Tandemworld eNewsletter for September 2013

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Tandemworld eNewsletter for September 2013

As you know, transforming your NonStop applications to support your company’s changing technology is key to ongoing success. Whether it’s:

§  Migrating applications to another platform

§  Integrating cloud-based services, or

§  Enabling a legacy application to work with mobile devices

LightWave, a new product by NuWave Technologies, empowers your organization to achieve these objectives. Now you can securely connect to NonStop applications from REST clients running on any platform, including mobile and cloud-based applications.

The software's key features include:

§  RESTful access to NonStop processes, Pathway servers, Enscribe files, and TMF

§  Support for JSON

§  Connection to NonStop applications using simple HTTP requests, secured by SSL/TLS

§  Short learning curve

§  Excellent technical support

With LightWave, it will be even easier to connect to any application on any platform, allowing your company to:

• Securely transact business with partners and customers using disparate platforms or the cloud

• Expand business offerings to increase market share

• Easily and incrementally migrate to modern, standards-based technology

For more information on LightWave and to see a live demo, please visit http://www.nuwave-tech.com/lightwave. If you would like to learn more about our early adopter program, please send your inquiries to info@nuwave-tech.com.

As a new destination option you can now copy to Oracle tables everything you can open with Stefi from the HP Nonstop server.
This means that Sql/MP tables and Ensribe files can be easily transported to Oracle, filtering the records if needed. For Enscribe files you can easily locate the DDL dictionary definition that has to be used to interpret the data records.

The software solution makes a direct data copy, no intermediate data storage, no ODBC or ADO DB is used. The Oracle provided 'OCI' libraries are used, but there is no need to install the Oracle client to your desktop, the Stefi install set contains the necessary two Oracle DLLs.
The command line utility can be used to copy files in batch mode.

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 with strong support for ACI's BASE24 system files. 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 and ORACLE 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

You operate a mission-critical system.  You think you have things under control.  But do you have a “ticking black box” on your hands?  Are your service levels slipping? You know the feeling: You keep adding more customers, more reports, more extracts, more transmissions. You add another application. Increased volume reveals infrastructure shortcomings. No one is sure that more hardware will solve a recurring problem…The list can go on and on.

What you really want is continuous improvement of your operation.  Instead, you have begun the slippery slope of continuous degradation…The slow inexorable process of losing control of your system.  

If so, something needs to change.  You’ve got to get off that slippery slope. Transaction Design, Inc. has your change agent: Ban BottlenecksÒ - a unique service that helps you achieve your goal of excellent service.  With Ban Bottlenecks in place, you no longer spend your time scrambling to fix one problem after another. Instead, you are proactive and focused on the continuous improvement of your system. 

Ban Bottlenecks’ program of continuous improvement implements three things:

·        A way to measure and discover issues affecting service levels, usage, and performance

·        A methodology to track the effect of your improvements

·        The discipline to carry out these efforts consistently, month after month

From a client: “From my perspective, I really don’t have to know a whole lot about performance intricacies.  I know enough to ask the right questions.  I love the arrangement we have now where you do the work and tell us when you notice issues.  I’d prefer that over [another company’s] product even if they were giving it away for free.  There were other companies offering automated performance charts but it required work to generate them and no one available to interpret them and offer suggestions.  I think you have a great niche.”

Meet us at the NonStop Technical Boot Camp in San Jose in November!

Contact us for a free proof of concept!

assist@banbottlenecks.com

1.415.256.8369

www.banbottlenecks.com

·        Provides monitoring and auditing of user sessions down to command and even keystroke level

·        Enforces administrator defined password quality standards

·        Applies time restrictions by command, program and source IP address

·        Restricts users, including those with powerful Ids to authorized operations

·        Restricts users to specific work stations, official functions and days/hours

For more information, contact CSP at sales-csp@cspsecurity.com or visit www.cspsecurity.com.

Press Release: XYGATE User Authentication (XUA) now Bundled with the HP NonStop Operating System

SIMI VALLEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--XYPRO Technology Corporation, the market leader in HP NonStop Server security, audit, compliance, and FIPS-validated encryption solutions, today announced that its XYGATE User Authentication (XUA) software solution will now be included with the HP NonStop Operating System for the recently-announced platforms. 

The XUA software addition allows customers to strengthen NonStop security with increased user authentication controls, logon management, and enterprise integration. Key functionality includes: granular logon controls, user group logon rules, logon-specific audit reports, time-based logon controls, controlled impersonation capabilities, LDAP interface for the NonStop Server (enabling single sign-on) and support for RSA SecurID Tokens. 

