For the year 2023, TCM was visibly active through our participation in numerous regional events. While our home town event in Edinburgh proved to be an occasion where once again TCM’s sponsorship of social engagements drew considerable participation it was also a time when the investments in personal and products highlighted the occasion. Again, this proved to be the case as well in Denver where TCM’s participation in the NonStop TBC 2023 Conference was hard to ignore.

These gathering of the NonStop community have continued through the year as even now, there has been further events held in Scandinavia and shortly will continue back here in the UK. The annual end of year gathering for the BITUG Little SIG on December 7, 2023, in London will likely prove to be an opportunity to reflect on the many updates, messages and roadmaps that seemed to be enthusiastically promoted with little prompting, and the London event will close out the year with heightened expectations for what will likely transpire in 2024.

As we look back at the events of 2023, we not only had the opportunity to interact with the NonStop sales and support teams but were able to use the occasion to validate our overall strategy. When it comes to our customer-driven priorities it has been these recent events that have helped reaffirm our 2023/2024 strategy is strongly aligned with the needs of the NonStop user community. Most important of all, it was met with the approval of all those we interact with on a regular basis – our clients could see the value TCM was providing in situations that called for tapping the expertise that is prevalent across all that TCM pursues on behalf of these clients.

It is this reaffirmation of our strategy and with it, the support we have from the NonStop user community that sustains our interest in NonStop events, whether their reach is regional or global. TCM readily admits that each gathering represents a litmus test measuring the longer-term future of NonStop.With what we have witnessed this year, it is clear to the management at TCM that our priorities are not just strongly aligned with those of the NonStop community but represent a valuable asset to the NonStop team.

When it comes to the major events such as this one in Denver, Colorado, and previously, in our home town of Edinburgh, Scotland, TCM finds them to be a valuable extension to our own sales and marketing programs. These events are always useful in terms of providing positive reinforcement of our support of the NonStop community even as they allow us an opportunity to converse with the Americas sales team. TCM continues to make inroads into the Americas marketplace, so the timing of this latest major event, the NonStop TBC2023 Conference, couldn’t have been better – we met with a broader population of the NonStop sales and solutions architects than we had experienced previously.

Looking back on the NonStop TBC2023 Conference, what stood out for TCM was how one of the best attended presentations was that given by Shiva Subramanian, NonStop Solutions Architect, TCM Solutions – NonStop, Evolution Through Modernization. There would be a few that would argue against virtualization as it is a part of any business journey into modernization. However, when it comes to moving from the hardware to a virtual system, we at TCM have observed that many NonStop users have faced serious challenges as to how best to begin the journey, knowing full well that the underlying infrastructure of the NonStop applications may be best described as legacy.

Will TCM see NonStop users moving to virtual NonStop (vNS) this year or next? Possibly but it would seem that such moves will likely take place towards the end of 2024 and even into 2025. “As I look at the business potential in 2024, I believe we will see an increase of NonStop Customers struggling with the management of ageing applications. Additionally, we see a push for Customers to align application management across multiple platforms. Using modern opensource tools, this standardization approach is possible,” said Andy Vasey, Services Business Consultant, TCM Solutions. “We have also been recognizing availability of resources for ageing languages e.g. Cobol, decrease significantly. Using a standard aligned approach, reduces this business risk of reliance.”

As has been our observation of late, when a NonStop user chooses to deploy in a virtual machine and in so doing, pursue an overhaul of the underlying infrastructure, challenges quickly arise. Sorting through the many industry buzzwords might deter even the most adventurous NonStop user from tackling any project to upgrade their software stack recognizing, as they seem to be doing, that it calls for experience they simply do not possess. Virtualization doesn’t mandate overhauls and upgrades and yet this technology journey has proven that pursuing both leads to cost savings easily realized by any business. Experience, access to well-earned intellectual equity and the realization that someone else is further along in their journey has contributed materially to the success of TCM this year.

Embarking on a virtual journey may appeal to just a few intrepid users, but closer to home TCM has been generating considerable interest in a tool that was only recently announced; TCM InSight. Together with Colin Yates, Technical Director, TCM Solutions, Andy Vasey provided the NonStop community with further updates on TCM InSight, a tool designed to provide simple snapshot assessments of all that has gone into the installation of solutions on NonStop systems, quickly and accurately giving a better understanding for each NonStop users of their respective systems and setups. Long a valuable tool for internal use by the TCM consultants on site, it has now been productized and is being viewed positively by the NonStop user community with strong take-up across EMEA. It is a help to both the NonStop user and TCM to better understand how the NonStop system and its supported applications perform in the users’ business environment.

Experience tells us that following our participation in this year’s events, there are likely to be many more serious conversations with the NonStop community to follow concerning the individual journeys of NonStop users, whether focused on modernization or virtualization or simply coming to better understanding of their NonStop systems and settings, and TCM will be only too happy to join you on your journey wherever your path might take you.

nonstop@tcm.uk.com   www.tcm.uk.com