[Info-vax] Should Oracle buy OpenVMS?

[VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG]

In article <c90b6$49edd0e8$45c4bfa2$12050 at TEKSAVVY.COM-Free>, "John Smith \(not the one @ HP\)" <a at nonymous.com> writes:
>
>"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. 

Doubtful.  IMHO, they're dumb PH-UX!


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