[Info-vax] RDB Question

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 12/2/18 2:51 PM, Kerry Main wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Info-vax <info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com> On Behalf Of Bill
>> Gunshannon via Info-vax
>> Sent: December 2, 2018 1:09 PM
>> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
>> Cc: Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] RDB Question
>>
> [snip..]
> 
>>>
>>>   > I have never seen RdB.
>>>
>>> What one single poster here has seen or not seen, doesn't matter much.
>>> How many current customer meeting have you attended lately?
>>
>> That's true, to a point.  I'm retired and haven't attended any current
>> customer meetings. But the numbers were small when I was in the business
>> (worked for a couple of very large contractors so saw a wide variety of
>> customer bases) and given what has been done with and to VMS since it is
>> very unlikely the numbers have been going up.
>>
>>>
>>>>>                                                            Although,
>>>>> I will stipulate that all Rdb users also use VMS.
>>>>>
>>>>> Just saying, I think Richard has some tunnel vision.  He uses
>>>>> Oracle, therefore everyone must use Oracle.  It just ain't so.
>>>>
>>>> I think it is more-so than you think.  I would bet that of those VMS
>>>> users with VMS based DBs there are more Oracle than RdB.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I might have been like that some time. But remember that the run-time
>>> option for Rdb was once included in the base VMS licence. And also
>>> that moving a Classic DB to something else is easier then porting an
>>> Rdb DB to something else.
>>
>> And that bodes well for the VMS customer base how?  Considering that what
>> we are hearing is that Oracle is planning on dropping VMS support.
>>
> 
> Sounds like Trump talk "many people are telling me ..."
> 
> Where did you hear Oracle was planning on dropping OpenVMS?

I answered t hat in another message.  Might have been
unwarranted speculation from someone else on this list.

> 
> Oracle makes $'s with its products (Oracle DB and Rdb) or they do not continue to offer them.

Exactly.  The question then becomes is there really enough
RdB business to support continued development? No way I know
of to learn that until it is too late.

> 
> Some examples, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) use Rdb because it offers the features, reliability and performance they are looking for.

One of how many Stock Exchanges.  What do the other use?

> 
> SSE dumped HP-UX back in 2010 and migrated to OpenVMS Rdb on Integrity servers as their next generation multi-site cluster trading platform.
> 
> Another one - an OpenVMS Rdb app today controls most of the trucks entering Canada at all border crossings. If the App stops, so do all the trucks.

I seriously doubt that but then I also don't see all those
trucks stopping as a bad thing.  :-)

> 
> Another one - Frankfurt airport uses OpenVMS Oracle DB Classic in a HA environment where if the App stops, so do all the bags flowing throughout one of the biggest airports in Europe.
> 

One airport out of how many in the world?  What do the others use?

None of your examples can claim that nothing else can do the
job.  As others have stated, it al;l comes down to the money.
Well, except the Canada border cause no government cares about
cost.  They have an unlimited supply of money to waste.

>>
>>>
>>> One also has to count not the number of users of VMS, but the total
>>> market value (the net income for VSI) for those sites. A few large
>>> banks using Rdb can easily outnumber a number of smaller non-Rdb sites.
>>
>> But if Oracle plans to drop VMS support wouldn't you think that businesses
>> like that will be looking for a replacement with a future sooner rather than
>> later?  Banks tend to be very conservative and very risk aware.
>>
>> I  had thought that VSI had meetings with Oracle.  Are we hearing now that
>> those meetings did not go very well?  That would not bode well for the
>> overall outlook for VMS.
>>
>> OK, I put the blindfold on, go ahead and shoot the messenger.
>>
> 
> Just remember that contrary to your belief, just because you did not see it in your university/defense world, do not assume this means its not being used elsewhere.

I never said it wasn't used anywhere.  I merely tried to
demonstrate that the usage may be a much smaller percentage
of companies in the IT world.  And, once again, it's all
about the money.  When it ceases to be a profitable market
it will dry up.

bill