[Info-vax] OpenVMS versus Windows/GE Telemetry Control Systems.

[David Froble]

Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2013-01-15, David Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>> As for the case of the original poster, the Alpha systems are running 
>> today, and will continue to run until something breaks.  Given the 
>> history of DEC hardware, it should normally be expected to run for a 
>> long time yet.  Individual pieces can and do break, and then it's a 
>> question of whether there is any recourse to fixing or replacing the 
>> failed equipment.  In most cases, fixing or replacing is far less costly 
>> than a migration of the system to something else.  In business decisions 
>> should be based on a cost / benefit ratio.
>>
> 
> I wonder why people only consider hardware breaking instead of also
> considering software breaking.
> 
> In this Internet connected world, software can break just as hard as
> hardware when a security exploit is discovered and can be a _lot_ harder
> to fix than a simple hardware failure.
> 
> If you have a hardware failure, you can just replace your board or
> component and resume normal service. OTOH, if someone finds a protocol
> vulnerability or stack/server coding error in the software you are
> running, you are dead in the water until either you find a workaround
> or your code base is fixed either by you or your vendor.
> 
> Current mainstream platforms may have issues, but you can have more
> confidence that either a workaround or fix will be available in short
> order for any active exploit that makes it into the public domain for
> those platforms.
> 
> I've gone through several cycles of getting Internet related components
> fixed under VMS and the fixes took a lot longer than I would be comfortable
> with if the problem in question had been a active exploit.
> 
> Simon.
> 

Cannot argue with what you say.

In the case of the internet, yes, there can be problems.  As far as I 
know, (and I know nothing), VMS has not had issues in this area to the 
scope that some other environments have had.

For this particular poster, it has not been established that there is 
internet connectivity, and in a strictly in-house environment, I'd bet 
on VMS not getting any major issues.  It just keeps working ....

That mentioned, it's still a poor situation that VMS is in, with regard 
to no longer being in the long term hands of those engineers who know it 
best.  Even so, it hasn't lost whatever they put into it in the past.