Gravic Publishes New White Paper:

Shadowbase for the HP Converged Infrastructure

Gravic was honored to receive the 2011 HP AllianceONE Partner Award for Innovation in Converged Infrastructure Solutions. The award was announced in Las Vegas at HP Discover 2011. The Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) innovative use of Shadowbase solutions provides an excellent example of why Gravic won this coveted award. Employed in an active/active configuration, Shadowbase replication allowed RBC to reduce its downtime by over 95% following a system failure of its BASE24™ ATM network, thereby achieving true continuous availability.

Converged Infrastructure (CI) is the heart of HP’s move to what it calls the Instant-On Enterprise. HP partner products that support CI are of paramount importance to achieving Instant-On. Critical to the success of this initiative is the participation of third party solution providers to create products that interoperate to offer virtualized assignment of resources, superior availability for mission-critical services, modernization of applications via application integration, and common management. Vendors whose solutions qualify as “CI-Ready” are certified by HP. The Shadowbase data replication engine has earned CI-Ready certification. Shadowbase solutions provide mission-critical applications with high and continuous availability with recovery from faults in seconds, and supply the mechanisms that effectively and efficiently integrate applications to rapidly build new capabilities for an enterprise.

To download a complimentary copy of the white paper, please visit www.gravic.com/shadowbase/whitepapers.

Please Visit Gravic at these Upcoming Shows

·        ACE Asia Pacific 2011, Singapore, 17-20 October

·        CTUG Fall Conference, Toronto, 26 October

·        BITUG BIG SIG, London, 9 December

·        CTC (GE Centricity) San Diego, California, 29-31 January

·        SunTUG, Tampa, Florida, 2 March

·        SATUG, Johannesburg, 12-14 March

·        DUST, Scottsdale, Arizona, March

·        EBUG, Athens, 24-26 April

For more information, please visit: www.gravic.com/shadowbase.

http://www.linkedin.com/company/gravic-inc./shadowbase-data-replication-305119/product

BRIGHTSTRAND SECURITY REVIEW

Today, the task of building and maintaining IT systems is more complex than ever before. The need for business continuity, an increase in critical transactional links to other systems, the use of virtual machine technology and personal privacy requirements, to name but a few, all place security into focus. This is all in an environment of increasing regulation by government and industry organizations, e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley, ISO 27001/27002 (formerly ISO 17799) and PCI.

Businesses now have to ensure that their investments in security are delivering on the promised protection of their IT environments. Does the business make best use of security products and services? Does the business follow best practices? Is exposure to risk minimised?

Customers are finding that a Security Review from an independent third party is now welcome before they are exposed to a searching Security Audit.

This is where BrightStrand International can help. We have skilled and experienced NonStop Security consultants who can undertake detailed Security Reviews to ratify that your security is sound or to identify situations where it can be improved. BrightStrand can then work with you to apply any necessary changes to meet today’s stringent Security standards.

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

· Systems and Operations Management

· Performance and Tuning / Capacity Planning

· Database Design and Administration

· Communications Subsystems

· Web Services

· Security Reviews

· IBM WebSphere MQ Series environments.

· NonStop Integrity and Blade Migrations

· System Healthchecks (Pre or Post-Migration)

· Specialist Consultancy

· Disaster Recovery and Service Continuity Planning

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.

Call Dave Stewart today on +44 (0)7831 775115 or email him on dstewart@brightstrand.com for more information.

iWAMS ‐ the browser based security administration suite for NonStop systems is now complete!

GreenHouse finished developing the SAFEGUARD part of its browser based integrated Web Administration Management Suite (iWAMS). The iWAMS‐SAFEGUARD module replaces the SAFECOM interactive interface by providing an intuitive and easy to use GUI with the SAFEGUARD Reference manual built in.

The following modules are available:

1. iWAMS - WEBADMIN The central logic of iWAMS including ‐ Apache incl. HTTPS ‐ PHP ‐ MySQL ported to Itanium/Blade systems.

2. iWAMS - FTPSERV‐E Administration of the FTPYERV‐E product, which adds another layer of security and reporting to the FTPSERV product.

