November 2006 Newsletter Sponsored by
Tandemworld Newsletter
for November 2006
Contents Panda Bears Show High Return and High Risk How Much Will Active/Active Cost Me? Why Consider
Active/Active Data Replication? New product from GreenHouse available: Disk Wipe ACI to Provide Faster Payments Service Gateway for
Lloyds TSB OPTA-Alert
from TANDsoft now available
ETI-NET extends Data De-duplication to NonStop
ACI Worldwide Completes
Compatibility Testing with Banksys DEP HSMs
Availability Digest Promotes 100% Uptime November 2006 / Non-Stop Equipment Prices Increase TapeLabs: More than Just VTL Gresham Computing released v 4.4.3 of (TOP) - The
Operations Pack (November 2006)
NTI gets carried away at ITUG
Looking for Rita Abreau
ITUG News
Employment
Panda Bears Show High Return and High Risk
by Jim Johnson
And play a key role in helping to improve IT project leadership skills
The Standish Group estimates that in 2004, U.S. businesses spent 100 billion dollars on marginal and inactive requirements for new and revised software applications. We had a theory that considering cost, risk and gain would help determine the priority of requirements and reduce failures.
The Standish Group has been collecting case information on real-life IT environments and software development projects since 1985. Standish’s cumulative research encompasses 12 years of data on why projects succeed or fail, representing more than 50,000 completed IT projects. Through CHAOS University, The Standish Group has hosted almost 500 workshops, as well as focus groups, project ”group therapy” sessions, and executive retreats that focus on particular issues of project management.
The following excerpt from my new book, My Life is Failure (Standish Group International, 2006), illustrates the risk/reward idea as it relates to requirements.
Sometimes you keep the panda bear; sometimes you don’t. Consider cost, risk, and gain collectively in your decision-making.
To test our theory and find out how it might work, we conducted three workshops at one of our CHAOS University events and followed it up with several other events. At each event the group broke into groups of five to 10 participants. We set up a program to build a zoo called Cat Mountain Zoo. Cat Mountain Zoo had five exhibit projects, such as a bird aviary. Each of the exhibit projects had five requirements: for example, the monkey compound project had accommodations for chimpanzees, baboons, spider monkeys, gorillas, and lemurs. The Bear River exhibit included a panda bear.
Every requirement was assigned a cost, a return rate, a net gain, a risk percent, and the amount of money at risk. There are a few ways to calculate money at risk. In our workshop, we used the project cost, added the average overrun, and multiplied by the percent of risk. The total cost of the program was $5 million. In the first workshop the participants’ task was to reduce the cost to $4 million while maximizing the net gain. One person from each of the groups was given a project; the remaining participants were users. For the most part, the groups accomplished the first task fairly easily. For example, every group kept the panda bear, which had the highest return rate and a solid net gain.
In the second workshop, the task was to reduce the money at risk while cutting the budget to $4 million dollars. The risk had to be cut from almost $2 million to $1 million. Again, the groups worked hard and, after some negotiating, got their risk down to under a million. It should be noted that the first animal to go was the panda bear, which also had the highest risk.
In the third workshop, the task was to maximize the return and minimize the risk. This proved to be a most daunting task. The panda bear turns out to be a pivotal decision since it represented the highest cost, risk, and gain. Those who could tolerate higher risk kept the panda bear, while others sent it back to China. As the teams worked, they realized in order to optimize your requirements you must look at the aspects of cost, risk, and gain.
My Life is Failure, a summation of more than a decade of work on project failure, looks at 100 things project managers can do to improve their chances of success. The above excerpt is one of the 100 points. Standish’s mission is to make you, the IT professional, more successful and help improve the value of your IT investments and project leadership skills.
Johnson is the founder and chairman of The Standish Group. He has been professionally involved in the computer industry for over 30 years and has a long list of published papers, articles and speeches. More information about the company and My Life is Failure can be obtained at www.standishgroup.com. Click on the Store link.
How Much Will Active/Active Cost Me?
October 2006
How much will an active/active system cost me? What will be its total cost of ownership (TCO)?
