout. The BITUG committee has asked that I take an educational approach
and tone-down the marketing side of things. However, given that it is NTI that
is sponsoring my Tuesday morning session, there will be a number of product and
partnership updates even as fully half of the presentation will be devoted to
my take on this changing NonStop landscape.
Under the theme of
continuous adaptation, I will be acknowledging the impact of the appearance
that business resilience is having on numerous NonStop vendors independent or
otherwise. This has been a topic I have been following for nearly a year.
Business resilience is focused on absorbing and then adapting to outside
events. If you consider fault tolerance coupled with business continuity as
your viable defense then you may want to consider business resilience as your
offense. Something that I have already been illustrating with images from the
NFL here in the US.
As a secondary topic that
has really gained my attention is that with support for business resilience
coming, as it is happening now, from those NonStop independent vendors that first
begun promoting an independent software ecosystem last year, such attention is
ensuring their ongoing relevance within the NonStop user community as a whole.
A relevance that cannot be ignored. As it is well known across the community
many of the largest NonStop users have long-standing business relationships
with the independent vendor community and are loathe to simply let those
relationships slide.
This is an important
development to understand. Choices made long ago are now today bearing fruit as
priorities arising from the constantly changing landscape become better known.
It is not just with NTI, I take encouragement from others like CSP Security,
TANDsoft, comforte, TCM, Odyssey and more. In fact, it was following the
initial discussions last year between NTI, CSP Security and TANDsoft that CSP
took the initiative to launch a Partner Portal.
If the NonStop team was
going to be shy about sharing information on vendor products that exist beyond
Showcase then another outlet needed to be created and the Connect community is
on board with this initiative as well. It is also very important that the
GreenLake team has an easy way to be informed about offerings coming from the
independent vendors, as many customers converting to software as a service want
to explore or continue with the products outside of the Showcase umbrella.
Being in Showcase and being on the NonStop Price Book has very little to do
with the GreenLake initiative so it’s only reasonable to provide a place where
those looking to benefit from GreenLake have a place to go to find the latest
product information.
What then does this all
mean? The NonStop community has existed for many decades and has always thrived
on choice. There have always been options when it comes to security,
monitoring, business continuity and more. With what is transpiring there really
isn’t any bad choices for the NonStop user just a rich variety of options to
consider. And it is with this in mind that I will be bringing with me to
Edinburgh a bright spotlight that I will be shining on the rise of the
independent vendor’s software ecosystem. As one HPE senior manager reminded me
only this week, “there’s enough ecosystem to go around; everybody wins!”
However, the opposite is equally as true; should we fail to foster healthy and
indeed competitive ecosystems then the probability that NonStop ceases to grow
becomes a likely outcome.
Ecosystems! Partner Portals!
Business Resilience! Continuous Adaptation! And yes, much more will be covered
in my educational presentation next week. I am looking forward to giving this
presentation as I am also thankful for the support from NTI. Will you be there?
I sure hope you make attending this presentation your own priority and will
enjoy hearing it as much as I am looking forward to giving it! See you in
Edinburgh!
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