The drive to build a bigger NonStop community

Having returned from this year’s NonStop TBC conference, my opinion of the event is that it was easy to experience a mix of euphoria tinged with a little sadness. Put it down to recognize another year has passed. Together we are all aging, some less gracefully than others. And yet, there is no hiding the planning that has already begun for NonStop TBC 2025 that will be held in Houston Texas. Euphoria may likewise be too strong a word, but more than a little excitement is beginning to emerge.

From what was covered this year, the biggest take away for me was how strong was the commitment of HPE to NonStop, how significant the announcement of new converged systems turned out to be and yes, how important it is to be able to welcome NonStop contingencies from around the world. A special call-out is well deserved to all those from the AsiaPac/Japan regions who participated. It was good to see positive signs of increased interest in NonStop coming from such a large geographical region.

“A hurricane’s a-comin’!” For some of us, we couldn’t keep our eyes off the weather maps as Hurricane Helene bore down on the west coast of Florida. Several of the attendees make this part of the US their home and as prone as Florida is to hurricanes, Helene proved devastating. Heading back home after NonStop TBC 24 wasn’t all smooth flying for some and for those like us who drive between events, it made setting firm timetables difficult. As someone wrote recently, you can’t argue with the season and that seemed more than an appropriate comment.

Our driving to events is well known by many within the NonStop community. Whether it is to Ontario, Canada or Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Nevada or Florida we have driven to all of these locations sometimes more than once. Regardless if it is a major gathering of the NonStop community such as what we saw this past week in California, or a regional user group affair, we find it opportune to drive. It gives us time to reflect on the status of the NonStop community as there simply isn’t any substitute to getting out there and mingling. Small talk and chit-chat may not be to everyone’s taste but all the same, it is a valid indicator of the health of any community and the NonStop community isn’t any different.

Options are plentiful when it comes to driving

When I recently pulled up the lyrics to the Bob Dylan song, It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry, to check out his thought about just how much effort and experience it takes to feel genuine happiness or sadness. I have to admit I liked this short song from the first time I heard it. For me, it did trigger an emotional response even as at the time I was trying to figure out what it all meant. But of late, when I look at the time Margo and I spend attending NonStop conferences and events worldwide, it doesn’t take too much effort before you realize that NonStop is at the crossroads. Is that the whistle of an oncoming train we hear or merely the echo of our own train resonating all around us in the night sky?

Modernization. Resilience. Cloud Experience. Virtualization. Blockchain. Client/Server. LAN OLTP. Siphon … and many more. The number of programs launched by the HPE NonStop team seem never-ending and for a reason. There’s no let up in the number of attempts to grow market share just as there isn’t any lack of enthusiasm each time the NonStop team delivers something new. The train just keeps on coming and with each whistle blast, we are all on the edge of seats, wanting to know more even as our enthusiasm for all things NonStop diminished just a little.

New products. New partners. New management. New team members … the best thing to happen to NonStop in a long time is the appointment of Casey Taylor as the NonStop organizations VP and GM. Margo and I have seen her in Germany, Australia, the US and she seems genuinely interested in accelerating the growth of NonStop. Having the ear of Antonio Neri, HPE’s CEO is evident in the short video clips shown at events is just one further sign that HPE, as a major platform vendor, truly values NonStop.

But did you see how NonStop now has Kernel Level Threading? A new product and the result of considerable effort by the NonStop development team as this was a challenging undertaking to get right. And what about the news out of abat+ that they now had a presence at a manufacturer that wasn’t Merceded Benz? More to follow? Closer to home – our Colorado domicile – news out of HPE Ft. Collins of a growing NonStop development presence that includes a number of young interns. Mirroring what we have seen happening in EMEA under the watchful eye of Neil Davis, VP & GM EMEA / LATAM, it all bodes well for all of us.

As for a sidebar project, if you like, from Pyalla and something that is just an exercise in the possibilities, Margo and I are looking into what verticals might offer some prospect of opening new doors for NonStop. Top of the list is “supply chains.” Not just the real supply chain but the information supply chain. It then becomes an easy step to look into the world of transportation, distribution, warehousing and distribution centers and more. In other words, in a world that is increasingly 24 x 7 where outages, should they occur, they have a trickle effect that can take out business activities globally.

And they are in dire straights for more comprehensive approaches to security. Already more than 10% of ransomware attacks have happened in this market vertical. There are many more market segments worth exploring, but there is quite a lot of experience within the NonStop community in this regard. Whether it is with the Port of Singapore and shipping, as well as road and rail experiences. One time we were active with FedEx, UPS, even USPS and more.

Supply chain is all about the processes between an order being accepted and an item being delivered. And it’s all about time – Just in Time (JIT) continues to be a dominant force in business (remember our tour of the Porsche assembly line in Leipzig?) but without the timeliness of delivery from the supply chain, nothing would run as smoothly as it does today.

There are entrenched vendors as they are those who likewise see the opportunities this market vertical represents. Historically, nothing ever comes easy for the NonStop community but maybe, just maybe, someone knows someone who knows someone else who may find the prospect of basing their solution on NonStop enticing. If I recall, Lusis, for instance, didn’t start on NonStop but once they saw the value, they were all in on supporting NonStop. Perhaps something similar is just beginning to percolate and for them, NonStop will present as the idela platform. Again, if you are in that loop where you know someone who knows someone else, speak up!

I recently came across this simple schematic that says a lot. No matter how long I stare at it, I can’t help but wonder why NonStop isn’t deeply entrenched in support of all supply chains. Then again, like all former programs, it comes down to the solutions providers. Is it in their interest to support NonStop? Is the availability and security worth any investment at all? Can the end users be sold on a NonStop platform underpinning the most critical of applications? The whole point of marketing NonStop as a mission-critical, transaction-processing platform is precisely because of these availability and security.

There will be pain and there will be lots of effort expended as experience is gained. There may even be a few tears shared as good ideas flounder. But in all the travels Margo and I have done, it really doesn’t take a lot to laugh and to enjoy the outcomes of a concerted drive to grow the NonStop business. As we begin to plot our course to Houston for NonStop TBC 2025, it is clear that we have to entertain embracing the presence of solutions vendors who may not be entirely sure about investments in NonStop. But if we don’t cast the net far and wide and bring to us candidate solutions vendors, how else do we expect to see business grow for NonStop?

Supply chain, transportation, inventory management and more may just be one avenue to explore and I hope there are other members of the NonStop community thinking of other avenues worth looking at. But what we can’t do is let that train come to a halt. To not go through the crossroads. To simply live out life on a siding somewhere. The signs are there that HPE believes in NonStop. Management is executing to plans that include adding new logos. But to make it all happen and to be visible to the global community it will take effort from all of us and in the quiet of the evening, over small talk and chit-chat, the next market vertical to bloom under NonStop might just very well surface.

Will we see you there and will you become part of the NonStop journey for the next fifty years?