The proper calculation of TCO for a system can be a daunting task. There are, however, services available to help. One such service is VirtualADVISOR TROM from The Standish Group (
http://www.standishgroup.com). TROM stands for Total cost of ownership Rough Order of Magnitude. It is a lot words to describe a lightweight cousin of the larger TCO assessment models, but TROM is quicker, less expensive, and less arduous to use. Basically, with TROM, Standish does all the heavy lifting and provides the client with a concise and comprehensive report that can be shared with management to make strategic and tactical decisions.The TROM service uses a set of Standish VirtualADVISOR tools, which accept from the client a wide range of input parameters concerning the costs of the current system and the proposed system. The VirtualADVISOR tools are then used to calculate various TCO and ROI parameters.
The process begins with the VirtualADVISOR client working with a Standish STAR (STandish AdvisoR). This experienced field operative guides the client through the process of entering the required input data into a VirtualADVISOR worksheet. (To obtain a more clearly defined graphic please contact www.standishgroup.com)
VirtualADVISOR ROI Input Data
(To obtain a more clearly defined graphic please contact www.standishgroup.com)
VirtualADVISOR TCO Input Data
The input data covers the following costs for both the current system and the proposed system:
hardware
software licenses
manpower
hardware and software maintenance
facilities
software infrastructure
database and system administration
application maintenance
migration
other (trade-ins, credits, and so forth)
The input tool allows any miscellaneous category to be defined and cost factors entered for that category. Various revenue categories may also be defined and entered.
Information about the applications is also entered and includes such items as the type of application (transaction, batch, query), transaction rates, both the current and proposed systems, and the current and proposed databases.
This input data is then passed to a Standish inhouse specialist. Using a sophisticated cost and downtime database called CENTS (Comparative Economic Normalization Technology System) and other tools, the expected range of each cost element is estimated; and optimum solutions are created.
The same process is used for projects. Standish uses a process that it describes as case-based reasoning technology driven by the CHAOS database to measure and profile the input data. The CHAOS database contains over 100 pertinent attributes from over 50,000 cases submitted by over 5,000 project managers through surveys, user interviews, vendor interviews, and focus workshops.
At this point, ROI and TCO tools are used to calculate a variety of cost and return-on-investment parameters. The results include for a specified time period:
cost of implementing and operating the system
capitalized savings
operational savings
cumulative gain (savings – cost)
return on investment
payback period
The inhouse specialist then prepares a report explaining these results and defining the best strategy to maximize ROI. The report is passed to the client’s STAR, who works with the client to review the outcomes and to make recommendations for paths to pursue.
(To obtain a more clearly defined graphic please contact www.standishgroup.com)
A Page From a TROM Report
The report is provided in PDF format and is organized as follows:
|
Introduction |
The Introduction is a brief paragraph on the process and how the report was generated |
| Data and Assumptions |
The Data and Assumptions section describes the platforms, activities, and assumptions that have gone into the making of the report. TCO, ROI, migrations, and data sources are all identified. |
|
Project Risk |
The Project Risk section provides insight into migration projects and emphasizes some of the issues that should be addressed specific to a project of this nature. |
|
Savings |
This is the TCO section. Each cost is explained, and potential savings are plotted in tabular or graphical form. |
|
ROI |
The ROI section pulls the entire document together. It provides an ROI analysis of the migration/consolidation strategy. It discusses the capitalized and operational savings. It defines the best strategy to achieve the optimum ROI. |
|
Recommendations |
Recommendations are made based on the findings of the study, and justification is provided to either continue or abandon the project. |
VirtualADVISOR requires neither training nor any installation of software. The client’s interface is strictly through his STAR.
The final output of the TROM service, whether it be related to a set of applications, a new project, or a migration project, will be a formal report that the client can use to determine from which alternatives he can choose based on real-life cases free of all vendor hype.
Though not related to TCO and ROI, another major part of the VirtualADVISOR service is the assessment of risk associated with implementing a project. This is supported by the extensive case study attributes found in the CHAOS database.
For further information regarding VirtualADVISOR please contact Standish Group Via www.standishgroup.com
Why Consider Active/Active Data Replication?