3. iWAMS - GENEUSER Management of generic users; comes with an authentication server for generic users.

4. iWAMS - MYLOGIN Administration of the single sign on product MyLogin.

5. iWAMS - PManager Password management for system as well as generic users; allows the management to be given in a secure way to e.g. a call center.

6. iWAMS - PWM‐SYNC Management of the Password synchronization product.

7. iWAMS - SAFEART Report generation from SAFEGUARD Audit trails.

8. iWAMS - SAFEGUARD New: Administration of all SAFEGUARD attributes including help for each item.

9. iWAMS - SECOM Administration of the command level security, ID hopping and session tracing (key stroke logging for interactive, block mode and OSS use) product SECOM. SECOM provides Single Sign On ON the system!

10. iWAMS - TALIS The Trace And Log Information System generates reports from log and trace files, created by GreenHouse products.

11. iWAMS - VILib Administration of the Visual Inspect Library product which enables the user to establish a Visual Inspect Session for a functional user, such as SUPER.SUPER, WITHOUT the need to know the related password.

These products are under development:

iWAMS‐OBI Administration of the Object Integrity product, which reports in depth file system changes in one report, e.g. library changes to prevent Trojan horses.

iWAMS‐Reprieve Administration of the REPRIEVE product which allows the use of the SAFEGUARD attribute: AUTHENTICATE - FAIL - FREEZE ON without opening the system for a denial of service attack.

iWAMS supports all common browsers. Switching between EXPAND nodes is just a click away: One initial authentication is sufficient!

For details, please contact: Info@GreenHouse.de

There is a new movie making it to theaters where the premise is that we are allocated a finite amount of time – indeed, as we trade and go about our daily lives, the only “currency” option available is time. Want a cup of coffee? Well, that will subtract 2 minutes from your life expectancy. Work? Yes, well you will be paid in time allotments – or so the storyline goes, as best as I can tell from the trailers running on TV, and while I have yet to see the movie, In Time, the plot does intrigue me.

As an IT professional I spent many years coming to appreciate how important data is to any business. Not just the basic data but bits and bytes validated and cleansed to where it’s safe to say it represents reality. More recently, we have moved on from valuing data to where there’s a premium being paid for information – drilling deep into data to produce information on which a business can make critical business decisions. But information, and indeed the underlying data, only have significance within a defined time-range – step outside of the time constraints and it’s all rather meaningless and worse, distracting.

In the recent post to Real Time View, “Information-centric world!” at the web location:

I address how important information has become, quoting a recent HP press release about how “data is the world’s most valuable raw material and information is the most valuable commodity – created, consumed and delivered in always-on connectivity.” And yet, having now posted this to the blog, I may revisit in the future and frame within the context of time, that is, after I have seen the movie of course.

Talking of time, and the reference to the movie In Time, isn’t it About Time we said enough is enough! This is a concept I explore in my most recent post to Real Time View, “Enough is enough!” at the web location:

The title was pulled from a local Colorado newspaper after the local Boulder college (University of Colorado) found yet another way to lose a game of gridiron. The coach admonished the team suggesting that if they aren’t careful, losing could easily become a way of life. “When are they going to get tired of losing? When are they going to get tired of finding a way to lose?”

Yes, as I wrote this post I was compelled to take a look at NonStop from a wining perspective, and in doing so I was surprised how this was so rarely done. But isn’t it time that we, as a community, I wrote in that post, stopped accepting the worst and begin to speak more openly of all that’s positive about NonStop? The problem that develops within losing teams is that it can become routine – oh, we lost again! That’s a shame … But when it comes to NonStop then we, as a community, should not be losing. So let’s shed our conservative clothing and let’s move out from the shadows. NonStop is a winner and continues to win. Yes, markets have shifted, as if on huge tectonic plates that push and collide, but opportunity abounds!

Did you ever call a Java dialogue directly from a ScreenCobol requestor?

Why should you do that?

Using such a feature allows you to modernize your application in any desired steps without requiring a big bang.

You can choose freely switching back and forth between your ScreenCobol requestors and your new Java dialogues.

OmnivoBridge from CommitWork enables you to do that quite easily.

