TIC Software – recalling freshly-minted memories from NonStop Technical Boot Camp 2019

Reflecting on all that transpired at this past NonStop Technical Boot Camp (TBC) TIC Software has to acknowledge that HPE’s vision and strategy that actively seeks partners’ engagement and strengthening of partnerships is something we readily support. Partnerships are at the very heart of all that we do and the NonStop community is being better served by those within the NonStop community that are building out ecosystems that in turn, help out the NonStop users. There are many products to choose from but ultimately, negotiating with a finite number of partners supporting multiple products eases and simplifies the selection process and along with it, eventual services and support engagements!

There is always a level of buzz at events such as this and a sustained high level of buzz was evident even when the major keynote presentations pulled many attendees from the partner pavilion. The plan to direct the NonStop community to the partner pavilion for all coffee and meal breaks seems to have worked with a steady flow making the rounds of the vendors stands whenever there was a break – and we thank HPE and the organizers for embracing this model. Anytime the NonStop team can put together a program that attracts 400 plus attendees it is good to see and we certainly enjoyed conversations with more than our fair share of them.

There weren’t as many big announcements as we anticipated, but then again, after a couple of years where the NonStop team pulled numerous rabbits from its collective hat, it was clear that the focus this year was on deployment. There were a number of high points as new features were covered – Kernel Level Threading (KLT), changes to CLIMs to improve their level of availability together with simplifying configuration and the Advanced Technology Center (ATC) highlights of many different development options seem to have been among the more popular topics. In reality though, not only was this event all about deployment but about reassuring the NonStop community that what had previously been announced was now selling well in the marketplace. The NonStop sales folks we did get to talk to all let us know that over the course of their financial year 2019 they had more than met their numbers.

For TIC Software, the biggest impact we saw on our business was the emphasis the NonStop team placed on services. Establishing the need for services whether migration, modernization, cloud utilization, interoperability in a hybrid IT world and much more helped reinforce our own messages on services. If you haven’t as yet had a chance to talk to us about our Amazon Web Service (AWS) quick start PoC service yet and would like to know more, then check our web site. Jointly developed with our partner Canam, it’s all designed for NonStop users to familiarize themselves with AWS as quickly as they can as we all recognise that each and every NonStop user needs to gain experience in order to join in with the rest of the enterprise whenever the topic of hybrid IT arises and it will definitely arise, no matter the industry you may happen to be in – the numbers simply don’t lie and private cloud adoption is running ahead of nearly all other data center identified projects for 2020.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway for TIC Software was the willingness for the NonStop community to exchange ideas. On numerous occasions, whether over early morning coffee or late at night while networking and over adult beverages, a lot of questions were asked in earnest. How do you benefit from REST and JSON; how can you capitalize on vehicles that expedite movement of data and yes, how do we leave that last green screen far behind us – it’s refreshing to see so much attention being given to what lies ahead rather than simply rehashing former glory days. The market is moving and NonStop is moving and we continue to hear about the need to move with it and fortunately, we at TIC Software began to move a long while ago. There will be challenges to come and the early indications are that moving to virtualized NonStop will be as much an opportunity as it will be a challenge.

One final item that we have been kicking around and it came from the presentation by the ATC’s Franz Koenig who talked about being quick. Quick time to market; quick time to value; quick and easy access (through integration); quick composition of services and yes, quick (analysis) of data! For a community as steeped in mission critical transaction processing it’s still a surprise to us that we may have forgotten that it really is about being quick. On the other hand, this has been an integral part of our message for many years so it is really one more encouraging sign we are taking with us from TBC 2019. Should you really need to know the inside scoop on how best to migrate to NonStop X and how best to modernize your infrastructure to better integrate NonStop within your transforming data center, then don’t be slow to reach out to us. We would be only too happy to explore the options you have today and to help you on your journey to hybrid IT. Call or email us; we would be glad to hear from you!