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  For those who have been reading my blog posts through the years perhaps a small celebration is due as this is post #650. Yes, at an average of 1500 words, it represents 975,000 words. Almost a million and if you tried to print it all out it would come to roughly 3250 pages. But enough of this. It may get more interesting of course if you add the number of posts to our social media, Buckle-Up-Travel, as well as the number of columns in The Connection and NonStop Insider but, as I just wrote, enough is enough as I am sure you get the point. Yeah; Margo decided to have a new business card with the title, Cofounder and Managing Editor as it is well deserved after reading and editing all of my 1,000,000 words! Coming at a time when so much is going on with NonStop, not the least being the renaming to Nonstop Compute, it should be encouraging to read that so much continues to be written about Nonstop. For our community, there shouldn’t be any topic left unaddressed. Integrated stack? Y...

Events tend to develop their own momentum as their programs unfold. Whether it is just a one day roadshow or a more elaborate gathering, the energy created through the almost constant interaction of the attendees is enough to stimulate side conversations that explore topics that may arise following keynote sessions and major platform and solutions updates. This was definitely the case with NonStop Technical Boot Camp 2022 (NonStopTBC22) where the NonStop community came together for its annual conference. There are other HPE conferences held throughout the year that call on us to commit time and money for an opportunity to hear the latest news on all things related to HPE and to the IT industry, however, for the NonStop community to have the opportunity to participate in a conference solely focused on NonStop continues to elevate NonStopTBC22 to a position of being the premier event of the year. With a program created to touch on almost every aspect of interest to the NonStop community ...

There will be numerous highlights during the upcoming NonStop Technical Boot Camp; perhaps time is right to retire older NonStop systems! A short time ago I was assisted by one of the local parcel delivery company’s driver to move some unwanted office furniture to the curb to be picked up by our trash collectors. This has been a fairly regular routine over the three years we have been in residence in Windsor, Colorado. A small tip was all that was needed to encourage the driver to shift focus away from carting new furniture to the house to help us dump the old stuff. It is very true to say these days that furniture, like many other household items, lose value very quickly and as much as we might like the quality and the comfort, there is no residual value to talk about. We have been fortunate more than once to find new homes for some items, but furniture purchased almost two decades ago no matter how stylish it might be, is like fish and needs to be disposed without agonizing over th...

As the countdown to 2020 NonStop Technical Boot Camp continues – this year, an all-digital experience – have you registered? It was only two years ago that Margo and I arrived in Sydney, Australia, for what would be the start of a three months sojourn that took us to Tasmania and then to New Zealand. We were in Sydney for my daughter Lisa’s birthday and the grave site visit to where my mother had been laid to rest. It marked the fiftieth anniversary of my graduating high school class – all boys’ school, mind you – and we managed to hang around long enough to welcome the New Year from the deck of a boat anchored close by the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. Catching up with family, former business colleagues, and a number of friends even as Sydney was lashed by fierce thunderstorms that lasted for most of November and well into December.  Perhaps the only real downside to the time spent in the antipodes was that Margo and I missed the 2018 NonStop Technical Boot Camp. Datin...

Las Vegas, HPE Discover and the heat was on – HPE lights a fire as it goes Cloudless; really? Find out more … Summer in Las Vegas is not for the faint of heart nor is it for those who may be prone to fainting. Fortunately, for those who happened to have made room reservation in either the Venetian or the Palazzo, there was never any real reason to step outside. As has been our routine for the past couple of years, we drove our company command center down to Las Vegas, camped out in one of the RV sites, but with reason prevailing, we slept in air conditioned bliss inside the hotel complex. This isn’t to say we never left the facility, but rather, only when HPE arranged for social outings to popular venues. This year I returned to HPE Discover as a guest of HPE and as part of the HPE Influencer program. This is a group of mostly bloggers, pulled from many disciplines,  that have an interest in all things HPE – some of these bloggers have impressive numbers of follower...

When it comes to our culture and the mindset that sustains our culture, the NonStop community shows flexibility and resilience. But can it continue moving forward as everything around NonStop transforms? It doesn’t take all that much to witness a cultural transformation. From a home where there was always a little bit of Australiana filtering through the conversations, it was just a week ago when our Windsor home became a Polish mecca. For five days, it was only Polish spoken in the home and the food selections reflected Polish traditions – lots of eggs, processed sausages, potatoes and yes, Vodka! Most every night it was a case of simply sitting down at the bar and sharing different Polish regional delicacies that somehow Margo managed to whip up. Fortunately, the intrusion of another culture wasn’t painful and it demonstrated that there is little hindrance to changing cultures whenever the mix of participants brings with it all the necessary elements to drive such a change. ...

Taking a look at street signs may not be the best way to tell in which direction you are headed but on the other hand, NonStop roadmaps contain strong signage as to what is coming next … Standing at the intersection of Confidence Drive and 100 Year Party Court, I knew I was back in Boulder County. It’s nearby our home and a place we routinely visit for early morning muffins and bagels.  Apart from having a good dose of confidence it would be presumptive for most of us to suggest that they could keep any party kicking along for a hundred years and yet, after some forty plus years in the marketplace, NonStop is doing just fine and might even make that anniversary. Irrespective of that possibility it did get me thinking this week about what all is involved in ensuring  something just keeps on going – just like the famous Energizer Batteries in the television commercials.    No matter the month or even the year, picking up on this theme, it seems as though I ca...