HPE NonStop Technical Boot Camp (TBC) featuring Security and GreenLake

Knowing that the biggest NonStop event of the year is coming to your home town is certainly something to write about. If you are not familiar with Denver it’s almost slap bang in the middle of the country. Actually, the middle does lie somewhere between Denver and Omaha but we will let Denver take the accolades on this point. And to think, Fort Collins with its large HPE campus is just north of Denver and about an hour’s driving up Interstate 25!

Planning for this event has been under way for the better part of a year. For some time there was a sense that perhaps it wouldn’t happen and that yet again we would be subject to one more virtual experience. Fortunately, the circumstances that have predicated holding such virtual events continue to evolve and holding an in-person event now is being welcomed by much of the community.

If you have never been to Denver in October you will be in for a treat. There is a reason why Colorado greets everyone with a Welcome to Colorful Colorado – it may be mid-fall but there will be plenty of gold on display. Already there are attendees making plans to visit the mountains following TBC and for those making such plans, the many shades of gold visible across Aspen forests will be hard to resist. Yes, there has been plenty of spring rain this year so the Aspens will hold their leaves well into late October, we think.

If as yet you haven’t registered then this is the time to do so. There will be a lot of material covered in the sessions much of it being exclusive to the attendees. While there will be some presentations recorded for later viewing there is clearly a strong push by the organizing committee to have the event meaningful for all those who attend. It’s always hard to do an exhibition floor virtually and the opening social events will be so much better in-person than they ever could be virtually.

If as yet you haven’t had a chance to read the latest issue of The Connection then you may want to find the time. Perhaps the first column you should check out is the News from HPE’s NonStop Division. Karen Copeland, NonStop Product Management provides an update that is quite revealing:

“Here’s some of what you can expect at the event: We are planning around 75 breakout talks. Most talks will be made available in the virtual On-Demand library after the event. We are not planning to host a virtual event simultaneously but may hold some geo-specific virtual replays later. The general themes for this year’s show is Security for the NonStop system – with many new products for security becoming available to customers and another focus on GreenLake Deals for NonStop, with talks describing GreenLake benefits for customers. We have a new metering tool for NonStop which is allowing us to offer GreenLake deals based on system consumption. We expect to talk more about this at the Boot Camp.”

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to any members of the NonStop community that Security is on the agenda. Barely a week passes without one enterprise or another reporting damaging security breaches. Security for the NonStop System has been a business segment well supported by the NonStop vendor community and now it’s being viewed as a major system differentiator. For as long as any of us can remember, NonStop systems have been securely moving financial transactions for banks, retailers and transportation.

If there is no surprise to see focus on Security the addition of GreenLake may come as a surprise to those members of the NonStop community who may have missed the messaging come from HPE. GreenLake represents a significant pivot by HPE in that it will bring the cloud experience to you whether you are deploying clouds or continue to give preference to on-prem traditional systems. The addition of a new metering tool means that NonStop fits in with the primary billing model upon which GreenLake is grounded. It may be hard to imagine but there you have it – Windows, Linux and NonStop. Pick your preferred platform for your mission critical applications.

When it comes to Denver and its close proximity to Fort Collins, this too was not overlooked by Karen in her column:

“We hope you will come out this year to have a chance to meet Kevin Shabow, our new sales leader for North America, and many of our new Engineers who will be at the show from our Fort Collins site.”  

One of the highlights for many of us, when attending past TBCs going all the way back to when they were ITUG Summits, was the access to developers. In moving the event away from Silicon Valley there was some concerns such access might be lessened. However, this will not be the case as there are numerous NonStop projects being pursued by NonStop developers onsite at the Fort Collins campus. Should you happen to meet some of these developers say Hi! and make them feel especially welcome to this year’s TBC. In the meantime, continue with putting together your own plans, register for the event if as yet you haven’t done so and yes, plan on taking in as many of the sites Denver affords you as being in the middle of the country and right up against the Rocky Mountains, isn’t something you would want to miss!