Maybe not as big as it’s cousin across the waters, the Irish Wolfhound, but apparently a lot faster. They were big, too, because of their prey. And more active as well. The Scottish Deerhound, on the other hand, hails as its name implies, from Scotland. History says, in fact, that deer-hunting hounds were in the country before the Scottish people themselves. That fact, we find difficult to believe but integrated into the Scottish way of life the way that they did, hunting the wild red deer of the time left little doubt about their success.
With integration came reliability as they could be counted upon to put food on Scottish Clan Chief tables. Following the chase, we highly suspect that in fact, they shared in the spoils of a successful pursuit. In other words, could we at least acknowledge that they were early adopters when it came to eating of their own dogfood?
For the Nonstop community, the integration of hardware and the software stack has proved every bit as reliable as the Scottish Deerhound. However, the latest addition to the family of dogs doesn’t chase deer but rather, is a cost-effective manner with which to integrate Nonstop into the world of Hybrid IT. This dog isn’t real, naturally enough. It’s virtual as in virtual Nonstop (vNS). Available as it has become, it delivers further options for Nonstop solutions’ deployment rarely considered in the past – a veritable buffet of hardware options. All while retaining the high-availability infrastructure Nonstop solutions vendors require!
What we see today is how TCM’s customers are looking for opportunities to run fully virtual. However, the costs associated with virtual machine deployment have climbed when consideration is given for vNS is deployment on VMWare. In pursuit of a more cost-effective virtualization option, TCM has invested in alternative open-source options and became the first Nonstop vendor to deploy vNS on a KVM derivative – open-source Proxmox. If you have accessed ITUGLIB of late, you might like to know it now runs on vNS supported by Proxmox.
Eating your own dogfood provides many benefits to TCM. This includes the recognizable validation of product quality as bugs can be readily identified. In other words, in so doing, TCM accumulates experience based on first-hand knowledge. At the very heart of this process is assuring the Nonstop community that the traditional levels highly-available infrastructure from hardware and software – what IDC continues to refer to as AL4 (Availability Level 4) – is maintained.
Pioneers and trail-blazers are always viewed as being adventurous but when it comes to tech, oftentimes it’s better to lead than simply abiding by the wisdom of the pack. Adventures aside, TCM has gained in confidence going into market launch, a recognized outcome according to sources having already gone down similar paths.
There may be many reasons for “eating your own dogfood,” like validating quality, identify bugs, experience the user journey firsthand and quality control and internal testing, building confidence before market launch,” according to internet sources readily accessible for all. “However, it can also be the result of bringing new services to market even as it compresses timeframes, simplifies ongoing support and helps fly the corporate flag.” For the Nonstop community, this comes back to the story of availability not being compromised.
“It is highly unlikely that Nonstop customers run products from just one Nonstop vendor’s portfolio,” said TCMs Andy Vasey. “Just as importantly, within each category there may be multiple vendors present. So, it’s not just a case of exhibiting confidence in what TCM can provide an enterprise pursing virtualization, where there is a mix of infrastructure and applications, as a Managed Services provider, TCM is among the very few Nonstop vendors that have gained experience over multiple mixed-infrastructure deployments. Supporting ITUGLIB as we have done saw us reaching out to a number of parties.
Over the past year, we’ve been rethinking how we support organizations running mission‑critical NonStop environments. That work is now culminating in a refreshed approach that retains the strengths of our current tooling while addressing the real‑world challenges system managers tell us about every day. We’ll be sharing more in the coming weeks, but readers can expect a more intuitive, more connected, and more modern experience that reflects where NonStop operations are heading next. What we can talk about is how an indication of what this might be and where TCM is headed can be seen with TCM’s support of ITUGLIB.
As an application, ITUGLIB running on vNS and supported by our implementation and deployment of Proxmox, happens to be more than a simple one-off project. TCM sees great benefit in doing so whenever cost of ownership comes into play but regardless, it has brought TCM to a place where bare metal operation has begun to be a consideration. The knowledge we have gained to date with Proxmox can just as readily be leveraged with whatever hypervisor / virtual machine products a Nonstop customer may be considering deploying, running as they do, on bare metal.
Call it situational awareness. Call it proactive oversight. However, you want to think about the software you need and the procedural steps that this will mandate, TCM can provide the guidance you need. Virtualization may not be a walk in the park for your dog no matter how big, fast or reliable, but having eaten our fair share of our own dogfood for some time, almost certainly guarantees Nonstop customers that with the help of TCM, that long leash of uncertainty can be let go, with confidence.
Look for us at the upcoming E-GTUG in Munich where we will be only too happy to address any issues you may have in going with vNS. And, should you need to reach out to us prior to these events occurring, you can always reach us at:
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