The number 1 reason why businesses consider Active/Active Data Replication is for ZERO DOWNTIME UPGRADES.
The number 2 reason is PEAK PERFORMANCE COVERAGE.
Did you know that even with a partial implementation of Active/Active you may be able to reduce or eliminate production outages during software and hardware upgrades?
NTI recently presented Active/Active Data Replication at ITUG. The room was packed. We know this is a hot topic. We know that quite a number of NonStop customers are considering implementing an active data replication solution. We know there are some NonStop and data communications limitations that make “true” Active/Active difficult.
Yes, it’s complicated…. but not impossible.
We have been working with Clients on High Performance Active/Active solutions for over 5 years. We can give you some pointers on how to begin.
We’d be happy to send you a copy of our ITUG presentation. Better yet, we would be happy to discuss your specific environment in a one-on-one webcast.
Contact an NTI Representative and arrange to receive the presentation and to schedule a discussion with our Engineering team.
Alain de Clerfayt
+1 (770) 382 0598
Alain.deClerfayt@network-tech.com
David Ross
+44 (0) 7799-673582
New product from GreenHouse available: Disk Wipe
DiskWipe erases the free space on a volume (single or mirrored) with a user defined set of pattern.
Beside defining the erase pattern, and the number of erase rounds, the number of disk I/Os per second can be configured to minimize the system impact.
All
DiskWipe actions are reported to the OUT file, which can be a disk file,
a spool job, or a terminal. Advanced write techniques, developed at the
High Performance Research Center (HPRC), make it the fastest disk eraser
on the NSK platform, and the flexible configuration makes it the most
efficient eraser product on NSK.
The
product is available. Please contact
Info@GreenHouse.de
ACI to Provide Faster Payments Service Gateway for Lloyds TSB
Project Represents Important Extension of Existing Relationship and First Sign of a Move Toward Payments Convergence
(Watford, UK - 2 November, 2006) - ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: TSAI), a
leading international provider of enterprise payment solutions, today
announced that Lloyds TSB, one of the UK's largest banks, will implement
an enhanced version of BASE24-es(r) software that meets the UK's new
Faster Payments Service (FPS) requirements. BASE24-es for Faster
Payments will provide Lloyds TSB with a flexible, feature-rich gateway
for linking to the central Faster Payments infrastructure being built by
Immediate Payments Limited (the joint venture between LINK and Voca).
The gateway will ease the implementation of Faster Payments by helping
Lloyds TSB integrate with its existing payment hub and reduce the
overall cost and effort to participate.
As a fully supported product, the solution will be maintained and
enhanced by ACI as the scheme changes and mandates emerge. The high
volume scalability of BASE24-es and its ability to run on multiple
platforms were key reasons behind choosing ACI to provide the FPS
gateway. Lloyds TSB will run the solution on an IBM System z(r) server.
BASE24-es for Faster Payments offers existing bulk or high value
payments systems the functionality necessary to support the Faster
Payments initiative. Lloyds TSB has been a customer of ACI for nearly
20 years and already makes extensive use of BASE24(r) and BASE24-es in
the retail bank. By adopting further BASE24-es components, the bank is
positioned to reduce duplication across its retail payments
infrastructure and achieve cost and management benefits from
consolidation. ACI considers this an excellent example of payments
convergence where clients intend to reuse its core BASE24-es technology
for multiple payment types.
Darryl West, Director of Group IT at Lloyds TSB, said, "The move to
Faster Payments is an important infrastructure change for us. As such we
wanted a solutions partner with a strong track record in proven
reliability, ease of integration and volume scalability. ACI's history
with us made them the logical choice and we are confident that we will
be FPS compliant within the agreed timeframe."
Richard Launder, president of ACI Worldwide EMEA, said, "The Faster
Payments initiative offers some significant challenges to banks due to
the tight timeframe. It has also become apparent to many banks that FPS
represents an opportunity to reduce duplication within their payments
systems. We hope to be able to build upon this project and our previous
work with Lloyds TSB to help them take advantage of the benefits that
payments convergence offers."
