Unlocking valuable data with real-time analytics

The timeslot was perhaps not the best. Given the last opportunity to host a session in the last allocated time slot of the last day of the NonStop Technical Boot Camp 2022 (NonStopTBC22) conference, as the attention of most attendees was on departing versus turning up for one more presentation, expectations were low! When it came time to kick-off the presentation there was a healthy turn out from the NonStop community. Perhaps it was the session’s advertised theme anchored on data, or perhaps it was simply out of curiosity, but for those in attendance it was the opportunity to hear more about a data-streaming platform that the NonStop team has added to its products’ portfolio.

HPE had elected to partner with Striim and in so doing, has become one more sales channel for Striim. If you did not attend the last HPE Discover event in Las Vegas, you will have missed the demonstrations performed by Paul Denzinger, Distinguished Technologist – Database Technology, HPE. Working with the Advanced Technology Center, Paul has become a specialist in all things related to Striim and HPE and in particular, to HPE NonStop systems. If as yet you have missed any of Paul’s demos then he is an extremely approachable NonStop specialist and his foray into the extensive capabilities of Striim are not to be missed.

The attention being given to Striim by HPE is based on Striim being a next generation platform where data created anywhere can be massaged and transported everywhere. “Connecting sources of data to desired targets without disrupting existing platforms, architectures and applications,” said Paul, is at the very heart of what excites our NonStop team. NonStop community is becoming aware that when you have data created by NonStop on-platform that needs to be analyzed off-platform you can utilize Striim!

Data creation on NonStop happens in real time but that doesn’t mandate analytics being performed on NonStop . Data created on NonStop is only part of the story and proves more valuable to the enterprise when merged with data created elsewhere. “Running analytics off-platform and on independent platforms like Linux or Windows,” said Paul, “offers so many benefits. And in selecting Striim to perform this task the NonStop team has chosen a platform that can perform this function in real time.

With Striim there are many benefits afforded the NonStop user; targets can be as diverse as data warehouses, messaging fabrics or databases. Today, all of these options may be residing within clouds supported by popular Cloud Service Providers (CSP). While these cloud offerings will not be running on NonStop, in choosing Striim, NonStop users have what can now be considered as an opportunity to leverage Striim to move data from NonStop to solutions residing at all the major CSPs including Azure, AWS and Google Cloud.

In the news release of November 30, 2022 Striim Cofounder and Executive VP, Products, Alok Pareek, said “We want to power all operations and decisions in real time. Data flows for the digital economy and we aim to make sure that the data is flowing in real time.” Pareek also said that Striim offers SQL capabilities for continuous query processing, as well as the ability to define pattern-based or time-based data selection windows and feed data to do things such as auditing with third-party systems or real-time machine learning.

Expanding on this for the NonStop community, Paul made the observation on how Striim can access CDC data from audit trails with agents provided in support of Enscribe, NonStop SQL/MX and NonStop SQL/MP. Access to NonStop data via JDBC can also be used but such access isn’t real time as is the case with CDC. “Adapters for other file formats are for data sources either directly on the Striim platform or for other well-defined products i.e. Oracle.”

What the NonStop team were impressed by was one other aspect of Striim.  “Developing apps using Striim’s app designer requires no programming,” said Paul. “Adapters for data sources / targets are simply modified with configuration details via a GUI panel, and business / data transformation logic is provided by writing SQL statements that any business analyst would know.” What the NonStop team is keen to point out to the NonStop community is how out of the box, “Striim does the hard part of creating the adapters leaving the NonStop user to simply focus on the data flows and transformations / analytics.”  Having said hat and with Striim’s approach to app development being more like app assembly – using drag & drop “widgets” – real apps can be “created and then deployed on NonStop in minutes rather than hours or days,” said Paul.

Given such flexibility with so many capabilities readily configurable it is easy to see why the NonStop team has elected to promote Striim. When it comes to markets for Striim, HPE NonStop Product Manager, Roland Lemoine, the co-presenter at NonStopTBC22 said, “It is not a case of NonStop with Striim being directed at specific markets so much as together they are candidates for any vertical where data needs to be moved in real time.”

To read the HPE and Striim product brochure, simply follow this link –

https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/a00029681enw

Edward Trainor
Sr Director of Global Alliances, Striim Inc.