Read the whole release…

Stay Connected with XYPRO:

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Third Data Corporation provides numerous products which can reside on HP Nonstop and other HP and Non-HP  hardware platforms. In addition we provide custom high performance software design and development for our clients.

FastBuild Switch – When building a switch be it ATM-POS, Wire Transfer, EFT, Medical, or any other type of data that needs to get from one place to another, you are usually faced with three choices. Take an existing package and modify your system to match it. Get the vendor to “enhance” their system to meet your needs. Write a new system from scratch. The FastBuild Switch integrates with your existing system, or if you are building from scratch gives you a great start. The switch is also built around the latest HP technology to maximize performance. It integrates several of our other products to maximize cost savings and security in a fault tolerant manner. In a cross platform environment it also runs on other non-Guardian HP supplied platforms.

SecureStore – If you are security conscience trying to become compliant (PCI, HIPAA, etc) then you know that you can not leave sensitive data readily viewable. SecureStore does three things for you. The data is encrypted so that you can become compliant. The data is compressed so that your hardware costs are reduced. As part of disaster recovery your data is sent to multiple locations so it will be available when you need it. As a bonus for those having trouble with Guardian 4K limits there is no record size. It supports Big Data with up to 18 Exabytes. It can also integrate with SQL systems (SQL MX/MP, Oracle, Postgres etc).

NxLib – NxLib provides a platform and utility libraries for developing a high performance multi-threaded applications on NonStop Guardian. The platform provides threading, queuing and network capabilities. This enables development of an application written single threaded style to perform as multi-threaded.   Extensible command processing and help are supported.  Development time can be cut to a fraction of the time it would normally take.  This results in fast  application development with consistent look and feel across multiple projects.

NxWeb – A high performance web server which provides support for NxLib applications.  It also can be used without NxLib.  It provides for secure connections, virtual domains, full http support and interfaces to pathway and IPC communications.

NxFile+ – NxFile+ provides compression and encryption to Enscribe structured files.  The files are configured through a GUI interface and the results are provided seamlessly to your applications, typically without any code changes.  In addition this provides for dynamic key changes on the fly so data stored at-rest may have its encryption keys changed as required.  Because the records can be compressed prior to encryption, it’s also possible to have records which significantly exceed the 4k record size limitations.

NxSSL – NxSSL is an SSL proxy which may be used to provide SSL encryption and authentication services to TCP/IP connections.  It provides full support for certificates and multiple encryption standards.  It has been carefully tuned to provide the highest performance available for any NonStop SSL connection.

NxUndelete – Files accidentally deleted can be a real problem.  Even when a backup is available, it is frequently a significant effort to retrieve it from a backup tape.  NxUndelete implements a recycle bin function on the the HP NonStop system.  Files deleted may be easily recovered using its GUI interface.

Musings on NonStop!

September, ‘13

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

Transformations have been at the top of my area of focus list this month. I have seen much on the road trips I have embarked on of late – participating in user and association events. I have looked at the Gulf region, in particular New Orleans as it rebuilds, and I have been writing about networking and communications and observed how much it continues to evolve.

It was following the HP Discover event a few years back that a Silicon Valley newsletter, siliconangle.com, published an interview it conducted with HP executives, Winston Prather and Randy Meyer. Carrying the headline, “HP talks NonStop transformation” it carried some commentary that resonates with me to this day. “Paying heed to the history of Tandem, HP has made the perception that the Tandem platform was very proprietary one of their main focuses. They have spent billions and the last three to five years transforming the platform.”   

Further into the article it states, “The platform has transferred now from proprietary to industry standard, and is shared across HP converged infrastructure.” It then quotes Prather, “The secret sauce was always in the software – it was always in the fact that the software know how to be parallel and knew how to scale to thousands of processors and the database knew how to put the data wherever it needed to be and access it fast, and the operating system knew how to fail over if it saw a component fail.”

Readership of the NonStop community blog, Real Time View, has climbed to new heights this month – whether it’s everyone returning from the summer break or not - and I would like to think it’s the topical nature of the content of recent posts. It’s hard to miss the interest in the posts to do with transformation, the arrival of Big Data, as well as the likely impact Cloud computing will make, and of how this is a journey.