For further information please contact
John
Walker at ACI Worldwide (EMEA)
OPTA-Alert from TANDsoft now available
TANDsoft announces OPTA-Alert, an application Tracing, Help and Debugging utility.
OPTA-Alert uses
include; display Application Startup ( STARTUP, ASSIGN, PARAM and
Process DEFINE ) messages, during application Execution ( trace NonStop
system call activity ) and before application Termination ( generate an
For application Help; displays general help information and specific startup/shutdown/recovery and versioning information.
OPTA-Alert supports TNS, TNS/R and TNS/E applications and no application source code changes are required.
Find out more at http://www.tandsoft.com/Products.html.
ETI-NET extends Data De-duplication to NonStop
The hottest topic in storage today is “data de-duplication”. It eliminates the unchanged data between successive backups, drastically reducing the storage required for backup and archived data. This technology goes further than traditional incremental backup, by analyzing the incoming data stream and eliminating duplicate storage of previously saved data. Compression of 30x - 60x is achieved.
ETI-NET has partnered with Data Domain, the leader in data de-duplication technology, to engineer a proprietary solution for extreme compression of HP NonStop backups and TMF dumps. The implementation provides both high performance and high integrity to avoid possible loss or corruption of stored data.
The ETI-NET solution benefits NonStop users in two ways: it drastically reduces the cost of disk storage for backup and archive data, and it reduces the bandwidth necessary to implement replication of backup data between sites over WAN connections.
To receive a detailed White Paper further describing this breakthrough opportunity, contact ETI-NET at
information@etinet.com or visit www.etinet.com .
ACI Worldwide Completes Compatibility Testing with Banksys DEP HSMs
(Cartes, Paris - 6
November 2006) ACI Worldwide's BASE24(r) and BASE24-es(r) solutions are
now compatible with the Banksys' Data Encryption Peripherals (DEP) range
of Hardware Security Modules (HSMs). The DEP HSMs secure traditional
banking applications as well as emerging payment applications such as
e-banking, e-commerce, m-commerce, payTV access control and key
management systems. The use of cryptographic cards and servers adds a
significant level of security to transaction systems by providing
cryptographic processing capabilities. In addition, ACI is developing
support of the TPPN interface for BASE24-es, which is another Belgian
market requirement, providing end-to-end ATM acquiring capabilities
including debit and credit card usage.
"This compatibility is good news for ACI customers and Banksys alike",
says Vincent Roland, Chief Executive Officer at Banksys. "It means that
BASE24 and BASE24-es users will now be able to employ the Banksys DEP
product range and add a significant level of security to their
transactional systems. Given the widespread use of ACI software and the
excellent reputation and performance of the DEP hardware security
modules, we expect this move will generate important additional business
for us."
"The customers currently using the DEP HSM security infrastructure may
take benefit as well of the potential that our solutions offer says
Richard Launder, president of ACI Worldwide EMEA. An increasing number
of financial institutions are using BASE24 and BASE24-es to position
themselves for future challenges in the transaction processing space.
With the support for the DEP product, Banksys' customers will benefit
from our cooperation."
Steve Hine, regional manager at ACI Worldwide, added, "Building DEP
compatibility into our core software, along with the development of the
TPPN Interface, demonstrates our full commitment to the Belgian market.
We have been working closely with Banksys to ensure payment solutions
are available in the Belgium market to meet current and future
challenges within the transaction processing space."
For more information contact:
John Walker
ACI Worldwide
+44 1923 81 2741
walkerjo@aciworldwide.com
Availability Digest Promotes 100% Uptime
Welcome to the new Availability Digest. Edited by Dr. Bill
Highleyman, the Digest focuses on Continuous Processing Architectures,
with particular attention given to active/active technology.
Each issue of the Digest features articles on the following topics: Case
Studies, Never Again, Best Practices, Active/Active Topics, Recommended
Reading, Product Reviews, and The Geek Corner. The October issue
included articles on reduced switchover times by Mayo Clinic and Sabre
Holdings, how a flying cable shut down a mission-critical system, and a
train control system which runs active/active with memory-to-memory
replication.
