eNewsletter August 2010

Current Subscribers 12,014

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Contents

CSP announces new security product bundle to address System Attack Monitoring needs

Ross Systems International SAFEGUARD™ Reporting

Inviting Tandemworld Subscribers to the Itanium Innovation Awards

XYPRO TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION joins PCI Security Standards Council as newest Participating Organization

Gravic Is Pleased to Welcome PTESA as our South American Distributor of Shadowbase

CommitWork latest News

Win a $100 Visa Check Card

Get a Live Demo of SOAP/AM

Insider Technologies Limited – MultiBatch for HP NonStop Disaster Recovery

Availability Digest Says Poor Documentation Snagged Another Corporate Victim

OZTUG Meeting & Webinar

CSP announces new security product bundle to address System Attack Monitoring needs

Organizations experiencing data breaches often lack the required monitoring capabilities to detect suspicious behavior in time. Forensic examinations have often proven that malicious code has been residing on their IT systems for months – sometimes years – prior to being detected.

Having the ability to detect and isolate suspicious activities and react to them immediately is a fundamental prerequisite to be able to avoid the largest portion of costs attributed to such breaches.

By the time it becomes evident that confidential company or customer data is being abused, this information is already in the wrong hands. In the financial world this means, by the time fraudulent credit card transactions have been authorized, stolen credit card data have already been sold to criminal organizations, which actually started to use them. Most often, the actual intrusion on the payment systems had potentially already occurred months ago.

In order to help address these challenges, Computer Security Products has announced a new product bundle – the “Nonstop Intrusion Watchdog Suite” !

With the NonStop Intrusion Watchdog Suite you are able to:

·        Monitor and detect any command executed on your Nonstop system,

·        Analyze system activities for unauthorized usage patterns via your real-time intrusion monitoring engine,

·        Combine the usage pattern with changes in your system and application files by using Nonstop File Integrity Monitoring,

·        Feed the outcome into your centralized log management solution (RSA envision, Loglogic, ArcSight, HP CLW, etc.) and patch your Security Officer when needed,

·        Sleep well overnight, resting assured your intelligent intrusion detection solution is working for you, and will report to you on any items requiring attention

Learn more about what you can do to monitor your Nonstop system and detect suspicious activity by contacting sales@cspsecurity.com today !

Content : Computer Security Products Inc.
www.cspsecurity.com

Ross Systems International SAFEGUARD™ Reporting

Ross Systems International, have added comprehensive SAFEGUARD^TM reporting to their disk file reporting package and have produced a White Paper giving details of the new functionality.

Title:          Reporting HP NonStop (Tandem) SAFEGUARD^TM Protected Disk Files Using FINFO

Subject:     HP NONSTOP;     FILE SYSTEM;     SAFEGUARD;         SECURITY;

Author:      Rupert Stanley, Ross Systems International

Date:         8^th August 2010

Audience:   SECURITY MANAGERS AND SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS

Status:       VERY URGENT

Abstract:    SAFEGUARD is an HP NonStop(Tandem) proprietary product which is used to provide an extra layer of security to HP NonStop objects, such as Users, Processes, Devices and Disk Files.

SAFEGUARD protects Disk Files at the Volume, SubVolume and File Name Level by using a combination of:

1.   Access Control Lists, which contain information as to whether permission to access the objects is to be granted or denied based on user (group, number) and operation (read, write…).

2.   File Transaction Auditing Conditions, based on type (Access / Management), Outcome (Success or Failure) and Source (None, Local, Remote or All).

3.   File Status Information. i.e. whether the file is Licensed, ProgId’d, to be Cleared on Purge of if it is Persistent

This facility is very important is securing sensitive systems, particularly in the financial service industries, where there is a statutory obligation, and it provides a very competent facility for meeting these obligations.

Although the Auditing facilities are excellent there are several operational challenges in the status reporting mechanism which extensions to the RSI file information product FINFO address.

This white paper addresses these problems and shows how they are solved by FINFO Version 3.3.

Download:    WHITE PAPER

Product:        FINFO Version 3.3

Availability: Now.

