[Info-vax] Updated HPE/VSI OpenVMS V8.4-2L1 Marketing Brochures

[Kerry Main]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Info-vax [mailto:info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com] On Behalf
> Of Stephen Hoffman via Info-vax
> Sent: 01-Oct-16 10:44 AM
> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> Cc: Stephen Hoffman <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid>
> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] Updated HPE/VSI OpenVMS V8.4-2L1
> Marketing Brochures
> 
> On 2016-10-01 14:01:23 +0000, Kerry Main said:
> 
> > It's been discussed a thousand times before, but imho, open
> source is
> > a terrible strategy for OpenVMS.
> 
> But whether the current OpenVMS strategy will work out?
> 
> >> I understand that VSI have probably negotiated the best deal
> they
> >> could with HPE at the time, my probing and being the
> antagonist is
> >> not meant to be negative about the whole thing but more to
> put my hat
> >> into the ring as to where/what I think would help OpenVMS
> going
> >> forward. I know people in academic circles and linux is still king
> >> because of open source and the education sector is driving the
> minds
> >> of the future coders. I just want to find a way to attract them
> to
> >> OpenVMS if at all possible
> >
> > I would argue that the one of the big interests at the enterprise
> > level in Linux is its perceived "free" cost. There is more than one
> > business case that has been pushed which compares license
> costs to
> > Linux (free) vs. its competition (expensive up front licenses).
> 
> Guess where all the new deployments and the prototype
> projects happen?
>  On Linux.   Because folks don't need to acquire licenses, can re-
> use
> available hardware, and can grow into vendor support if (when?)
> that
> becomes necessary.    Because folks are familiar with managing
> and
> developing for the Linux platform.   Because the tools that us
> younger
> folks prefer — yes, I'm one of the younger folks, per VSI — are
> available for Linux.   Because OpenVMS has no entry-level
> product
> offerings.  Because at least prior to x86-64 and we don't know
> what hardware will be supported with that, OpenVMS requires
> special hardware.
> 

Why would VSI require special server HW?

Like Microsoft, I envision an initial "supported and tested" list of HW that VSI supports and that grows over time.

I envision OpenVMS ISV's will also have similar lists specific to their environment - exactly what ISV's do today with other OS platforms.

There will likely also be informal community "not fully tested, but seems to work fine" server lists.

> This greatly reduces the numbers of experimental and
> development projects that might decide to start on OpenVMS,
> and greatly increases the numbers starting on Linux.
> 
> Gaining — or regaining — a market in the commercial operating
> system business is a large and expensive endeavor, with more
> than a little risk particularly given the competition and given the
> market is consolidating, and any entrant very likely takes a
> decade or more of "runway" just to get some traction and some
> visibility — visibility outside the installed base, in the case of
> OpenVMS.
> 
> Software and operating system prices are increasingly free —
> that's what everybody's been increasingly trained to expect —
> and with in-app purchases and support costs and value-added
> features and related.
> 

To my earlier points - RH Linux is not free for med-large orgs. 

To their credit, RH has developed a great financial model. They have simply transferred the upfront very expensive license costs to a multi-year monthly support cost model which is better for them as well as the Customer. RH gets increased cash flow and the Cust gets what they want by being able to hide the true costs of the Linux platform in an annual OPS budget.

> Competing against "free" with a commercial product and with no
> free
> license tier is not an easy sales call.   Then there's the cost of
> running a sales organization, which isn't cheap and which usually
> means the low-volume sales — the sorts of sales of the sizes that
> small teams and prototype projects that might just be starting out
> — can get fewer sales callbacks from even the resellers.
> 
> We're not in the same market that spawned the classic OpenVMS
> licensing, pricing and sales approaches.
> 

Again, no one is saying VSI should adopt a "free" model. My thoughts would be to adopt a model similar to RH which focuses on long term cash flows via monthly support contracts (which get paid in one shot by most Cust's anyway) vs up front expensive licenses.

There are also other benefits to a monthly support model like being closer and having more interaction to your Customers (contracts need to be kept current). You can add things like loyalty programs (discounts for things like consulting services, number of OS's under contract, length of time with VSI etc.)


Regards,

Kerry Main
Kerry dot main at starkgaming dot com