For more information click on

NuWave Technologies is proud to announce a new addition to their growing team. To lead their sales division, they brought on Tom Grecco, the former CEO of Tandem Computers Canada. Tom has been in sales and management in the IT industry for over 25 years, including almost 10 years in the HP NonStop market. NuWave's employees are glad to have him on the team, and they all look forward to a bright future together.

Tom will represent NuWave at future HP NonStop shows worldwide, so please introduce yourself or say hello to an old friend!

If you're interested in NonStop application modernization or migration, or IT consulting services, please reach out to Tom at (603) 594-9896 ext. 251 or tgrecco@nuwave-tech.com; he'll be happy to answer any questions that you have.

NuWave Technologies has been a leader in NonStop application modernization and migration since 1999. Their products can extend the life of your Tandem and increase its value, or they can facilitate migration to a new version or to a completely different platform.

Be Positive but Prepared

CIO’s who have NonStop systems have difficult jobs. Not only do they need to be concerned with building a technological advantage for their businesses to thrive, they also have to worry about industry naysayers postulating the demise of the NonStop platform (and HP in general).

A number of analysts including Gartner Group, Bain, Forester and even The Standish Group have wondered aloud what will be the future of the NonStop when so many things seem to be up in the air at HP including WebOS and PCs.

We who have dedicated the best parts of our careers to the NonStop marketplace know how resilient and great the platform is but how can the stressed out CIO defend their position staying the course with NonStop in light of all this noise?

We believe the best way the anxious CIO can defend their position in staying the course with NonStop is being prepared to migrate without actually moving. Taking our clue from The Standish Group’s NonStop Modernization paper we find three things IT can do to be prepared to quiet the noise of the NonStop naysayers.

1) Do an assessment to understand what it would take to modernize including costs, risks, and return on investment.

2) Move the data to NonStop SQL (if not already there) so the data is compatible with standards compliant databases/applications.

3) Profile the programs and code base to understand the effort to move the code into modern languages and programming standards. This step also starts the code conversion to these modern languages and programming standards.

We don’t believe the naysayers and trust that HP understands the inherent value of having the world’s most scalable, reliable server as a true asset to build their enterprise business around. For the poor CIO’s, trust isn’t enough, they need to be prepared and able to defend the actions they take. Being optimistic but prepared is a sound path that should help CIOs sleep better tonight.

If you are a CIO and have Enscribe applications, give us a call – we can help.

Harry Scott, Co-founder - +1 781.934.0989

Carr Scott Software Incorporated

Stefi has now an integrated online DDL dictionary interpreter

You can browse the DDL Dictionaries for record and id definitions to use them for your Enscribe files.
This means that after opening an Enscribe file, you can use the same GUI to browse for your DDL dictionaries and locate the definition you would like use for your data records. Stefi will convert it for you "on the fly". The converted structure is stored in memory for later re-use during the session, and can also be saved to a Stefi structure file.
With this feature Stefi become a unique and really efficient, user-friendly tool to browse and update Enscribe files (and also Sql/Mp tables).

Stefi is a client-server application providing a Graphical User Interface frontend to NonStop Enscribe files and Sql/Mp tables to browse and edit them. It provides a new level to access Enscribe files and also acts as a great Windows client for Sql/Mp tables. It also supports filtered file copy into the windows environment providing txt, Excel (csv), html, MsSql server table output formats.

One of the features is the so called "Enscribe filter", that is constructed on the client and then passed to the server for execution. This way the records can be filtered based on any fields on it.

With the PCRE porting the filters can use Regular Expressions that gives a very flexible way to define comprehensive conditions, especially when filtering the presence and content of BASE24 tokens.

The software has built-in DES/3DES encoding regarding the client-server data communication. It is great, when you have to pass PCI-DSS audits!

The extra support for BASE24 files makes it ideal for BASE24 developers, testers and operators.

More information: http://www.audit-profit.hu/

Tibor Peak
Audit Profit Ltd.

email: mail@audit-profit.hu

CRM Product Promotion

A comprehensive Compliance Reporting Solution for HP Nonstop Servers

The Compliance Reporting Module (CRM) is an audit reporting tool for GUARDIAN and OSS security events.

