Real Time View

No sun on the Rockies, not even the light of day I feel that old cabin fever coming on It won't be long before my ship comes in Gonna sail right out of Colorado Songwriters: Clint Patrick Black / James Hayden Nicholas I am a storyteller. As a storyteller, I am also an observer and as an observer I am yet to say that I have seen it all. Quite to the contrary, I am convinced that there is still much more to see and when it comes to IT, each and every time I speculate that a new dawn has come it seems that such an observation is only ever short term as with one dawn appearing over the horizon there is always another, and another, about to appear. Such is technology that nothing lasts forever to quote a popular song. I chose the photo above for its symbolism. Hard to escape? It’s a lighthouse. It may be decorative but they illuminate the location just as effectively. Dropping our gaze to the dock we see that there’s a warning: Snakes and Alligators. Who remembers that popular ...

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 chan...

As we get deeper into the last month of the quarter, which for some may also be the last month of their financial year, it is inevitable that we look back at what happened in 2022. It’s a time when measures are taken to finish the year on a high note even as there will be those reviewing their product mix against changing market conditions. There is never a good time to change course and yet, staying the distance can be every bit as detrimental. But perhaps as we look back at the year, there will be conversations started that will need to be revisited as scattered among the many stories we hear are surprisingly numerous gems to be uncovered. For Margo and me these last couple of months means we will be toiling for long hours at the tasks at hand. Not so much on keyboards as on steering wheels. With the return to in-person events we have a desire to attend as many as we can even if we do succumb to the long-haul flight every now and then. But as story tellers, there is a constant need...

With as many virtual events as there continue to be, it’s not always easy to get a message across to a target audience. I was reminded of this just a few days ago when I was enjoying an exchange with another vendor about an upcoming purchase. To say it was car related purchase would be something that you would expect to hear from me and so it was.  GM announced the arrival of a new car and it did so in a virtual event that it broadcasts to the globe. Calling it an event, free to all interested parties and recorded for posterity, maybe a stretch at a time when much is being conveyed in webinars and podcasts, but then again, the launch of a new Corvette certainly warranted the creation of an event all by itself. It was only a short time ago that this year’s NonStop Technical Boot Camp (NonStop TBC21) came to a close and in the intervening time, we have all had time to review sessions of interest to each of us. I certainly have been no slouch in this regard and have found that taking ...

From Photos posted on Whova For as long as I can remember participation in NonStop focused events has been the highlight of the year! I have had the good fortune to travel to events worldwide, from Europe to Asia and even to Australia. The opportunity to simply catch up with former colleagues and newfound friends has made any inconvenience experienced on the day a moot point. Then again, my enthusiasm for customer-focused events can be traced back to 1979 when I attended my first global gathering of the EDOS community. As an Australian working in the early days of IT, making plans for any overseas trip was always a mixture of angst and longing, given how the price of the airline ticket to almost anywhere on the planet was exorbitant. The companies I worked for wanted to maximize any perceived value on offer, so at the time before I joined Tandem Computers in 1988, these trips to international events seemed to always total something like six weeks. Many telexes and faxes were involved a...

  Over a morning cup of coffee I read an article promoted on Facebook. Or, was it Twitter or perhaps LinkedIn? Can’t quite recall right now, but it matters little although at a guess it must have been an article related to the cloud experience or perhaps even platform-as-a-service (Paas). The article took me to yet another web site and while the story itself and the attraction it held for me are not all that important what struck me was just how reliant we have become on social media to help us navigate the news – technology or otherwise. For the past few days Margo and I have been heads down finalizing the September issue of NonStop Insider. With this issue going live we have successfully completed five years of publication and the sixty issues that can be accessed online contain a wealth of information on all things NonStop. Naturally enough, over that five years period there have been numerous changes to NonStop and these can all be seen as the editorial direction evolved right ...

Travel provides considerable insight. It never ceases to amaze me how many unexpected events occur on any given trip out into the wild blue yonder. Travel has provided the stimulus for many posts to this blog and to other blogs I support, but in reality, the connection between travel and inspiration is not only tangible, it is something every blogger simply has to do. Forget looking at the tea leaves, take the time to find the best tea house and absorb everything around you. Fair enough; travel is pretty much off the table for now. Not surprisingly, the concerns over the continuing presence of highly contagious strains of COVID have made it almost certain that this global pandemic is going to be with us for some time. And yet for many Americans, depending on which state you live in, there is a growing sense that almost normal has returned. Last night Margo and I were kept awake by a thunderstorm that lit up the sky. Rain finally fell closer to midnight but what it reminded us both ...

  Attending one event in person and then catching content from a second held virtually proved challenging - First day - ATMIA US Conference 2021, Las Vegas Greetings from the road, once again! Last week we drove to Las Vegas where it all seemed so strange to be participating in an industry event that wasn’t associated with HPE. Up until 2020 we had always scheduled time to be in Las Vegas for HPE events so it was good to get back to the place. Whether they were the HP Technical Forum (HPTF) events – the events that replaced the ITUG Summits of years passed – or HPE Discover simply being with the community was always an experience in itself. However, on this occasion, Margo and I turned up for the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) US Conference. While our primary focus was on the ATMIA event where I was attending in person and yes, it was held in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino (and Conference Center), we also had to interact with our colleagues who were participating in this year...

We are witnessing major cloud service providers flexing their muscles giving us all cause for concern; NonStop in the data center becoming a viable alternative for many enterprises. We have just come through our twelfth snowstorm here in Northern Colorado. It is pretty normal to see that many snowfalls by the time spring arrives. However, this particular snowstorm broke a number of records and it has taken me many days to clear a path to our front door, but as the weekend approached the skies have cleared and there is very few clouds to be seen. What occurs in nature however is no indication of what happens in the world of business where there are many more clouds to be seen than what was present overhead that day.    There is no escaping how many references to cloud computing you will come across of late. The mega-vendors who are the big purveyors of cloud computing are battling it out over market share and all the time, the questions keep coming up. Can I afford not to mov...