[Info-vax] Should VSI create a modern day VMS applications book ?

[Kerry Main]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Info-vax <info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com> On Behalf Of Arne Vajhøj
> via Info-vax
> Sent: August 9, 2018 12:15 PM
> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> Cc: Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk>
> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] Should VSI create a modern day VMS applications
> book ?
> 

[snip..]

> 
> It is no big secret that VMS is not selling millions of copies per year.
> 

I suspect most people recognize the challenges OpenVMS had while owned by DEC/Compaq and HP. OpenVMS was literally only one product of literally thousands under HP - including 2 (HP-UX and NonStop) that were former direct competitors.

I always liked the analogy of OpenVMS was Cinderella and HP-UX / NonStop were her sisters.

Hence, it will take awhile for Cinderella to break free of all the former baggage of the past. 

😊

> > It doesn't run the latest major DB's, it doesn't run most of the
> > latest open source applications or tool chains. System management and
> > Application management isn't even close to being what most places want
> > in terms of DevOPS. That's why in all 3 of my last places it's
> > earmarked for decommissioning, one of which had already removed VMS
> > and the other 2 have active projects underway
> 

DevOps needs to be defined because in most large enterprises I have been in the last 10 years (including Federal Govt), this concept is just a water cooler discussion topic. Integrating OPS and Developer groups is just way to hard as they live in different worlds and seldom discuss common strategies.

> Yes. The applications are important. Companies usually pick the application
> they need and then the OS that can run that that application.
> 

Generally yes, but not all the time. As an example, a developer would have a really tough time promoting a Linux App future in a hard core Windows shop.

> > The flow of modernisation of the IT landscape has become a torrent now
> > and I'm left wondering if the ploy to modernise VMS has come just too
> > late, especially when we are looking at late 2019 or 2020 before it's
> > production robust and ready
> >

The future is wide open for all platforms. Given the rate of change in IT and new requirements, there will be opportunities for all platforms to gain new market share.

Heck, those with grey hair here will remember the days when anyone stating the future desktop would be anything but WordPerfect and/or Lotus 123 would have been laughed at.

> > Someone cheer me up with some valid VMS data to the contrary please,
> > I'm feeling somewhat dispondant about VMS :-(
> 

Check this out: (late 2016)
<http://www.hp-connect.se/SIG/IKEA%20VMS%20TEAM%20Presentation%20.pdf>

> VMS would have been far better off if VSI had taken over 5 years earlier.
> 

Water under the bridge. One needs to drive looking through front window - not the rear window.

> And I can not point to any huge VMS success stories.
> 

See link just provided. 

I would also point to the Shanghai Stock Exchange (China's premier stock exchange) which in early 2011 dumped HP-UX and adopted OpenVMS/IA64 as its next generation mission critical IT multi-site platform. There were some online brochures created on this, but seem to have expired now (granted, the politics of HP did not like marketing anything had replaced HP-UX, but that is another discussion). Fwiw, some say that SSE may, at some future point, replace the NY Stock exchange as the center for global finance (keep in mind who owns most of the US debt).

 Having stated this - yes, VSI/OpenVMS are in a transition state for the next few years whereby they need to balance keeping existing Customers happy with new features e.g. V8.5 while at the same time planning for the future (X64, new file system, new security features etc.)

> But there are some positives in the application space.
> 
> Todays applications are typical way less OS dependent than they were 30
> years ago.
> 
> If VMS get the platform right:
> * uptodate C compiler and RTL
> * uptodate C++ compiler and RTL
> * uptodate Java
> * uptodate PHP
> * uptodate Python
> 
> Then there are tons of software that will run on VMS. Simply because they
> are not OS specific - just require a certain platform (in current version).
> 
> Arne
> 

Agree. 

In addition to this, I also think the massive DC centralization efforts going on today will help drive those multi-site platforms like OpenVMS that have a proven track history and Customer culture's that support mission critical stability, security (yes, OpenVMS needs enhancements) and availability.  The new OpenVMS virtualization features based on the Linux KVM is also going to be a nice new feature. Note - I already have seen Customers complaining about how much their VMware costs continue to escalate.

Besides staffing, the biggest IT technology costs are managing the OS, not the server HW. The big challenge facing a lot of commodity OS Customers today is VM sprawl, so the future is going to be very interesting. 

Again, the future is wide open to all platforms, so the game has only just begun.

Regards,

Kerry Main
Kerry dot main at starkgaming dot com