Automate your compliance reporting requirements

Key Features include;

- File Integrity Checking

- Standard reports pre-configured

- Audit data veracity

- Reports generated by compliance requirement such as PCI-DSS & SOX

- Scheduling of pre-defined reports

- Easy to use and set-up

For a limited time this promotion offers significant savings

Please contact Sales@cspsecurity.com for more information on this promotion or any other security concerns you may have.

XYPRO Employees PCI ISA Certified

We are pleased and proud to announce that several of our own have passed the new PCI ISA Exam! The PCI SSC Internal Security Assessor Program (ISA) provides an opportunity for eligible internal security assessors at qualifying organizations to receive PCI DSS training and certification. The training improves participating organization's understanding of the PCI DSS, helps facilitate interactions with QSAs, enhances the quality, reliability, and consistency of internal PCI DSS self-assessments, and supports the consistent and proper application of PCI DSS measures and controls.

The PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a worldwide information security standard that ensures that any organization that processes card payments adheres to security processes and procedures that protect cardholder data and reduce credit card fraud. However, since the standards apply to a diverse array of service providers and merchants, the PCI DSS rules are stated as simply as possible, without specific details of how the goal of the standard is to be achieved. As a result, there are several gaps to achieving compliancy on the HP NonStop server. Simply put, there are PCI requirements that cannot be met without the use of third party security products. Specifically, XYGATE.

At XYPRO, we provide highly regarded Security Review and Configuration Services, as well as assisting with a "Fast Track" implementations of XYGATE software for compliance. In addition, we provide several education and training services including those geared to help QSA's and Security Auditors in their understanding and evaluation of PCI DSS in HP NonStop environments.

We are committed to understanding PCI requirements as well as validating and maintaining ongoing compliance with PCI standards. This recent achievement underscores our commitment to be the best certified NonStop security vendor in the market. Contact us now at barry_f@xypro.com for a PCI compliance consultation.

Barry Forbes

VP of Sales & Marketing

XYPRO Technology Corporation

www.xypro.com

*Be sure to complete our updated survey! You’ll be automatically entered for a chance to win a iPad.

Please note that you’re still eligible to win even if you completed the survey last quarter.
Simply click here : http://www.xypro.com/survey

Updated version of PCI DSS white paper released

With more than 1,500 downloads from countries all around the world, the PCI DSS Compliance for HP NonStop Servers white paper has become the industry standard for assisting organizations in achieving PCI compliance. Used also by QSAs (Qualified Security Assessors) during PCI assessments to assist in the specifics of PCI DSS as they relate to the NonStop platform, this paper is an indispensable tool for anybody tackling the requirements of PCI DSS.

HP NonStop security solutions and services specialist, Knightcraft Technology, along with payment industry security specialist and QSA, Witham Laboratories, have updated the white paper to reflect the changes for version 2.0 of the standard and to cater for the recently released PCI DSS ROC (Report On Compliance) Reporting Instructions.

This newly updated 100+ page paper was created with several goals in mind. Primarily, the intention is to assist NonStop users in their PCI compliance projects by suggesting how standard NonStop security and subsystems can be configured to meet PCI DSS and highlighting the requirements where compliance cannot be achieved without the use of third party solutions (solutions mentioned in the paper are from the XYGATE suite and 4tech Software’s PANfinder). The paper is also intended to provide an insight into how a PCI QSA may approach the assessment in regards to a NonStop system and how you can best prepare for that assessment. Finally, the paper can assist QSAs who are unfamiliar with the HP NonStop platform, to help them provide the best and most robust assessments possible.

The paper is available to download now from the Knightcraft Technology website at http://www.knightcraft.com/pci-dss-2.

Constructive feedback is both welcomed and encouraged via the PCI DSS page on Knightcraft’s website.

About the Authors.

Greg Swedosh is a Senior Security Consultant and owner of Knightcraft Technology. He’s spent over 25 years working with the NonStop platform, in both the United Kingdom and Australia, as a system and security expert for a number of international organisations running mission critical applications. Greg is a co-author of the book Securing HP NonStop Servers in an Open Systems World and has delivered presentations on NonStop system security in numerous countries around the globe. Knightcraft Technology specialize in providing PCI DSS related consultancy and services to HP NonStop based organizations throughout the Asia-Pacific-Japan region.

