The Connect Community – Regional User Groups (RUGs) Update

The presence of NonStop RUGs around the world is a very important aspect of NonStop networking – it’s where you will always hear “breaking news!” Typically, RUG events cater to local priorities and the agendas developed for each event reflect the topics of interest to these local communities. Whether it’s a gathering in Scandinavia (my personal favorite), or a couple of hours spent exchanging the latest news on NonStop by the bay in Melbourne, Australia, or even simply fun times in Scottsdale, Arizona, the health of the NonStop community and it’s enthusiasm for all things NonStop are showcased whenever RUG events are held.

The year is still very fresh, with reminders of the New Year still in evidence, but already RUG events are beginning to be promoted and there are a couple of RUG events that should prove popular this month. They couldn’t be further apart for North Americans, with one on the gulf coast of Florida and the other near to the Pacific Ocean in California. No matter which one you attend, the news about NonStop coming from those closest to you will be a drawcard. Can anyone remember when so much was happening around NonStop? New systems and many more options – can you recall this much activity coming from HPE NonStop development?

February, 2017: Southern California Tandem Users’ Group (SCTUG) will be meeting on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017. This gathering will be the annual meeting of SCTUG and as an added plus for this meeting Keith Moore will be flying in from Michigan to present on NonStop Software Middleware Enablers for the HPE Enterprise Hybrid Cloud. We will also use this meeting as an opportunity to discuss NonStop X migration as it applies to the SoCal Market, as well as taking a gauge of the initial deployments of VNonStop! It will be held on the 7^th floor (Surf City Room) in the offices of Assurant, 2677 N. Main Street, Santa Ana, CA.

Justin Simonds and Joel Sigman will be providing a recap of all that transpired at last year’s NonStop Technical Boot Camp but will take it a little further in that they well be talking about the new direction for NonStop that was announced – taking NonStop into the Could, it’s participation in the Internet of Things (IoT) and yes, much more. However, the presence of HPE’s Keith Moore should prove to be every bit as interesting. His presentation – NonStop Software Middleware Enablers for the HPE Enterprise Hybrid Cloud should pique the interest of many of the attendees. Keith will continue presenting NonStop the following night at a meeting of the LA Node.js community where he will be discussing the Infrasoft’s bomBora deep port of Node.js to NonStop – so don’t forget to ask him for more information about this project.

March, 2017: SunTUG / Connect Florida Sunshine Summit on Friday March 17 with a social day of golf to follow, March 18. This historically has been one of the best attended RUG events in the U.S. and social days in past years have not only included golf but deep sea fishing. When it comes to the serious side of NonStop the focus of these meetings is very much directed at the many participants that come from financial institutions. Whether it’s the golf game on Saturday or just the warmth of the gulf location or perhaps the coconut shrimp (with citrus-mustard sauce) at the Bahama Breeze, SunTUG has attracted the presence of Andy Bergholz, Senior Director at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and the leader of NonStop development that has brought us NonStop X and now vNonStop.

While this RUG event will be an all-day event, there will be a lot of time available to talk with the vendors supporting this event so those users curious about just how well their favorite vendor is following the HPE NonStop roadmaps, this will be the time to talk to them and find out. SunTUG will be held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, Tampa Airport – Westshore, and remember, if you want to participate in the social day of golf, you will need to register separately. Watch for further updates on this event in the next issue of NonStop Insider.

While not strictly a RUG related event, March will see a sizeable gathering of the NonStop vendor community participating at the 2017 NonStop Partner Symposium being held on HPE’s premises in Palo Alto. There will be more coverage on this event next month. And remember, if you have an upcoming RUG event coming up drop an email to Margo at editor@nonstopinsider.com and it will be included in the next issue of NonStop Insider.