Sydney
Harbor in leadup to
Sydney to Hobart race of 2018
This
time last year I wrote of how it will not be smooth sailing for all of us in
IT. More specifically, for the Nonstop community, I ended that post by asking
how you will respond to one more question; will you be setting a course that is
true and away from treacherous currents that can be avoided? What I did
reference though was how, for the coming year 2025, leverage the strength of
the wind which, in the case of Nonstop, simply means leveraging the latest
Nonstop systems. Recognizing, too, the strength of the partner ecosystem just
as we have seen Nonstop executives begin to do this year.
Sailing
always comes to mind at this time of year as being a Sydney lad at heart, there
was always an air of excitement on Sydney Harbor as the big, maxi sailing
yachts gathered for a series of contests that ended on Boxing Day with the
start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Many years ago, back in 1998, Oracle’s
Larry Ellison entered his yacht, Sayonara, and wound up gaining line honors but
not after one of the wildest and saddest races ever recorded. On board for that
race was a young Lachlan Murdoch.
It
wasn’t just a case of treacherous currents so much as it was the appearance of
a storm front moving through that, due to the current, backed up the wave
fronts whereby yachts were cresting and then dropping in space to the troughs
below. It was the most disastrous race in the fabled-race's history, with
the loss of six lives and five yachts in this unexpectedly severe storm that blew-in,
27–28 December, 1998. Fifty-five sailors were rescued in the largest peacetime
search and rescue effort ever seen in Australia.
For
Ellison and crew, it was almost Sayonara! Nevertheless, it’s all planned to
take place this year, 2025, even as the memories linger. As someone who
frequently sailed competitively year in year out on yachts competing in-harbor,
I once did an offshore event – The Flinders Island Race – and what I observed
was that even with all the plans that are made, mother nature always seems to
find a way to challenge all those who enter her domain. My experience offshore?
We were becalmed for two days in what turned out to be the slowest race of the
year.
In
2025, the new Nonstop systems began shipping in earnest. The arrival of the
much-heralded Nonstop NS5 X5 and its sibling, Nonstop NS9 X5, saw plans being
drawn up by many enterprises looking to capitalize on more performance and
better overall Price / Value returns. Nonstop may have demonstrated its ability
to run virtual, as in virtual Nonstop (vNS) but for most enterprises, this
looked to be a case of submitting to a path that in all likelihood would have
led to navigate waters where competing currents might prove treacherous.
The
roadmap for Nonstop, as presented multiple times worldwide, laid out a course
where Nonstop could be consumed in many different ways. Accommodating multiple
options demonstrated once again the ability of the Nonstop team to listen to customers
and to navigate accordingly. The delivery of new converged systems,
complementing vNS and, even more striking for some, support for Nonstop on
private and public clouds, was simply a demonstration of faith by the Nonstop
team in the Nonstop customers separate deployment plans.
Price
/ Value? Today, Nonstop customers can consume Nonstop resources in multiple
ways as well, whether that is the traditional ILF / AMF, a pay-for-use monthly
fee, or perhaps as part of the bigger GreenLake financial program – it was all
available where the Nonstop team was agreeable to work your way. Certainly,
Price is what you pay but then the Value is the overall benefit to the
enterprise and with the latest Nonstop converged systems, the pendulum here has
swung decidedly in favor of value.
Product
Roadmaps have always played an important part in the decision-making cycle. If
the product portfolio timeline looks indecisive, then it’s a cause for concern.
However, after successfully navigating fifty years of technology leadership,
there is a lot of confidence within the Nonstop sales team when it comes to
setting a direction for Nonstop. And that was clearly evident at the major
Nonstop events in 2025. It may simple be a case of riding the Intel X86
architecture as new chips arrive just as it is now a true case of integrating and
supporting cast of industry-standard options.
With
neither a scene where the Nonstop community was becalmed, making no progress at
all, or a situation where the outcomes proved devastating, what are the plans
for 2026? Migrations seem to be a priority right now with many enterprises not
just migrating hardware, but are evaluating software offerings.
As
the promise of agentic AI generates wider interest for many enterprises and
where the path forward doesn’t look anything like smooth sailing, a number of
Nonstop vendors are quickly turning to hybrid technologies to deliver platforms
better suited to ensuring real time participation by Nonstop in a world being
driven by analytics. Striim and NTI are well advanced in their support of data
streaming platforms – whether onboard of Nonstop or via intermediaries – one
thing is clear. Nonstop can quickly navigate its way into that all-important
position of delivering the freshest of data to any enterprise model looking for
a competitive edge.
2026 is going to be a watershed year for integration into the greater enterprise IT world. Whether it’s a true Hybrid IT world or something less complicated, it will see enterprises taking renewed interest in what’s going on with their Nonstop deployments. And that’s good news for all members of the Nonstop community. Maybe, just maybe, this is cause alone to lift our Holidays’ cheer even as we happily welcome the New Year.
These are times of holidays, albeit brief ones for most of us, but seeing the product roadmaps for Nonstop proving to be productive, the Nonstop community can be assured that they in 2026 will be able to safely navigate these waters just as they did throughout 2025.
Perhaps it’s best to close with the words of the Beach Boys:
I sailed an ocean, unsettled ocean
Through restful waters and deep commotion
Often frightened, unenlightened
Sail on, sail on, sailor …
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