Trial:            30 day trial license available Here

Email:           Rupert Stanley, rupert@rsi-ns.com

Telephone:    +44-1206-392923

Web:             http://www.rsi-ns.com/

Inviting Tandemworld Subscribers to the Itanium Innovation Awards

I'm the Community Manager for the Itanium Solutions Alliance and am responsible for running the Alliance's marketing programs and web properties, including the website (http://www.itaniumsolutions.org/) and Itanium Solutions blog (http://blog.itaniumsolutions.org/)

We have a big event coming up in San Francisco on September 14th -- the Itanium Innovation Awards. This event is held annually as a way to recognize innovative and compelling solutions developed on Itanium-based servers. Last year's winner, Kiwok Nordic, built their solution on NonStop. Two of this year's award finalists use NonStop and will be attending the awards event: Nordea Bank Finland and Future Electronics. The Awards Celebration will be held on the 32nd floor of the St. Francis Hotel on Union Square.

I'm now in the process of inviting people to the Awards Celebration and wanted to extend the invitation to the readers of the TandemWorld eNewsletter. Our hope is that you will see this as a good opportunity to learn more about these great solutions, for business networking, and for an enjoyable evening with with great views, food, music, and drinks.  

For further information please contact Brandon Wick - Community Manager - Itanium Solutions Alliance.

More information on the awards can be found HERE

XYPRO TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION joins PCI Security Standards Council as newest Participating Organization

XYPRO to participate in key standards setting body protecting payment cardholder data

Simi Valley, CA/USA, August 6, 2010 —XYPRO Technology Corporation, a leading provider of data security software and services for HP NonStop Server environments, announced today that it has joined the PCI Security Standards Council as a new participating organization.  As a Participating Organization, XYPRO will work with the Council to evolve the PCI Data Security Standard (DSS) and other payment card data protection standards. 

The PCI DSS, endorsed by American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc., requires merchants and service providers that store, process or transmit customer payment card data to adhere to information security controls and processes that ensure data integrity.  More information on the council and the standard can be found at www.pcisecuritystandards.org

As a Participating Organization, XYPRO will now have access to the latest payment card security standards from the Council, be able to provide feedback on the standards and become part of a growing community that now includes more than 500 organizations.  In an era of increasingly sophisticated attacks on systems, adhering to the PCI DSS represents an entity’s best protection against data criminals. By joining as a Participating Organization, XYPRO is adding its voice to the process.” 

“The PCI Security Standards Council is committed to helping everyone involved in the payment chain protect consumer payment data,” said Bob Russo, General Manager of the PCI Security Standards Council. “By participating in the standards setting process, XYPRO demonstrates they are playing an active part in this important end goal.”

“XYPRO is dedicated to helping businesses achieve unified security and compliance within their HP NonStop server environments,” said Sheila Johnson, CEO at XYPRO. “We are extremely excited to participate in the PCI Security Standards Council, as it further demonstrates our mission and commitment to closing the security gap.” 

About PCI Security Standards Council
The mission of the PCI Security Standards Council is to enhance payment account security by driving education and awareness of PCI security standards. For more information, please visit www.pcisecuritystandards.org

About XYPRO
XYPRO Technology offers more than 27 years of knowledge, experience and success in providing HP NonStop information systems tools and services.  Businesses that manage and transport business-critical data turn to XYPRO for a variety of solutions. XYPRO helps businesses to better manage security risks, protect assets and gain a competitive edge through compliance while improving efficiency.  www.xypro.com

Media contacts

XYPRO Technology                                 PCI Security Standards Council

Lisa Partridge                                              Ella Nevill

805-583-2874                                               781-876-6248

Lisa_P@xypro.com                                  enevill@pcisecuritystandards.org

Gravic Is Pleased to Welcome PTESA as our South American Distributor of Shadowbase

Gravic welcomes PTESA of Colombia as our South American distributor of Shadowbase software. PTESA is an accredited HP Business Partner and distributes and supports a range of complementary products for which it uses its extensive account management and technical skills to sell and support.

For more information, please visit: www.ptesa.com or contact Manuel Gutierrez at mgutierrez@ptesa.com or Freddy Oblitas at aoblitas@ptesa.com or Tel. +57 1 642 0003.

Please Visit Gravic at the Connect NonStop Symposium & Expo 2010

Please join us at the Connect Worldwide HP NonStop Symposium & Expo 2010, September 26-29 at the Fairmont Hotel & Resort in San Jose. This show is similar to the ITUG shows of the past, designed specifically for NonStop practitioners and managers, to hone your technical skills, sample HP and partner solutions, network with your community, and celebrate 35 years of NonStop innovation. Please stop by Booth 22 for a chance to win an Amazon Kindle.

