[Info-vax] Using VMS for a web server

[Dirk Munk]

Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:

> I had a talk with a customer last week. We comment the fact
> that there had been no support ticket regarding the platform
> (HW, VMS and Rdb, more or less) since last reboot June-14.
> And very few application level supports tickets b.t.w.
> It's rock solid.
>
> This is of course a good thing for the users, but it does not help
> building and maintaining the knowledge in the support group. :-)
> And that is actualy seen as a real problem...
>

I applied for a VMS job several months ago. During the job interview I 
was asked about my knowledge on all kind of other things, but not on 
VMS. I wasn't an expert on those areas, so they said that would be a 
problem. When I replied that they were asking for a VMS expert, they 
never mentioned those other areas of expertise. Well, that was true, but 
the VMS system had the habit of doing what it was suppose to do, and it 
had been doing that for years. It never needed any human assistance or 
intervention. In fact I would have almost nothing to do if my only work 
would be maintaining the VMS system.

To be fair, other systems can be made to run very reliable as well, but 
quite often systems are set up to run, not to run reliable. The drive to 
build reliable systems often just isn't there.