DataExpress – transformation includes many elements…

There is so much coverage of late on the topic of transformation that is almost impossible to miss the underlying drive by vendors – to move your enterprise to the latest iteration of technology. However, since the arrival of the very first commercial computer, the data center has been in a continual state of transformation. So what is so important with transformation this time and indeed, is it really different from every transformation that has preceded it? And why are the major vendors’ exerting so much effort on convincing us all that this time, the transformation is really important for the business?

July is celebrated with fireworks, hotdogs and flags being unfurled and raised high. It is an American occasion even if the Canadians manage to kick off the month of July ahead of the rest of us here in the U.S. (Happy 150^th, Neighbors!) Celebrating Independence Day has always brought families and friends together even if it is marked by simple gatherings by a river bank as everyone heads to the water to cool off. It’s easy to get caught up in the occasion and even if your birthplace is somewhere else on the planet, any time there is a swimming hole beckoning with hot dogs grilling on the BBQ, joining in with the others celebrating the occasion is a fun thing to do.

For DataExpress it’s easy, too, to see the analogy here with what is happening within IT and how it is easy to get caught up in the excitement of the latest hyped trend, transformation. As a vendor focused on both the NonStop and Open Platforms, with products that manage the movement of files, this push to transform is really good news for our company as transformations of the type now being promoted involve more than one system and more than one architecture, so moving files to where they are supposed to be present becomes imperative. It is at times like this where, in any business, there are so many moving pieces and where the lines of responsibility become blurred, you just don’t want to see any fireworks lighting up the sky above you!

We have validated DataExpres NonStop (DXNS) on NonStop X thanks to the support from HPE and the Advanced Technical Center (ATC) and we are in discussion with clients who now have firm plans to move to NonStop X. However, when it comes to Virtualized NonStop there is considerable more smoke than there is fire. Yes, everyone loves the hotdogs at this time of year but as is so often the case, just a small distraction can see smoke rising from the grill with little left other than charcoal fingers that once were good looking links!

As best as we can tell, our clients like the appeal that Virtualized NonStop holds as developers and those doing testing can have their own NonStop system, but for now, few are actually developing plans to embrace Virtualized NonStop. It’s all smoke for the moment and to ensure nothing nasty develops as a result of poorly deployed virtual machines, the NonStop team isn’t letting any NonStop user tackle Virtualized NonStop without having accumulated considerable experience with x86 server farms, private clouds and virtualization. This is clearly a good move by the NonStop team as a rush to Virtualized NonStop that produces configurations that stop isn’t in the interests of anyone in the NonStop community.

We are watching this all unfold with a lot of interest. Having both solutions for NonStop and for Open Platforms gives our customers choices. When the time comes for these customers to complete their transformation to hybrid IT – by definition, a mix of traditional IT together with modern private clouds and maybe off-premise inside of public clouds – we are keeping our fingers crossed that many of them will continue to rely on NonStop as the instrument to anchor the securely managed movement of files. However, it will take time and experience before the smoke that will be present lifts and we all get a clearer picture of where our clients will exploit NonStop and whether we see mixes of NonStop X and Virtualized NonStop.

In our article published in last month’s issue of NonStop Insider we reiterated that from our perspective, we can just as easily run on-premise as we can as a service deployed within a public cloud. However, with the state of transformations that we have seen, DataExpress will most likely be run out of a private cloud where Virtualized NonStop is present.  There’s a lot of anticipation out there and if you are looking to celebrate success in the near term then yes drop us an email and let us be your file mover of record physically as well as virtually.

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