TheConnection

Before we begin to look at HPE NonStop platform updates becoming available in 2021 it’s probably a good idea to take a step back and look at exactly what constitutes a platform. Like with every opinion, everyone has their own take on what constitutes a platform. It was so much easier when we all understood what was a computer, an operating system or an application but of late, the lines have become less clear. Can we still draw meaningful lines or have they become lines in the sand, subject to change every time a breeze disturbs their presence.

In past years, prior to deploying an application, significant time and effort was expended in gathering requirements to produce a design. The design was completed up front, before any code was written or database schema created. Furthermore, the design was comprehensive and static – it was expected to be viable for years without requiring significant modifications. When changes eventually were needed, they became a major redesign effort that often impacted multiple facets of the application and database. None of this was completed quickly, or without risk.

Recognizing the NonStop community is technically oriented with people having many years of system experience, it’s understandable that comfort is high when “The Topic Du Jour” is about technology.

Many clients and users at TUG meetings have expressed concerns to me about losing experienced members on their Nonstop team. These team members work in different groups, such as development, support or operations for the NonStop platform. Their contributions are crucial in the ecosystem of their company’s mission critical applications.  There is great concern in losing that pool of expertise.

As a cybersecurity company in Southern California, fueled by a culture of transparency and caring for our employees and customers, we live and operate by our mission: “We protect your data as if it’s our own.” We approached the Covid-19 threat the same way we approach cybersecurity threats, with extreme vigilance and seriousness.

With the pandemic upon us I believe the value of NonStop is paramount.  As many are aware GE Healthcare, the NonStop healthcare solution partner, existed the enterprise side of the business, relinquishing that market to their competitors Cerner and Epic.  However NonStop has done more in healthcare and I wanted to tell an older story that becomes very applicable to today’s environment.

Business today is a world of connected systems. Every application, every piece of data, and every machine is connected and exchanges data at huge volumes at ever-increasing speeds. This flow of information moves throughout every data center and out to remote locations. The data might move between applications within the business or be shared between companies. All this is, of course, also true for users of HPE NonStop systems running mission-critical applications, which need to communicate with other systems and applications in the enterprise.

RedLink is the biggest national switch for Argentina, owned by the major banks here (Banco Nacion, Banco Provincia de Buenos Aires, Banco Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Grupo Petersen and other important institutions).  We work mainly with public banks (the largest being here in Argentina). RedLink processes more than 27+ million transactions on peak days, driving more than 10,000 ATMs all around the country. We work with more than 60 financial institutions and have more than 1,000 employees.

With a new year upon us, it’s a great opportunity to look back and reflect on where we’ve been, the successes we’ve had, the lessons we’ve learned, the new friends we’ve made, the relationships we’ve strengthened.

Most of you are used to seeing this column penned by Navid Khodayari, who has done an amazing job for the last two years. With the new year, Navid has been promoted to past-president and I have been given the honor to be your president. I hope I will be able to continue the legacy that Navid has left me, I am sure with your help, along with our newest members of the board we will continue to build upon his work.

It’s a long way to the next NonStop TBC this fall, but it’s not too far away for most of us in the middle of a cold winter to SunTUG this February 28-29th in Tampa, Florida. In fact, it’s quite inviting right now.

The 2019 Connect NonStop Technical Boot Camp (TBC) was a brilliant event as usual.  Great presentation content from HPE and customers and some really good times catching up with and making new friends at the various networking events.

As we all know, business is becoming increasingly technology-based. With this, enterprises need to deliver new digital services and be better at business innovation on an ongoing basis to continue being relevant and to expand their opportunities. This is fundamental to delivering value, growth, creating wealth, etc. – which is very important to Customers and stakeholders.

Before utilizing XYPRO software solutions and services, one prominent bank depended on non-standard, less secure processes for logging onto their HPE NonStop systems and applications. Relying on a single set of credentials that was managed separately from their corporate Active Directory was both difficult to integrate with enterprise infrastructure and gave poor user experience…

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is the latest in a series of global privacy regulations. It comes with new requirements for dealing with personal data and is accompanied by severe penalties. Consequently, businesses must take appropriate action to comply with CCPA. While handling consent and opt-outs are at the forefront, successful mitigation of risks starts with data-centric security – it is about understanding where personal data resides and encrypting or anonymizing that data whenever possible. This is where technology, such as data tokenization becomes an essential element for every business.

Three years ago, Navid Khodayari, President of Idelji Corp., and Kristi Elizondo, CEO of Connect Worldwide, started an ongoing conversation. Throughout their travels, to various TUGs around the world, they continued to craft ways that promote and invest in the next generation of NonStop practitioners. In 2016 an informal breakout session was held at NonStop Technical Boot Camp in San Jose. Navid remembers that he had no agenda for the meeting other than to get people together and see what everyone wanted to talk about, “everyone started talking and, just like that, NSU40 was born.” He became the first president, and establishing the first Board of Directors came next, including representation from customers, partners, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Education and marketing were high on the list, and the door opened for an online message board for member engagement.

We are fresh off another successful NonStop Technical Boot Camp, and I hope all of you that attended found it to be a valuable experience. We had a great few days with presentations from HPE, Partners, and Customers, as well as loads of Networking time. The first-ever NonStop Hackathon was a great success and the second-ever NSU40 Pub Crawl was a great time! Other notable events included the second annual Women in Technology event and our Community Celebration with trivia from Geeks who Drink. The trivia competition that night was fierce, and it took a tiebreak question to determine a winner! Basically good times by all!

Living the NonStop Technical Boot Camp afterglow! There’s nothing like coming back to face day-to-day and end of the year

At this year’s NonStop TBC we had the first ever NonStop Hackathon. Hackathons have become commonplace but not on NonStop. To me this shows a new commitment to keep NonStop current and viable. 3 teams competed to connect to the vNonStop system in Alpharetta and demonstrate connectivity. There were cash prizes. The competitors all received the inaugural T-shirt and to keep them going, a snack table, and, of course, beer.

As has been stated in previous Expanding NonStop Opportunities articles, the main metrics for applications very important to the organization are –

99.99999 % (7 x 9s) or higher system availability
$1,000,000. / minute fee from supplier for non-compliance

As 2020 approaches, it’s time to discuss cybersecurity predictions that will impact the industry in the upcoming year. As a CISSP and Chief Information Security Officer for XYPRO, I thought long and hard about what I could say that would be impactful and hasn’t been said before – that’s a tall order! The reality is, what we predicted would be important in 2019, 2018 and even 2017 – is still applicable. A lot of what we predicted back then was never properly addressed and remains a risk today – credential theft and attacks targeting privileged user logins are more prevalent than ever. Currently, the best way to combat these types of attacks is to use 2-factor authentication.

We’ve had a busy year here at NuWave, and as of this writing, NonStop TBC hasn’t even happened yet! This year was NuWave’s 20th anniversary, as you may have read about in the July/August issue of The Connection, and it was also the 15th anniversary of our partnership with TIC Software, NuWave’s primary reseller in the United States and Canada. This year, we’ve also been doing a lot of traveling to meet all of you lovely NonStoppers and to spread the word about Web services!

Many years ago now, a company known as Tandem was struggling to stay viable in the new world of client-server. This was in the mid-1990s, and the CEO of Tandem, Roel Pieper, was looking at partnering with Microsoft, the main company driving client-server architecture. Microsoft was struggling to move up within the enterprise space, needing a more robust solution and decided to provide a clustering option, code-named Wolfpack, to Windows. Several vendors contributed to Wolfpack, including Tandem which became Windows clustering software…