[Info-vax] Gartner report on VMS future.

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

Neil Rieck wrote:
> On Sep 15, 7:05 am, Jan-Erik Söderholm <jan-erik.soderh... at telia.com>
> wrote:
>> Just FYI.
>> The main focus in this (rahter short) Gartner report is on
>> "Alpha migration", but VMS is of course mentioned.
>>
>> Anyone on Sujatha's mail-list should have got a message
>> with the link, but I guess it's OK to post if here also...
>>
>> http://h71000.www7.hp.com/gartner_report.html
> 
> I received the email too and was shocked to see that HP was referring
> the reader to a Gartner Report advocating a move away from OpenVMS.

"Advocating" ? That was one option in the report. Hiding that option
would realy be to stick your head into the sand.

They also write :

"Ramp-up of the OpenVMS Itanium software portfolio has been impressive..."

"Migration to OpenVMS on Itanium has been painless for most of
  those who've done it. Depending on the solution, the migration
  to another OS could be equally or even more difficult."

"The adoption rate for OpenVMS on Itanium has been better than
  Gartner initially expected."

"So far, we have been impressed with the speed of Itanium adoption
  among OpenVMS software vendors, so our early assessment was
  too pessimistic."

And in the specific "I want to migrate" (note that it is not
Gartner saying that you *should* migrate), Gartner says :

"However, as with any hardware migration, the vertical-scaling
demands of the workload are paramount. Larger and newer Alpha
platforms could be running applications that demand more vertical
scaling than most or all x86 servers can provide..."

"OpenVMS is an excellent OS with good uptime and rich functionality.
Even today, it is debatable whether the best of Unix can offer the
same levels of capability as legacy operating systems such as OpenVMS
or IBM's i5OS ("i" OS). Even when x86 servers can deliver the
required scaling, the breadth of Windows or Linux uptime functions,
or the maturity of vendor high-availability programs, may not be enough."



> See the section titled "I want to migrate completely away from
> OpenVMS" where they include a list of vendors who are willing to
> help.

So what ? Is it some secret that they exists ?

> 
> As an aside, two of the vendors (Transoft and Sector 7) call me
> monthly to inform me that OpenVMS is dead and that I should consider
> buying their porting services

Of course they do. Surpriced ?

> 
> (Maybe JF is correct about HP trying to kill OpenVMS)

Maybe not. Who knows...