My latest update following HPE Nonstop Technology & Business Conference 2025

My latest update following
HPE Nonstop Technology & Business Conference 2025

HPE Nonstop Technology and Business Conference 2025 (Nonstop TBC 2025) has now ended. The event hotel emptied out a long time ago and any prospect of seeing remnants of the conference, nonexistent. It always happens. Tables are folded and banners furled. Vendor’s collaterals put away and whatever “trinkets and trash” brought along for the occasion happily given away to anyone who stopped by a table and simply asked if they could have something. Anything. What did we take from this event? Any casual check of what’s happening on LinkedIn will tell you of Nonstop community members posting about their experiences and of their opportunities to network.

I was among the many participants who gave a presentation. My session was part of a track where competition for attendees was fierce. Fortunately, I was sponsored by NTI who gave me license to work into my regular presentation new material about the impact of AI on Business Continuity and I was pleased to see as many attendees as walked in for the presentation. There is always the fear among those giving presentations at Nonstop TBC events that only family members and close friends will find a seat so it was encouraging to see numerous unfamiliar faces in the audience.

Did I enjoy giving my presentation? For those who have been part of my audience previously you will know that slideware I show is usually just a backdrop to a story I want to tell. Of course, the story does need to convey the best news possible from the vendor sponsoring my session and, in this case, not only do I have to thank NTI for making it possible but if you missed the presentation, you can find it as a pdf on the NTI web site under the tab Resources:

https://network-tech.com/uploads/Final_Presn_V5_TBC_2025.pdf

For the wider audience, my presentation wasn’t the main attraction, sad to say. The opening morning keynote presentations by Casey Taylor and Casey Taylor, HPE VP & GM HPE NonStop Compute, and Neil Davis, HPE Global Sales Director, HPE NonStop Compute were what attendees came to hear. As you read this issue you will find many references to what was covered in the keynote starting with Casey Taylor’s clearly excited acknowledgement that its “Been a fast-paced start to 2025 where the number one focus has been advocating for the Nonstop Compute business (unit)!”

However, as exciting that this was to hear, it was much deeper into the presentation where I began to pay a lot more attention. It wasn’t just about a fast-paced start so much as it was “Keeping the Nonstop momentum going … !” A good start is always important but so often we see with technology companies, the wind soon leaves the sails. Sustaining momentum is the key to unlocking a winning strategy.

With the arrival and first installations of Nonstop Compute converged systems – the Nonstop NS9 X5 and NS5 X5 – it was made very clear to all attendees that the HPE Nonstop Compute solutions were now “Powerful, Seamless and Trusted.” All of which is very encouraging to hear, but just as clearly these latest members of the Nonstop Compute family, being traditional converged systems, weren’t defining the only path for Nonstop. Perhaps you may have wanted to hear more, right now, but it is clear that virtualization hasn’t been forgotten. When it comes to choice of consumption, our HPE Nonstop Compute team is working overtime to deliver solutions that will allow us to run our solutions on converged systems, in private clouds and yes, public clouds. Wasn’t it said that the Nonstop team has it’s first instance of Nonstop operational in a cloud – a Google Cloud, I recall?

Accelerating innovation; attracting new solutions; harness AI and modernize tooling – all making a great contribution to the forward movement of Nonstop Compute. Naturally enough, there was likely to be not a single Nonstop customer that would argue against any of these ideals especially when it included attracting new solutions. After all, Nonstop Compute without Nonstop Solutions is like a box “that says nothing at all,” to paraphrase commentary that once was directed my way (yes, a colleague once noted of how they found a buckle that said nothing at all). But that’s a story already covered in a post to some blog or another. What’s more important is the expressed desire to go beyond just wishful thinking to put a program together to seek out and attract new solutions to Nonstop Compute. I have been advocating the attractiveness of Nonstop Compute to driving global supply chains but that’s still very much limited to a few posts and a couple of discussion emails. But it is indicative that Nonstop Compute management welcomes all our ideas in this regard. As a community, this is likely to be the most-welcomed initiative of all if, in 2026, there’s news of new solutions on Nonstop.

The bottom two items in the list provided by Casey Taylor are the two that interest me most of all. For the simply reason that my vintage of Nonstop talent will not be around forever.  Developing the talent pipeline has become serious business. With the interest group, New to Nonstop, up and running – have you joined the LinkedIn Group of the same name? – there are positive signs that a program is in place to welcome talent turning to Nonstop. If current generational trends continue, then I am anticipating this group to not just be global but to turn to Zoom calls and podcasts.

After all, this demographic didn’t grow up with huge industry tradeshows but rather, turns to their social media channels for any and all information that they need. Herein lies the challenge for our community. Not only is their investment made in order to attract new solutions but in keeping new to Nonstop members fully engaged in nontraditional ways, alongside what this last vintage of the keepers of Nonstop is most comfortable doing.

Developing the partner ecosystem. Here is where the conundrum appears. For many years, we have been witnessing a separation happening between partners and vendors. Nonstop Compute has a small list of partners whose products are sold by the Nonstop sales team. It’s a small list assembled at a time when individual Nonstop to partner relationships flourished. Unfortunately, this has led to there being a closed shop.

Any presentation on Nonstop Compute by the Nonstop sales team provides little to no information about the product suites of the vendors. You will have seen the mix of partners and vendors on the floor of the main hall. And here’s the sad news – not once did I see a group of Nonstop solutions architects walking to vendor tables inquiring about an in-depth update on the company and its products. That is sad to report. Opportunities to talk were plentiful but on each I occasion I witnessed the Nonstop Compute team members walking the main hall, they simply walked past the vendors.

There’s a palpable air of arrogance developing that needs addressing. No, the Nonstop partners do not have superior product offerings and having a tremendous advantage in the competitive landscape, over time become less eager to address customers’ needs in terms of the investments that they need to make in their products to remain technologically current. Less eager? Seriously? It has been my experience, working with vendors supporting major tech vendors, that more often than not, vendors chosen to be part of the tech vendors product portfolio, take it as a given and then move on to markets elsewhere. And why should they continue to invest – Nonstop Compute sales teams do the sales heavy lifting, and do so without ever covering competitive offerings – it becomes all too easy. What we witness today is now the closest thing we have to a monopoly. So yes, we can understand and appreciate why Casey Taylor has listed the development of the partner ecosystem on her slide as for all sakes and purposes, the partner ecosystem is broken and repair work needs to be aggressively pursued.

As the conference attendees left the event, there was a recognizable camaraderie on open display. As a community, we do like each other and we enjoy the networking that typically takes place over coffee breaks, meals and yes, late-night beverages. But let’s not lose sight of the most important aspect of such conferences. We are not a private club but a thriving association of like-minded technology and business practitioners that remain tightly focused on Nonstop. There will always be challenges, however the good news is that after over fifty years, we are still a cohesive group of practitioners only wishing the best for Nonstop. Bring on 2026 and yes, I will see many of you in Munich and later, Orlando. It’s going to be a fun ride for all of us!