Tandemworld eNewsletter for June 2010

Today, the task of building and maintaining IT systems is more complex than ever before. The need for business continuity, an increase in critical transactional links to other systems, the use of virtual machine technology and personal privacy requirements, to name but a few, all place security into focus. This is all in an environment of increasing regulation by government and industry organizations, e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley, ISO 27001/27002 (formerly ISO 17799) and PCI.

Businesses now have to ensure that their investments in security are delivering on the promised protection of their IT environments. Does the business make best use of security products and services? Does the business follow best practices? Is exposure to risk minimised?

Customers are finding that a Security Review from an independent third party is now welcome before they are exposed to a searching Security Audit.

This is where BrightStrand International can help. We have skilled and experienced NonStop Security consultants who can undertake detailed Security Reviews to ratify that your security is sound or to identify situations where it can be improved. BrightStrand can then work with you to apply any necessary changes to meet today’s stringent Security standards.

All, or some of these elements can be brought together in a Fully Managed Service that can be tailored to the particular needs of the customer – including remote bridging, hosting or operations support, adding further value to the BrightStrand quality services.

Call Dave Stewart today on +44 (0)7831 775115 or email him for more information.

To this day, HP’s Integrity NonStop is used by financial, telecom and manufacturing companies to provide fault-tolerant operations; a testament to its timeless ability to provide real-time availability for a business’ most critical workflows.

But like many systems that require continuing support in a world of expanding technologies, integrating HP NonStep across the islands of disparate applications is becoming increasingly difficult. These heterogeneous IT environments provide companies with added flexibility and transparency, but leave IT managers struggling to support and integrate these systems amid fixed budgets and limited resources.

As the keystone to any IT organization, your job scheduling and workload automation solution should act as a platform that supports your ability to bridge these islands of IT information, and serve as central point of control and monitoring to automate your critical applications, all the while integrating them with newer platforms and technologies. At Advanced Systems Concepts (http://www.advsyscon.com/), we believe that while it’s important to provide support for workloads requiring 100% application availability, it’s become just as important that NonStop is supported and enhanced with an event-driven job scheduling solution that works in real time.

ActiveBatch Enterprise Job Scheduling and Workload Automation (http://www.advsyscon.com/products/activebatch/job_scheduling.asp) adds capabilities such as event automation, triggers, constraints, date/time scheduling, and more, to the litany of job scheduling tasks required within NonStop, simplifying the process of job scheduling in a seamless and “scriptless” fashion.

This same level of automation can be extended for cross-platform support. ActiveBatch supports the HP Integrity NonStop Server series, both single and multi-core, in addition to a wide range of applications, platforms, databases and technologies. As a result, the same event automation and advanced scheduling capabilities that automate and add value to NonStop can be used to build end-to-end workflows between other technologies.

For example, finish a NonStop job and start another task on a mission-critical application that may or may not being running NSK. This includes platforms such as HP NSK, IBM i5/OS, Linux and UNIX, applications including SAP, Oracle or Informatica and databases such as SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle databases and others.

Add value and bridge the islands of information between NonStop and your mission-critical systems with ActiveBatch Job Scheduling and Workload Automation.

How to avoid cost of non-quality?

An example may be the best way to show how expensive non-quality of a change in software can be:

Insurance Group had already performed the Software Check, but there was no budget to buy ITP-PANORAMA available.

Then, the month end batch job came to a hold. 36 developers were searching three days for the bug, including a weekend, but did not find it.

On Monday morning the developer who was responsible for the Software Check came back from a short vacation and asked:

“Why do you guys not use PANORAMA?“
He found the bug within 10 minutes.

Comment of Application Manager: „We got approval for the purchase of ITP-PANORAMA at 10am the very day. With the cost of 400 person hours for the bug search we could have paid half of ITP-PANORAMA!”

