If you have been reviewing the statements from recent Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) presentations made at major vendor events, and have been giving consideration to the ramifications, you will get the sense that HPE is on a tear of late. By this, I mean it is not just talking about transformation from the user perspective, but from its own perspective as well. This hasn't been missed by industry analysts or technology pundits and there have been many posts to vendor and association blogs dissecting each and every message. Every technology vendor should have a strategy and be able to articulate it more or less on cue, but not every strategy develops traction among its ecosystem of users, vendors and consultants. However, it's hard to find fault with where HPE intends to steer the industry and be first with products its ecosystem values.
The significance of this transformation by HPE for its community of mission critical system users is the obvious effort HPE is making to build credibility to its strategy of industry and data center transformation, even as it fosters renewed trust in the executive team at HPE and its ability to execute. The issue of trust (in HPE) has emerged in a number of posts and discussions recently and it is very important for HPE, following the split into two companies at the end of 2015, for the broader HPE ecosystem. But what exactly is HPE's strategy and how is it leading to a transformation in the way business leverages technology for greater value to the business?
Recently I quoted from the Fall 2015 issue of Connect Converge, where I referenced recent statements by Sue Barsamian, Senior Vice President and General Manager, HP Enterprise Security Products. "Our strategy is comprised of four key areas that represent what we believe are the most significant transformations companies must execute to bridge from traditional IT to a new world where you can turn ideas into business value faster than at any time in history," Barsamian tells the interviewer form C2. This vision of an idea economy that HPE sees as fueling its strategy has been touched in in previous posts to this blog and so shouldn't be news to readers of this blog.
It was in the post of October 28, 2015, Mobility and the Idea Economy where I quote HPE as having explained the "idea economy" as an, "environment in which ubiquitous access to technology and digital connections provides the opportunity to turn ideas into business value faster than at any time in history." I revisited this topic too in the post of December 15, 2015, NonStop? Enterprise Transformations? Increased complexity – all needing Prognosis! As I wrapped up this December post, I made the observation of how, "The strategy, vision and goals for NonStop have evolved and are driven by business even as it's recognized by vendors too that there are opportunities for them any time such dramatic change happens."
As for the vision then it's all about getting to the Idea Economy, which Barsamian said is the "environment in which ubiquitous access to technology and digital connections provides the opportunity to turn ideas into business value faster than at any time in history." And the four key areas comprising the strategy? Starting with "Transform to a hybrid infrastructure to power the apps that run your business," HPE then includes, " Protect your digital enterprise; Empower a data-driven organization; Enable workplace productivity and superior customer experiences."
Idea economy; transformation (to a hybrid infrastructure); security; big data analytics and IoT; then a combination of mobility, smartphones and tablets and the cloud – the BYOD movement! Readers of this blog will be hearing of something new being added to the presentations on transformation. Following 2015 HPE Discover, held last month in London, HPE has begun talking about speed – who could have guessed? HPE CEO, Meg Whitman, recently tweeted "Speed is really what it's all about." Yes, a sense of urgency is now permeating the commentaries coming from HPE, and again, for good reason. HPE has to communicate what's special about HPE, and do it quickly. Trust can be a very fickle commodity.
Whether NonStop systems are being used in support of Payments or as an integral part of a data center's infrastructure, either as a transaction processor or housing a data base, the message of transformations isn't falling on deaf ears. Business is pushing for greater integration of technology with the business to make the business more responsive even as technology provides greater value it's hard to miss the discussions focused on cloud adoption. But for many within the enterprise, there are considerable amounts of risk aversion in evidence. And yet, transformation is at hand, as are the first hybrids comprising traditional IT with private clouds, even as a new computing model emerges that is focused on the disaggregation of all IT resources, what about monitoring?
It should come as no surprise to Prognosis customers and prospects alike that a key element in the success of any "speed moves" to a transformational IT (as the idea economy is embraced) is its oversight. Visualizing all that is in movement at any point of time will be very important to the business – the first signs of any negative impact on a business's customers and partners need to be addressed as it develops. Based on past experiences, transformations can be rife with problems upon deployment and their performance monitoring is critical. Prognosis, as it has done in the past when the NonStop community moved between platforms – CISC to MIPS to Itanium and now x86 – has more than ample experience in smoothing out the speed bumps that will appear.
In the past couple of months I have participated in IR sponsored webinars covering strategy and visions for NonStop. Later this month, I will be turning the page to look more at the upcoming goals for NonStop as part of a new presentation that has been titled - NonStop X: The New Goal - Independence from Systems & Infrastructure- just follow this link to register for the webinar. It's very important for all NonStop community members whether running Prognosis today, or are just taking a fresh look at what Prognosis provides, to be aware of the transformation under way at HPE. After all, trust isn't just fickle or even fleeting, and needs to be earned, but comes with a price and a price clearly HPE is now very willing to pay!