While at the show, we hope that you can attend these presentations:

·        Shadowbase Data Replication Case Studies for Mission Critical Business Needs by Paul Holenstein and Dick Davis of Gravic

·        State-of-the-Art Async and Sync Replication: Advances in High and Continuous Availability Architectures for NonStop Systems (Two Parts) by Paul J. Holenstein and John Hoffmann of Gravic

·        Active/Active Failover by Bill Highleyman, Availability Digest

·        Active/Active Networks, a preconference seminar by Bill Highleyman, Availability Digest

·        The HP-AOL Modernization Success Story by Rob Lesan of AOL

·        Leveraging SQL/MX: Better-Cheaper-Faster by Jon Healey, Stream Phase3, a SunGard Company

Please Visit Gravic at these Fall 2010 Shows:

CTUG Fall Conference

Canadian Tandem User Group

HP Headquarters

Mississauga, Ontario

October 27-28

ACE Africa 2010: ACI Customer Exchange

ACI Africa User Group Conference

Hyatt Regency

Rosebank, Johannesburg, South Africa

November 3-4

BITUG National NonStop Meeting: The BIG SIG

British Isles NonStop User Group

HP Offices & Trinity House

London, England

December 1-2

For additional information about Gravic’s products and services, including free whitepapers on how Shadowbase data replication solutions can solve your company’s business continuity, data integration and synchronization, application modernization, and real-time business intelligence challenges, please visit: www.gravic.com/shadowbase.

CommitWork latest News

CommitWork Developer Suite for K-Series

You do not need the newest HP-NonStop hardware to use a modern IDE for your traditional software development. Customers tells us, that it works with a K-Series, too. Nice to know!

Our product allows traditional NonStop programmers to use the modern Eclipse IDE with COBOL85, Screen COBOL or TAL without changing their underlying development environment.

If you want to know more about “using Eclipse on NonStop”, please visit the presentation “When the last Cobol Programmer goes into Retirement” in San Jose ( Connect NonStop Symposium & Expo, San Jose, 27 September 10:45-11:45) or call us for a trial version..

CommitWork announces OmnivoBase with JBoss JEE5 Application-server on HP-NonStop Servers

OmnivoBase, our famous Java application environment is now available for the latest JBoss release. Now you can use a state of the art JEE application server on HP NonStop Server.

You have the choice to use OmnivoBase with NSJP, Tomcat, WebLogic 9.2 (J2EE 1.4 Specification) and now with JBoss AS 5 (JEE5 Specification).

If you want to know more about this topic, please visit the Java SIG in San Jose ( Connect NonStop Symposium & Expo, San Jose, 27 September 3:15-4:15).

You want to see this software live – visit us on the NonStop Expo, booth 32

Contact:

CommitWork GmbH

Hermannstrasse 53-57
D-44263 Dortmund, Germany

Fon: +49-231-941169-0
Fax: +49-231-941169-22
eMail:info@commitwork.de
www: http://www.commitwork.de

Win a $100 Visa Check Card

Taking NuWave Technologies' NonStop survey enters you for the chance to win a $100 Visa check card, valid everywhere that accepts Visa.

This simple online survey only takes about 2-3 minutes to fill out and provides NuWave with valuable information in the development of future HP NonStop products.

These products could benefit your organization and many others in the industry.

Please take a couple of minutes to complete this online questionnaire.

Get a Live Demo of SOAP/AM

Perhaps you've seen the webinars on SOA and Web services highlighting the many benefits of Web-enabling your NonStop applications. Now's your chance to watch a live demo of the products that provide these capabilities. NuWave's specialists will tailor a virtual meeting to your needs, whether you have already begun comparing products or you are simply curious about what SOAP/AM can bring to your organization.

SOAP/AM Server and SOAP/AM Web Service Client were featured in the Standish Group's "Roadmap to the Megaplex" as the solutions for NonStop application modernization. Application modernization if a term that you've probably heard many times. It is the process of changing an application so that it reflects the features and functions of current principles, processes and techniques. SOAP/AM actually builds Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) messages between the HP NonStop environment and other standard IT environments without making any changes to the existing code. There are four major uses for SOAP/AM:

1. It allows organizations to easily reuse applications and components through SOA.
2. It provides the ability to exchange information with coworkers, partners and customers easily and securely. It also allows you to build common data views and access external data sources, such as commercial Web services.
3. It enables you to migrate applications and components in an iterative and agile mode while maintaining a fully functional production environment.
4. It provides the capability to use your NonStop for mission-critical components currently running on less reliable platforms.

