Tandemworld eNewsletter for July 2015

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Tandemworld eNewsletter for July 2015

NuWave Technologies' most recent presentation, "Integrating NonStop Applications with Web Services," is now available for download. View the slides to learn how you can integrate information from Web services into your HP NonStop applications, as well as how you can use Web services to share data with other platforms. 

OmniPayments, Inc. is the host of ITUGLIB, a downloadable library with a wealth of software utilities, both legacy NonStop and Open Source.  OmniPayments provides space, maintenance, power, and bandwidth at no cost to the NonStop community.  http://bit.ly/1D3mn8j.

OmniPayments, Inc. (www.omnipayments.com) is the product arm of Opsol Integrators Inc., a leading HP NonStop system integrator. For further information, contact Yash Kapadia at +1 408-446-9274 or at yash@omnipayments.com. 

It was a matter of packing up the company command center with food and drinks, loading into the wardrobes suitable business attire, and making sure all the tanks that needed fluids were full and those that didn’t were empty. Then it was a matter of checking the maps and heading out – this moth we bracketed a number of user events and vendor meetings that have seen us on the road for three weeks. We extended our range considerably by hooking up the trailer with a car we could use to commute and even though this made our vehicle rather long, and hence limited the number of places where we could park, we liked having the option to drive anywhere we wanted.

Looking at the setup from the driver’s seat, the company command center (or simply, the RV, as it’s also known) suffers from a distinct lack of useful driver feedback. As with our office designs, there’s a predisposition for most involved in technology to demand a pair of monitors at a minimum, so why not have the same set up across the dashboard of our RV? There’s plenty of room up front and as long as it didn’t obstruct the view, why not? The dual monitors displaying the route – one showing the roads (with the right lanes to be in highlighted) the other, a satellite view so as to be aware of obstructions like overhanging branches or changing road surfaces are very much missing!

Not too much to ask, and definitely anything that leverages technology I already use on a daily basis would be a god-send. I’m just impatient about using a device with its interface standing in the way of what I need to do and the same should be true whenever we jump behind the wheel of our favorite vehicle. After all, I now know about apps and the functions of various keys and can interact with in a minimalistic way, without the process being too disruptive. Driving past big 18-wheelers it’s quickly apparent that nearly all of them contain an integrated laptop with monitor and keyboard fully visible –I don’t need the keyboard these days, just two really big monitors!

Reading the August 2015 issue of the magazine, Motor Trend – one of my newfound primary sources for all things technical – Editor-in-Chief, Edward Loh, writes of connecting cars. And in his closing remarks he states, “For (Qualcomm’s SVP of automotive production, Nakul) Duggal, the ubiquity and rapid evolution of the smartphone make it the high tech pacesetter in an ecosystem that seamlessly connects everything in your smart home (from your smart refrigerator to LED lightbulbs) to your wearables (health monitoring watch and clothing) to yes, your car: ‘I can't imagine that the car will be relevant for you as a connected device if it will not coexist on the same larger platform as your phone.’”

Furthermore, writes Loh, “Duggal understands that it's quite a scary thing for carmakers to contend with: “‘It's not their business,’ he says. But it will have to be, because some very powerful outsiders are working with the auto industry to set the connected car agenda.” Now, from my perspective as someone who simply derives pleasure from driving and wants nothing standing in the way of the actual task of assuming control of the vehicle, it’s become the business of car manufacturers to “accommodate the seemingly endless array of technologies that continue to pop up from all directions.”

But what of the other way round? No, not whether our computers should become more car-like in the way we use them, but rather, what’s inside our data center. Should these systems loose relevance for us, as an accessible, “connected, device if it will not coexist on the same larger platform as your phone?” If we walk to the console of the latest NonStop system, should it indeed be as easy to access and indeed parallel to some extent, the way we use our smartphones or tablets? In fact, should our latest NonStop system come with a console at all, just a smart wireless way to connect to our smartphone, tablet or even wearable device?

To some extent, this has been a reoccurring theme of conversations I have had with several folks at IR looking at ways to streamline the use of their premier applications management and monitoring solution, Prognosis. The realization is that almost everyone in IT is on the move and this includes operations staff. A recent visit deep inside the bowels of one of HP’s massive data centers, where the ATC systems are installed, there’s no evidence of any consoles at all – it’s all remote and so essentially, could be viewed from practically any device out there capable of emulating a Prognosis console and this is exactly what I expect to see develop further in the coming years. No, a NonStop system as we know it today will not be relevant if we cannot work with it just as we interface to any other device we rely upon, and that increasingly has become our phone.

Likewise, even earlier, comForte CTO Thomas Burg demonstrated access to an application on NonStop via mobile phone – something he demoed at a number of events, as I recall. However, before we get too carried away with all of this remember, the substance of what is written here was influenced by a car magazine and yet, as you throw the data center doors open even wider, there’s the Internet of Things about to make an even bigger splash on IT. “Whatever you saw yesterday will be irrelevant two years from now as far as technology goes,” says Duggal. “Once the automotive industry realizes that embracing an ecosystem that keeps their products and their customers much more current, they'll have happier customers. They'll have much more interesting experiences to offer.” And catering for our own customers interesting experiences is what will continue to drive IT forward and NonStop needs to be on top of its game to stay relevant.