In case you missed them, the three posts attracting the most readers have been:

August 14: http://itug-connection.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-big-thumbs-up-for-nonstop.html

August 25: http://itug-connection.blogspot.com/2013/08/big-is-getting-whole-lot-bigger.html

August 31: http://itug-connection.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-new-transformed-nonstop-brash-and.html

Transformation is tightly intertwined with innovation. In general, you only pursue serious transformation, spending the billions HP executives referenced in their interview, when something innovative is being embraced. NonStop running on commodity blades was very much a case of transformation in support of innovation. However, returning to the software, the special sauce supporting NonStop, the vendor community too continues to be actively involved and continues to invest.

In a post to realtime.ir.com “Transformation – when it’s about NonStop than shhhh, it’s good for business!” (that may already be published by the time you read this) that was written following email exchanges with IR’s Product Manager - Head of Payments and NonStop, Jonathan DeVeaux, it was all about software. “Customers continue to invest in NonStop and our Performance Monitoring solutions,” DeVeaux said. “So much so, that it makes justifying further development in the platform a lot easier.”

Transformation, innovation, perhaps evolution but most definitely, customer investment – this is good news to all involved. In a late night phone call with OmniPayments CEO, Yash Kapadia, I once again heard how the early success in services and consulting positioned the company well to introduce products. With the development of products came an even tighter relationship with their clients that better positioned them to add even more products.

“There’s no simple way to say this other than with NonStop prices becoming more affordable, there’s less inclination to respond to prospect requests with anything other than NonStop,” Yash told me. “Of course, we run on other commodity platforms but it has become a lot easier to talk about the NonStop server as a commodity product and that really helps us win more software business.”

Yash continues to offer products that are a part of the OmniPayments as component replacements in a surround and conquer approach. Where other major products are already deployed (as may be the case when BASE24 is present) this approach is proving successful but even with this approach, in select markets and with the new lower-price commodity NonStop, he is also selling the complete OmniPayments product suite. 

With a history supporting NonStop systems Attunity too is watching a mini-transformation taking place as it puts even more resources behind Attunity Replicate. “The opportunity to generate new business is definitely one outcome we see coming from the focus we are placing on Attunity Replicate,” Vice President, Business Development and Corporate Strategy, Itamar Ankorion. In the June 21, 2102, post, “I have options!” I added that attracting new products, like Attunity replicate, helps add weight to the reality that developing new products for the NonStop community holds merit.

Today, Attunity supports HP’s Big Data initiative by adding support for moving data from NonStop SQL to Vertica and in so doing, according to Ankorion, “has developed a lot of traction with Vertica.” While I am sure there will be more companies following Attunity’s lead, as this is at the very heart of innovation, being the first to take the wraps off their product offerings certainly can’t hurt them.

Transformation has always been important to the NonStop community. There’s been the internal hardware transformation of the I/O system, moving from bus to switch-based architecture. All of us too can remember LAN controllers being transformed and moved inboard even as WAN controllers moved outboard. The LAN-OTLP (embracing Client Server) was a transformation that proved timely as well.

In my IR post already mentioned I argue that, with the adoption of commodity components, NonStop has morphed into something more in tune with customer budgets, even as it continued doing what it did best, process transactions without disruption. Transformation? Evolution? Perhaps both, or perhaps neither – what is important however, is that HP sees the business growing so much so that decisions to fund future NonStop products have become easier to make.

“The mission (Prather and Meyer) believe is one where they have solved a long held problem of the customer base of not being able to find specific talents locked to a proprietary system,” wrote siliconangle.com adding, “with today’s NonStop technology, that is no longer an issue”. How often we take for granted perhaps the most important attribute of the transformation taking place with NonStop and that it, getting to the place where anyone can write applications for NonStop – yes, let that special sauce look after it all for you!
 
Too simple? Overstating reality? I am not so sure anymore and neither are the many vendors supporting NonStop customers today.

Richard Buckle
Founder and CEO
Pyalla Technologies, LLC
Email:             richard@pyalla-technologies.com

Following my blogs? My web publications? My discussion Groups?

Check out (copy and paste to your browser):

Real Time View at http://www.itug-connection.blogspot.com/

…. And check out the Group on LinkedIn, Real Time View

comForte Lounge at http://comfortelounge.blogspot.com/

…. And check out the Group on LinkedIn, comForte Lounge

Realtime.ir at http://realtime.ir.com/

…. And check out the Group on LinkedIn, realtime.ir

ATMmarketplace at
http://www.atmmarketplace.com/blogger.php?id=130763

buckle-up at http://www.buckle-up-travel.blogspot.com/

…. And check out the SubGroup on LinkedIn, Pyalla Track Days

Next Class: October 21-25, 2013

XYPRO® provides formal instruction for all XYGATE Security products. Classes for up to eight (8) students are offered at XYPRO's education facilities in Simi Valley, California. Classes can also be held on-site at your facility and be customized to meet your unique requirements 

XYPRO offers both General XYGATE Learning and Advanced XYGATE Instruction 

General XYGATE Learning is for those just getting started with NonStop and XYGATE security or those who wish to hone their XYGATE skills in a broad range of HP NonStop Security fundamentals using the XYGATE Suite of security solutions. Click on the links to learn more.

