When the worlds we know as classical and quantum computing become intertwined, there will be a place for Nonstop!

When the worlds we know as classical and quantum computing
become intertwined, there will be a place for Nonstop!

Throughout my career I have paid scant attention to the past. Like many of my colleagues, my time spent in the IT industry has produced many highlights balanced, of course, with almost as many low points that with hindsight that we were only too happy to ignore. All the time, I have been looking forward to what comes next. It’s increasingly likely these days that I will share just how long I have been in IT, but safe to say, it’s passed the half century mark. Clearly, you would assume, I was a child prodigy but no; what attracted me to IT at an early age was how, in Australia, all data centers were air conditioned.

As we fast approach the New Year, I am again acutely aware of yet another industry transition and that always has me excited as to what happens next. However, as I begin to consider what might take place I cannot help but reflect on what has happened this year. In 2025, the first baby steps became visible as the HPE Nonstop Compute team looks to align more closely with the bigger HPE. Here, it continues to be a multifaced strategy, reflecting the hybrid nature of HPE spanning Compute, Storage, Networking together with the fabrics that make all the pieces gel into place. What we did witness however was the pronounced baby steps taken towards AI and where Nonstop Compute management began talking about how Nonstop and AI would be playing nicely sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Early on my career trajectory was heavily influenced by the futurist Charley Lecht of Advanced Computer Techniques (ACT). I have referenced my association with Charley several times in the past, as he published The Waves of Change followed by The Information Tsunami: A Futurist Looks Back. The first book, was published in condensed format by Computerworld and one of my sole claims to fame happened as I penned a single paragraph, referencing the impact of virtualization when it first appeared on an IBM 370/148 mainframe. I spent time with Charley including a time at his residence further up the Hudson river. During that time, he was enamored with the potential of AI and thought its impact would happen rather quickly.

Among his many quotes – and he was always good for a quote, no matter the topic and readily filled column inches in tech publications – were his initial comments about the impact of AI on us, mere mortals:

“Lecht was a mathematician and a business man who founded Advanced Computer Techniques in New York City in 1962. Born in Providence, Rhode Island and educated at the Jesuit Seattle University and Purdue, Lecht worked at IBM and MIT’s Lincoln Labs for a while before starting Advanced Computer Techniques. Around the 1980s, Charles Philip Lecht is said to have come to the thought, ‘What the lever was to the arm, the computer is to the brain.’ This has profound meaning in that the human body can be viewed as a machine.”

Beginnings of Artificial Intelligence
Is artificial intelligence our future?
George Gott (Published 10 years ago)

AI hasn’t quite been the influence on all of us that Charley envisioned, but ever so slowly, in the hands of the adventurous people, including the likes of Elon Musk, its influence is quietly making its presence known. Robotics captured the early attention but then, when AI together with ML (AI/ML) developed traction among robot manufacturers, the big leap forward not only happened, but accelerated. When it first introduced a connection between the human brain and a chip, Neuralink’s implant excited us early but work progresses slowly when it came to decoding neural signals, or so it has been reported.

When I posted Fifty years on … HPE NonStop in 2074! to our Nonstop Community blog, Real Time view, back on April 17, 2024 I speculated about where our conversations might take us when backed by what will be then-common knowledge in 2074. At the time of the post, I wrote of how fifty years on, there was nothing more novel or challenging to integrate than quantum.  To integrate quantum with transactional computing no longer was the exclusive realm of science and engineering. The union of simulation / modeling PLUS massive data analytics (much supplied by the transactional systems underpinning commerce or by the engagement systems that drive us to transactions) PLUS AI/ML is now at the heart of the hypercompetitive enterprise with which we interact daily.

In other words, AI/ML is part of the conversation with quantum just as is part of the conversation of blending the old with the new. Melding transaction processing with quantum driven AI. As 2025 continues to wind down, it then shouldn’t come as a surprise to read of a new alliance being created that unites Nobel Prize in Physics winner, John M. Martinis with HPE, together with a number of chip vendors creating what the press reported as likely to be a practical, mass-producible quantum supercomputer.

“SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 10 (Reuters) – John M. Martinis, one of this year’s winners of the Nobel Prize in physics for breakthroughs in quantum computing, on Monday formed an alliance with HPE – Quantum Scaling Alliance – and several chip firms to create a practical, mass-producible quantum supercomputer. As quantum chips are scaled up, they will need to be intertwined with classical computers for vital functions such as correcting errors that can disrupt the functioning of quantum circuits. ‘At this point, we think it’s time to switch over to more of a standard professional model, and that’s using very sophisticated tools,’ Martinis said.”

Nothing shouts classical computers louder than a fifty-year-old and yet, very modern, Nonstop Compute converged system. A stretch? Not so fast. All breakthrough solutions start with a few timid baby steps and this is just one future path Nonstop might begin following in 2026. Adjacent Servers? Well … yes! Intertwined? For sure … nothing yells more loudly about intertwining than when you have adjacent servers pursuing a common goal. Charley looks like he was heading down the right path when he predicted merging technologies demonstrating intermingling, but at the time quantum wasn’t really on his radar. And yet, we are all finding that “What the lever was to the arm, the computer is to the brain.” It’s just becoming clearer to me that the interpretation is just as powerful when we substitute quantum for the brain as in the quantum is to classical computer what a lever was to the arm, now begin to make more sense.

There is much more that can be expected to take place in 2026, not forgetting how a truly virtual Nonstop (vNS) will likely play a major contributing role. However, what cannot be ignored is how 2025 represented a year when speculation began being replaced with concrete steps forward. Not just baby steps but in some instances, a couple of running jumps. I may have paid scant attention to the past but now I see where it is leading. Evangelizing the strengths of Nonstop is becoming a lot easier to do even as 2026 will likely produce more case studies to help progress the cause of Nonstop.

The only real question remaining for the year ahead is whether or not you have laid the foundations required in 2025 – the pieces are all there and the messaging is clear. Transaction processing will be fundamental to any future where intermingling plays a role. Roll on, Nonstop!