The power of choice – it’s in your hand!

We often talk about change and how change remains a constant in our business lives. But how often do we reflect on the choices we make? Choice, after all, is what differentiates winners from losers. It’s easy to view choice as a necessary evil in that given choice means you have to make a decision and that can often involve time and money – hypothesis just have to be tested, after all. And yet, sometimes making the decision that leads to choosing one option over another proves to be the right thing to do.

When Margo and I bought our Corvette in 2003, her mother asked her a question that changed the direction of our lives ever since. “Whose Corvette is that,” she asked. “Is it yours or Richards?” Left uncertain about the answer we simply went back to the dealer and bought a second Corvette – the red one became Richard’s whereas the blue one was Margo’s. Ever since that conversation with Mom, cars have been purchased on the basis of whose car is it this time? When it comes time to drive anywhere, there are several keys to choose from and then who is going to be the driver.

Unfortunately, in business we don’t have a mom to turn too and the outcome is not that simple. However, when it comes to the NonStop community there is a wealth of opportunity when it comes to decision making. Once we get past the obvious choice in hardware – do we stick with HPE sourced x86 servers and supported fabrics or do we turn to other vendors – then there are many options to be considered when it comes to software. No matter what the pundits might suggest, NonStop remains a software solutions sale.

HPE has amped-up its support for unilaterally favored partners and consultants. This became obvious a short time ago following a HPE post on LinkedIn:

Yes, HPE understands the value that comes from working with partners on many levels, be that products or services. Attendees at recent HPE Discover events would have witnessed firsthand just how large a HPE partner alliance exists today and the important role it plays. Consider GreenLake, which is almost exclusively driven by major ISVs and Sis, as HPE doesn’t step into the solutions waters. Instead, it’s the partner alliance that calls the shots. Choice? Within any market vertical there are many solutions to chose from.

The upcoming NonStop TBC 2023 Conference that is almost upon us has become the premier marketing vehicle for NonStop partners. Increasingly, solutions vendors are taking part and their presence only strengthens the role events play for NonStop partners. Solutions, middleware and infrastructure, tools and utilities, they are all on display and for most NonStop user needs, there are multiple not fewer choices to be considered.

In fact, for many NonStop partners, this is their only opportunity to present their offerings on a level playing field. It is hard to ignore how the HPE NonStop sales teams have effectively narrowed the opportunity to choose – how could you know that there are alternate offerings if you haven’t heard about them? It is being talked about quite a lot this year that rather than damping the enthusiasm of NonStop partners to talk about their products it has galvanized them into action to where there is now an effective Global NS Partner Alliance.

The reality that is setting in has to do with NonStop sales not holding a monopoly on good products. Are the chosen products the best available or even better than alternative offerings? Can NonStop sales in all honesty suggest that the products they sell are strategic and in so doing, effectively discount all other vendors? Customers seek solutions that best serve their unique requirements and rely upon sales personnel to guide decision-making with candor and as little bias as possible. How often have we seen NonStop product presentations include the following slide headlining it with the title, “it’s a beautiful thing!

Some names have changed and there have been additions as well as some consolidation but the message continues to resonate. NonStop users today have a choice and that includes choosing between vendors with a long and positive track record supporting NonStop systems. It is only natural therefore that ecosystems emerge where NonStop partners band together to provide intelligence about what is taking place within the NonStop user community. NonStop sales have had the benefit of one monopoly as they have always been the first to be informed of a potential tech refresh but with ecosystem expansion, now the time difference between NonStop sales being informed and the rest of the NonStop partner community finding out has shrunk considerably.

Again, this is not to say that NonStop sales no longer listens to its customers or plies a trade along the lines that made larger vendors like IBM notorious, but rather, redirects the spotlight back on the NonStop partners competing for your business. As the graphic above tells the story so well, there are many more independent NonStop partners working with the NonStop user community than happen to be part of the NonStop sales endorsed solutions. Better, best, strategic are not for any one vendor to claim although that doesn’t mean that every NonStop partner I know does exactly that at some point but rather it is the NonStop user that determines such criteria.

At last year’s NonStop TBC 2022 Conference, it was NTI that began to build one NonStop Partner Ecosystem and in the intervening months, this ecosystem has grown significantly. Watch for the addition of a couple more NonStop partners joining this particular ecosystem when Nonstop TBC 2023 kicks off next month. However, his NTI initiative coincided with actions being taken by CSP in their pursuit of the Global NS Partner Alliance referenced earlier. This in turn led to CSP creating a partner portal. Watch too for more NonStop partners participating in this alliance as they add their presence to the partner portal; further news to follow at this year’s NonStop TBC 2023 Conference.

But where will you hear about this? There will be many posts and articles written about this alliance but there will be nothing quite like seeing it for yourself at an event. The NonStop TBC 2023 Conference will be a prime opportunity to learn more about the alliance and in so doing appreciate what the leadership within HPE product management have already observed, “there cannot be too many ecosystems; NonStop thrives on attracting as wide and as diverse a collection of partners as it can.”

Walking into a garage with car keys in hand and knowing your next drive will be in a car of your choice may be over simplistic. When it comes to car ownership, current US data notes that the average American household owns two – with one in five households owning three or more vehicles. I can only hazard a guess at how many software vendors are present at the site of a typical NonStop user but it has to be way more than two, perhaps as many as dozens. And for good reason.

And don’t be particularly concerned by the size of the NonStop vendor you may approach. It has been forty years this month since the tiny Australian contingent of sailors aboard Australia II defeated the best of America to take home a trophy that had been in their possession for 132 years. Every Australian knows where they were in September, 1983. A win for Australia that in hindsight changed the direction of the whole country and as a result, molded the competitive spirit of a nation that was merely a “former colony” up until that time.

NonStop users have been attending events, viewed the many options available to them and have made the choice with few reservations almost from the time of that historic win. The local Tandem Users’ Group of San Jose formed in 1978, was renamed the International Tandem Users’ Group in 1981, and it is hard to ignore how it has operated continuously since that time albeit under different labels following acquisitions and later mergers. The rich history of investments made by NonStop partners is just as hard to ignore so when you take time out to talk to the many vendors participating at this year’s NonStop TBC 2023 Conference, realize that there really aren’t any bad decisions to be made but rather, opportunities to better leverage a portfolio of products and services tailored for NonStop that will enhance the performance of the solutions you chose for your NonStop system.

Richard K Buckle
Cofounder and CEO
Pyalla Technologies, LLC.