Dr. Sajal Islam is a Senior Security Engineer with Witham Laboratories, a leading independent consultant in information security, with specialist expertise in the payments sector. Witham Laboratories is a PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA), a PCI Payment Application – Qualified Security Assessor (PA-QSA) and one of the eight accredited PCI PIN Transaction Security Laboratories (PCI PTS) in the world. Witham Laboratories is an independent PCI QSA Company and as such does not endorse any specific commercial product. Furthermore, Witham Laboratories does not receive any material gain from any product that its clients choose to implement to assist with PCI DSS compliance or system security in general.

www.knightcraft.com www.withamlabs.com

Verizon 2011 Data Breach Investigation Report – breaches down, or are they?

The 2011 Data Breach Investigation Report (DBIR) from Verizon (http://bit.ly/pt5xV9 ) now incorporates data from the United States Secret Service and the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit as well as Verizon’s own data. It is a comprehensive report, extensively covering data breach activity in 2010, and it draws some interesting, and sometimes almost contradictory, conclusions.

2008 saw a record number of 361 million records compromised, 2009 saw a reduction to 144 million, and in 2010 that number dropped to 4 million. Hang on, 144 million -> 4 million? As the report says, that’s almost a rounding error! Not to say that 4 million records compromised is good, that’s still 4 million more than we’d ideally have to deal with, but it’s a pretty radical reduction. So, one question might be “Why?”. As it turns out, the main reason is that, for some reason, 2010 had virtually no “mega” attacks, which typically bump the numbers up by a million or more. But let’s continue to look… Read the full story at: http://blog.xypro.com

Andrew Price

XYPRO Technology Corporation

www.xypro.com

*Be sure to complete our updated survey! You’ll be automatically entered for a chance to win a iPad.

Please note that you’re still eligible to win even if you completed the survey last quarter.
Simply click here : http://www.xypro.com/survey

Modernization Video Now Available On Demand!

NuWave Technologies' latest webinar, "NonStop Modernization: Getting Started Today", is now available for you to watch on demand. In this video, Kathlika Fontes describes some of the challenges that Tandem users face and how they can be overcome through application modernization. She also illustrates the benefits and hurdles encountered when Web enabling HP NonStop applications. Dave Belliveau, NuWave's lead developer, provides technical details and a demo of NuWave's Tandem modernization software.

Availability:

n: The ability to process transactions correctly with excellent service levels.

Real time isn’t good enough.

When a real-time alert goes off, it may be too late. Some things can’t be fixed in real-time. That’s why Ban Bottlenecks specializes in “future-time” analysis, with a 3 to 6 month look-ahead by our analysts. They understand your business, the business demand, how your systems respond to that demand, and where it’s all going.

A service and a discipline

Ban Bottlenecks predicts the future by analyzing the past. Each month we create a detailed performance/capacity audit of your systems, and then discuss it with you. Our expert assistance will help to find and fix current problems, and prepare you for the future. Our monthly web conference becomes the basis for an ITIL-style system of dialogue and feedback benefitting all team members.

Meet us:

MEXTUG, October 27

DUST, November 11

Call for a free evaluation!

assist@banbottlenecks.com

1.415.256.8369

www.banbottlenecks.com

TANDsoft’s OPTA2000 is Ready for the “Spring Forward, Fall Back” Time Change

The Northern Hemisphere municipality of Beaconsfield, Canada, where TANDsoft, Inc., is headquartered, will “fall back” one hour from Eastern Daylight Saving Time (EDT) to Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Sunday, November 6th. Our distributor Kapiti Technologies is headquartered in the Southern Hemisphere town of Waikanae, New Zealand. There, the time “sprang forward” one hour on Sunday, September 25th. Overnight in Waikanae, 2am became 3am; and New Zealand Standard Time (NZST) changed to New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT). In the Northern Hemisphere (barely!) city of Singapore, distributor Legato Solutions and Services does not have to observe daylight saving time because both the country of Singapore and its same-named capital observe standard time year-round.