If you want to raising the quality of software maintenance:

Find more Information at www.itp-panorama.com

Mail us or call us at: US 855 475-2883

UK +44 7725 221 235

Europe +49 89 64 91 90 67

CommitWork at EBUG

You will find CommitWork from 12th to 15th April in Berlin at the EBUG

Have a livedemo of the CommitWork Developer Suite and pick up a trial version.

For any further Information please visit us at http://www.commitwork.com/

Contact: Hans-Fried Kirschbaum
+49 231 94116910

NonStop - A Running Commentary

March, ‘11

The opinions expressed here are solely
those of the now self-employed author

Following my blogs? Check out:

Real Time View at http://www.itug-connection.blogspot.com/

…. And check out the Group on LinkedIn, Real Time View

comForte Lounge at http://comfortelounge.blogspot.com/

…. And check out the Group on LinkedIn, comForte Lounge

Buckle-Up at http://www.buckle-up-travel.blogspot.com/

…. And check out the SubGroup on LinkedIn, Pyalla Track Days

HP’s CEO, Leo Apotheker, has taken the wraps off HP’s strategy and, as anticipated from all the information that leaked out over the past couple of weeks, there are really no big surprises. While the reviews I have read have been mixed, the material provided by HP is worth more than a quick glance.

The two paragraphs from the HP Press Release (March 14, 2011) that for me summarize the new strategy, are as follows:

“The convergence of cloud computing and connectivity is fundamentally changing how IT is delivered and how information is consumed … Meanwhile, the cloud is combining with mobility to create ubiquitous connectivity. In HP’s view, a hybrid environment that combines the best of traditional environments with private and public clouds will be the prevailing model for many large enterprises for a long time.”

Followed a little later by the Apotheker outlining the four-point strategy “for HP’s expanded market leadership by

extending its leadership in managing and optimizing today’s traditional environments;
leveraging HP’s core strength in cloud to build and manage next-generation cloud-based architectures;
being the trusted partner to customers by enabling the seamless transition to hybrid computing models; and by
defining and delivering the connected world from the consumer to the enterprise.”

Talk of HP building up its software business and of pursuing integration, software and servers business wasn’t a surprise. Getting more from all the intellectual property capital HP now has on hand, is an obvious course to set. Hitching as much as they have to Cloud Computing bandwagon isn’t a surprise either – anyone who has listened to, or read reports from, presentations made by BCS Senior VP and General Manager, Martin Fink, had to have seen this coming!

The media hasn’t been all the bullish in the articles that have appeared to date. Under the headline of “Hewlett-Packard chief unveils strategy for expansion” The New York Times correspondent, Verne G. Kopytoff, suggests that “Mr. Apotheker’s plan is not so much to reinvent H.P., but to help it evolve.”

I think that’s a fair comment, considered, but he then throws in two interesting paragraphs: “the challenge for H.P. will be to win customers from established rivals like IBM, Oracle and SAP. Persuading large companies to go with a relative newcomer, however, can be difficult, even one the size of H.P.” And then, a little later, “but H.P. is hardly in the forefront in terms of business analytics or the cloud, which has been an industry buzzword for several years. Asked whether H.P. was late, Mr. Apotheker said, “We are not playing catch-up to anyone, particularly I.B.M.” He said that no company had a truly powerful offering in business analytics.”

When I wrote my last article for “NonStop - Running Commentary” I was about to head down to Johannesburg, South Africa, for the annual SATUG event. Even as I was about to leave I said that I would leave to a future time any further discussion on HP’s strategy. However, in a presentation given by HP’s Kevin Barnard, I really came to understand the Instant-On Enterprise message and the role of the BladeSystem Matrix.

For me the highlight was the work done on provisioning – the ability to reconfigure almost any resources to support new applications and access requirements. In many of my blog posts to Real Time View much of my musing has centered on potential provisioning of NonStop, and of the value that would come from being able to dynamically grow NonStop resources applied to address business! With the Matrix, much of this is already being done – but not for NonStop!

