comForte provides SOA Solution to BASE24 customers

A leading card processor and BASE24 user in Poland has taken comForte’s Client Server Link (CSL) software solution to integrate key BASE24 modules as Web Services Endpoints in their enterprise wide Services Oriented Architecture.

Choosing to use CSL’s JCA interface, they will achieve J2EE client integration to interface with the BASE24 Pathway servers using native Pathway messages.

For more information please go to http://www.comforte.com.

CAIL Studio

· The smart-Path to NonStop, Open Web Services and SOA

· Go at your own pace, open and extend your NonStop applications

· Achieve results quickly, without complexity or risk

Business Benefits of CAIL Studio Release 2

ü Many NonStop IT and business personnel are missing the benefits of SOA by resisting change and attempting to keep their existing applications unchanged. SOA ROI can be perceived as difficult to achieve but the business benefits are compelling.

ü Using CAIL Studio, you can utilize current applications and the associated data while migrating to Open Web Services (OWS) and SOA at your own pace – with no change to your systems.

ü By easily aggregating and integrating data from multiple servers and OS environments, organizations can now take advantage of the capabilities of SOA with an open, easy to manage and stepped implementation approach – for an evolutionary strategy to improve information services.

ü By using open technologies including Apache, AJAX, Axis2, etc. to migrate information services, customers are finding that applications on NonStop systems can easily be opened and externalized – allowing new business “mashups” and opportunities. This enables IT to be more responsive to new business demands.

ü With CAIL Studio, any open web components can be easily incorporated for reuse with your existing NonStop environment.

Now you can apply unlimited resources in HTML, JavaScript, AJAX, Flash, Open Web Services and other state of the art methods while re-using current NonStop screens and Pathway/Scobol applications and data. This is because CAIL Studio provides extensive systems interface flexibility between your current applications and other technologies - including open source and third party components, to a CAIL Studio directory on a web server – OSS/iTP or other.

Anything that the interface designer can imagine or find on the internet today, or in the future, can be achieved by adding open source or third party components to a CAIL Studio directory on a web server.

As an example, Pathway based 6530 or Scobol clients and application data (including Base24, Bess, etc.) can be quickly and easily migrated to OWS and SOA. Also, using a new and simple XML-RPC method provided by CAIL, XML integration into Pathway and TM-MP environments is easy while providing new business functions and capabilities.

CAIL has many Customers around the world and is a long time HP and NonStop partner. The CAIL focus is improving the user experience with systems and delivering business advantage with innovative solutions that compliment and extend NonStop capabilities.

As an extra bonus, organizations currently using CAIL Suite and on the CAIL Annual Support Program will receive CAIL Studio Rel. 2 to make it easier to move systems forward and better position NonStop information services as more integral in enterprise IT infrastructure.

Please see www.cail.com/wsintro or contact CAIL for more insights on your options to leverage current systems to improve information services.

Spectra and S88000's

SPECTRA is an international dealer that trades “globally” in commercial use, Enterprise level, mainframe/midrange servers, disk/tape storage and network equipment.

In our over 25 years in business, we have many customer relationships with companies utilizing Tandem NonStop Systems; many of which have migrated to… or are migrating to… the new NonStop Itanium series. However; much of our NonStop customer base has not yet opted for the new Itanium and in fact, require system upgrades and peripherals from the now legacy, NonStop S88000s, S86000s, S7800’s, S7600’s and the like.

We currently have a high demand for S88000's. Please contact us should have equipment available.

That said, should you have any of this equipment available for sale, now or in the future, we ask that you contact us at your convenience, such that we may organize a generous purchase offer.

In closing, should you have any questions, please feel free to call or email. Otherwise; we thank you for your time, your consideration, your interest in SPECTRA, and look forward to future opportunities to do business with you.

