The Connection

Data volumes are soaring globally as the digital world continues to grow exponentially. By some estimates, the amount created, captured, copied, and consumed worldwide will grow by 24% year-on-year to hit 120 zettabytes by the end of 2023. It could reach as much as 181 zettabytes by 2025.

I wrote some 3 years ago in this very publication that Cash had been having a hard time lately. Well the truth is in many places it’s still struggling to survive. The long-gone pandemic drove users away from cash that could have been considered to carry infection.

Well, here we are at the end of May and the prospect of Summer ahead of us.  It’s been a busy couple of months for Connect with lots to talk about.

As it appears evident this year, we’re all going to discuss of cyber resilience, isn’t it? Is it just marketing fluff and a new name for cyber security? Or is there more to it? Whenever there is a new trend in the industry, you invariably see everyone jumping on the bandwagon, claiming they have the best offering to address that problem. And why not.

Though hard to believe now, it wasn’t until the mid-90s that there was any sort of ‘life’ part in my Work-Life Balance equation. I’d just created a family and was raising twin boys on my own, and every summer we would venture to my family cabin that was located high on a hill on a lake in Ontario, Canada’s Algonquin Provincial Park.

Call it juxtaposition serendipity. Unpacking my bags following this year’s pan-European E-BITUG event in Edinburgh, Scotland, I happened to place this year’s celebratory coffee mug alongside one that I scored more than two decades ago when the European ITUG Spring Conference was held in Nice, France. The dates may indeed be separated by the years, but not the sentiment. The tradition that underpins these annual events is hard to ignore.

As you all may know, HPE is on a fiscal year which starts Nov 1 each year.  Traditionally NonStop usually has a great 4th quarter and the pattern is a soft First Quarter.  It’s not written in stone but falls into the general pattern for as long as I can remember. 

As HPE users and IT professionals, you may not know it, but you have benefited from the life’s work of Jim Johnson, founder of The Standish Group.

What better way to start the annual NonStop Conference calendar than with a trip to SunTUG in Florida?!
Many thanks to Pat, Teri and the SunTUG team for organising a great event and many thanks to all attendees who helped make it one of my favourite events of the year… the less said about our team’s golf performance the better, though!

Consumer trust in online services is a growing preoccupation of today’s boardrooms. That’s because customers are increasingly prepared to walk if they don’t like what they see. In fact, 71% of consumers told PwC last year that they’re unlikely to buy from a company that loses their trust.

HPE NonStop users are becoming more familiar with Kafka, as Kafka in turn becomes more and more prevalent inside those large environments where the NonStop platform is often present.  Kafka is being used by thousands of companies, including 60% of the Fortune 100. 

Native Large-Objects (LOBs) were introduced in NonStop SQL/MX release 3.8 and replace the previous implementation of LOBs for JDBC in which the driver manages the LOBs. That previous implementation is still available, however, migration to the native LOBs is recommended.

NSDA is a modern, browser-based tool used to collect, analyze, and manage workloads from NonStop SQL. The graphical user interface displays SQL workload information and system resource usage in real-time and retains key performance metrics and query plans in its repository for later analysis.  NSDA is an invaluable tool for customers using non-embedded SQL applications with complex query workloads.

HPE NonStop systems are known for their high availability, and monitoring helps ensure that systems are up and running 24/7, avoiding downtime and potential loss of revenue.

As we enter 2023, the cybersecurity threat landscape evolves and expands. From the rise of IoT cloud-based attacks to an increased focus on edge computing and IoT devices, organizations must stay vigilant in their efforts to

In Business Continuity architectures, consistency between the production and backup systems is paramount. After all, if the backup system doesn’t match, isn’t it effectively worthless? Unfortunately, there are several common industry misconceptions and pitfalls regarding this topic.

I’d like to take you on my journey to NonStop Virtualization. It was not accomplished in a day, I must confess. It was more like a month in the life of a software developer. But time flies by when you’re doing something you love. As a developer, I was always aware of how small a cog I am in the giant spinning wheel of IT. Just like a system administrator, a network engineer, a tester or a project manager. I’ve always been intrigued to find out what laid on the other side of the grass, so I ventured to find out.  

Now is the time to interpret the changes and determine how PCI 4.0 clarifications and added requirements impact your organization.

So as the sunlight starts to get lighter throughout the day in the UK, it makes me feel very happy that we are entering our Spring season. Although we know in the UK, you can encounter Four Seasons in one day! We all have seen some tremendous, interesting weather patterns these last few months – which meant snow in California!

Reviewing the topics that were covered at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in January is a good way to get some highlights not only on what some of the current world challenges are but also to realize how those are so closely connected to the great challenges of our IT industry.

Can you keep a secret? How often have we heard or used that expression? In certain circles, the surest way to spread a story is to suggest that it is secret, even top secret, but for those involved in IT, this is far from the truth.