It’s tough enough for human bodies to adjust to time changes. Now consider the challenges for time-sensitive, globally distributed applications running in a consolidated, single-processing environment with a single system clock? Imagine hosting on one platform three applications: one must carry a Beaconsfield timestamp; another must run in Waikanae time; and the third must observe Singapore time. Two of the applications must switch between standard time and daylight saving time.

For the NonStop platform, the solution is TANDsoft’s OPTA2000. OPTA2000 is a virtual clock and time-zone simulator that uses intercept technology to allow multiple applications operating in a consolidated environment to each have its own virtual system clock or function in its own virtual time zone with date/time specifications that are different than that of the system clock. For time-zone simulation, the libraries create virtual times that are offset from a system’s actual time by an amount expressed as a deviation from GMT time (Greenwich Mean Time). For clock simulation, the virtual times can be offset to whatever time is required for the testing, maintenance, etc., of an application. No application modifications are required, and a single server can host thousands of applications.

Visit the TANDsoft booth at the upcoming CTUG conference to learn more about OPTA2000 and other TANDsoft products. They include FileSync for automatic file synchronization and replication, the Enscribe-2-SQL and TMF-Audit Toolkits; AutoLib, which automatically loads a user library or a DLL for executing processes; and Command Stream Replicator, which automatically replicates FUP, SQL/MP and SQL/MX DDL structure changes and other HP utility ( SAFECOM, PATHCOM, SCF, TACL ) commands to target systems.

Those unable to attend CTUG can contact Jack Di Giacomo at +1 (514) 695-2234 for more information. We’re at UTC/GMT -4 (Eastern Daylight Time) until November 6th. We then fall back to UTC/GMT -5 (Eastern Standard Time) until March 11, 2012. www.tandsoft.com

comForte publishes article on compliance with PCI-DSS 3.4 in The Connection

Render PAN unreadable anywhere it is stored (including on portable digital media, backup media, and in logs).”

That is how PCI1 3.4 is defined and for NonStop users that has proven to be a difficult task to comply with. Most users have resorted to compensating controls to satisfy auditor requirements.

The article entitled ‘Tokenization - A New Approach to Fully Comply with PCI 3.4 and Improve Data Security’, written by Thomas Burg, CTO, and Michael Stephenson, Senior Software Engineer at comForte, looks at Tokenization, a new approach to fulfill the PCI 3.4 requirement and improve data security. It discusses the rationale behind not allowing sensitive data to be stored “in the clear”; then presents tokenization as a fresh approach which goes beyond only encrypting the data. Finally it shows how Tokenization can be added to existing applications without requiring any changes to the application itself.

To read the full article please click here.

Come and see us at these upcoming events in 2011 and beyond

ACE Asia Pacific, Singapore, Oct 18-20

CTUG, Toronto, Oct 26

MEXTUG, Mexico City, Oct 26-27

NENUG, Boston, Nov 10

BITUG BIG SIG, London, Dec 8

SUNTUG, Tampa, Mar 2-3, 2012

EBUG, Athens, Apr 24-26, 2012

International GTUG/CONNECT, Dresden, Germany, Sept 24-27, 2012

Stay connected:

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FINFO Version 3.4 Trial Version

Ross Systems International

FINFO Version 3.4 is now available as a trial version.

This version will work on any system until January 2012.

Please see our web site for further details or send an e-mail.

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

Telephone: +44-1206-392923

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

NSWi Launches New Website

www.nonstopworldinternational.com

Are you a European NonStop User?

Do you require a Full Time / Part Time Resource boost to Cover New Projects, Maternity / Paternity leave etc.?

Do you have NonStop Customers based in EMEA that require Local Support of Hardware and Software?

Nonstop World International (NSWi) can help.

We are currently providing Local Support to Vendors outside of the EMEA region for their NonStop Customers based in EMEA.

Contact us to see how we can assist you with highly skilled NonStop professionals, whether Long Term or Part Time on a 24*7 basis.

