Way back in the spring of 1979 I was a young kid fresh out of University and ready to take on the world. I found a job in a large shop working on an IBM mainframe coding COBOL. Coding sheets. Punch cards. Trial runs. Production. Back in at 3am to fix the core dumps. YUK…….

Then I got a phone call from a head hunter. There was this new company that I might like. They were working on this new computer called a Tandem. They might not be able to make payroll each month, but I sure could have some fun!

I had the dumb great luck to be hired by a brilliant guy by the name of Jim Cody (“Wild Jim”) for this startup company called Applied Communications. We worked all day. We worked all night. We coded cool new stuff. We developed the authorization support for the very first ATM and POS devices. I learned amazing things. This was the dawn of OLTP. Even better, they paid me and never ever missed a payroll.

That was a lot of years ago. From ACI I headed over to the Stratus, but came back to Tandem to help launch Insession. Try as I might to head in other directions, I always seem to find myself back on NonStop working on cool new things. Today I work with the smart folks at Network Technologies, and I am still having a lot of fun. I speak frequently at local NonStop meetings. I like to take my Old Guy Survey. I keep looking for anyone who started on Tandem before I did.

I started in February of 1979. When did you start? Email me and let me know. Tell me when you started, where it was, and what you are up to now. The 3 that have been around on Tandem the longest will win prizes. Users, vendors, and HP are all welcome to participate. I will publish winning names in next month’s newsletter.

comForte partnering with nuBridges for PCI data security

comForte and nuBridges, Inc., the leading company for secure eBusiness, have entered a partnership to provide PCI-compliant data encryption and key management for the HP NonStop.

nuBridges Data Secure provides the practical answer to payment card industry (PCI) data security compliance, protecting retailers from operational disruption and the risk of penalties through a complete solution to encrypt and store credit card information securely.

For more information visit http://www.comforte.com/ecomaXL/index.php?site=COMFORTE_Nubridges_Press_Release

BackBox^® on Blades – New Levels of Density & Manageability

ETI-NET’s BackBox^® virtual tape product for NonStop systems has been tested and certified for use on HP C-series blades, in conjunction with HP’s Solution Alliances Engineering group. While retaining BackBox’s full functionality and Enterprise Storage Management system integration capabilities, implementation on this new platform reduces overall system costs and adds new levels of subsystem monitoring and manageability.

Up to 8 BackBox VTCs can be implemented in a 10U Blade enclosure or 4 VTCs in a 6U enclosure, each VTC with up to 4 SCSI or Fibre Channel connections to NonStop host systems. This is an unprecedented density for NonStop virtual tape products, providing up to 32 NonStop host connections in 10U of rack space, with corresponding processing power and storage back-end connectivity to ensure maximum throughput.

Why Blades for BackBox?

Implementation of BackBox in a Blade environment has the following advantages:

* Denser packaging and integration of FC & Ethernet switch infrastructures cuts rack space & infrastructure costs significantly;

* Compute power can be selected by individual Blade, to match BackBox VTC throughput requirements;

* Permits implementing Enterprise Storage Management servers, including server clusters, in the same Blade enclosure;

* Reduces the number of interconnect cables required, and thus potential points of failure;

* Greater redundancy of power supply and cooling than in conventional servers;

* Intelligent cooling design reduces both power and data center cooling requirements;

* Simplified monitoring and control, based on HP’s Onboard Administrator and server/infrastructure management software.

This solution is available now. To learn more, visit www.etinet.com, or contact ETI-NET at 1-800-546-9101 or by email at information@etinet.com.

Availability Digest Discusses Reliable Multicasting

The Availability Digest’s January, 2008, issue introduces reliable multicasting, its value in LAN and WAN applications as well as the challenges faced in building reliable multicast networks that can scale to a large number of receivers. Our Never Again section highlights the abundance of system failures that caused major system outages in the last half of 2007.

Also discussed is active/active payment processing at Swedbank, one of the largest retail banks in the Nordic region. Reviewed in our Recommended Reading section is Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms.

