First look at the descent into the NonStop TBC 2023 Conference venue at the Denver Hilton!

Welcome to the final issue in the 2023 cycle of NonStop Insider publications. With issue #6, 2023, we will be closing out a year that has been one of the best years for the NonStop community where participation has noticeably grown from prior years. I can say this as Pyalla has actively participated in more user events and conferences and in the past years and have witnessed the increase in NonStop user interest in all things NonStop.

The first issue of NonStop Insider, back in October 2016, there were only five NonStop vendor articles together with our first from Pyalla along with the earliest observation about the split by HP into HPE and HP Inc. However, in the following years, HPE has proven itself to be capable of not just pivots and transformations but true industry leadership and with GreenLake, an initiative that is going to have a long-lasting impact on everything HPE does in the years to come, a program that can be accurately described as revolutionary.

NonStop vendor participation has continued to grow. Did you see the previous issue of NonStop Insider? Fourteen vendor articles – one vendor, ETI-NET going so far as to submit twice – along with that of Pyalla and the promotion of upcoming events. With this issue there can be nothing bigger to write about than the upcoming NonStop TBC 2023 Conference. If you have been wondering about the reference to this event being a conference even as the acronym TBC is being widely used, those in the know at HPE want to attract a larger audience and nothing takes away from the appeal to management folks like the suggestion it is a “boot camp.”

Have you visited the NonStop TBC 2023 Conference web site yet? You can find it by going to
https://www.nonstoptbc.com/

And have you downloaded the flyers?
https://tinyurl.com/NonStopTBC2023

These have been designed to appeal to that larger membership within the NonStop community

Sys admins, architects, DBAs, DevOps, SREs, and newcomers will meet and hear from a thriving community that continues to define the gold standard for building the most reliable solutions in IT

Domain experts in cybersecurity, hybrid clouds, real-time analytics, and more will discover simple solutions, powered by the HPE NonStop technology, to tackle the most complex challenges

Decision-makers, C-level executives, product owners, IT directors, and future customers will learn strategies to increase their business resilience

What will make it even more appealing than similar conferences in past years and on par with when then HPE CTO Martin Fink addressed the community and first talked about virtual NonStop will be the presence of keynote speaker, Kirk Bresniker. I have had the chance to listen to Kirk at past HPE Discover events and visited with him on the exhibition floor – the HPE Discover Showcase – where we had a number of interesting discussions on everything from The Machine (remember that?) to practical use-case scenarios of Quantum Computing. To hear Kirk firsthand should be enough reason all by itself to attend the NonStop TBC 2023 Conference.

Connect has just published my column, Real Time View, in the July – August issue of The Connection magazine. Look for the column, Deploying NonStop interconnect fabrics over barbed wire? as I cover the topic of virtualization and how the recent moves made by the NonStop team are moves that are in the right direction by my book. In all my years of IT experience I can honestly say that unique properties only provide short term value and over time and ensure longevity, return to adopting a more mainstream property.

Just take a look at what is happening with the interconnect fabric. Witness the journey from ServerNet to InfiniBand to RoCE and now Ethernet:

Standards win over time. Even as there are new standards appearing all the time, some of them have legs and will carry over as other elements change. The Intel x86 Architecture has proved to have been a wise choice as a starting point, likewise the choice of VMware. InfiniBand to RoCE? Another good move. Eventually though this can only take NonStop so far. With as many enterprises looking to leverage public cloud service platforms, as good as these transitions to more widely accepted standards made sense, there was a need to do more in support of greater flexibility. Adding one more level of abstraction so that Ethernet can be supported (even as speeds gradually approach that of the original InfiniBand) brings with it the potential to pursue a greater cloud presence for NonStop.

Perhaps the biggest news coming out of the NonStop TBC 2023 Conference will be the official announcement of the Global NS Partner Alliance and it’s supporting portal:

https://www.gnsalliance.com/

It has become a well-recognized fact that what is being promoted by the NonStop team is only a small representation of products available from the wider NonStop vendor community. What attendance at the many regional NonStop events and conferences has confirmed is that the NonStop team is only providing coverage of a select few vendors and products. To hear from the majority of NonStop vendors committed to supporting the NonStop community you truly have to attend events and with NonStop TBC 2023 you will get to hear from all of them. And don’t be fooled by the grouping, Technical Breakout Sessions, as these will be heavily restricted to participation solely by the few remaining NonStop vendors that have the support the NonStop team.

The Global NS Partner Alliance is a major step forward in communicating all that is on offer from the wider NonStop vendor community. As such it is the only place to go to find out about the choices available to the NonStop community. Furthermore, with the significant growth of interest among the NonStop community in GreenLake, for the GreenLake team, this will be the place to go to find out more about a vendor or product. What we have witnessed of late is that the GreenLake team is more open to the wider vendor community as there is little energy in changing the installed product lineup when their focus is all GreenLake and their compensation is not linked to selling products off the HPE NonStop’s Price Book.

When it comes to following the Global NS Partner Alliance, look for the twitter handle @GNSALLIANCE as well as the LinkedIn group, GNSALLIANCE – Your NonStop Partner Portal and of course, make sure you join this group and check twitter for updates.

In closing, as a storyteller focused on all things NonStop the appeal of attending the many NonStop events and conferences held during 2023 is an important source of content for the articles written for the communications channels that Pyalla supports. It is with growing interest that many NonStop community members now check out our posts to the social blog, Buckle-Up-Travel.

Hidden within the storylines of those posts are many references to the events and conferences attended and you may just be able to catch the first hint of what Pyalla anticipates happening next for the NonStop community. But to read them all just follow the links below.

Real Time View column (The Connection):

July – August, 2023
Deploying NonStop interconnect fabrics over barbed wire?
https://connect2nonstop.com/real-time-view-3/

Real Time View blog:

June 23, 2023
How do we know what software products are available for NonStop?
https://itug-connection.blogspot.com/2023/06/how-do-we-know-what-software-products.html

July 26, 2023
When does change end?
https://itug-connection.blogspot.com/2023/07/when-does-change-end.html

Buckle-Up:

June 16, 2023
Out of the blue; yes, there is more to say!
https://buckle-up-travel.blogspot.com/2023/06/out-of-blue-yes-there-is-more-to-say.html

July 18, 2023
Return trips can be challenging but London Called (again)!
https://buckle-up-travel.blogspot.com/2023/07/return-trips-can-be-challenging-but.html

July 21, 2023
The UK behind us, it was off to Norway (as newbies)!
https://buckle-up-travel.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-uk-behind-us-it-was-off-to-norway.html

rkbuckle@gmail.com
Richard Buckle
Cofounder and CEO
Pyalla Technologies, LLC