Is Tandem In Your Future? Part 3

or The Pen Is Mightier Than The IT Budget!

by Carol Flaig

Prior to this month’s peek into my Tandem crystal ball, let’s clear a couple things right up.

First, I am neither clairvoyant nor am I a Tandem bad ass guru. Heck, folks, I’m not even a programmer.

I’m just like you, I read Tandemworld for the articles!

Second, judging by the number of personal attacks I got re my recent Tandemworld articles, there’s non-stop insecurity out there in Tandemland, or perhaps it’s teeny weenie personal inadequacy syndrome rearing its lovely little head, again. Lock ‘n load, people. LOL!

Now, before we go off half-cocked and hit enter to send me a barrage of expletives about my worth (or not) as a human being, and even less worth in the ranks of the select Tandem NonStop community, please consider the fact that you just may be providing fodder for my next Tandemworld article, WHEW!

The pen is mightier than the sword, or in this case the dwindling IT budget.

So, back to the Tarot deck.

I see an economic decline in Europe and the US. I see an ongoing, indefinite shrinking of all budgets and IT budget managers acting accordingly. Yes, even Tandem budget managers are cutting back. Leases and licensing fees are re-negotiated downward. Data centers are consolidated, proprietary platforms are replaced with open ones. Established methods are replaced with newer lower cost alternatives. The sacred cows of yesteryear are prepped for slaughter. Yes, that includes government spending, folks.

The almighty public sector’s number is up. Meg is sharpening her ballpoints as we speak. With one swift stroke of her engraved Mont Blanc, Meg will initial the fate of HP’s PC division into history. Her charter is profitability, folks. Her bold new direction proves to be a successful turning point for HP shareholders. *

What can you do in this volatile environment? What can you do to adjust? How can you survive? Simple, follow the money! It’s no longer about appearances, no longer about how fabulously special

y’all Tandem NonStop head turners are! It’s about the bottom line, people. Yup, it’s all about dollars

and cents, folks. It’s about managing effectively to fewer of them:

Ask not how many IT dollars are going to be spent, ask how IT dollars are going to be spent!

If you enjoy this dialogue let Tandemworld know, info@tandemworld.net. If not, keep the slurs and arrows coming! It’s fun playing with you brilliant bad asses, NonStop. cflaig@platypuspartners.com

* The entirety of this IT industry and global economic projection is based solely on my glazed-over-vision,

formulated exclusively with my ultra-elite Tandem NonStop (not Hitachi) magic wand (after a late

night tryst with my e-checkbook and iPad5 beta mortgage refi app). Blame the wand, people, not me!

Watch for next month’s installment of Is Tandem In Your Future? Part 4 or Is HP in Oracle’s future?

Ms. Flaig holds an advanced degree in writing, a Jerome Foundation Emerging Artist Award,

20+ years IT industry experience, and is available for consulting work.

User Groups

Information on User Group events can be found at http://www.connect-community.org

CTUG

2011 CTUG Conference
Canada’s largest HP NonStop Event!

October 26-27, 2011
Mississauga, Ontario

We’re pleased to announce that our fall conference will be held on October 26-27, 2011

More Info at www.ctug.ca

BITUG

29th Nov – 1st Dec HP Discovery, Vienna

7th Dec Education Day

8th Dec BIG SIG (including Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity)

www.bitug.com

GTUG, Germany, Nov

Discover, Vienna, Nov 29 - 1 Dec

Where to Follow Tandemworld

Tandemworld have created a Group on LinkedIN through which you can view the latest Tandemworld eNewsletter.

We cuurently have a number of highly experienced NonStop Specialists seeking new roles within the EMEA region. Should you have a requirement for a short term specialist (Contract) or a more longer term resource (Permanent) please Contact Us to enable us to assist you swiftly.

Please view this at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2602432&trk=hb_side_g

And

Tandemworld within EMEA

+44 (0) 20 8304 7979

info@tandemworld.net

www.tandemworld.net

To place article(s) within our future eNewsletters please Email us.

For Future Sponsorship opportunities please Email us.

Ban Bottlenecks® - Your Roadmap to Future Availability

Availability:

Real time isn’t good enough.

A service and a discipline

Meet us:

Call for a free evaluation!