DataExpress – the best option for the NonStop community to move files when it comes down to features and quality

There are many ways to move files. Just as there are many ways to peel potatoes and to erect a tent, but as mundane as these examples may be, it highlights just how little attention we give to ensuring mundane tasks get accomplished without a glitch. Utilities have been supplied by vendors for a long time, with major vendors including IBM and Microsoft leading and yes, there are even choices of utilities for moving files available from open source projects.

When it comes to managed file transfers that are secure, there is a lot more involved than just firing up a script. If you look at the groups on LinkedIn where there are numerous discussions taking place then even as they are oftentimes tied to just one vendor – Managed File Transfer and Secure and Managed File Transfer come to mind – it has been relatively easy to publicize the message of DataExpress.  These groups have over a thousand members and there is always something to discuss. But the point here is not so much the presence of groups tied to particular vendors so much as it is a case of the association of  “managed” and “secure and managed” with the heavy-lifting that is involved in ensuring files make it to their destination on time and without compromise.

I was reminded recently of the value DataExpress provides the NonStop community with the DXNS product when a colleague of mine highlighted that it really isn’t fair to single out a product like DataExpress as it is the Cadillac of offerings in this marketplace. Furthermore, while DataExpress is the Cadillac, there are other options applicable to moving files! While Cadillac may bring with images of luxury, perhaps excess and even unwieldly size that is no longer the case as the manufacturer has refined the Cadillac and directed it at specific markets. But what does being the “Cadillac of …” mean? It is a reference to a product being feature rich along with having the highest quality even as today it surpassed the former holder of that title, Rolls Royce, many years ago.

What isn’t Cadillac in scope, fortunately, is pricing as DataExpress is acutely aware of price performance metrics in today’s highly competitive marketplace. It retains the quality expected of a product targeting the NonStop marketplace even as it has taken steps to ensure that what is familiar to the NonStop community has been embraced with the Data Express product for Open Platforms, DXOP. All the while, not only is it implemented to mimic the availability attributes of NonStop but also the scalability, where today it can transfer 100,000 files and more, overnight, as is the case with one large financial institution that truly depends upon DataExpress.

But there is an aspect of being the Cadillac of offerings that doesn’t quite cut it when it comes to NonStop – after all these years there is no competitor to DataExpress when it comes to managing the secure movement of files between systems. As noted earlier, there are simple utilities available from multiple sources that you can wrap inside scripts and then prompt operations to perform them by sticking post-it notes to their consoles, but c’mon. This is the 21^st Century and we need more than that to be sure we moved a file even if it’s just a couple of files!

In the last month’s issue of NonStop Insider we wrote of how we are pleased to see so much work being done on NonStop by the NonStop development team and the availability of much wider choice of options when it comes to selecting the hardware running NonStop – Itanium from HPE, x86 from HPE and yes, x86 COTS from anybody in support of virtual NonStop workloads. But the good news here for the NonStop community, as we noted last month, is that the manner in which we deploy NonStop seems only limited by our imagination and indeed how creative we are prepared to be. Even now, as we whiteboard different configurations for DataExpress, we can see that DataExpress clients can go in many directions where the only constraints will be the age-old criteria of quality, performance and price.

Despite this, we also observed last month, the references to hybrid configurations seem to be nearing the top of the list as NonStop users come to understand that there will be essentially no latency penalties whether it is exchanges between NonStop and NonStop or NonStop and Linux or Windows. So you will need products that span systems even as you need more than scripts and post-it notes. You need the Cadillac of offerings – the one that has all the features and quality you associate today with Cadillacs even as you aware that with DataExpress there is no Cadillac price tag!

If you are a customer or prospect and would like to know a lot more about DataExpress and how it would add value to your own operations then reach out to us or to our partners at comForte team – they too are well-versed on all things DataExpress and will welcome your calls. Either way will work, but the most important thing here is to call. You may be just a conversation or two away from having, after all these years, the Cadillac you really should have!

sales@dataexpress.com | +1.972.899.3476
http://www.dataexpress.com