The November issue will include articles on how a coffee pot took down a node and on HP’s Active/Active Home Location Register.
The free Digest is published on the second Tuesday of each month. It includes useful article synopses, the detailed content of which is available by paid subscription. Take time to check out our inaugural October issue, for which the detailed article content is free to all viewers. Visit
www.availabilitydigest.com to get both past and current issues of the Digest (in HTML or in PDF), to sign up for your free monthly copy of the Digest, or to subscribe to the detailed articles.The Availability Digest is always looking for good article content, especially in the topics of Never Again and Case Studies. For more information, contact Bill Highleyman at
editor@availabilitydigest.com.Marshall Resources
November 2006 / Non-Stop Equipment Prices Increase
Since the current used market condition is so unusual, we wanted run this same article again. In our 18 years of experience in the Second User Tandem Hardware business, and in the 21 year history of Marshall Resources, we do not recall a period of time when overall shortages in supply resulted in price increases. Well, times have changed, and our industry is entering a period where supply is dictating prices.
Demand for much of the S Series product remains high. Currently, HP is aggressively pricing their trade-in values for S Series systems, as customers consider migrating to Integrity. With only the newest CPUs and Disk available from HP, many Non-Stop customers are pursuing products from the second user market. The supply for S86000 and older CPUs, as well as any Disks older than 144 GB Disk, is now only available from the second user market. As HP buys much of this back in trade, supply continues to decline. Since the new EU regulations restrict the sale of products with HAZMAT content, HP is reluctant to sell these products as re-manufactured. All of these pressures are promoting the limited supply, and the high demand.
Marshall Resources will continue to aggressively pursue equipment purchases. Our pricing to buy hardware will need to increase in the face of competition from HP’s trade-in values. This is good news for S Series customers, who will benefit from higher prices as they sell their de-commissioned machines. Conversely, this is a difficult time for second and third tier customers who rely on this second user market to maintain their investment in slightly older systems.
As always, please call Marshall Resources if you are selling any of your hardware.
At Marshall Resources, we strive to provide the highest quality service with the highest quality equipment. Our repeat customers are our greatest compliment. Please visit our website at www.marshallresources.com for our company information, and find a sales representative in your area to assist you. We can always be reached at 800-443-0128, or by e-mail. We are looking forward to working with you.
TapeLabs: More than Just VTL
Well known storage analyst and author Jon Toigo, visited TapeLabs in their Los Angeles offices to review their Virtual TapeServer product family, as marketed exclusively to NonStop Server users by HP. Toigo, chairman of The Data Management Institute, expected to find yet another Virtual Tape Library (VTL), but quickly discovered much more.
Toigo was so excited about what he saw, that he wrote an article about it citing, “TapeLabs doesn’t sell VTL: it sells VTS—a virtual tape system. Add this to your overloaded dictionary of storage acronyms because the difference is important”. The article describes some of these key differences, noting just how full featured Virtual TapeServer is.
According to Toigo, Virtual TapeServer is best described as, “a software platform (hardware-agnostic data management system) for upper mid-tier to large-scale enterprises that provides a range of data management services enabling companies to comply with regulatory mandates, protect their most irreplaceable asset against loss, recovery rapidly from unplanned interruptions and data corruption events, and selectively archives key data while providing necessary privacy and security guarantees”.
“Wow, that is a whole lot of words,” stated Brian Ignatin, Vice President of Business Development for Crossroads Systems, Inc. (who acquired TapeLabs in April, 2006), “but they illustrate just how much VTS differs from the competitions’ model of using VTLs as a disk-cache for temporary repository of data”.
To read Jon Toigo’s article, please visit: http://www.esj.com/storage/article.aspx?EditorialsID=1537
For more information about Virtual TapeServer, please visit the HP website at:
http://h20223.www2.hp.com/NonStopComputing/cache/79759-0-0-225-121.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN and the Crossroads website at: http://www.crossroads.com/Products/SurePath/VTS.asp
Gresham Computing released v 4.4.3 of (TOP) - The Operations Pack (November 2006)
The new release of TOP enhances the built-in editor substantially. Syntax highlighting is provided for many languages, including TACL, TAL, C and COBOL. The editor also supports code-folding in those languages. Powerful book-marking support is also added, allowing users to bookmark arbitrary lines or lines matching a search and then perform edit operations on just those lines.
