Partnerships: Network Technologies International, Inc. (NTI) predicts bright future for vendor alliances

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When you come across headlines such as this one from shipping giant Maersk, which says, “Shipping giant Maersk expects strong demand and ‘another year of disruption’ for global trade in 2025,” it raises more than a couple of eyebrows. Coupling a “strong demand” with “another year of disruption” challenges our expectations. How will a company so intertwined in the global supply chain, such is the case with Maersk, marry the prospect of strength with disruption without experiencing some swings touching either extremity? For those vendors in the technology world, can it be assumed that much the same experience will occur? It is a common belief that the wild ride anticipated will feature shifts in the underpinnings of tech as Analytics, AI, Quantum, and even Robotics all begin to play an important part in the inner workings of major enterprises. Whether it is defending against Cyber Attacks, dealing with a new wave of Automation where Robots do the heavy lifting, or coming to terms with the application of Quantum Mechanics to everything from research to security, it is clear that technology will weather many a storm. On the other hand, much of what is being predicted has already begun to impact the NonStop community. What we witnessed in 2024 is how no one NonStop vendor can do it all even as we see the NonStop team opening up a variety of options as to how best to deploy NonStop. Overriding both of these impactful waves coming down on us is the overriding message of modernization. Playing a part in future technology responses can only happen when the solution is recognizably modern. When it comes to how NTI will navigate these potential tempests to enter smooth waters, it has been on our company’s radar for the better part of two years. From the time we undertook a change in direction, moving from high-level messaging to diving deeper into specifics, the NonStop community might recall the first inklings of these changes at the NonStop TBC 2022 Conference held in Burlingame. The NonStop vendor community may put on a good show. Still, of late, a competitive landscape has opened up leaving no NonStop vendor safe from direct competitive produsts coming their way. Add to this mix the new NonStop sales and development teams only too willing to enter the fray, and you have a mix that, as Maersk observed, lays the foundation for a disruptive year even as there will be strong demand for excellence in product portfolios.
NTI's approach to 2025
NTI’s approach to what lies ahead in 2025 may have taken root in 2022, but the picture of what this has created is now becoming quite clear. No one vendor can do it all, which seems obvious as discussions over frameworks continue unabated. Likewise, our choice over how best to deploy NonStop, whether that be with a traditional converges system, a hybrid of traditional with cloud services, or as part of HPE GreenLake, as the tentacles of GreenLake finally make their presence felt within NonStop and open up new opportunities. Consider these two recent developments as “waves” whose passage needs to be addressed. What can be seen emerging from NTI is how quickly we have stepped up to address both predicted waves as they appear. Addressing the second wave first, the nature of the implementation of the DRNet® product portfolio has led to solutions meeting enterprises’ data movement no matter the path chosen for NonStop systems deployment, traditional or virtual. NTI was among the first to contract with NonStop development for virtual NonStop deployments on NTI’s own hardware. This led to multiple system images scattered across both sides of the Atlantic. Today, NTI is among the most experienced teams in virtualization. When it comes to the first wave, no one vendor can do it all; for the past two years NTI’s approach took a number of steps forward to address this developing situation. As an early pioneer in the creation of a NonStop partner ecosystem, it has successfully translated to wins for NTI across this NonStop seascape. Other NonStop vendors are now playing catch-up, and a visit to some NonStop vendors ‘ websites highlights how this concept of partner ecosystems has caught on. But has it been delivered for NTI? Partnerships took three different forms: sales and services partnerships, renewed working partnerships with HPE regionally, and product partnerships. Regarding sales and services partnership, the guiding principle was to amplify the number of eyes on NonStop customers so that the NonStop refresh playing field could be leveled. What does this mean, exactly? In one case, such an amplification can already be seen:

“By delivering exceptional commercialization and support for DRNet, NTI is solidifying its position in the LATAM region as the premier provider of data replication solutions, enabling seamless enterprise data distribution and integration from the HPE NonStop platform.”

Jose Luis (JLO) Ortega NTI Business Development Director, CANADA & LATAM

NTI has significantly advanced its ambitious efforts to commercialize and support DRNet for HPE NonStop platform users across the LATAM region. It is delivering on the expectations it set for itself back in 2022. For instance, positioning Mexico as its regional hub, NTI strategically forms alliances with prominent local companies in the Southern Cone, renowned for their expertise and strong standing within the HPE NonStop community. A notable example of this expansion is the strategic partnership with VisionarIT (VIT), a Santiago-Buenos Aires-based company:

“As a company that has established its credentials in Chile with team members that have over 25 years of experience, VisionarIT is now an ideal partner for those NonStop product and service providers seeking representation locally and in the LATAM region. “For us it is an honor and a high sense of commitment that NTI chooses us as a representative in the region and in particular Chile.”

