[Info-vax] Accuweather new contract

[Kerry Main]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Info-vax [mailto:info-vax-bounces at info-vax.com] On Behalf Of
> IanD
> Sent: 24-Mar-15 10:45 PM
> To: info-vax at info-vax.com
> Subject: Re: [New Info-vax] Accuweather new contract
> 
> On Wednesday, March 25, 2015 at 12:30:00 PM UTC+11, David Froble
> wrote:
> > mcleanjoh at gmail.com wrote:
> >
> > > Lots of mention of the "cloud". Almost no mention of VMS for 20
> > > years.  Which do you think will be popular and which be very rare?
> >
> > The freeking cloud is just timesharing all over again, with much better
> > communications.
> >
> > Just wondering when some marketing type will be bringing back the
> hula
> > hoop ???
> 
> ...and the fact that the organisation itself doesn't have to fork out the
> initial cost for the hardware and can have it provisioned in a fraction of
> the time of ordering in a new system and getting it set up and
> configured. The other advantage is at tear down time, the cost stop.
> Bean counters love it
> 
> I'd term it as 'time-sharing for the short-term focused' :-)
> 
> I'm only a partial advocate for cloud, having played with Amazon's
> offering and seeing how easy it is to spin up an instance, it's pretty dam
> impressive
> 

The same can be done with internal shared services without all of the 
security concerns many cust's have with putting their data on the 
Internet with minimal influence of what happens when their services
are unavailable (call the 800 line and line up with your other million
closest friends).

While developer types love the ability to "spin things up" at will,
Company execs are not so easily impressed. They worry about 
unplanned budget hits, VM sprawl as well as things like data backups 
and off site archiving. (Hint, many cloud providers offer replication, 
but not backups and/or offsite archives. Some companies require 7+
years to be archived.

Best description of public cloud computing I read recently described
Public computing being like computing in a stall in a public washroom
i.e. you never know who is in the next stall.

:-)

> I'd really recommend for VMS folk to sign up for an Amazon free tier
> instance and then go through the process of getting a system up and
> running - it's an eye opener if you have never done this before to see
> where VMS needs to be in terms of infrastructure readiness and ease of
> systems infrastructure provisioning - we have a long way to go
> 

Internal shared services can do the same thing today. Many Cust's have
used VMware type technologies to implement similar services.

> There's a good introduction to Amazons AWS at cbt nuggets, just smile
> with your teeth firmly clenched at the presenters over enthusiastic
> demeanour about all things AWS and you'll get through it without barfing
> :-)
> 
> As to Accuweather not using the VMS naming anywhere, perhaps this
> was deliberate ? I know I'm going to probably get frowned upon for
> saying this but perhaps they didn't want to advertise the fact that they
> are using VMS because of a perceived negative connotation with it being
> old and antiquated and not modern?
> 

When was the last time you bragged to your friends about how good 
the services of your Telco are (dial tone always available)?

> <Searches for bunker to hide in after dropping a VMS negative...>

Not a problem - OpenVMS has its challenges and no one here says
It does not need improvements. 

However, Folks really need to better understand how big companies 
work and how little their senior non-IT execs care about what OS 
platform their app services run on.  They care about SLA's being met 
and whether that App service provides them with a competitive 
advantage. 

As the OpenVMS testimonials posted earlier for Accuweather show, the 
App services running on OpenVMS meets and exceeds their SLA's, it also
provides them with a competitive advantage.

Regards,

Kerry Main
Back to the Future IT Inc.
 .. Learning from the past to plan the future

Kerry dot main at backtothefutureit dot com