Off
the wind on this heading lie the Marquesas.
We got eighty feet of the waterline nicely making wake.
A lot of attention is being
given to sailing events. There is the solo race around the globe that sees
participants now battling each other in the Pacific Ocean. However, for a
Sydney boy such as I remain at heart, it is not just about sailing around the
world but rather, taking on some serious and oftentimes totally unpredictable
waters of the Tasman Sea as the annual Sydney to Hobart blue-water classic
takes place.
I have loved sailing for
almost all of my adult life. I spent four years racing sloops on Sydney Harbor
where our crew managed successive wining seasons with me deftly balanced on the
foredeck, raising and dropping headsails with hoisting spinnakers, all part of
the job at hand. Being on the foredeck meant little time to understand the
finer points of actual sailing, when it did come time for me to take the helm
in the annual Flinders Island race, I proved ineffective and was quickly
relieved of the responsibility.
However, whether it was
racing in-harbor or offshore, to produce a win required a well-drilled team. So
much can happen at any instance that the wrong move can prove disastrous.
Through the years I have crewed on yachts from forty feet to seventy feet and
the experience has been the same. Master a single task and ensure that on the
day, you execute to perfection. Every crew member knows that it is how well you
do your job and in particular, how well you communicate with every member of
the crew that proves critical.
When it comes to the
industry that we all love so dearly, information drives change and for
information to be productive, data feeding the information has to be clean and
safe. As with the winds that propel a yacht, fresh data coming cleanly off the
waters of interaction, makes the difference, for without accurate data, the
information becomes unreliable and poor decision-making follows. It’s just that
simple. However, not all solutions are capable of delivering on this goal.
Continuing with the sailing
metaphor, when it comes to technology, there never has been an extended period
of smooth sailing. Perhaps, back in the late 1960s on through the 1970s the
pace of change was more measured where incorporating shifts in technology could
be planned and where breakthroughs could be celebrated. No longer, as change is
coming from so many directions planning seems ill advised just as celebrations
are few and far between.
Of course, as every sailor
knows, change can come quickly when at sea under sail. The horizon is
continuously scanned looking for weather patterns that produce clouds. Some
clouds are beneficial, pushing the boat ahead and with more speed. Other clouds
signal the approach of bad weather where the need to furl the sails and perhaps
release a sea anchor become prudent options. Clouds that bring good news are
sometimes indistinguishable from those about to wreak havoc on poor
unsuspecting sailors.
Every sailor will remember
the 1998 Sydney to Hobart blue-water classic race as it proved to be the most
disastrous in the race’s history. So much so that among the favored yachts was
Sayonara and on board was Larry Ellison and I cannot recall him ever onboard
for any further blue-water races. For three days Ellison stopped eating, and
for the last of these he stopped drinking water as well. "I'm an acrobatic
pilot, so I'm used to funny things happening in my inner ear," Ellison
said. "But boy was I sick."
Today, our discussions about
clouds and the potential benefits of contracting with cloud services’ providers
for all of our computing needs has become a popular topic for most IT
professionals. Surely, an outgrowth of outsourcing combined with service bureau
mentality is a good thing. Going alone in these times is just too risky. How
can we keep staff onboard and how can we be sure our investments in technology
are beneficial to our business. Bringing in the pros seems to be an ideal path
to go down. Unfortunately, there will be many implementations overcome by the complexity,
the costs and overall that sinking feeling that comes from being
“technologically” seasick.
For the HPE NonStop
community, there has been a lot of horizon-scanning as even the biggest
believers in NonStop watch for clouds. The NonStop system available today may
indeed be a cloud-in-a-box, as most NonStop believers ardently promote. The
NonStop system may offer the best option when it comes to elasticity – an
attribute that is a natural outcome of the inherent scalability of NonStop with
the presence of Pathway, aka TSM/MP that supports a highly intuitive
container-like transactional environment. So, clearly, NonStop holds appeal to
all and sundry with systems flying off the shelf.