SOAP/AM also has many features that similar products lack:

• Standards-based
• Runs in Guardian
• Has security included in the price
• Utilizes modern technology versus client-server technology

Additionally, SOAP/AM has been on the market for several years, making it more mature than other offerings. Sign up now to schedule your live demonstration of this amazing product.

Insider Technologies Limited – MultiBatch for HP NonStop Disaster Recovery

The benefits of using Insider’s mainframe class batch scheduler are very familiar to the HP NonStop community and to our customers. However, what some “non-MultiBatch” users may not realise is that MultiBatch can not only improve your overall batch processing times but can also improve your site-swap and coldload SLAs:

• All maintenance is performed within MultiBatch - JCL, NBEXEC or TACL knowledge unnecessary.

• No AutoTMF, AutoSync, RDF or equivalent replication packages required. The MultiBatch database is TMF audited and the use of Conditional Parameters, Assign and Parameter Classes and the MultiBatch Migrator utility, makes it simple to keep your databases in sync.

• Various real-time monitoring facilities provided to keep you abreast on the status of your batch, across all of your MultiBatch nodes (Live, Standby, Trialling, Testing)

• Recovery of batch schedules to last point of failure

• MultiBatch controls the batch, not relying on JCL, NBEXEC or TACL changes, thereby helping to speed up the site-swap.

• Maintenance of the batch schedule between nodes is easily performed via the MultiBatch Migrator, again, requiring no JCL or TACL knowledge to modify the configuration when a site-swap is performed.

For further information on how MultiBatch can assist with improving your batch schedules, your system coldloads and your site-swap and in the process improve your SLAs, then please visit this link

For information on any of our products, please visit our website at www.insidertech.co.uk where you can also sign-up for our FREE newsletter or why not follow us at our new TWITTER account at http://www.twitter.com/insidertech

Insider Technologies Limited
Spinnaker Court
Chandlers Point
37 Broadway
Salford Quays
Manchester
M50 2YR
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 161 876 6606
Website: www.insidertech.co.uk

Email: support@insidertech.co.uk

Insider Technologies Limited is Quality Certified to ISO9001:2008 and TickIT.

All Trademarks acknowledged.

Availability Digest Says Poor Documentation Snagged Another Corporate Victim

Several months ago, it was Google that fell victim to faulty documentation for a failover procedure.  In July, it was DBS Bank’s turn.  One of the largest banks in Asia, Singapore-headquartered DBS lost its online banking system, its back-office systems, and its ATM and credit-card services on a busy banking day.  The culprit?  Outdated documentation used to make a routine repair resulted in a major, nine-hour outage that also triggered the failure of the backup systems.  Although the error was caused by employees of the company to whom DBS outsources its data-center operations, DBS was censured by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for “shortcomings and inadequate management oversight by the bank of its outsourced IT systems.”

Among other articles in the August issue, check out “Bank-Verlag – An Update.”  Bank-Verlag is responsible for the production of debit cards for German banks.  It also serves as a financial-transaction gateway for debit- and credit cards issued by any bank.   The workhorses for these functions are a pair of four-processor Integrity NS16000s using transaction replication in an active/active configuration.  An earlier, December 2006, Digest article on Bank-Verlag has been updated in this issue to reflect new information received by the Digest via our Linked In Continuous Availability Forum. 

Digest Managing Editor Dr. Bill Highleyman will be a presenter at the upcoming NonStop Symposium in San Jose, California, USA.  On September 26^th, join Bill for an all-day, preconference seminar - “Achieving Continuous Availability with Active/Active Networks.”  You can also hear him speak on “Active/Active Fast Failover” on Monday, September 27^th, at 2pm. 

Published monthly, the Digest is free and lives at www.availabilitydigest.com.  Our new “Useful Links” page is a great resource for use in the online research of products and services focused on high- and continuous availability and mission-critical systems. 

BrightStrand NonStop Services

AppViewXS

Hello NonStop Aficionados

Kapiti Technologies signs 2 new distribution agreements

Ban Bottlenecks®

NonStop - A Running Commentary August, ‘10

Integrated Research announces in-depth sessions at San Jose NonStop Symposium

comForte: The Ongoing Challenge called PCI

Connect NonStop Symposium and Expo

BITUG

TandemWorld

BrightStrand NonStop Services   

BrightStrand International continues to deliver NonStop Services to its customer base. Its consultants have the skill and experience that make it the premier service deliverer in the sector. Services are tailored to individual customer needs.

