[Info-vax] Should Oracle buy OpenVMS?

[John Smith (not the one @ HP)]

"Neil Rieck" <n.rieck at sympatico.ca> wrote in message 
news:9a6a39a2-4583-4156-863a-00aa25f866c4 at 3g2000yqk.googlegroups.com...
> After Oracle's purchase of Sun, it seems apparant that Oracle is
> serious about getting into the enterprise business. (added bonus: many
> academic institutions only use Sun; carefully watch the next video
> tour of JPL)
>
> Oracle bought RDB from DEC in the 1990s but if OpenVMS is de-
> emhpasized by HP then RDB is toast. Maybe HP would let OpenVMS go for
> something lower than the often estimated value of $4 billion -IF-
> Oracle agreed to buy Itanium hardware from HP for the next 3-5 years.
> (hey, who thought Hpq could have been enticed to kill off Alpha?)
>
> Now if I haven't convinced you so far then here is a quote from
> Oracle's own web site "Oracle Is the # 1 Business Software Company"
> http://www.oracle.com/features/hp/business-software-company.html
> Since OpenVMS has always been considered a business OS then having
> Oracle acquire the OpenVMS division of HP makes total sense.


Some relevant questions to ask are:

1) Just how many 'new to VMS' customers have begun to install and run VMS in 
the past 2-3 years?

2) How does that number compare to the attrition rate of VMS customers?

3) How many licenses and the value of those license of the 'new' customers 
compare to the number and value of the licenses 'lost' by attrition?

4) What do VMS maintenance revenues look like - what's the trend?

5) How hard ($$$$ and time) would it be to port VMS to a different 
architecture?

The Oracle/Sun deal will, I think, put a lot of pressure on PH-UX sales, 
which will undercut the volume of Itanic unit sales and force HP to rethink 
their NSK, VMS and PH-UX strategies.