All the Best!
Johnny Tourino, VP
SPECTRA
4420 East Miraloma Ave, Suite M
Anaheim, CA 92807
(800) 745-1233, x-309

(714) 970-7000, x-309
(714) 970-7095, Fax
www.spectra.com

Computer Security Products announces improved OSS file management and security

OSS File Security manager

CSP has developed a new utility for managing security on OSS files. It allows users to browse OSS files much in the same way as Windows files. Files may be selected and copied to/from multiple systems. OSS security attributes can be set for a single file or groups of files. This OSS file manager is scheduled for release at the end of 2008 and may be extended to support an OSS Policy module for manipulation of large numbers of OSS objects.

ProtectXP Version 4.0 and Auditview Version 8.50 Released

New versions of Protect XP (4.00) and Auditview (8.50) were released last month. These versions support all Safeguard enhancements up to and including H06.12.00 and G06.32.00. Included is support for longer passwords, static failed logon count, last unsuccessful attempt, privileged-logon feature, HMAC256 encryption option, the OSS Administrator Safeguard security group and more. Protect XP 4.00 contains a new module, Guardian file browser, to assist in the management of security for non Safeguard protected files.

Please contact Sales@cspsecurity.com for more information on these products or any questions you may have about Nonstop system security.

NonStop - A Running Commentary
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author
and shouldn’t be viewed as reflecting any views
current or past of his employer

I have been watching the NonStop marketplace even more closely these days than I have ever done in the past. The move to the Integrity platform is taking place at a pretty rapid clip – something that I would have really liked to have seen happen when I was a product manager at Tandem. Both, the architecture and the price points, are proving attractive and continue to draw users’ attention.

But I have also been turning to Google to see who are the desired candidates on the recruiters lists, and I see some placing advertisements for NonStop skills, and I’ve been connecting the dots back to the customer. There’s a couple of really interesting ones where NonStop is making a first appearance, and that I just cannot mention at this time as formal announcements have yet to be made – but I hope that this clears up after the Community Connect Europe 2008 event (CCE) in Mannheim this coming November. But if you are curious…it is amazing what you can deduct from the job postings!

But speaking of user events and migrations to new platforms, it’s been three months since I have written about ACI!

As it happens, I will be travelling to Scottsdale in a few days time, to attend the annual ACI Customer Exchange (ACE) event, and to catch up on all the news from the former “world’s biggest” HP NonStop alliance partner. After participating in the European event in Vienna earlier this year, the news coming out of Omaha, or should I more correctly now say, New York, continues to puzzle me.

Perhaps the single biggest message that came out of Vienna was that ACI was going to be flexible with the looming 2011 sunset date for its NonStop Base24 Classic product, and be open to one-on-one negotiations with anyone who needed extra time. The reason for this, and it was a pretty pragmatic as well as dramatic development, was that ACI just couldn’t adequately resource all the projects that would be created if everyone elected to migrate right now!

Over drinks, I heard one well-placed source mumble, “if we gave the customers 30 years to migrate, when it came down to the wire and there was only a year to go, there still would be some complaining that they hadn’t been given enough time! Of course we will keep working with our customers – no one will be seriously disadvantaged because of the 2011 deadline!” So, for public consumption, the message is “it’s all about System z”, whereas in the real world, “it’s all about business as usual for HP NonStop”!

The puzzlement has been fueled even more by the flurry of news reports surrounding the Q2 financial reports – and the interviews ACI executives provided at the time. No one missed the item about Mark Vipond leaving at the end of August, or that Richard Launder would be following him early in 2009. It was interesting reading the transcript of the earning’s call, now available on the web as of August 12 at: http://seekingalpha.com/article/90607-aci-worldwide-inc-q2-2008-earnings-call-transcript and how Phil Heasley brought up the topic. “… we are now seeing the departure of Richard Launder who is going to be leaving (at) the end of February 2009. Until his departure, he’s going to be working closely with me and we’re going to be concentrating on our major relationships around the world, and I’m also announcing Mark Vipond’s departure at the end of the month after 23 consecutive years and most of his adult life.”

But perhaps overlooked by many was the response Mr. Heasley provided when asked about improvements being made within ACI to get implementations out of backlog. According to Mr. Heasley, “the efforts we have going with IBM is what we’re calling the payments transformation team, and what we’re doing is we’re going through an environment I said in the beginning, where 50% of our deals are now on IBM platforms, both p and z, and at this time, more p than z platforms.”

