but it is what happens next that will count.
As is the case with any journey, there is ample time to look back and to consider where we have been. With any road trip anywhere in the world, there is always a reason for it to begin and along the way, plenty of milestones to celebrate. However, while it’s a commonplace phenomenon to suggest it’s less about the destination and more about the journey, after fifty years, the destination continues to loom large.
Can we not ignore that the good times are yet to manifest themselves? For fifty years the journey has been more like a complex triathlon than a simple marathon, let alone a straightforward dash to the finish line. Who could have imagined so many elevation changes and rapidly executed pivots would have been involved? From proprietary chipsets to MIPS, to Itanium and now onto x86, safe to say, it took a herculean effort to ensure that what was running half a century ago could still be run today on systems that have deviated so far from what was originally envisioned. Can we say few would have ever thought of virtualization or acquiring NonStop as a software solution?
For the TCM team, just thinking about the many transitions that have taken place brings a smile to our faces. There’s no question about it. If anyone asks any TCM team member whether they have seen something like this before, changes that look radical, the answer remains the same. Yes, we have and no, don’t be concerned. We can handle it and have the experience to make any tech refresh under consideration work out positive for you.
There was a lot of fun evident at the NonStop TBC 2024 Conference. Whether it was the social gatherings of an evening, the playful games played on the partner pavilion, or simply watching NonStop vendors adapt to their surroundings once their table-booths were set up. Who can forget the 180-degree change of frontage by the TCM team once we have realized we were hiding behind our own banners. In the past, downing a banner signified retreat but on this occasion, it was a celebration. With the view of the whole show, not only could we see attendees but they could see us!
“It was a good event for TCM; we had a lot of interaction with the NonStop community,” said Daniel Craig, TCM Managing Director. “It brough a major smile to my face once we were able to capture the attention of attendees with traditional fanfare. What could go astray when TCM provided Scotch Whisky and challenged all who stopped by with an opportunity to demonstrate their putting prowess on our temporary golf putting range.”
When it came to the serious side of the event, from the opening session it was very clear to all of us that the level of investment by HPE in NonStop could neither be ignored nor be seen in lacking substance. Casey Taylor, VP & GM, HPE NonStop, Compute, High Performance Computing & Artificial Intelligence business (but clearly with her heart deeply anchored in NonStop), gave an impressive presentation.
What captured our attention happened when key statistics appeared in the Casey Taylor’s presentation: Strong NonStop business growth in recent years; NonStop with GreenLake now at 35%; our customers and partners are growing with us. “Casey’s keynote was very impressive,” said Daniel Craig. “TCM truly believes she is going to do wonderful things for NonStop confirming yet again how very excited we are about her appointment. In so doing, she made our smiles even wider.”
The wholehearted support for NonStop partners was evident throughout the conference. Recognition of how NonStop had prospered for fifty years gave new life to many of the NonStop team and it showed in the presentations that they gave. Smiles all around and who can forget the keynote from Mark Pollans, NonStop Worldwide Product Management, when describing the hardware roadmap he was able to elicit numerous ooohs and aaahs from the audience.
Clearly, Mark Pollans was talking from a position of strength with renewed enthusiasm for the journey ahead. Not for him was it about the sites along the way but rather, the destination now planned for NonStop. “With fifty years’ experience behind the NonStop platform, it’s a testament to just how well NonStop has served the global IT industry,” said TCM’s Andy Vasey. In line with what Mark Pollans projected for the future of NonStop, Andy Vasey was quick to say, “There’s every expectation that NonStop will likely thrive for another twenty-five or even fifty years given all that we heard from NonStop management this year.”
A major contributor to TCM’s leadership as the NonStop community’s leading global managed services provider, continually investing in “skillset up-siding” has catapulted some TCM team members to the forefront of modernization pursuits. As we listened to the presentation by Neil Davis, HPE General Manager, NonStop, EMEA and Latin America, we heard of how his team was adding new customers as well as expanding the presence of key solutions providers. New market verticals will be aggressively explored and with migrations, competing as they are with Linux and Windows solutions, the NonStop team is delivering one key component that these platforms have relied upon for a very long time, Kernel Level Threading (KLT).
“We believe that with NonStop supporting KLT, it opens the door to even greater opportunities to migrate key applications to NonStop where security and availability are a priority”, said TCM’s Shiva Subramanian when sharing his experience to date following exploring this new capability for NonStop. “With KLT any issue arising to do with ‘problems with porting to NonStop’ disappears, presenting NonStop with the potential of supporting many more new applications.”
Smiles aplenty and recognition that the NonStop community is watching a future of NonStop emerge that is exciting, as it will be challenging, is just par for the course when attending NonStop TBC Conferences. The journey isn’t over and the destination is not yet reached. However, considerable progress has been made over the past fifty years. With only one major vendor having a platform present in the marketplace as long as NonStop, it is a testament to the strength of the original design, the value of the implementation and the execution of a winning market strategy.
The signs are all there. The signposts are giving us so many clues about the future, confirming the wisdom of TCM with our investments in personnel’s skillset up siding as they keep us centered on the NonStop roadmap. Since that time, the continuous development of newer iterations of NonStop – traditional and virtual – together with greater modernization of tools, utilities and services, it’s all has been positive for the NonStop community.
For the present, there is a growing recognition that yes, tackling a new deployment or a tech refresh of NonStop, it is all about tapping skillset, knowledge and expertise. TCM is demonstrating the skillsets needed as it continues to make the necessary investments. And if you missed us at this year’s BITUG Little SIG 2024 and would like to know about the TCM skillsets that might be beneficial in meeting your immediate needs, reach out to us.
And turning to TCM in support of your next project is bound to provide the optimum balance between timeliness and functionality. We look forward to hearing from you if this should this be a topic of discussion as we look forward to seeing you again in Dublin and Houston in 2025.
nonstop@tcm.uk.com www.tcm.uk.com
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