For almost a year now we have all seen slides in HPE NonStop presentations alluding to the third option for consuming NonStop – as a service. Looking at the complete picture, we can call up HPE and purchase a loaded NonStop X system that will meet all of our needs or we can opt instead to run virtualized NonStop, where we purchase the new converged virtualized NonStop, the NS2. But there is also an option to simply tap your friendly vendor on the arm and ask to run a couple of NonStop applications from the service the vendor is providing. For now, this is a little vague in terms of how to license and who will become one of those friendly vendors, but the die is cast. We will have three significant options to consider comes this time next year. There is no question that HPE has made a sizable investment in NonStop and no community is more surprised to read this than the NonStop community. After a decade of perceived indecision on the part of those close to NonStop it now appears ...