And isn’t this ironic? With all the marketing efforts in place, that half-way through the year, the deals built around System p are greater than those being done on System z! Furthermore, expressed another way, fully half the deals being done are still on traditional NonStop platforms. Digging even deeper into the numbers, where ACI reported that globally, eight new customers were signed with twenty existing customers licensed new applications (such as Proactive Risk Management, ACI Retail Commerce Server, etc.) then this suggests that there was likely to be four new customers on NonStop (potentially even more) and that in all likelihood, only two new platform z’s customers. And it would be a reasonable assumption to suggest that the new System z’s customers likely just added more MIPS to an existing System z complex whereas the new NonStop customers added a completely new NonStop server.

In other words, all the excitement around the decision by ACI to develop a strategic relationship with IBM it’s likely, when all is said and done, that just two existing System z customers became new ACI customers. When you also consider Mr. Heasley’s ongoing concerns about how long these deals take – and how they are trying to shorten the “time-to-close cycle” that continues to lengthen – and how this quarter he reported that “lengthened, traditional selling cycle … in the last year and a half to two years, we’ve been in the 9 to 12 month cycle, we’re probably in the 15 – 19 month closing cycle right now.”

Put even more bluntly, almost two years to develop a pipeline yielding two new customers per quarter on probably existing System z platforms. Pretty spectacular stuff, all up, you reckon? How long will IBM stay excited about figures like that? And how long will it be before the System p folks begin to realize that, perhaps, they have an equal or bigger opportunity?

In closing, what this really does suggest to me is that most of the decisions favoring one platform or the other – NonStop versus System z – were made many years ago. And having been made, the likelihood to go back to the platform that lost out, doesn’t seem to be a strong likelihood. However, migrating to an industry standard, open platform, like the System p, seems to be about the only driver for change at this level that I would consider reasonable.

And that brings with it a lot of costs, particularly infrastructure costs, that marginalizes any immediate cost savings while introducing a level of risk many financial institutions aren’t prepared to take. As another well-placed source mumbled in Vienna, “it was very timely getting the investment money from IBM, but I am not sure anyone within ACI thinks its going to change anything much”! The customer continues to be king (see TandemWorld May, 2008 - http://www.tandemworld.net/newsletter%20may08.htm) , and now it is beginning to appear, a lot more savvy than originally thought possible. It’s going to be very interesting to hear what comes out of Scottsdale and I will be as anxious as anyone to hear what’s coming next!

Richard Buckle

HP – ITUG: Board of Directors (2000 – 2006) Chairman (2004 & 2005)

IBM – SHARE: Board of Directors (2007 – 2008)

Real Time View blog: www.itug-connection.blogspot.com

Ross Systems International’s Cryptographic Test Suite (HSEMM)

BACKGROUND

Host Security Module (HSM) based projects using bespoke cryptographic firmware (e.g. Thales) are difficult to develop & test because:

Quality requires transparency BUT Host Security Modules require secrecy

Transparency means it is possible to visibly demonstrate every step of the process. It is possible to solve this dilemma if we realize that HSM usage can be divided into two phases:

Research and Development (Transparent) – Production (Secret)

This can be achieved if we implement the following usage scenario:

HSM Emulator for Research and Development AND the real HSM for Production

RSI have developed a Cryptographically enabled HSM Emulator for HP NonStop Computers

BENEFITS

QUALITY 1. HSM Specification is verifiably correct since iterative development is possible
2. HSM can be thoroughly tested by parallel running with the Emulator

SPEED          1.            Application code can be tested as soon as it is written
2.            HSM specification is 100% correct first time, no misunderstandings no delays
3.            HSM firmware coding is normally in C, the emulator code is in C.
               There is virtually no effort for the firmware developers, so faster turnaround.
4.            HSM Test is very fast because it can be fully automated.

SECURITY 1. HSMs are not available to the test teams, so no master keys compromised.
2. You know that it will be right first time because you can prototype

Your product is cheaper and earlier to market giving you sooner ROI.

FEATURES

§ Emulation of a variety of HSM and Firmware, this can be switched by console command.

