Down the road, IT will want information accumulating on NonStop; with DRNet all of IT gets to see this most valuable of resources – data!

It continues to be a story about RUG events both large and small. In the coming weeks focus too will be shifting to Europe as BITUG and the GTUG events will be taking place. We will be attending both of these events with a presentation on NTI and DRNetplanned for GTUG. While we are in Europe we are planning on visiting a number of DRNet users so we will be catching up with many of you. It is always a pleasure meeting with customers so this will be an intense period for us where we look forward to hearing more about your plans for NonStop.

In recent conversations with industry leaders it is very clear that the IT landscape continues to evolve. HPE likes to call what is happening a transformation, but for the NonStop community that we interact with the paths being taken by them are as varied as the applications they support. While financial institutions and telcos are the two big verticals where you will find NonStop applications, there is still a large percentage of NonStop users in other verticals – travel, manufacturing and distribution and transportation. As such, some NonStop users in one vertical are rushing to NonStop X while yet others are looking to virtualized NonStop (vNS) even as there are still many NonStop users quite content to ride it out for a few more years on NonStop i / Itanium blades.

However diverse are these deployments of NonStop there is still one common denominator and that is data. Data remains the most valuable resource on NonStop systems and as valuable a resource that it is, IT is looking at finding ways to open up access to data on NonStop so it can be included in broader analysis schemes. Ignoring the data captured in real time by end-users engaged in the moving, supplying or buying / cashing-out of products, services and financial instruments including cash will only lessen the value inherent within any results that may be produced. Understanding behavior even as patterns are recognized is fundamental to the success of any business today and this is openly recognized by NTI – DRNet is all about interacting with data as a precious resource of IT and the business.

It is also recognized by NTI that within IT the analysis are typically performed on open systems – Linux, Unix and Windows platforms. With the creation of DRNet/OPEN we have made it very easy for this critical resource accumulated on NonStop systems, data, to be ingested by analytics products whether directly or by feeding NonStop data to data warehouses and data lakes. For as long as NonStop systems have been in existence there has always been movement of data. Initially, it was simply pushing data from another system to NonStop as it populated tables and files but today, while this continues to be a requirement for some applications, the reverse is proving to be even more important. When one vendor we have seen giving presentations at recent RUG events talks of an enterprise processing a billion transactions a month on their NonStop systems, the data being accumulated will likely influence many business decisions taken down the road. Moving data off NonStop has simply become a “must-do” requirement and as such, is becoming instrumental in ensuring NonStop continues to play a prominent role in the services that IT provides.

It isn’t a giant leap of faith to recognize just how important is having the right solution for moving data to where it needs to go – to replicate for disaster avoidance and to integrate for successful analytics. Data is not just a byproduct of a transaction, but rather, the beginning of accumulated knowledge on both the product or service provided and the end user preferences. There is already mounting evidence that metadata is becoming more important than the data – knowing a can of cola was sold is one thing; knowing it’s placement relative to competing products is another, even more important thing! DRNet and DRNet/OPEN are designed to better facilitate all movement of data and as such, are being recognized as optimal solutions offering the least TCO while generating the best ROI. And this is possibly the best piece of data you will have come across in reading this article!

Once again, we will be active in all RUG events in all regions this coming quarter. We will be providing updates for everyone on both DRNet and DRNet/OPEN. And you will find us being only too happy to discuss how best we can address your needs for data replication and data integration, so find time to catch us to hear more about the success we are enjoying when it comes to moving that most precious of all resources – your data!

                                                                                                                                                                                    (Reposted from NonStop Insider digital publication: April, 2018 )