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  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 Ellis...

It may surprise many to read that as a teenager growing up on Sydney’s North Shore, I was already into cars. I made models of Formula One cars – back then it was a Ferrari “sharknose” and a Porsche (yes, Porsche were an F1 constructor for a number of years) – and I built slot-car circuits. My favorite configuration was the Warwick Farm race track; a circuit in Sydney’s western suburbs that, today, no longer exists. My mate Graham Long and I snuck out to the circuit one Saturday afternoon to see a club racing event and, from that time on, I must admit, I was hooked. This was the 1960s and it wasn’t long before I became a regular at a slot-car establishment in the Sydney suburb of Hornsby; nearby to my High School, Normanhurst Boys High School. I built a model of the Pontiac Tempest – a later model of which carried the badge, GTO, and it was a wild, overly large car for a slot car and my crashes were legendary, as an off-track excursion would take out several other cars. As I prepared ...

The photo may not be as clear as we both hoped. However, it’s still quite readable and serves a purpose. Snapped on the drive between Cedar City and St George in Utah as we continued on our drive down to Las Vegas for HPE Discover, 2024. Where the posted speed limit is 80 mph and where at that speed it is still hard to keep up with the trucks even as they travel just a little above the posted speed limit, it is a sign we have passed many times without paying it too much attention. Perhaps it can be a case of being unperturbed by distractions while driving at speed but this time, knowing the sign was there, we waited and prepared for the shot even as we did come off the gas to ensure we weren’t stuck behind the tanker. Heading for HPE Discover 2024, we were equally as patient as we were looking for signs. The NonStop platform looks to be preparing for a major overhaul this coming fall and our anxiousness was a case of anticipation. What comes next for NonStop? This isn’t the only si...

  Many years ago, when Margo and I frequented the highways of North America in our RV, we talked about buying a dog. For those who may have passed RVs in parking lots, you may have run across the decal telling everyone that the RV was unlocked and the keys were under the German Shephard. We had a colleague from our Tandem Computer days that bred German Shepherds and we thought that there would be nothing better than to own a pair of them. Back when I lived in Sydney I had a Shephard – Labrador mix and the family truly loved him, so the idea of owning a pair of Shepherds didn’t seem all that out of the ordinary. With tickets to California in our hands and plans to accommodate well advanced, it was only the voice of our family members warning us: with the dogs we do not get to play with our granddaughter and that led to a late cancellation of such a purchase. It then should come as no surprise that at that time we had made the decision to call them Primary and Backup! I recalled this...

As familiar as we are with the NonStop systems fault tolerance and their ability to run 24 x 7, are we too destined to work non-stop? Could the new normal break down any separation remaining between weekends and the days in between? I truly cannot count how many times I have read a story about life in the new normal. Ignoring the fact that there’s absolutely nothing normal about the way we work these days, what is perhaps even more galling is the way assumptions are being made about our newfound daily routines. Who really cares about my reduced commute times or who is shocked that I don’t stop by for a Starbucks’ Caffè Latte No, the more I think about normalcy and what I concur has become the new normal, the more I am struck by the thought that well, perhaps we will never see our formal normal times ever again. This week I received an invitation to attend an IT conference, ATMIA US Conference 2021, that will be held in Las Vegas, late June. Surprisingly enough, this wasn’t about a...

When it comes to promoting NonStop fundamentals, are we still making our voices heard at the table where it counts? Here we go again. It is Monday morning and there is a very strong opening on Wall Street with stock prices going up by ten percent and more. Anxious investors are looking to check their positions, possibly with the intent to sell or at least place stops under some of the positions they hold. But wait; there’s nothing; nadda! Nobody can login, phone calls are not being answered. One of the major trading platforms goes silent. Can you imagine the conference room table of one of such a large firm where everyone seated exchanged furtive glances: Was it you?   In this instance it was Schwab that took this Monday morning outage with the only indication that something is wrong being a message that your login was incorrect. To be more accurate, it was an indication that your login credentials never made it to the Schwab server. Problem? It took a while but ninety-four perce...

From video clips to social media posts to publication editorials, NonStop is gaining traction whenever availability is no longer an option. But the question remains, can you afford not to NonStop?                                                                       We are now deep into spring and for us, living in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is in sight. For us Americans, Memorial Day isn’t all that far away and with this remembrance of times past, we begin a period of backyard BBQs and days at the beach. Yes, it’s nice to step outside to enjoy a timely glass of wine. Well, sort of; no one is prepared just yet to get too far ahead of them...

An uptick in blog posts and even video clips helps ensure the story of NonStop continues to resonate with IT professionals even in times severely impacted by global events. There has been a constant reminder in our neighborhood that we each are looking at the world differently. The global pandemic has forced us all into thinking about how big our social network should be – do we have enough friends? Do we need to reach out to even more colleagues and acquaintances? Is there a minimum set that ensures our happiness? A maximum? Can our emotions scale accordingly, such that our friendship is all embracing without breaking down into an inner circle and a perimeter? This weekend we saw an impromptu performance taking place on a neighbor’s driveway that attracted a number of passersby. A simple guitar was all that was involved and yet those listening to his performance considered it good enough to stop whatever else they were doing. Our next door neighbors arranged a number of dec...

NonStop has been tagged as being reliable, robust even rugged but unlike any time in the past, NonStop is being called upon to keep on running, continuously, in spite of everything else that is occurring today … It has been a headlines driven year so far. Images appearing in our nightly newscasts have shown fires in Australia, floods in Venice (and yes, in Australia as well), swarms of locusts in East Africa and now, cities in lock-down following a plague of a virus originating in China that has turned into a global pandemic. What did we do? Obviously, in a globally-connected, social media-driven world news travels faster than ever before, but really, how many of us were prepared to face such an onslaught? No sooner than events were organized in Australia in support of volunteer firefighters than events were cancelled due to concerns over “community spread.” In Australia, one minute you have crowds saving that most-treasured of dwellings, the outside loo (or "dunny...