§ Range of Standard Host and Console Commands available

§ Bespoke commands can be implemented in days

§ Host Interfaces. Multithreaded IP (TCP & UDP) and $RECEIVE available

§ Loadable Master Key and HSM Configuration Files

§ Large Cryptographic Library

§ Full Cryptographic Trace available as standard, with tools for real time capture.

§ Console Terminal Emulator Programs for: UDP/IP and $RECEIVE.

§ Host Command Scripted Driver Programs for: TCP/IP and $RECEIVE

ABOUT US

Please contact Rupert Stanley of Ross Systems International Limited at rupert@rsi-ns.com or
+44-1206-392923 for additional information.

Information on RSI’s products including FINFO can be found on http://www.rsi-ns.com/.

Availability Digest Reviews a Cellular Provider’s Use of Active/Active

The Availability Digest’s September issue will be published on the second Tuesday of this month. Included will be an overview of a two-node, active/active system employed by a large cellular provider to ensure continued availability of its Prepaid Front End (PPFE). Gravic’s Shadowbase data-replication engine is used for active/active synchronization. Find a sneak preview of that article at

http://www.availabilitydigest.com/public_articles/0309/cellular.pdf.

The August issue of the Availability Digest discusses HP’s new NonStop Multicore Architecture (NSMA) system. Porting a NonStop server to an HP c-Class BladeSystem, an NSMA system delivers twice the power of an NS16000 in half the footprint.

In August’s Never Again section is a review of the some of the most interesting computer failures that befell companies in the first six months of 2008. Our Best Practices topic focuses on “Can You Trust the Compute Cloud,” with an analysis of what cloud customers can do to protect their businesses from outages over which they have no control. For those who do not consider themselves “mathematically challenged,” our Geek Corner calculates how system failure intervals measured in centuries can be achieved with today’s heterogeneous systems technology.

The Digest is free online and focuses on continuous processing architectures, with particular attention given to active/active technology. www.availabilitydigest.com

Community Connect Europe 2008
10-12 November 2008
Mannheim, Germany

Register for Community Connect Europe!

Register now to attend Community Connect Europe 2008, presented by ITUG, HP-Interex EMEA, and Encompass - your HP user communities. This first-ever event, scheduled for 10-12 November in Mannheim, Germany, provides the first-ever opportunity for users, prospects, and third-party vendors of ITUG, HP-Interex EMEA, and Encompass throughout the EMEA region to gather in one place for learning, networking, and sharing individual and corporate experiences.

The event will provide the traditional HP NonStop content that prior ITUG Europe attendees have come to expect, and it will also provide educational and networking opportunities for users of other HP Enterprise platforms.

NEW! Download this postcard and pass along to your colleagues or friends who might be interested in attending.

Interested in Presenting at Community Connect Europe 2008?

Share your expertise with other HP users just like you. Community Connect Europe 2008 is still accepting presentation proposals for the following topics:

Blades
Business Continuity
Linux
Security
SOA

Submit your presentation proposal by 21 July and be recognized among your peers as a leader in your area of expertise.

BITUG 23 September 2008 Opening up NonStop Development SIG. For More information and to sign up please visit www.bitug.com

BITUG December 3rd Dec, Wood Street - Education Day (Performance Update - includes Blades)
4th Dec, Trinity House - SIG on Platform futures, AGM, look back at 30 Year of 'Tandem' in Europe

CTUG Are in progress of making plans for this years Fall Conference. Please stay tuned for details www.ctug.ca

Desert USers of Tandem (DUST) Next Meeting September 9th! Our next meeting will be Tuesday, September 9th, at Caremark. Gary Stevens will have a presentation on Blades and Khody Khodayari will present Web ViewPoint and Nonstop Management and Analysis for further information click here

GTUG 12 November 2008 More information will be available shortly at www.gtug.de

VNUG 9-10 September 2008 A VNUG Event in collaboration with HP and FINTUG More Information

Looking for a Solution or an answer to a particular problem ASK Tandemworld. We will contact the vendors for you and find a suitable solution that meets for current and future needs.