Out of time but not out of options

There is considerable discussion under way about where HPE is headed and the possible outcomes for the NonStop program out of what HPE CEO Meg Whitman calls the NEXT initiative. Already we have seen the heads of sales for the three regions retire and now there is news that going forward there will not be three regions, but eleven. Furthermore, according to some sources, HPE will be “doubling down” on its partnership programs directing more of the market to select partners than to their own sales force. For the NonStop user community, this element of uncertainty has members speculating about where they will turn for sales and support in the future.

On the other hand, when it comes to the NonStop vendor community there is more than an element of curiosity about whether they will be part of this new focus by HPE on partners or will they be left to form coalitions among themselves in order to provide the coverage HPE would expect of its partners. Back in the 1980s there was a rock group, Hall and Oates, that rose to success with a song having the lyrics, “You’re out of touch; I’m out of time!” and for many across the NonStop community, these words resonate strongly. And for Striim in particular this has an additional message, more pertinent to where Striim is headed. Right now, Striim is enjoying strong interest from vendors across the globe but the interest in Striim coming from HPE is sparing to say the least. With the exception of HPE IT where Striim already has a presence, Striim is simply a bystander to all the changes taking place at HPE.

And yet, what Striim brings to the NonStop community is remarkable. With the core message of HPE revolving around “Simplify Hybrid IT” then it would seem that HPE really isn’t getting the message about the importance of analytics, particularly when it comes to transaction processing and the actionable data generated in real time. Or, is it? And here lies the paradox for many within the NonStop community – who will be helping them move traditional transaction processing into the hybrid IT world HPE is championing even as Striim holds one of the keys to success in the pursuit of hybrid IT. Is HPE really out of touch with what is available and is it holding back on what products could help the NonStop user community?

Not so fast. I am expecting to hear more about NonStop as it morphs into two distinct product lines – one that includes complete systems and integrated OS stack being provided on real machines whereas the other, a purely software solution that is a virtual NonStop available only for deployment on virtual machines. Hopefully there will be more information provided at the upcoming NonStop Technical Boot Camp (TBC) about both product lines but as the song goes, it is getting to where we may be running out of time. And by this I mean that NonStop vendors will have directed their small development budgets at projects apart from NonStop. Because HPE appears to be out of touch, these vendors have simply run out of time. And, in many respects, patience!

Which brings us back to the other implication from the lines of the song; when it comes to NonStop users are they running out of time to incorporate NonStop in their plans for hybrid IT and is HPE losing touch with this reality? Legacy transaction processing simply has to embrace real time analytics if it is to cross over into the modern world of hybrid IT. What Striim brings to the table is streaming analytics and perhaps the best place to begin is with what Striim knows best about NonStop. And that’s the actionable data being generated by transaction processing applications. Take, for example, how many NonStop users have invested considerable sums in replication (to external sites), one of the simplest ways to leverage Striim is to deploy it to monitor data replication.

“This is just one aspect of the analytics Striim can perform on data but it’s a good place to start,” said Striim EVP, Sami Akbay. “How trusting are you that the replication you have invested so much in is actually performing as expected? We don’t try to compare every piece of data as it passes between systems; we leverage the math behind our analytics to provide a much clearer picture. Striim offers real-time monitoring for replication environments so you can easily have full confidence that your data is delivered as planned.”

According to Akbay, we have described this Striim product on our web site, reiterating how “Striim combines non-intrusive change data capture capabilities with streaming analytics and real-time visualization to deliver timely and complete visibility into your replication environments. Using its streaming analytics and predictive analytics capabilities, it alerts teams when there are data discrepancies to prevent data loss during replication, and is able to identify and replay data in-flight.” And there are NonStop users already using Striim for exactly this purpose – yes, it was time!

HPE still has much to say on how it will be organized, how it plans to go to market and where, and what products in its portfolio will be a part of its strategy to simplify the rollout of hybrid IT. But time is short and there are many NonStop users concerned about just how out of touch HPE appears to be this late into their financial year. Then again, with TBC all will be revealed and much of our angst mitigated – and then, with directions established, NonStop users will have the time they need to bring their applications into the 21^st century!

Katherine Rincon | Senior Vice President, Marketing
d 650.241.0680 x215 | katherine@striim.com
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