On Thursday, February 21st Digest editor Dr. Bill Highleyman will be teaching a full-day seminar on active/active architectures for HP systems at the SATUG annual conference near Johannesburg, South Africa. For registration and pricing, contact Mike Clark at mike.clark@tandemguy.co.za.

The Digest is free online and focuses on continuous processing architectures, with particular attention given to active/active technology. Issues of the Digest feature articles on the following topics: Case Studies, Never Again, Best Practices, Availability Topics, Recommended Reading, Product Reviews, and The Geek Corner. www.availabilitydigest.com

NonStop - Future Discussions

I have been reading Tandemworld regularly now for many years. I am not sure exactly when it first appeared, but I have been reading Tandemworld ever since. I am a firm believer in social networks, and in the technology that encourages a community to share information. The most effective way for us to understand the types of applications best suited for deployment on the HP NonStop Server is to read about it, and learn from those that have completed successful deployments themselves. After talking to Tandemworld, I will be contributing my own perspective on the NonStop technology and will add commentary on NonStop products as I come across interesting deployments.

For those that may not know me, let me introduce myself. From early 1988 until early 1996, I worked for Tandem Computers in Cupertino where I spent the last couple of years in Building 4 as a member of Tandem Product Management organization. I worked for Roy Graham, and later, Bryan Sweeley. Before joining Product Management I worked for Chris Rooke in Product Marketing, after a number of years as a Program Manager within the DSM organization working for Margo Holen. After leaving Tandem, I spent 4 years as VP of Marketing at Insession and then at ACI, following their acquisition of Insession, where I became VP of the Application Services Group (Infrastructure).

The path that HP is headed down, from the roadmap presentations I sat through the conferences of 2007, really do have me pretty excited. What really stands out is that HP Business Critical Systems (BCS) is going to produce a common bladed architecture, where a standard chassis will accommodate a standard blade that can be configured to support a variety of Operating Systems – NonStop, Linux, HP-UX, etc. This changes the whole economics as far as I can tell, and puts the new platform on a completely different price curve. It will be fast, and get to market fast. There will be no need to wait for the arrival of additional supporting chip sets needed to support NonStop: its availability for the NonStop community should happen at the same time as its support for other Operating Systems. Riding the Intel Roadmap will take on so much more meaning and applicability.

For those that have seen Martin Fink’s MS Powerpoint slide that shows a combination of Operating Systems co-existing in the same standard chassis – each running on separate blades – further illustrates the flexibility of the upcoming product. The new bladed architecture will allow the blades themselves to be redeployed in support of other application environments, as needed, and further improving the overall ROI. It should prove very difficult to outgrow the capabilities of the bladed architecture servers.

I have developed a blog for the ITUG Community that can be found at www.itug-connection.blogspot.com and my intent was to develop a dialogue on trends I see developing inside the data center. Take some time and give it a read – as the topic of upcoming architectures and products will be covered in more detail at that site. I look forward to providing more observations in the months ahead.

Cheers,

Richard Buckle

Sr. Director Business Development

GoldenGate Software, Inc.

"The Transactional Data Management Company"

www.GoldenGate.com

Cell: 720 289 5372

Second Life: RT Writer

Check out my blog: http://www.itug-connection.blogspot.com/

Ross Systems International FINFO Version 2.0

Ross Systems International, would like to remind NonStop (Tandem) users that a time limited trial version of FINFO 2.0 is still available on application

FINFO is a utility to be used on HP NonStop ™ Systems to display Guardian file information. The file information can be selected by a number of criteria, it is then sorted on a specified key and displayed in one of a number of formats. User Totals showing file usage are also displayed at the end of each subvolume, volume and system displays.

You can request a the trial version of FINFO (Version 2.0), subject to the standard terms and conditions, from http://www.rsi-ns.com/finfo_ord.HTM.

Alternatively you can contact Rupert Stanley of Ross Systems International at rupert@rsi-ns.com or call +44-1206-392923 for additional information.

January 2008 – State of S Series CPU Market with S88000 Now Available

The Second User market has finally seen some availability of high end S Series hardware as more customers have began the migration to the Non-Stop Integrity platform. Hewlett Packard’s trade in programs have also allowed for some of this availability.

