Real Time View

With his opening words, “It’s not where we are headed but how fast we will get there,” the boss of all things NonStop, Jeff Kyle, set the tone for the latest NonStop Technical Boot Camp (NonStop TBC 22). “We are a platform and not a server; the platform we are perfecting for mission critical applications. We create the data and we transact the data!” Jeff referenced the ongoing expansion into new markets, including manufacturing, retail and transportation but equally as important for the NonStop community Jeff referenced digital transformation and highlighted how we are all going through this digital transformation on our way to modernization and yes, it’s truly all about the data. “NonStop as a platform is a critical component of digital transformation and the innovation we are bringing to NonStop (is a further illustration) of how NonStop is now a platform.” Among Jeff’s opening slides happened to be one titled, “The Data Realities of Digital Transformation” where the business object...

With the Indy 500 looming, leave it to legend Mario Andretti to talk about an up and comer we can relate to in the NonStop marketplace … It seems only fitting that at this time of year we include a reference to the upcoming Indy 500 race. Marketed as the greatest racing spectacle on earth, that despite contrary arguments from my colleagues in Europe, has challenged even the best of Formula One drivers through the ages. It looks so simple but even as someone who has pulled on a helmet, strapped himself into a “race-able car,” driven at 140 mph onto the banking of the Auto Club Speedway (Fontana, CA), I cannot comprehend what it would take to enter turn one of the Indianapolis Speedway at 240 mph as was the case this past weekend during qualifying. Every country has its racing heroes and there is none bigger in America than Mario Andretti. It was almost two years ago that I had the opportunity to sit in the “second seat” behind Mario in a Honda-powered Indy car for an inaugural two-lap “...

From products, hardware and software, for the NonStop community conversations turn to solutions and staffing as services! Looking out over this vista in Utah’s Capital Reef National Park I immediately thought of the saying “between a rock and a hard place.” Can’t imagine why this came to me, but then again, the barren landscape stretching to the horizon was certainly not a pleasant place in which to become lost – the river beds are mostly dry, with the vegetation providing little by way of shelter. No, best to take it all in from alongside the roadways that run across the ridges! If you have ever traversed Utah state highway 24 to the junction with Utah state highway 12 and then continued on to pick up US highway 89, you would see some amazing sights. And yet, as this picture captures so well, the desolation that you would face, should you leave the well-travelled highways that traverse the park, would definitely place you between a rock and a very hard place! These past few ...

It is becoming all too clear. For the NonStop user the world is changing rapidly as we move to hybrid IT and look to a virtualized NonStop. Where will find the help we will more than likely need? Only this week I was visiting our new off-premise storage facility where we are now storing vehicles we can no longer accommodate on-premise, at our home. The company command center – yes, our faithful RV that many of you have seen at recent RUG events, our motorcycle, our trailer and even our fifteen year old Corvette “track toy!” It is not a cavernous storage facility by any means but it does come heated and with a number of different power outlets including one 30amp circuit which should be enough to keep the command center’s refrigerator working and the drinks chilled. Now, all we need is a couple of chairs and we have a new weekend retreat! Well, perhaps not … Fortunately it is all rather simple and we don’t need to have someone present looking after the facility. There is a mana...

As often as we hear, “open to the elements” and we cringe, for NonStop users, open is a good thing – but it’s even better with help from service providers … Well, the weather isn’t doing us any favors even if it is nowhere as bad as what we are looking at for the US Mid-West and East Coast It’s SuperBowl Sunday and with the venue being Minneapolis it’s safe to say it’s really, really, cold. Thank goodness the venue will be inside a dome, but just making the trek from car to stadium will be a challenge for many. Forecasters are telling their audiences that frostbite will set in within 30 minutes so spectators will need to be careful. And yet, it is football after all and many a time we have seen games played in atrocious conditions inside of stadiums open to the elements. We want to be close to the action sometimes and feel as though we are truly involved in the game, but there are limits after all. On the other hand, more clubs are spending the billion dollars it takes to b...

Attending gatherings of the NonStop community remain a priority for me and getting the opportunity to join BITUG in London proved enlightening. NonStop is definitely on a roll and the NonStop community is enjoying a return to growth! It was a quick trip to London. The BITUG Big SIG was the venue and it proved to be a popular event – congratulation’s to Kevin and the rest of the BITUG team for pulling this event together within the walls of Trinity House, a building I walked past on a daily basis back in the mid-1970s when I worked in London. Being called upon to give a 30 minute presentation and to man a vendor table, carrying as I did a collapsible promotional banner wasn’t completely unexpected and is something I do like doing. Fortunately, with London as the destination, there was more than enough upside in making the trip to compensate for the time away from my office. Even though my time in the air these days has been trimmed to the bare minimum, I have to admit, there’s no...