The RV is now back in Boulder with a little over 4,000 miles added to the odometer. As for the car we towed with us, it added another 1,000 miles over the three weeks. Shortly the RV will go in for a minor service as we repair a couple of odds and ends but will we be adding the big screens as I would like to do? Unfortunately, no! It’s just not going to happen – but if I can mount a couple of tablet holders I may just be able to repurpose some older iPads we have lying around the house. Driving our command center based on input from some familiar old friends - well, that might just do the trick. 

Richard Buckle
Founder and CEO

Pyalla Technologies, LLC
Email:             richard@pyalla-technologies.com

At DataExpress we have always believed in the saying “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” because the products we have in both in NonStop as well as Open Systems quietly go about their daily business moving critical files to where they need to be moved, managed, on time, automatically and securely. In fact the only time you hear from our products is when something did not go as scheduled.

In our industry, marketing has never been a fixed discipline; simply cranking out the same message, day after day. Unless, of course, you are in the soap business which clearly, technology is far removed from – if we turn away from our market for only a moment the world changes around us often in dramatic and unexpected ways. However, perhaps the world of marketing is coming around to how we have done business for as long as we have been in business; what real customers are doing with a solution counts for far more today than ever before.

 

From a direct marketing perspective, we are more reliant on what transpires at user events around the world where presentations are given that highlight our capabilities to audiences we are sure haven’t heard the complete story. We have been on the perimeter of many companies radars and that’s been mostly due to our reliability. No dramas or alarms, and we are soon pretty much out of the limelight at most sites, which is how our customers like it. At the recent N2TUG NonStop regional user group meeting, here in Dallas, we elected to have Pyalla Technology, LLC, Cofounder and CEO present on our behalf and this is consistent with how we have traditionally marketed DataExpress.

With so many products in the marketplace the only tangible differentiator that all prospective customers readily identify with is the references that come from actual users. And when it comes to securely managing the movement of files from one system to another, nothing could be simpler, or so it would seem on paper or the whiteboard. And yet, so much can go wrong – an automated process fails to kick off somewhere along the path, a new release of software can be introduced without ensuring all dependent products continue to work, costly SLA’s can be missed or a network software upgrade brings down a complete data center as we just witnessed this past week at the New York Stock Exchange.

Yes, so much can go wrong – and when it does, it can cost not just the reputations but real money. Dealing with any government always comes with a cost. Mess up and you have to pay up and it’s only through the presentations by those exceedingly pleased with being left out of the spotlight that others get to know of a proven product’s qualities and DataExpress is no exception on that score. With DataExpress, so much goes right that there will always be a marketplace for the solution, and this is where the changing world of marketing may be of benefit to customers and prospects of DataExpress.

In our most recent post to the News / Blog pages on the DataExpress website: EVENTS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE….

 

Reference is made to the arrival of lower cost, entry-level members of the just announced NonStop X family of systems. Based on the Intel x86 architecture, their support of industry standards at much lower price points will ensure more widespread deployment and in many situations, this will include NonStop X deployed in the former domain of smaller distributed data processing systems, many of which have long outlived their usefulness. But the availability of DataExpress on both NonStop and Open Platforms will ensure news about deployment on either one will reach the other. Our marketing program will continue with just the simple task of ensuring the story is told in a presentation or a feature article.

It may be an unfair accusation to simply write-off marketing as many in that discipline are exceptional at what they do, but just as IT folks have always gravitated to Silicon Valley, marketing types head to Madison Avenue. Not to Poughkeepsie or Flower Mound or even St Paul! But we can travel and we can highlight customer successes and in the end, even as the world of marketing continues to turn and pay greater attention to the customer (versus the image or the fad), this is what we truly welcome – look for us at the next event you attend as we will likely have a presence and yes, talk to us and hear of more of what we do in the real world, with real customers solving real file transmission problems with minimal fanfare! 

Contact Info:

1401 Shoal Creek, Suite 250, Highland Village, TX 75077
email:                   sales@dataexpress.com

Sales:                    972-899-3476
Corporate:          972-899-3460

A little over halfway through 2015, and it’s shaping up to be a great year for XYPRO.  HP’s acquisition of our longtime partner Voltage Security has boosted interest in this critical data security technology, and we’re talking to many customers about how XYGATE Data Protection optimizes Voltage for the HP NonStop.  We’ve also been keeping busy with new releases of our software to support the new NonStop X Server, and have the first of our customers going live on this platform currently.  Our other product development is also continuing at the usual high velocity, so things are busy!

Maintaining this pace takes lots of great people, and while our current team is awesome, they need help!  We have a number of exciting job openings currently advertised on our careers page at:

https://www.xypro.com/xypro/about_us/Careers

We have positions available in sales, development, QA and sales support – if any of the job descriptions seem like something you could get your teeth into, please send your resume to jobs@xypro.com 

www.tandemworld.net

+44 (0) 20 8304 7979

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