The HPE Corner

Training, not programming! Thriving not disrupted! And a whole lot more …what will you take away from 2017 TBC?

With the publication of this November issue, many of the submissions from the NonStop vendor community will be focusing on what they expect to be presenting at the upcoming NonStop Technical Boot Camp (TBC) that is now only days away from starting. From lowly beginnings just a few short years ago and with the objective to fill in some of the missing pieces with respect to education, it has been pleasing to all involved to see just how popular this event has become. While there are many distractions for the NonStop community throughout the year with HPE investing considerable funds to bring us major big-tent marketing events around the world, it is reassuring to know that even with such a focused educational event as TBC, HPE Mission Critical Systems group appreciates the value that comes with facing up to a large audience made up of NonStop users and frees NonStop resources to help out. TBC simply would not be the event it has become without such support and the NonStop community wants to thank HPE for providing such a strong commitment to TBC.
Going into this event, it is very clear that the NonStop community is looking for HPE to address at least four topics. Some are obvious while others less so and of course, with such a diverse mix of users and vendors, there are many more topics that will come up as the event unfolds. However, sticking to just four topics gives the NonStop community ample scope to cover a lot of ground and with the rate of change that is happening across NonStop development, there is real need to pursue such coverage even as we know that there will still be more surprises in stall for the NonStop community. What are these four topics? First up, and yes, starting with the easiest to address – how well is NonStop X systems shipping to customers and prospects? Secondly and one that continues to attract considerable attention within the current NonStop community – what is the timetable for virtualized NonStop (vNS) and where will this new approach for NonStop be directed? Thirdly, and an obvious topic for considerable discussion across the NonStop community – when will NonStop be seen to be integrated with the big HPE initiatives including simplified hybrid IT and participating in the intelligent Edge? And then finally, and perhaps a topic that has begun to develop considerable momentum within the senior management of the vendor community – who within HPE is going to transition the messages about NonStop away from just technical jargon to where NonStop is all about providing value to business?

When it comes to how well NonStop X systems are shipping, anecdotal evidence suggests that even among the biggest NonStop users, acceptance of these x86-based NonStop systems is beginning to find a foothold. Yes, it has taken a while and even as the NonStop vendor community was quick to validate that migration to NonStop X systems could be undertaken with little pain – in some cases none whatsoever – when it comes to these really big users with considerable dependence on NonStop, baby-steps were often involved. It will be interesting to see if any numbers (of systems shipped) are reported but I am sure that, with just a little eavesdropping, HPE will provide a lot more information even if it’s still more anecdotal than empirical.

On the other hand vNS is a whole different ball game where I don’t see too many instances of users “swinging for the fences” and migrating completely to vNS. Obviously, the NonStop team has made it very clear that their decision to develop vNS was heavily influence by the telco market which had made it equally as clear that all future telco applications would be running on systems deployed on virtual machines. But what of traditional NonStop users – will they be seen running out to buy white-label x86 servers so as to be able to build their own NonStop systems? I doubt it but it will be well worth hearing something a lot more definitive from HPE. And what of traditional NonStop vendors – will they be pursuing building such NonStop systems by themselves, opening the door to a whole new generation of essentially plug-compatible-Tandem systems?

As for integration with the rest of HPE, not to mention a refocus on addressing real business requirements may both be topics that fly just a little under the radar screen but there will be murmurings and occasionally an admission from someone at HPE in a position of knowledge. The clock continues to wind down. Having survived the spin-merge that occurred for non-core software, the assumption is that HPE has something in stall for NonStop and a possible role for NonStop to play within hybrid IT if not the intelligent edge, but what exactly? Also, with all the effort expanded to support virtual machines, what about containers? Furthermore, if something big is in stall for NonStop, where is the messaging and where is the investment from HPE that will be needed to break out of so many stereotypes that are all too easy to associate with the NonStop of today? The time for NonStop to attract more of the industry spotlight is now. Cloud computing that runs true 24 X 7? Perfect, or as close to perfect as many of us can relate to – but again, TBC will be a time for education and HPE has a lot of ground to cover to make sure the NonStop community knows where the future lies for NonStop.

However, before leaving the topic of education, we may not want to skip over a promotional post by Kirk Bresniker, HP Labs Chief Architect, concerning an update presentation he was to give on The Machine. “Oh, Inverted world! Training, not programming. Data distributed, not data centered. Memory abundance, not scarcity. Task specific, not general purpose. Information Technology as value creation, not cost reduction. Edge to core continuum, not dichotomy. Thriving, not disrupted,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “Are you prepared to capitalize on simultaneous regime change? Are you becoming a real time analytic driven hyper-competitive enterprise, or will you desperately wonder how to keep up?” Kirk is almost waxing poetically with this introduction; leaving out few of the words we all encounter in print every day that for most of us can barely be understood. TBC is all about education but are you still left to wonder, how will you keep up? Come to TBC and find out and make sure you ….