The first quarter of 2017 is drawing to a close and already concerns IR management may have had about the strength of the NonStop business have dissipated. Opportunities for new sales of Prognosis that proved elusive late last year, following the HP split into HPQ and HPE, are now looking a lot better. Our focus naturally is on the enterprise so we follow HPE very closely and like how it is now focused on platforms and infrastructure. Whereas HPE and its Mission Critical Systems group is working hard to see sales of NonStop X systems take off, we expect strong sales for the conventional NB50000 Series servers to continue for the remainder of the calendar year.

Like many members of the NonStop vendor community we can see the value that NonStop X brings to the table but historical precedents seem to point to a slow turnover within the NonStop base. However, just as HPE is looking to penetrate new markets with NonStop so too is IR looking for NonStop X to bring new sales opportunities to vendors like us. The introduction of the even newer Virtualized NonStop is a situation where we will be watching closely. What direction HPE takes this offering and where market opportunities develop is a major unknown at this point – Virtualized NonStop is so new and such a novel take on the NonStop story, IR is adopting a cautious approach to predicting exactly what new business this purely software solution will generate.

Perhaps there will be more news coming from HPE product management and development shortly. IR is looking forward to attending the HPE Technology Partner Symposium being held this month in Palo Alto. We attended the initial event last year and found it a great venue with an agenda tailored specifically to the vendors in the NonStop community. The timing this year is great as IR is about to begin planning for our next financial year (which runs on a July to June calendar) and will be looking at where we need to deploy resources to match the direction that HPE is taking the market.

We are especially looking forward to the latest update for NonStop based hybrid systems and envisioned virtual environments as well as any news on the rate of take-up for the NonStop X platform. Of course our interest in what markets HPE anticipates opening wide with both NonStop X including hybrids and Virtualized NonStop will be top of the list of questions coming from all participating vendors and it is our expectation that HPE will be forthcoming on both topics.

Closer to home, IR is now beginning to plan for the second year of the IR Prognosis Summit. This is our Prognosis user group event that will be held in late October – follow this link to find out more about this upcoming event http://www.ir.com/summit – and the information we receive at the Partner Symposium will not only help us forge our business plans for the upcoming financial year but hopefully, will prove to be of significance as we put together our agenda. We want to ensure we have the proper materials and product marketing folks participating and be well informed on all things NonStop as we show our continuing commitment to the NonStop platform. Should you be a Prognosis user then let me conclude by extending my own invitation to you to be part of the IR Prognosis Summit as yes, we will welcome every opportunity to discuss the future of Prognosis in this evolving world of NonStop

Contact : Jay.Horton@ir.com
303 390 8712