Also by working closely with customers BrightStrand develop products to address customers’ needs, such as BrightStrand Netbatch/DR. This is a product that allows the customer to create a simple, automated disaster recovery solution for the HP NetBatch environment. 

BrightStrand continues to deliver a full range of services that include:

·       Systems and Operations Management

·       Performance and Tuning

·       Database Design and Administration

·       Communications Subsystems

·       Web Services

·       Security Reviews

·       IBM WebSphere MQ Series environments.

·       NonStop Integrity Migrations

·       System Healthchecks (Pre or Post-Migration)

·       Ad hoc skills and resources

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.

AppViewXS

See how our AppViewXS modernization solution supports a phased approach that provides dramatic results, while being both safe and cost-effective. 

As Sanjib Guhathakurta, Sr. Product Manager for NonStop SOA and JAVA, pointed out in a recent Connections Magazine article,

“The point is that your user interface can be modernized without impacting your business services layer, thus making your approach non-intrusive and low-risk.”   

Join organizations like USBank, the US Government, and Hellenic Bank, to name a few, who have successfully deployed our product to thousands of users. 

To learn more about the features and capabilities of AppViewXS please read “Turbo Charge your Legacy Migration Project”, by Mike Chan, Senior Software Engineer, Crystal Point.

 Whitepaper Here

Hello NonStop Aficionados

In conjunction with the upcoming NonStop Symposium, this is to confirm CAIL will be participating in this important event to support the community and provide insights on improving information services with Security, Application Modernization, Enterprise Connectivity and Web Services capabilities.  

Some examples of how organizations are moving systems forward include – 

1.  Improving systems security in many organizations by activating CAIL Suite encryption capabilities for secure sessions (with all Clients) and file transfers.

2.   Simplifying systems and improving User productivity at a large manufacturer with the CAIL ActiveX control inside their Browser.  Previously for a User to provide details on an order required they start a session, log in, navigate to the correct Pathway screen, enter the order number, and get the required information.  Now, there was no need to install software on each desktop since the CAIL Control is downloaded automatically the first time a User connects, and from then on is run from the cache (unless a new software version is sensed).   Extending on this, a small change to the order entry application to make the order number into a link that starts the CAIL session and passes it the order number and get the User to the order detail page (on the NonStop host).   Now, once validated, Users are automatically logged in and maintain a connection with the business information.  Importantly, the Customer was able to develop, test and deploy the new system within 2 months.

 3.  A Midwest company is using CAIL to modernize their NonStop application after a previous attempt with another product failed.  In this case, Users had many sessions running to the NonStop application. This was dramatically improved by integrating CAIL in their new development environment written in C#  to provide a single system view for the Users.  In conjunction with this modernization initiative, the Customer is using Microsoft ClickOnce to streamline deployment of the application via the web or a network share where the applications run in a “sandbox” with limited system access (for greater security).  In addition, to empower Users, ClickOnce enables ActiveX controls to be used without having them registered - so the User can install the application without requiring admin rights.

4.    A municipal agency uses CAIL to increase responsiveness for emergencies by validating an address – before a vehicle is dispatched.  Previously, when callers provided incorrect address information, significant time and money would be wasted and safety was jeopardized. When updated with CAIL, after entering the address,  the Emergency Services Operator hits a special button on the toolbar that launches a small application to retrieve the address from the screen and sends the information to another application (on another Server) for validation -  which returns “Address OK” if valid, or, provides alternative addresses if unable to confirm the original one (similar to Google Maps if you type in a wrong address).  In this case, the operator collaborates with the caller to determine the correct address and the system inserts the information into the field on the screen automatically.

5.  Improving disaster contingency at a Bank with CAIL on a Web Server so that users can access the backup NonStop system from any PC. This is achieved by the User going to a Website and click on an icon for whichever system they need to connect to, and have the session inside their Browser.

To summarize,  these capabilities deliver significant advantages including - a simplified systems environment for users, greater program control of business process, an easy and very economical solution to encrypt data in motion, more comprehensive reports, easy and quick information access, enhance application presentation, be part of an enterprise standard for Host access, leverage information on NonStop systems to address new business needs, etc. - without backend changes, to fast track moving systems forward, significantly reduce risk, and save money. 

And for something new, CAIL is expanding into providing Application Performance Management to extend the capabilities of current system management products.  The focus is improving the User experience with systems with End-User response time metrics, extended system performance analytics, and more comprehensive reporting to IT technical personnel.  For those interested in better assuring a quality User experience and having additional insights to ensure responsive systems, we look forward to discussing CAIL APM with you at the conference.  

