October 23-25, 2023 — Gravic and HPE Present on HPE Shadowbase Solutions at VNUG (Viking NonStop User Group)

The Viking NonStop User Group (VNUG) was an informative and enjoyable experience for attendees.

• We greatly appreciate everyone who made the journey from many different countries to attend this event.
• It is always great to meet face-to-face, and we hope that everyone who attended left the event with valuable key takeaways and new connections.

Sunday – Touring Stockholm and The Viking Museum

Sunday provided an opportunity to walk around Stockholm, sample some local cuisine, tour, and buy (strongly encouraged and anticipated) gifts for our loved ones at home.

Paul Denzinger (HPE Master Technologist) Presenting on Education Day

Monday – Education Day

Education Day was hosted at the HPE office in Solna.

• • Paul Denzinger (HPE Master Architect) presented on various topics including Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI & ML), ChatGPT, Database Vectors, and What’s New in SQL/MX.
  • Paul did a great job informing the attendees about how these technologies work. He described ChatGPT, how the AI & ML algorithms function, and even experimented with ChatGPT during the day.
    • When ML models are developed, they are given the problem and answer, and then the model trains itself.
      • Unlike most computer software algorithms, humans can only understand so much.
      • The ML model’s Input and Output can be observed, but what happens inside the Neural Network is impossible for a human to read and understand due to the complexity of these algorithms.
      • By the way, did you know that ChatGPT does not reference a database? It relies solely on its ML algorithm when returning results.

After Education Day, the group traveled north to Rånäs Slott castle for a delicious dinner, and a warm welcome from Lise-Lotte Lofmark (Swedbank and VNUG Board).

Tuesday – Vendor Day 1

Rånäs Slott provided excellent hospitality including warm meals, delicious midday snacks, robust coffee, and heated bathroom floors in each room. Attendees enjoyed quality content with Malware and Ransomware being a common theme.

Sessions included:

• • • • HPE NonStop Business Direction – Neil Davis and Mark Pollans
        • Neil covered several different sales and macro-environmental trends.
          • For instance, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is striving to become a major player on the world stage with large construction projects, heavy infrastructure investments, and developing SAMA (Saudi Central Bank) regulations.
        • Mark Pollans described an evolving HPE NonStop system type and other developments in the market.
      • HPE Shadowbase – Digital Resilience, Data Integration, and Data Validation for HPE NonStop Systems – Paden R. Holenstein
        

        Paden Holenstein (Gravic) Presenting  HPE Shadowbase solutions

        • Paden covered macro-environmental trends regarding Ransomware, and how HPE Shadowbase is addressing data recovery after an attack
        • Paden also described HPE Shadowbase Solutions in the following architectures:
          • Data Replication for Business Continuity
            • Zero Downtime Migration for California Credit Union
      • Data Integration for Data Sharing and Streaming
      • Data Validation for Data Verification
• Beer Bust
  • Attendees enjoyed a nice end-of-day reception with refreshments and candid conversation.

In the evening, many attendees experienced a tour of Rånäs Slott, including the myth of ghosts haunting the castle.

• • • The guide was just wrapping up the tour and making fun of “the foreigners who jump in the lake” when Paden and Rick Stather (TCM) made a grand appearance in their swim trunks and bath robes, only to find they were front and center of the tour.
    • The tour guide probingly questioned what the two were doing, and then the participants laughed incessantly. “The timing was impeccable,” one spectator remarked afterwards.

Graham Rogers (HPE) Presenting the Digital Resilience Framework

Wednesday – Vendor Day 2

Sessions included:

• • • HPE Digital Resilience – Graham Rogers
      • Graham explained the Digital Resiliency framework circle (based on NIST guidelines).
        • New regulations are forcing companies to comply and act quickly.
        • Graham expressed a strong desire to work with vendors and customers alike to develop solutions that further the solution and help solve the problem of Malware and Ransomware protection, along with meeting regulations.
    • HPE Shadowbase Demo – Ken Scudder
      • Ken presented the HPE Shadowbase Demo, as unveiled at the Fall Connect TBC event.
        • It included several new HPE Shadowbase architectures to help recover from a Ransomware attack.
    • TCM Global Solutions – Shiva Subramanian
      

      Shiva Subramanian (TCM) Presenting Various HPE NonStop Tools

      • Shiva did a great job illustrating the various tools on HPE NonStop.
        • A TCM customer wanted to rewrite an application in COBOL.
        • Shiva asked, “Why not do it in C++?”
        • This illustrated the fact that some customers do not realize that there are numerous tools available to help make them work more efficiently and effectively, using modern development tools.
    • HPE NS Business Q&A – Neil Davis & Mark Pollans
    • Partner Exhibition Break
      • This break gave the attendees an opportunity to meander and chat with vendors at their booths, fostering good discussion and interaction.
      • Afterwards, attendees wished each other farewell and carpooled home, continuing good conversation while discussing the event.

We Greatly Enjoyed Meeting with You

Special thanks to the VNUG board for organizing and hosting – until next time!

Congratulations to Lise-Lotte for winning our JBL Flip 4 Bluetooth Speaker prize!