Sailing requires teamwork.
Every single item on a yacht has a unique name. We all know that the only rope
on a yacht is the one tied to the anchor as all else might be specific
halyards, sheets, braces, and more. Items on the deck could be any mix of spinnaker
poles, jokey poles, winch handles and so on. When havoc descends on the crew,
each item is called upon for usage with no confusion among the crew as to what
is needed. Day sailors and those who simply enjoy a few hours on the water
navigating to the lee of an island for chicken and chardonnay need to know the
purpose of every single item aboard their vessel.
For the NonStop community,
each NonStop subsystem is known by its vendors branding and they are all
recognized for the purpose they fulfill. The NonStop community is truly blessed
in having multiple vendors competing for key subsystems in support of security,
data and file backup, transaction data recovery, system monitoring and
application management, even batch scheduling and automation (yes, batch is
still very important even for systems designed to maximize elasticity 24 x 7).
Most important of all, the partnerships that form between NonStop vendors and
NonStop customers provide a level of teamwork that individual NonStop customers
alone cannot match.
For more than a year and
with the ascent of new NonStop executives and managers, there has been resurgence
in the promotion of a broad-based partner ecosystem. Furthermore, groups of
NonStop vendors have created their own partner ecosystems. This latest
development sends a powerful message to the NonStop community and most
encouraging of all, with the renewed focus by NonStop executives on the partner
ecosystem, ever so gradually the playing field for all NonStop vendors is
beginning to level.
Why feature just five or six
select partners while the overall number of NonStop vendors can be quite
staggering. Looking at the most recent NonStop executive presentation, the
PowerPoint slide recognizing the scope of the NonStop vendor participation sees
every centimeter or inch covered with a vendor logo. There is simply no topic
left unaddressed by the NonStop vendor community. In the view of the NonStop
executives, it is all about teamwork (and avoiding becoming seasick), and for
the NonStop community, that teamwork is steeped in experience, knowledge and a
willingness to work with any NonStop customer.
Communication remains
paramount. An openness for all within the NonStop team that extends to
acknowledging every change or refresh under consideration by a NonStop
customer. The market for NonStop systems is large enough that it simply cannot
be open to just a select few NonStop vendors as was the case coming into 2024.
But the weather is changing and the clouds on the horizon portray a new
experience for all NonStop community members; a willingness by all to address
the many options open to all current and prospective NonStop customers is a
positive change.
Should you be among the
enterprises that are now taking a fresh look at NonStop – and yes, I am hearing
more about this development – or perhaps, entertaining a system refresh that
embraces the upcoming Starship line of NonStop systems, then become more aware of
the scope of NonStop vendors competing for your business. There will be many
options. Avoid the never-ending migrations some vendors advocate, even if
obliquely and look more attentively at those NonStop vendors who are proven
winners. There are plenty of them, fortunately.
Many NonStop customers are
nicely making wake as we begin 2025. The implication is clear, leverage the
strength of the wind which, in the case of NonStop, simply means leveraging the
latest NonStop systems planned for the coming year. Recognizing, too, the
strength of the partner ecosystem just as we have seen NonStop executives begin
to do this year.
Sailing always takes
teamwork. With teamwork there is a greater ability to react to what might lie
ahead, whether the skies turn cloudy or begin to brighten. With teamwork, too, NonStop customers will
access the products and services of a much larger partner ecosystem than they may
have previously entertained.
Avoiding the distractions of
technology models that offer little value for the NonStop customers even as
skies may become cloudy. This is a sea change worth remembering. Sail on, sail
on; 2025 may not be a breeze but as the legendary NonStop continues to prove
itself relentless, it is not pausing and it definitely is not stopping for
anything it encounters.
Expressed more poetically
and responding to one more question; will you be setting a course that is true
and away from treacherous currents that can be avoided with the understanding
that such distractions are ultimately nothing more than just “clouds in your
coffee?”
Comments