In closing, we at CAIL look forward to meeting many friends and colleagues at the upcoming NonStop Symposium, and having the opportunity to assist organizations to further improve information services.  For more insights, please visit  www.cail.com/adapt  or contact CAIL at  info@cail.com  or  call  800-668-5769 X221  or  905-940-9000 X221.

Kapiti Technologies signs 2 new distribution agreements

In line with its intention of proving a range of complementary NonStop software Kapiti Technologies has rounded out its offerings by signing 2 further distribution agreements.

We are delighted to have entered into agreements with:-

ü   Gravic – Shadowbase rock-solid database replication

ü   Quality Systems Assurance (QSA) – media management for tape based or virtual systems

You can find more information on these and our other products by clicking on the link http://www.kaptek.co.nz/category/nonstop or contacting us:-

Email:  info@kaptek.co.nz;     knixon@kaptek.co.nz;

Phone: Office +64 49052400; Mobile +64 21564966

Ban Bottlenecks®

Ah, yes, customers!

Providing IT services would be really easy if one didn’t have to deal with customers. We could take as much time as we needed to develop the application, debug it, and tune it. Without customers there wouldn’t be demand on the system, and there probably wouldn’t be any performance problems.  On the other hand, we would be impoverished, since there wouldn’t be a revenue stream either.

Customers are a necessary evil.

So customers are a necessary evil.  It’s a happy problem to have, since the more customers there are, theoretically the more revenue there is, and we can all draw our salaries.  On the other hand, customers can create system problems, either individually or in the aggregate. 

Understand, anticipate, and prevent!

Ban Bottlenecks will implement a discipline which shows you what your customers are doing to your systems, how your systems are responding, and what you need to do to prevent slowdowns and outages. One system or dozens. NonStop and other architectures.

Contact Us For A Free System Audit

assist@banbottlenecks.com

1.415.256.8369

www.banbottlenecks.com

Visit us at the NonStop Conference in San Jose in September!

NonStop - A Running Commentary

August, ‘10

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

It is increasingly more difficult for manufacturers to cover all the bases and provide products that meet everyone’s needs, no matter how deep are their financial pockets. There’s no longer any certainty over any technology or process, and at every stage a competitor can easily come up with something that renders years of investments null and void – effectively relegating to the trashcan the sum of years of investments. Risks are unavoidable and there’s little that can be done to completely eliminate them, but in turning to partners and pursuing cooperative development can help lessen the gamble that needs to be taken.

I am reminded of how difficult it has become whenever I attend car shows and walk among the stands displaying new models. So much effort has gone into their development and yet, who can tell which will prove to be a winner in the marketplace. Could anyone have predicted how popular today’s range of “cubes”, essentially crude boxes on wheels, without a single flowing curve and any attempt whatsoever to depict something other than a utilitarian people-mover capable of modestly navigating between points A and B!

In my very early years in IT I worked at the local steelworks, macro engineering at its best. But even within this industry there was always uncertainties about what steel products would be required at any point of time. There could be a rush on galvanized steel, only to be followed by demands on painted steel. The downside to any changes in the marketplace was that space had to be found to store sizable inventories of steel coils, in many instances these coils were stacked unwanted for many years and ultimately returned to the smelters.

It was against this background that I recently came across an editorial in the August 2010 issue of the magazine Automobile that opened with the statements “like high-stakes gamblers with finite bankrolls and three-alarm substance-abuse habits, ruination always lies just around the corner for small volume carmakers like Jaguar. Or so we have been told.” For most of my adult life, I have admired Jaguar cars from a distance and have come close to buying one on two separate occasions, but have never quite managed to talk myself around to making the investment.

I can’t think of another car manufacturer that has fallen on hard times yet somehow, still managed to remain relevant. Winning awards for quality, as happened recently with Jaguar winning an award from the J.D. Power organization for “dependability and owner satisfaction”, can only be viewed as miraculous! Yet winning awards can easily push a manufacturer further up the ranks in terms of community awareness and helps raise their profile, when otherwise their products may easily be forgotten.

The editorial in Automobile then went on to say “admittedly, every roll of the dice counts for more when your pockets are shallow, which observation has led many to conclude that building luxury cars can only be a game for those with high-rise billfolds. Indeed, for years we’ve been assured that salvation for the world’s exclusive carmakers lies in becoming less exclusive by urgent multiplication of volume – leading us to the present moment where the ever-expanding sales targets of luxury brands such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz (and to a lesser extent, Porsche) all but require them to crank production like General Motors puking out full-size Chevrolets in its 1960s heyday.”