Looking at HP’s Strategy today, this all came back to me as did the appreciation that it will all be driven by users! It will be the user community that will generate the need for NonStop being supported by the Matrix. For the simple reason that it looks pretty obvious that as Cloud Computing takes hold, the BladeSystem Matrix will likely play a significant role.

With determined users, solutions vendors will step up and begin extending their applications to address the Matrix … a situation I explored in my most recent post to comForte Lounge:

http://comfortelounge.blogspot.com/2011/03/return-of-matrix.html

Will everything HP’s CEO described come to fruition? Perhaps not – strategies rarely do as time never lets up or gives any opportunities away! However, HP has desperately needed a strategy that showcases much of the talent that remains within its R&D departments and for this reason alone, I am extremely grateful and indeed pleased, that HP has elected to focus on these areas.

In the coming months we will get to see more as new products are unveiled, but for the moment, with the few words provided in the official press release, we at least have a positive indication that HP is going to compete and to pursue grabbing greater market share across the enterprise and for this reason alone, I remain bullish on all things NonStop!

Richard Buckle

Founder and CEO

Pyalla Technologies, LLC

Email: richard@pyalla-technologies.com

LinkedIn - Real Time View user group:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1878133&trk=hb_side_g

LinkedIn - Pyalla Technologies User Group:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2396887&trk=hb_side_g

Capacity Plan 2011

Your 2011 Capacity Plan

Watch for our latest article in The Connection magazine for March/April 2011. It continues a discussion on how to create a proactive performance management discipline in your organization. We discuss the techniques that have made our Ban Bottlenecks® service so successful for our clients.

Ban Bottlenecks®:

Dedicated NonStop performance /capacity experts.

1440x730 coverage (every minute, every day, with a 2-year historical perspective).

Implementing effective, disciplined, proactive capacity management programs.

Meet Us At DUST, PNUTS, and NENUG!

assist@banbottlenecks.com

1.415.256.8369

www.banbottlenecks.com

Availability Digest Says Stuxnet is World’s First Cyber Weapon

Stuxnet is the first malware that can infect computer-controlled systems and physically destroy or disable critical infrastructures such as fresh water supplies, electrical power grids, and nuclear power plants. The Availability Digest examines how the power and flexibility of this vicious worm leaves any computer-controlled facility open to a hostile attack.

Also in the March Digest is a product review of Shore Microsystems’ 100-microsecond link failover using field-programmable gate arrays. The company’s Network Protection System (NPS) Link Protectors are transceivers that support redundant, full-duplex Ethernet links for a network-attached device such as a server, a storage subsystem (SAN or NAS), or a client terminal.

The Editor’s Message this month discusses several misperceptions about failover strategies and how they affect a system’s availability. Examples: ‘If I have a replicated remote copy of my database, I don’t need to take point-in-time backups.” “I can put my application in the cloud, and let the cloud provider guarantee me uptime.”

Published monthly, the Digest is free and lives at www.availabilitydigest.com. Please visit our Continuous Availability Forum on LinkedIn. We’re at 233 members and counting.

Are your financial systems compliant with new EU IBAN regulations?

Use ITP-Panorama to cut the cost of EU IBAN compliance.

Organisations across the European Union will be required to support IBAN (International Bank Account Number) to replace domestic bank account number schemes by end 2012 due to legislation passed by European Union in December 2010.

Replacement of domestic bank account schemes with IBAN to comply with these regulations will require significant investment comparable to Y2K and Euro compliance. Unfortunately, no one on the EU decision making committee took into account the millions of Euros/Pounds it could cost to implement these changes.

Reduce your exposure to the new IBAN regulations by using ITP-PANORAMA.

Finding all programs, statements, paragraphs, statements, files and tables in databases is a no brainer if a company has ITP-PANORAMA. Compared to the cost of using traditional tools, ITP-PANORAMA is many times less expensive. Equally important is that you can trust that results of analysis with ITP-PANORAMA are always 100% correct. This is not achievable with traditional tools.

Cut the cost of EU IBAN compliance.