Francisco Silva CEO

In the past, it was just the NonStop team that would become aware of an imminent system upgrade or software migration, and with many more eyes on NonStop customers, any secrecy implied or otherwise no longer exists. This benefits all NonStop customers as, given the urgency of modernization, not all NonStop solutions benefit from being modern. Many can still be identified as classic legacy product offerings. As for the renewed working partnership with HPE and the NonStop team, embracing a much higher profile at NonStop events, regional and global, has led to greater interactions between our NTI members and the NonStop teams. There has been a marked increase in requests for information as NonStop customers begin performing due diligence and look to get a lot more out of their chosen products. There is a growing awareness among senior management within HPE that a thriving NonStop partner community is vital to the future success of NonStop. NonStop vendors, like NTI, deliver premier solutions catering to NonStop customer needs for rapidly extracting transactional data and delivering to where it is most valued. See the advantages that come with DRNet®/Unified. Nowhere is this more apparent than when it comes to data and exploiting replication to better stream data and integrate with processes, including those providing analytics. NTI has jumped ahead of the competition in this regard and we have already witnessed a change of perception with respect to how versatile the DRNet® product portfolio has become of late. No single product will address all NonStop customer needs, and NTI has seen the wild seas of the past recede, leaving behind smoother waters to navigate. And yet, it is not the perception that alone counts as much as it is the reality that it is all about transactional data:

“Enterprises who are able to instantly extract outcomes from all their data will be unstoppable.”

Antonio Neri CEO, HPE

When it comes to product partnerships, NTI has been pleased with the response it has gained ever since it added TANDsoft products to the DRNet® product portfolio. When it comes to checking whether two disparate databases are in synch, the option between something that doesn’t perform versus the truly fast one so you can routinely run and depend upon highlights the excellence in product execution that has been achieved by TANDsoft with their FS Compare and Repair solution. With this successful product-based partnership proving advantageous to NTI just as it is to NonStop customers, NTI recently added a second product partner to their partner ecosystem. It is no secret that some of the recent work performed by Infrasoft based on its uLinga product suite leads all vendors regarding data and application integration. In particular, Infrasoft’s work with Kafka has proved to be outstanding in that they have greatly empowered the NonStop customer to participate in a modern, open-source platform for event streaming and stream processing – a growing requirement when data streaming is needed to support time-series databases, such as Prometheus. Cooperating to better address NonStop customer requirements today, the prowess of Infrasoft together with the premier implementation of Change Data Capture (CDC) elevates NonStop systems to where their participation in any enterprise data scheme is assured. Look to NTI and the newly-announced DRNet®/Kafka, powered by uLinga for Kafka, for all your data integration needs. Even more recently, NTI has introduced DRNet®/Unified for Application Integration, powered by uLinga Gateway about which you will hear more in 2025.

“Today, integrating applications within a hybrid IT world is an important aspect of any steps taken towards further modernization. With the availability of uLinga Gateway, and its inclusion within the DRNet®/Unified product portfolio as DRNet®/Unified for Application Integration, we have an immediate ability to address these customer requirements.”

Tim Dunne NTI’s Global Director of Worldwide Sales

The seas may become calmer, but the tempest continues wherever technology frontiers are breached. If you missed us in 2024 and were not present for our presentations but would like to hear more about the greatly expanded DRNet® product portfolio, then look for our participation in major NonStop conferences and events in 2025. And yes, you can always contact us by phone or email. We would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Sales@network-tech.com Network Technologies International, Inc. 635 Park Meadow Road, Suite 209 Westerville, Ohio 43081-2877 Phone: +1 (614) 794-6000 N.T.I. Limited Ard Mhuire Camp Street Oughterard Co. Galway H91 K5PE Ireland  

Author

  • NTI Marketing Team

    NTI provides support from direct sales and support teams complemented with support of major global partners and tools and utilities together with a growing ecosystem of partners and consultants. To help better support our global customer base our expertise spans all major NonStop Server-based applications, yet DRNet® remains application independent so changing to a different database or application does not require changes to DRNet®. We are proud to have been a part of the Tandem / Compaq / HPE community since 1985 and an Alliance / Technology partner since 1992. Today, NTI is a Silver participant as a HPE Technology Partner.

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