In many ways, reading these observations brought me very quickly around to NonStop and the business of sustaining the relevance of the NonStop platform. Apart from IBM’s mainframe (and to a lesser extent, System I that’s now an integral part of IBM Power Systems) the NonStop platform remains the only small-volume server manufacturers and while it may be discomforting to some to consider the NonStop platform akin to some of the small-volume cars, , the parallels are made to miss: budgets are always constrained and the final breadth of offering targeted at only subsets of the marketplace.

However, partnerships have always been an important consideration when it comes to server vendors and today, the ecosystem of partners surrounding any server platform help offset the risks dramatically. Pick the right partner, particularly one with deep pockets and well-connected to the industry, and it frees up research dollars for other areas where product features can be the difference between life and death. Anyone with any length of time spent in IT can easily recount the dozens of computer manufacturers who have faulted over the years – Wang, Prime, Data General, Amdahl, Control Data, Honeywell, among some of the more familiar names.

Perhaps the biggest and most recognizable strength with NonStop has been the decision to distance itself from the Risc chip manufacturers and go with Intel. While it was clear that HP itself was all for such an alignment, the choice was immediate for the NonStop developers and entailed considerable additional effort to embrace. Selecting a true 64-bit engine in Intel’s Itanium offerings, and piggy-backing onto Intel’s product roadmap has ensured that today’s NonStop is grounded in an industry standard as well as capable of supporting the modern infrastructure and solutions enterprise customers demand. As I continue to talk with NonStop users, while there had been some earlier concerns about the transition, today there’s barely any user who thinks the decision to build new NonStop servers around Intel Itanium was anything other than a good decision.

Intel, too, is very pleased to see HP and indeed, the HP NonStop platform, elect to embrace Itanium. When the first Itanium servers were announced Intel even took full page advertisements in the Wall Street Journal welcoming the NonStop platform under the general heading, as I recall, of how the most demanding applications are now running on Intel. While many within the IBM community like to argue over the merits of the Power chip, it’s still pretty hard to gamble against Intel. Supporting vendors deploying Itanium processors, Intel created the Itanium Solutions Alliance in 2005 and has successfully grown an ecosystem of Itanium system vendors, software companies, and systems integrators.

To celebrate some of the innovative solutions built on platforms using the Itanium chip, including the NonStop server, Intel started an awards program a few years later, in 2007, “as a way to highlight some of the really innovative and impactful work being done on Itanium in all areas of enterprise and research. Anyone running an application on an Itanium based system was invited to submit for the awards program, though in order to be selected a winner or finalist, you need to beat out a very competitive field,” Brandon Wick, Intel’s Community Manager, Itanium Solutions Alliance, told me recently.

“The Itanium Solutions Alliance would like to invite the TandemWorld subscribers to join industry leaders in enterprise and technical computing, Alliance sponsor executives, award finalists, and industry press and analysts for hors d'oeuvres, cocktails, and live music as we honor innovation and achievement in solving computing challenges using Intel Itanium technology,” Wick responded recently. He then added “the fourth-annual Itanium Innovation Awards Celebration event is being held at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco on September 14th from 5:00 - 8:00 pm.”

I really have come to like the decision the NonStop server team have made in going with Intel and Itanium. I can recall the first time I worked with early Tandem models and how proud engineers were of the custom-designed and manufactured chips they used. There was even a small chip fabrication facility on the old Tandem campus – somewhere in Building 1 on Vallco Parkway, I was led to believe. Those days are long gone and building partnerships with vendors such as Intel is what’s really called for – particularly when it comes to low volume product lines such as NonStop. Look for a post to the Real Time View blog on this topic shortly!

When it came to Jaguar and the editorial in Automobile, the author closed with “perhaps it was the Ford money. Allied, of course, to some serious engineering wizardry. But then again, as (founder, Sir William) Lyons proved way back when, there’s something about a gambler whose very existence depends on success that increases the odds of succeeding. When you have to care, dare you must. Big isn’t necessarily better.”

For many years I have worked very closely with the vendor community and with regional groups globally and I have to think that these sentiments of Lyons wouldn’t be too far removed from what we all associated with Tandem and with Jimmy T, and with all that that has paved the way for the success of the NonStop platform we see today!