Please contact us for a free Webinar to see how easy it is to make your software EU IBAN compliant.

For further details visit www.itp-panorama.com

Call us at: US 855 475-2883

UK +44 (0) 7725 221 235

Europe +49 89 64 91 90 67

NSWi

Are you a European NonStop User?

Do you require a Full Time / Part Time Resource boost to Cover New Projects, Maternity / Paternity leave etc.?

Do you have NonStop Customers based in EMEA that require Local Support of Hardware and Software?

Nonstop World International (NSWi) can help.

We are currently providing Local Support to Vendors outside of the EMEA region for their NonStop Customers based in EMEA.

Contact us to see how we can assist you with highly skilled NonStop professionals, whether Long Term or Part Time on a 24*7 basis.

Launching Shortly

www.nonstopworldinternational.com

CI Presentation Now Available For Download

NuWave Technologies recently welcomed an excited response to their converged infrastructure presentation down in Florida during SunTUG. During this presentation, Ernie Guerrera, the president of NuWave, announced a product to be released later this year that will be able to replace both NuWave's SOAP/AM^® and HP's RSC.

This new technology will combine Web services capabilities with a cost-effective alternative to HP's product, all accompanied by NuWave's unbeatable technical support. So you can see what all the buzz is about.

What's more is that you can now download the presentation slides from NuWave's website. See for yourself what everyone is getting so excited about: just go to NuWave's SOAP/AM^® Resources page and click on the title slide.

While you're there, watch a recorded webinar, play with the SOAP/AM Server online tools, or read the latest CI article from The Connection magazine. These are just a few of the resources available on this page.

Check the NuWave homepage frequently for the latest product announcements, upcoming events and webinars, website updates, and other news from Nuwave. Or just email Gabrielle to be added to NuWave's email list.

NonStop Modernization Consulting Services soon available from Carr Scott Software spin-off

During our 16 years in the NonStop modernization business, a need has continually existed to help customers with consulting services. While Carr Scott Software’s focus has always remained on our products, the need for modernization consulting services has remained and has now grown to the levels where the opportunity cannot be ignored.

We are excited to announce that Dave Bossi, who has been an instrumental player in our support organization for the last 7 years, will be spinning off to start a new venture to capitalize on the large and growing need for NonStop modernization services.

Details of this new venture, expected to launch in early May, will be available in the coming weeks.

www.carrscott.com

HP NonStop® product and service providers announce strategic alliance

HP NonStop® service provider TCM Solutions® and Client Access Developer CAIL™ have announced a strategic alliance to help organisations integrate their HP NonStop into an Enterprise IT Infrastructure as part of a Corporate Standard for Host Access. CAIL’s Unified Client Solution for HP NonStop is designed to deliver significant benefits – quick ROI and streamlined and simplified systems management - enabling IT to be more responsive to new business needs, increasing IT operational agility and cost-effectiveness.

With this product and service alliance, TCM Solutions and CAIL will assist organisations with implementing and supporting the Unified Client Solution – making it easy for customers to modernize information services, improve system security, and have more comprehensive reporting with information from all Host based applications including HP NonStop. And, with a focus on leveraging information (with no change to current systems), results can be achieved quickly with no risk.

The Unified Client Solution is based on integrated software from Attachmate and CAIL (known as Reflection or EXTRA!) and has an extensive customer base worldwide.

TCM Solutions is the premier provider of HP NonStop Managed Services and Professional Services in the United Kingdom, Australia, and NZ.

Ron Thompson, Managing Director at CAIL, comments on the alliance: “A Unified Client Solution better integrates information services for Users with support for native communications to systems from HP (NonStop, UNIX, DEC/VMS, HP 3000), IBM (Mainframe, MidRange, UNIX), Sun, and Unisys. Further, by combining extensive Reflection / EXTRA! product capabilities with TCM NonStop experience and knowledge of implementing systems and support, better assures Customers can move their business forward.”

