Happy 28th Birthday, PTR!!

So what does it mean to be 28 years old?

We have seen a tremendous amount of change in technology between November 1989 and November 2017! I have come up with this list off the top of my head, but I am sure you can come up with a few more!

• Slow analogue dial up modems through to digital ISDN through to fast fibre connectivity ( I can remember being so excited at 9.6kbps!!)
• Remote dial up serial logins to UNIX servers through to internet remote desktops on Windows servers
• Hard wired phone lines and Acoustic Couplers through to direct router connections
• Dial up bulletin boards through to web sites
• The development of Digital Photography and Digital Media
• Mobile phones arrived (remember those huge Motorola "mobile" phones?) - Big mobiles, flip phones, smaller phones, bigger phones through to smartphones.
• "Walknet" to Internet - The growth of the Internet
• Facsimiles to emails
• The introduction of the Intranet and the Extranet
• The introduction of Teleworking
• Intel 286 processors through to NUMA Intel architecture
• The birth of the laptop and portable computer (or luggable as some might have described them - you needed a big lap!!)
• Coaxial cabled Ethernet LANs through to CAT cabling, hubs, bridges, routers, switches and Fibre Optic cabling
• The introduction of wireless LANs
• X25 to Frame Relay Packet Switched Networks for private WAN communication links
• Mainframe hosted data and applications through to distributed PC hosted applications and back to central hosting via application servers such as Citrix, and through to the Cloud that we have today.
• Windows Server grew up from Windows NT 3.5 through to Windows 2016
• CRT monitors to Flat Screens
• UNIX to Windows to Linux
• Expensive proprietary solutions through to "Free" Open source solutions
• Email to Chat to Social Media
• Relational Databases grew and grew
• Multidimensional databases emerged to cater for ever growing data volumes and analytics requirements
• Small data to Big Data
• Paper Storage and Filing Cabinets to Digital Transformation
• Information, Information, Information!
• Reports to Dashboards to Insights
• Human analytics and decision making to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
• I'LL WAIT A WEEK TO I WANT IT NOW!!
• I'll GO WORK FOR IT TO I WANT IT HERE WHERE I AM!!
• Computer Manufacturers have come and gone, merged or taken others over
• Vendors have come and gone

So where are we now?

• Data, data everywhere
• People, people everywhere
• Information from anywhere

The pace at which businesses work has increased dramatically as communication links have improved and servers have become more powerful. As digital technology has developed and grown so has the volume of data now stored electronically. We are an impatient nation that now expects to have information at our finger tips at any time, no matter where it might be and where we might be. Smartphones, tablets, laptops and fast mobile communication networks means the infrastructure is now there to cater for this. In addition to the communications and hardware technologies developing at a phenomenal rate, software authors and vendors have developed new technologies to keep up with the modern demands on business. We are in the midst of Digital Transformation, working with Big and Small data to deliver Business Intelligence visualisations, taking advantage of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to process data sets looking for trends and insights to give businesses that edge to be better than their competitor and as efficient and profitable as they can be.

There is no doubt that business systems have been on an incredible journey over the last 28 years.

But one thing has stayed the same:

PTR has been with clients every step of the way through the last 28 years, whether providing remote access, data communications and data management solutions, support, installation, or training. We were there at the start of this technology explosion and have an engrained understanding of the where business systems have come from, and the challenges that moving from older legacy systems through to modern leading edge technologies and solutions presents to businesses today.

We have lived and breathed the evolution of business systems from the communications, server and network infrastructure through to the data management, analytics and business intelligence demands that Digital Transformation brings with it.  On our journey to 2017 we have distributed Motorola data communications equipment, implemented Citrix, RSA, RLN, Multisoft and Relational Database Solutions, contracted into manufacturers and vendors such as Sun, Silicon Graphics, Sequent, Informix, Uniplex, Business Objects, Documentum, to name but a few. We have always provided a comprehensive training and consultancy service in the technology areas we have operated in. PTR has been a Microsoft Partner since 2004, currently a Silver Data Platform Partner, and in recent years has specialised in Data Management, Analytics and Business Intelligence solutions and services  on SQL Server Platforms.

We have knowledge and expertise in old and new technologies.

So where is PTR now?

Well, we have continued to specialise in delivering solutions and educating our clients in all things Data:

• Creating It
• Storing it
• Hosting it
• Moving it
• Transporting it
• Securing it
• Converging it
• Cleansing it
• Analysing it!

Our aim is to be the go-to Microsoft BI & Data Analytics Provider for mid-sized businesses. We know every business is different. So we won’t just tell you what to do and then leave you to it. We commit time and expertise to really understand your business and the problems that are unique to it. And then, we stick around to make sure you’re on track to reach your business goals.