Real Time View Story Telling

Followers of Pyalla Technologies, LLC., on social media across popular media sites as well as business and family blogs will have by now become aware that residing in America will be split across two cities. It might be cute to think in terms of tales from two cities, as in reality, this division has been brought about so neither of us will lose our heads. By this I mean that staying close to family is one goal, even if it leads to a mountain lifestyle whereas finding solitude along the Florida’s Emerald Coast means we are never far from the sea.

However, what it also means is that, in the coming years, we will be crisscrossing a large portion of the United States. We have already began examining a number of different routes just to keep the journey interesting. What the recent global outages caused by apparent inexperience at CrowdStrike have illustrated, all too well, is that even in a country like the US, our predisposition to drive everywhere holds merit. Flying suddenly became impossible.  Navigating a risk-free path, after all, reduces stress, lessens anxieties and allows us to simply sit back and enjoy the coffee!

Looking at the photo taken further down Florida proper, it features an interpretation of a pirate ship that offers tourists a different perspective of the coastline. Back in the times, these waters swarmed with pirate coves, or so we have been informed. Watching this vessel meeting the needs of tourists, it occurred to me that, while the pirate captains capture our imagination, what do we think today about those who were tasked with navigation? After all, no pirate accidently came across a Spanish Galleon! Navigators knew where to lie in wait for these prized vessels to come to them.

For the NonStop community, navigation isn’t lost on them. With as much coverage of late on technology journeys, including the digital transformation journey, the modernization journey, the waves of cloud experiences rolling towards us, these journeys are not without their own perils. NonStop vendors may present themselves as captains but surely, there is a need for navigators to ensure smooth sailing. Too many metaphors? Perhaps not, but the definitions tell their own story:

Navigator (in American English) – noun
One skilled or employed in plotting the course …

What does a navigator do?
Responsibilities include planning the journey, advising the ship’s captain (think, CEO or even CIO) of estimated timing to destinations while en route and ensuring hazards are avoided.

Good captains give credence to input from their navigators. Confidence in their navigator comes from years of experience, watching them as their instructions keep their vessel safe. What truly separates a good navigator from lesser officers is their ability to plot a course that saves time and ultimately avoids unplanned costs even as it saves the ship from risk. Whether it is the currents, the weather or what has become more frequent of late, in some parts of the world, old fashioned pirates. While not all images map nicely to the role of the Systems Manager, their influence over how any technology journey should unfold cannot be ignored. Yes, it’s their experience coupled with knowledge that serves them well as the currents shift and obstacles appear.

From conversations with NonStop vendors, I am witnessing a renewed sense of obligation. NonStop customers may have urged the NonStop team to opt for delivering solutions that provide just one view of NonStop – from hardware, through system software, utilities and more – such bundling comes with a price. And a risk. For IT professionals with memories of the past, the presence of products in such bundles is more often a case of getting the good with the bad and the downright ugly. With the demise of benchmarking, PoCs and a collective sense of not needing to perform due diligence, NonStop customers can stray into the path of unexpected sea changes that introduce delays, expenses and, sad to say, the potential loss of enthusiasm for NonStop.

Shortly, we will be present at the NonStop TBC 2024 Conference. This year will be a year to celebrate the golden anniversary of NonStop, nee Tandem Computers. As someone who has spent the better part of four decades with NonStop, it doesn’t surprise me at all that the NonStop product portfolio continues to thrive. If the CrowdStrike disaster has taught us one thing it is that wiring together commodity servers and rolling your own computer cluster may look enticing, the troubles that can arise bring into question their practicality and dependability supporting real time mission critical applications. Can’t Stop; Won’t Stop; NonStop – a mantra that continues to gain traction and for good reason.

Perhaps then it is time to add, as one NonStop vendor plans to do, a secondary tag line. Save Time; Save Money; Save NonStop – an additional mantra that plays right into the premise that for NonStop to continue, we need to rethink how we navigate the path forward. Journeys are easy to start – something Margo and I can attest – but getting to the destination on time, with a minimal financial expenditure and safely, isn’t achieved without a lot of advance planning. However, even here, such simple road trip planning as we do pales considerably when compared to the challenges facing today’s NonStop System Managers, Tech Influencers and Decision Makers. And yet, isn’t navigating a true course the primary goal for the IT community?

For more on this topic in the lead up to NonStop TBC 2024, take a look at our recent business blog posts as well as what is yet to be published and if you would like to know more about our journeys then find time to read our recent social blog posts:

For the NonStop community there is Real Time View blog –
https://itug-connection.blogspot.com/

For our social connections there is Buckle-Up-Travel blog –
https://buckle-up-travel.blogspot.com/

For the Connect Community publication, there is Real Time View column–
https://connect2nonstop.com/

For updates on Facebook, there is now a Real Time View group –
https://www.facebook.com/groups/145269955527534

For commentaries on LinkedIn, there is the Real Time View group –
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1878133/

Safe travels and watch your travel plans to ensure a safe and trouble-free path is planned that brings you safely to NonStop TBC 2024 in Monterey, California.