TOP is a NonStop operations and management product that replaces the command line tools for most management and configuration tasks, improving productivity and safety for experienced and novice NonStop users alike.
Please visit http://www.greshamsoftwarelabs.com.au/toppub/pages/top.html to download a copy of TOP and to obtain a free trial license.
NTI gets carried away at ITUG
This year we thought we would spice up the conference a bit. Instead of the usual gift award at the end of the show, we decided to give away gifts every couple of hours. We opened our contest up to ITUG and website visitors. We went with a clear budget of 5 iPod’s and 2 Xbox 360’s.
When the vendor floor opened we drew our first winning name and posted it on the wall at our exhibit stand. On breaks the ITUG members would wander by to see if they had won yet. As the show progressed the pile of contacts grew. The more we gave away, the bigger the pile of contacts became.
80 folks attended our Vendor presentation covering “Active/Active Data Replication”. Word must have gotten out that we were awarding an Xbox 360 to someone in attendance.
Even our good friends at HP jumped into the contest, winning 2 of the Xbox 360’s.
When the dust had settled we had 794 contacts in the drawing. We gave away 26 iPod’s and 4 Xbox 360’s. Whoops…. I guess we were a little over budget.
Now I have to change my business cards to read:
David Ross
Director of Sales for the UK and Europe
“Leading provider of Ipod’s, Xbox 360’s, and Disaster Recovery software”
Anyone wanting to know more about music down loading, computer games, or even Data Replication Solutions, please feel free to contact me at:
+44 (0) 7799-673582
Looking for Rita Abreau
I have found two photographs of parents of a former Tandem employee (UK)
As far as I know they are the only remaining photographs of these people and I would like to return them to the daughter.
Her name is Rita Abreau (spelling a guess - Portuguese), and I was a UK and Corporate employee
Thanks
Zaph Mann
503.866.5924 (USA)
ITUG News
Finland NonStop Users Group (FinTUG)
The next Finland meeting will take place 2 November in
Helsinki. The event will include a NonStop Business Update
from Neil Pringle and an Integrity NonStop server training
and presentation. See
FinTUG Website
Canadian
NonStop Users Group (CTUG)
The Canadian NonStop Users Group (CTUG) will have a fall
technical session on Business Intelligence. There will be a
session in Toronto on 8 November and a session in Montreal
on 9 November. The half day meeting will also include an
introduction to HP's new Enterprise Data Warehouse Platform
by Jim Henry of HP. The cost of the session is only $25 and
online registration will be available soon at the
CTUG Web site.
German
NonStop Users Group (GTUG)
The German Regional NonStop Group will have their annual
fall meeting on 20 - 21 November in Augsburg, Germany at the
MAN Diesel facility. Please see the
GTUG Web site
for more information on the event.
See GTUG website.
Desert Regional User Group
(DUST)
The Desert Regional User Group (DUST) of the Phoenix Arizona
area will host a meeting on 13 December from 8:30 - Noon at
the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale. XYPRO will be the vendor
presenter along with a presentation from HP. See the
DUST website.
Atlanta NonStop User Group Meeting (ATUG)
The Atlanta RUG will host a meeting on 10 November. The
meeting agenda will include the keynote user presentation
that Marty Edelman of Home Depot gave at the ITUG Summit.
The agenda will also include an updates from Network
Technologies, Web Sphere MQ and HP. Please see the
ATUG Web page
for more meeting information and to RSVP. See
Atug Website
BITUG Education Day
Quick introduction to Open System Management (OSM) for HP NonStop servers
Thursday 16th November 2006
Location: HP Offices, Wood Street, London
09.30 for 10.00
We have one of our popular education days. Spaces are limited to attend this free education day. These are usually well attended, and we may need to restrict number of attendees from the same company. Please see BITUG Website
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