[Info-vax] Should Oracle buy OpenVMS?

[Neil Rieck]

On Apr 21, 9:57 am, "John Smith \(not the one @ HP\)"
<a... at nonymous.com> wrote:
> "Neil Rieck" <n.ri... 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.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Or alternatively, how much revenue comes to Oracle from Oracle-RDB
licensing? Because if HP allows OpenVMS to wither away (and all their
actions since the fall of 2008 seem to indicate that this is their
intention) then RDB will go down with it. If RDB still makes money for
Oracle, then maybe Oracle will want to keep OpenVMS alive.

On the flip side, HP went ahead with the acquistion of EDS just before
the economy went sour. Companies deep in debt are screwed while
companies sitting on lots of cash (like IBM and Oracle) can shop for
bargains. With over 300,000 employes HP can only tread water so long.
By dumping their OpenVMS burden they can lighten the load while adding
some cash to their books.

Neil Rieck
Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge,
Ontario, Canada.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/