Tony Craig, CEO of TCM Solutions adds “We are very pleased to work with CAIL - helping our customers implement and support the CAIL product. With CAIL, our customers will realize greater value from their IT investment, improve business outcomes, and increase the visibility of HP NonStop systems within the enterprise.”

See www.cail.com/cabenefits and www.cail.com/adapt for further information

Extend your HP NonStop S-Series life !!

Greatly improve your Return On Investment with S-Series New Life support Plans from TCM Solutions

TCM offers reliable, quality, and accredited support and supply of all S-Series hardware through 2017.

TCM has accredited, HP-trained NonStop Hardware Engineers, System Consultants and ITIL Service Managers.

TCM is proactive – with our comprehensive TCMAlert^TM service we’ll find the issue and fix it before incidents affect you.

Reduce the level of Hardware Incidents - our experience shows that utilising hot-spares standby systems reduces hardware failures in the field over traditional manufacturer cold-replacement strategies by around 20%.

TCM secures and assigns dedicated hot spare systems to all Customers – these can be held on Customer premises - this significantly reduces fix times.

You choose the level of service you require. With all levels of service, we will provide you with measurable benefits:

ü Improved SLAs

ü Lower Cost

ü Considerable Investment savings

ü Ability to sweat the asset

Save time and money with TCM’s Active Service Desk - single point of call. Within 15 minutes you’ll be speaking to hardware and system experts, not unskilled call-centre operatives.

TCM Solutions has been delivering Complete HP NonStop Managed Software and Hardware services to Major Financial Institutions for over 14 years.

TCM Solutions is certified to ISO9001:2008 Quality Management and itSMF ISO20000:2005 IT Service Management standards

Contact TCM Solutions today to see how we can start saving you money and help get more out of your existing investments – www.tcmsolutions.com, email info@tcmsolutions.com, call 01592 770081.

The complete solutions for S-Series and NS-Series Hardware and Software support.

User Groups

Information on User Group events can be found at http://www.connect-community.org

Spring PNUTS! March 30

Pacific Northwest Users of Tandem Systems meet Wednesday March 30 11:30 to 2:00 HP Distinguished Technologist Vinay Gupta describes current and future capabilities of the NonStop Essentials product family. The 4 products work together to provide an HP SIM-based single pane-of-glass management environment for NonStop.

Ron Thompson from CAIL presents "Modernizing Information" - a collection of technical case studies demonstrating improvement of NonStop based information services.

Lunch provided! A fine networking opportunity!

Bellevue (Overlake) HP Office 14475 NE 24th Street Bellevue, WA 98007

RSVP to help our catering count:

EBUG, Berlin, April 12-15 - www.ebug.net

BITUG Modernization SIG, London, May 11 www.bitug.com

GTUG, Boeblingen, May 11-12 - Email for more Info

Discover, Las Vegas, June 6-10

VNUG, Stockholm, Sept 5-7, 2011

CTUG, Toronto, October

GTUG, Germany, Nov

Discover, Vienna, Nov 29 - 1 Dec

Tandemworld & LinkedIN

Tandemworld have created a Group on LinkedIN through which you can view the latest Tandemworld eNewsletter.

We cuurently have a number of highly experienced NonStop Specialists seeking new roles within the EMEA region. Should you have a requirement for a short term specialist (Contract) or a more longer term resource (Permanent) please Contact Us to enable us to assist you swiftly.

Please view this at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2602432&trk=hb_side_g

Tandemworld within EMEA

+44 (0) 20 8304 7979

info@tandemworld.net

www.tandemworld.net

To place article(s) within our future eNewsletters please Email us.

For Future Sponsorship opportunities please Email us.

Capacity Plan 2011

Your 2011 Capacity Plan

Ban Bottlenecks®:

Meet Us At DUST, PNUTS, and NENUG!

Published monthly, the Digest is free and lives at www.availabilitydigest.com. Please visit our Continuous Availability Forum on LinkedIn. We’re at 233 members and counting.