Marshall Resources does have some 1974-D 4 GB S88000 Processors in stock. We have seen significant demand for this product, and we anticipate these to sell very quickly as these are the first of their kind to enter into this market.

Currently, there also seems to be a good amount of S86000 CPU’s available. These represent the best value and performance of any CPU type selling in the S Series market. There is also a very healthy and sustainable availability of both 2 GB and 4 GB S74000 CPU’s available. These represent the most cost effective Processor type. We have also seen better availability in the mid range CPU market. The S7800 CPU is still hard to find, but it is available currently in our inventory. The S7600 is also available and represents a very cost effective alternative.

At Marshall Resources, we strive to provide the highest quality service with the highest quality equipment. Our repeat customers are our greatest compliment. Please visit our website at www.marshallresources.com for our company information, and find a sales representative in your area to assist you. We can always be reached at 800-443-0128, or by e-mail. We are looking forward to working with you.

SPECTRA

By way of background; since 1982… SPECTRA is an international dealer that trades “globally” in commercial use, Enterprise level, mainframe/midrange servers, disk/tape storage and network equipment.

In our over 25 years in business, we have many customer relationships with companies utilizing Tandem NonStop Systems; many of which have migrated to… or are migrating to… the new NonStop Itanium series. However; much of our NonStop customer base has not yet opted for the new Itanium and in fact, require system upgrades and peripherals from the now legacy, NonStop S88000s, S86000s, S7800’s, S7600’s and the like.

That said, should you have any of this equipment available for sale, now or in the future, we ask that you contact us at your convenience, such that we may organize a generous purchase offer.

Further, we also trade in premium, "best of breed" major brands as…

IBM Mainframe, midrange servers, storage, tape libraries and peripherals

EMC Symmetrix and Clariion high availability disk arrays

SUN/StorageTek Tape drives and Tape Libraries

SUN Microsystems Servers, Storage, Tape Libraries and peripherals

NetApp High availability disk arrays

Hewlett-Packard Servers, Storage, Tape Libraries and peripherals

HP/Compaq/Tandem Fault tolerant Servers, Storage and peripherals

Hitachi High availability disk arrays

Stratus Fault tolerant Servers, Storage and peripherals

Xerox High Performance/high production, Color and Black/White Printers

Network: Cisco, Juniper, Foundry and extreme

In closing, should you have any questions, please feel free to call or email. Otherwise; we thank you for your time, your consideration, your interest in SPECTRA, and look forward to future opportunities to do business with you.

All the Best!

Johnny Tourino, VP

SPECTRA

4420 East Miraloma Ave, Suite M

Anaheim, CA 92807

(800) 745-1233, x-309

(714) 970-7000, x-309

(714) 970-7095, Fax

www.spectra.com

Johnny@spectra.com

Tandemworld

Tandemworld has now changed it's legal status within the UK, but, will still trade under the brand name of Tandemworld. The company however, is now called Nonstop World (Tandemworld) Ltd.

For further information on this change please contact us

47th ACI World Congress – 29-31 May 2008, Austria Center,Vienna.

For further information please click here

ITUG

ITUG Summit 2008 Call for Presentations Open through 25 January

ITUG Summit 2008 at HP Technology Forum & Expo, 16-19 June in Las Vegas, Nevada is the premier event for user training and technical information for the NonStop community.

Be recognized among your HP NonStop peers and submit a presentation proposal for review by this Friday, 25 January for the opportunity to present a session during ITUG Summit 2008. ITUG welcomes first-time submitters and seasoned presenters alike. One complimentary full conference pass will be given per selected presentation.

ITUG Summit 2008 will again showcase an array of HP NonStop sessions. Download the track descriptions.

If you have any questions on submitting a presentation proposal for review, contact speakers@itug.org.

Stay tuned to www.itug.org for the latest program details. Registration will open in early March.

European ITUG Photos Available HERE

Looking for a Solution or an answer to a particular problem ASK Tandemworld. We will contact the vendors for you and find a suitable solution that meets for current and future needs.