Richard Buckle

Founder and CEO

Pyalla Technologies, LLC

Email:                                                  richard@pyalla-technologies.com

Real Time View blog: 

    http://real-time-view.blogspot.com

comForte Lounge blog:          

 http://comfortelounge.blogspot.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

Integrated Research announces in-depth sessions at San Jose NonStop Symposium

Integrated Research, the people behind PROGNOSIS, have announced that they will present two sessions at the San Jose NonStop Symposium on September 26-29. The sessions will focus on new and developing areas of concern for NonStop technical users, around Payment Service Management, and end-to-end , host-to-array monitoring for HP StorageWorks XP Arrays.

Shaun Clowes, Product Manager for NonStop and Payments for Integrated Research, will present a session on how to ensure a real time view of critical financial transaction systems running on NonStop. The session will include detail on how to troubleshoot transaction problems, cross-platform transaction management (for out of the box and in-house developed financial applications) and how real time transaction insight can assist businesses grappling with the difficulties of platform migration. This session will take place on Tuesday Sept 28, 9.30-10.30am.

Ben Berger, Product Manager for Platform and Application Management for Integrated Research, will present a session on managing XP Array storage environments. The session will concentrate on how to decrease operating costs through better management and insight into ineffective use of storage and cache utilization. This session will take place on Wednesday Sept 29, 9.30-10.30am.

Both sessions will include the opportunity to discuss the issues involved in-depth and ask questions of two experts in their respective fields.

Along with the sessions, Integrated Research will be demonstrating new PROGNOSIS product features for Payments (including new solutions presented in conjunction with ACI Worldwide), NonStop and XP Arrays at their booth at the Symposium.

For more information, see www.prognosis.com/symposium

comForte: The Ongoing Challenge called PCI

 The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard isn’t by any means new, but the process of being audited and achieving compliance still represents a significant challenge for many organizations in the payments industry today. Initially unveiled in late 2004, PCI represented the first common security standard under which all the credit card issuers’ individual security policies would be aligned - meaning merchants, processors, and financial institutions would be assessed according to a single standard.

PCI compliance remains an important priority for many organizations today. Studies show that initiatives for achieving PCI compliance are not trivial in nature, with costs that can reach as high as several million dollars. What’s more, most organizations enter into such an initiative with completely different expectations for costs than what they end up spending. Certainly, this is due in some part to the fact that these PCI initiatives are the first for any given organization, which can make accurate planning and budgeting difficult. This  discrepancy also is partly due to some fundamental challenges organizations encounter when applying some of the 12 standards. This is especially true for organizations with NonStop server environments. For NonStop security administrators , the challenges of adhering to PCI can be grouped into the following four categories:

• Encrypting Network Traffic

• Encrypting Data in Databases

• Encrypting Backup Tapes

• Managing Access Control and Auditing

comForte offers a broad array of security products that can help organizations ensure that all sensitive payment data is protected, both in transit and as it is saved in storage. As a result, comForte makes it easier and more cost effective to gain compliance with the PCI standard in NonStop environments.

If you would like to find out more about how comForte can help you to tackle PCI compliance please go to www.comforte.com/PCI.

Come and see us at the following events:

·        Connect NonStop Symposium, Sept 26-29, San Jose

·        CTUG, Oct 27-28, Mississauga, Canada

·        ACE Asia Pacific, Nov 2-4, Bali

·        ACE South Africa, Nov 2-4, Johannesburg

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Join the NEW comForte Lounge Blog and discussion group - check it out!

Connect NonStop Symposium and Expo

September 27-19, San Jose, California.

Don't miss this opportunity to meet the NonStop experts, hear about the future of NonStop from HP executives and talk one-on-one to partners at the expo! The event will feature pre-conference seminars, technical sessions, keynotes, community lounge, expo and networking opportunities - all focused around NonStop.

For sponsorship opportunities contact Norm Wisler nwisler@mrvica.com or phone: 001.856.768.9360   

For more information, visit the website

Click here for more on the Agenda

BITUG

The next BITUG SIG covers Migration and Solutions, 13th October.
www.bitug.com
 

Tandemworld

Tandemworld are specialist recruiters of NonStop / Tandem Permanent and Cntract Resources. Please consult our vacancy pages for current live roles :-

EMEA : http://www.tandemworld.net/recruitment.html

Americas :

http://www.tandemworld.net/usacanada.html

AsiaPac :

http://www.tandemworld.net/asiapac.html

If you have roles or projects please email us your requirements HERE

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