HPE NonStop Corner – one partner’s perspective

In an update to the HPE Newsroom promoting an upcoming Element Podcast, Demystifying Hybrid Cloud, where HPE pursues the exploration of how hybrid became the future of how we do business, once again the topic of data percolates to the top and sets the stage for much of what follows with respect to hybrid IT. As the NonStop community heard in no uncertain terms, HPE continues to champion the move to hybrid IT even as it funds NonStop programs that make the inclusion of NonStop within hybrid IT more palatable. It’s not that NonStop isn’t familiar with hybrid IT as many NonStop advocates already are evangelizing that NonStop itself is a hybrid – a mix of NonStop and Linux when you consider CLIMs – as well as that for as long as anyone can recall, there has been a mix of NonStop and Mainframes inside most enterprise data centers.

However, in today’s vocabulary, hybrid IT has taken on new meaning – indeed, it’s meaning has evolved just in the few years it has been a highlight of vendor presentations. Whereas initially it was all about hybrid clouds now it’s targeting the mix of traditional systems and private clouds we are witnessing already clawing out a toehold in many an enterprise data center. Demystifying hybrid cloud? There’s no real mystery when you consider what is happening here; connecting two architectures, or two platforms or even just two applications that themselves are running on different architectures, platforms or systems isn’t difficult to contemplate but what remains a mystery for many is any real world sense of who is seeing real benefits from hybrid IT? It was a question often raised at this year’s NonStop TBC 2019: show us someone that has built hybrid IT that includes NonStop and yes, show us how it all works? Providing seamless transitioning between the environments seems to be the question most often asked by members of the NonStop community.

“Businesses are at a crossroads,” begins the promotional update. “With data everywhere, it is imperative that they create and manage a simplified, consistent edge-to-cloud experience, which is flexible and scalable while delivering the lowest cost per workload. Increasingly, hybrid cloud is that solution.” Sounds good, right? OK, is it just me or does anyone else cringes whenever we read of simplified and experience? Remember the many oxymorons that sprang up around IT in the late 1980s – “user-friendly” being among the most abused if not amusing oxymorons. A reflection on anything described as user-friendly typically signifying anything but user-friendly. Then there were the many times I looked at someone’s new application and appalled, I would add, it’s “pretty ugly!” But then again, that would have been, at the time, my “unbiased opinion.” All of which calls into question as to whether “demystifying cloud” is just a case of being “simply complex” to understand …

HPE is placing a huge wager on hybrid IT and for good reason. The enterprise customers HPE supports all want to migrate from CapEx to OpEx. What this means is that “Everything-as-a-Service” or XaaS has a real opportunity for success. As for the best delivery vehicle for XaaS we can look no further than some cloud like structure, but public clouds cause big headaches for most CIOs where issues of security and “where’s my data” continue to perplex even the most sophisticated CIOs. On-premise private clouds however look to be real candidates for providing a possible goldilocks solution, but then, words like seamless and consistent come to mind. In the promotional update Phil Davis, HPE President, Hybrid IT (pictured above), says that a highlight of the podcast will be: “Whether it’s on prem or public cloud or edge, customers are looking for a common experience … the ability to be multi-cloud and choose where (to) most cost effectively run a workload is a (key) element of hybrid.”

From my experience, NonStop remains the premier system for running mission critical solutions – TS/MP or Pathway, continues to anchor much of the world’s transaction processing. And as we have heard so much about of late we, at NonStop, create data and yes, it’s a data driven world where data is the new currency of business. We understand this and we know of the implications. That HPE continues to invest in NonStop even as it points to a hybrid IT future that is a mix of on-prem and private clouds. HPE’s investment in NonStop is opening the doors for traditional NonStop to remain on-prem even as virtualized NonStop will allow enterprises to pursue NonStop deployments from within private clouds – NSaaS / DBaaS already play important roles inside of HPE IT. Perhaps the reference to oxymorons is a little unfair and a bit trite, but then again, it’s important that the NonStop community doesn’t sit back and wait for it all to happen! Shouldn’t we be among the leadership of IT driving the conversation? As the promotion of the podcast also said, “The confluence of new technologies, varied needs and customer expectations for managing infrastructure is paving the way for a robust hybrid future.” Is there anywhere at all where it’s said by HPE that doesn’t apply to NonStop? I don’t think so … all in, NonStop on-prem and in the cloud seems to be a good mantra we all should be supporting. What do you think?

Only too happy to take your questions and observations – email me at:
Richard@pyalla-technologies.com

All opinions and observations expressed here are those of Pyalla Technologies, LLC, and unless otherwise expressly identified, are not provided by HPE employees.