Blockchain, Active Listening and Swiss Army Knives

The European NonStop events schedule is about to really kick off for the year, starting with a double-header of BITUG’s Big Sig, followed quickly by GTUG’s hosting of the European NonStop Symposium in Leipzig. Truely a bumper fornight of NonStop! TCM will be in attendance, as always, accompanied by our bottles of fine single malt. So, be sure to visit TCM’s stand if you wish to induldge in fine conversation and a healthy measure of Scottish hospitality.

It seems a developing theme for these early NonStop get-togethers is: Blockchain. While sceptisicm runs rife regarding Blockchain’s more famous spawn – cryptucurrency, or more specifically, Bitcoin – the underlying technology is so potentially disruptive that many commentators have been moved to suggest its eventual rammifications could prove as significant an advance as the Internet itself. Fairly high aspirations, but even if this is one tenth the case, Blockchain is still poised to majorly impact the way we work and live. It is therefore extremely encouraging to see HPE and NonStop getting out infront of this developing technology. One can only hope that by doing so (and by involving the army of committed NonStop partners) that we may see avenues for NonStop that were unimaginable just a short while ago.

As a services organisation, our interest lies in how this will play out for organiations – what additional or hybridised NonStop skills will be required to take an idea on paper, into a working reality. In this sense we are well practised; a typical day for TCM involves developing solutions for complex and frequently unusual situatons. Often success in these pursuits lies in the art of combining an array of specialists and experts, then employing a good degree of ‘active listening’. Indeed, we shall be doing just that in the following few weeks, actively listening to the numerous Blockchain discussions, including the upcoming Blockchain Community Forum hosted by Connect and Idelji, along with HPE and R3 Corda.

In addition to brushing up on Blockchain, TCM will also be sharing some insights and advice for NonStop users. TCM’s Senior Consultant Rick Stather will be sharing his presentation on Shadowbase Tricks and Tips: A ‘Swiss Army Knife’ guide to Replication/Recovery. The presentation promises to guide you through the Shadowbase tools ‘SOLV’ and ‘Compare’ and how they were used in a real life data recovery scenario. Rick has 30+ years of NonStop experience, including spells with Shell OIl and Bank of England and has a breadth of NonStop knowledge that is unlikely to be surpassed. In other words, he’s well worth listening to! You can catch TCM’s Shadowbase presentation at BITUG and GTUG, and I’m sure Rick will also be present at upcoming events such as VNUG, TBC etc.

And so we take to the road. The sun is out, winter is firmly behind us (at least it is this week!) and we have a full calendar of wonderful NonStoppage to get stuck into. Life is good. See you soon.