Real Time View

The last trip to Cupertino gave me a chance to check in with NonStop development for an update on SQL/MX and the exchange didn’t disappoint! Last week I had the opportunity to spend time in Cupertino and to catch up with colleagues past and present. While much of my time was spent with those still working with NonStop there was also an opportunity to catch up with partners as well. And each colleague’s perspective add a lot to why I continue to be attracted to the platform and those still so very much committed to the NonStop platform always provide an interesting   view on whatever else is happening within HP. Of course I drove to Cupertino over the previous weekend, but this time I had to add an extra night. The rain that had been a familiar presence in the Bay area the previous week had become a snow storm up in the higher altitudes of the Sierras and dumped several feet of snow onto the major interstate – I80. Cautiously navigating deteriorating roads, I soon came across two...

There continues to be new products coming to market and for the NonStop community, when it includes the NonStop server, this is good to hear – investments being made in NonStop by parties apart from HP is definitely a topic that’s always well received! I love to grill! I love to cook in general, but I really like to grill. While I am the junior partner in our household when it comes to cooking, as soon as there’s any talk of barbecues I am the first one to head to the butchers to pick up the meat. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, as being an Australian it is all part of our heritage. When it came time to landscape my house in Sydney and to hollow out a couple of terraces it was only natural to erect a brick retaining wall, and yes, within a bend of the wall a multi-grill barbecue was installed. And there were many opportunities to entertain the NonStop community – during the very first training session involving Tandem personnel from all over the world working on NonStop ...

With so many references being made to mission-critical applications, has its usage become too general? And is the impact being watered down from over exposure? Or is the pie getting bigger with each slice of the pie becoming more valuable? The situation came about during my last trip to Las Vegas where I had to stop by the local airport. Friends were arriving from Burbank, California, and I had promised to pick them up. We had arranged to meet alongside a baggage carrousel, and after grabbing a coffee I headed for the one I believed was where they would first appear. Imagine my surprise then, as I approached the carrousel to find a limousine chauffer holding up an iPad (pictured above) with a Mr. Davis brightly illuminated on the tablet’s screen. Of course I would be interested to hear from the NonStop community about other unusual uses they may have seen of the iPad, but this pretty much best sums up the appeal of these new devices – no, there isn’t any limit to what you can do w...

My earlier forecasts of a hybrid world, based on the flexibility inherent within HP’s BladeSystem are closer to realization and that user acceptance may be driven by our needs to more easily and cost-effectively pursue data integration. In a recent posting to another blog I opened with a storyline about my affinity for the open road. I have developed a preference for driving and am now very familiar with the more popular motels along the way, and given a Friday afternoon departure, come Sunday evening I could be anywhere including San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, even Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Flying is no longer fun and the sense of adventure long gone – we all lost something following September 11th, 2001, and I get the sense we will never again enjoy the freedoms once so readily accepted as just part of everyday life. So now, meet the new mobile command center of Pyalla Technologies, as we opt for something a little more to our liking than we typically find at...

The chance to exchange emails with Martin Fink helped firm up my perspective on Project Odyssey and the news looks good for the NonStop community … What is it about the business trips that I take to Southern California at this time of the year, particularly when they include a lay-over in Las Vegas? Is it the glamor of the strip? The warm weather that comes as such a relief following winters chills here, in Colorado? Or is it that with the holiday season well and truly behind us we start to think about what’s coming next? I have always been a slow starter at this time of year and I usually spend weekends catching up on my reading – books, magazines, as well as lots of blog postings that I had put to one side. There was a lot of variety as in among the usual car and motorcycle magazines, travel and vacation newsletters, etc. was the recent issue of The Connection together with several press clippings from a number of electronic publications that I had printed. The picture above wa...

Once proud companies join forces and partner on product design. But sometimes, it doesn’t always work out. However, the partnership between one of them and the HP NonStop Server appears to be on a much stronger footing … It was a little over a year ago, January 28th, 2011, that I posted to this blog the story “About that data ...”   where I suggested that NonStop servers and Mercedes Benz cars have something in common, and it’s not always visible. No, it has nothing to do with pricing! NonStop is heading towards being a pure software play and it’s all about the “stack” – and this introduction was simply a way to the NonStop community that NonStop systems aren’t just about the hardware. NonStop systems are about the collection of layers that in combination make a complete stack that leverages it all, I wrote back then. And since I wrote those words, there has been a lot more written on this subject by others and for the NonStop community, it’s beginning to make a lot more sense....

S o, it’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere and it’s keeping many of us housebound. Surely, this is a good time to check our favorite social media site! This time of year is always a time to reflect. Whether it is the inclement weather that keeps us indoors or the winding down of the American football season, it’s all just reminders that this is a time when everything slows down. And rests! While biding my time I have been meeting with clients and working with a number of them preparing for webinars, the release of customer case studies and opinions papers, but in general, taking a second look at my office and wondering whether it is time to reorganize. I have been back in Boulder working from my home office full time for just about a year. It was last January that the decision was made to forego the commuting to Southern California and to enjoy the home we built over a decade ago. As anyone that has experienced being an absent landlord of their own home can tell you the first few ...