Click Here to register for the next class
 

Stay Connected with XYPRO:

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Don’t Miss XYPRO’s Pre-Conference Educational Seminars Sunday, November 3^rd:

8:00am-12:00pm: Make the Most of your HP NonStop Security Bundle

1:00pm-5:00pm: Everything You Need Know for PCI Compliance on HP NonStop

Vender Theater XYPRO:

Encrypt Your Application Data – It’s Easier than You Think with Andrew Price

More Security Sessions at a Glance:

Stronger User Security with Advances in Multi-factor Authentication with Talbot Harty, Netauthority

NonStop Security Update with Wendy Bartlett, HP

Working with OSS SEEP with Christopher Draper, Wells Fargo

Join us at these events:

InNUG, Goa, India, Oct 3-5, 2013

PCI EU Community Meeting, Nice, France, Oct 29-31, 2013

CONNECT Advanced Technical Boot Camp 2013, San Jose, USA, Nov 3-5, 2013

PCI AP Community Meeting, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Nov 19-20, 2013

BITUG BIG SIG, London, UK, Dec 5, 2013

From compliance to database management to the latest HP NonStop security topics, our Webinars offer timely information and insight into the issues that matter most to you. Click on any of the links below to access our free Webinars. 

Availability Digest Investigates Nasdaq's Meltdown From a Software Flaw        

August 22nd was a bad day for the stock market. The Nasdaq stock exchange went down for most of the afternoon, paralyzing 3,200 stocks that included Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Facebook. Finger-pointing between Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange ensued. It turns out that both exchanges were at fault. The Availability Digest reveals last month's sequence of events that led to what is being called a "flash freeze."

Also in the September Digest:

OpenVMS Emulation on PCs - HP's recent roadmap for future OpenVMS support has led many customers to consider options for continuing to run critical OpenVMS applications that remain reliable, time-tested, and bug-free. This article reviews two emulators that allow existing OpenVMS applications to run unchanged on bare metal or virtualized Intel or AMD x.86 servers.

Active/Active on Commodity Servers - Recently, a popular thread on LinkedIn's Continuous Availability Forum discussed why active/active has not yet found a place in the commodity server marketplace. Many applications using commodity Windows and Linux servers suffer major costs due to downtime. Although architecting an application to be active/active-ready can add complexity to the project implementation, the savings in downtime costs may be worth it.

2013 NonStop Advanced Technical Boot Camp - This year's three-day Boot Camp will build upon last year's very successful event. Over 50 technical presentations on all things NonStop will be offered by HP staff, customers, and partners on November 4th and 5th. Preconference seminars take place on Sunday, November 3rd. Boot Camp activities will be held in San Jose, California, USA - the backyard of NonStop development.

@availabilitydig – the Twitter Feed for People Obsessed with Outages, Failover Faults, 9s, and Redundancy – A challenge every issue for the Availability Digest is to determine which of the many availability topics out there win coveted status as a Digest article. We always regret not focusing our attention on the topics we bypass. With our new Twitter presence, we don’t have to feel guilty. This article highlights some of the @availabilitydig tweets that made headlines in recent days.

The Availability Digest offers one-day and multi-day seminars on High Availability: Concepts and Practices. Seminars are given both onsite and online and are tailored to an organization’s specific needs. We also offer technical and marketing writing services as well as consulting services for achieving high availability.

"DDoS Attacks - The Latest Availability Threat" is Digest Managing Editor Bill Highleyman’s presentation at the upcoming Connect NonStop Advanced Technical Boot Camp. Dr. Highleyman also will present on "High Availability - An Insider View" at the annual InNUG conference in Goa, India, October 3rd thru 5th.

Published monthly, the Digest is free and lives at www.availabilitydigest.com. Please visit our Continuous Availability Forum on LinkedIn. We’re at 574 members and counting. Check out our most recent thread, “Why is Active/Active stuck in the mainframe world?” Follow us on Twitter @availabilitydig.
 

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