[Info-vax] VSI online marketing meeting

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 02/27/2018 10:37 PM, Craig A. Berry wrote:
> On 2/27/18 6:11 AM, Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:
>> Den 2018-02-27 kl. 11:18, skrev IanD:
> 
>>> It's full :-(
>>>
>>
>> I can't help seeing that as something positive, maybe not for you,
>> but for the community and for VMS at large... :-)
> 
> They said the slides will be up on their website sometime soon. For
> people who have been following the roadmap, periodic port status
> updates, and various other presentations from the Boot Camp and
> elsewhere that were made public, there wasn't a huge amount that was
> new, but there were a few things I hadn't heard before, or that seem
> worth repeating. In no particular order and with the caveat that this is
> what I thought I heard, subject to correction.
> 
> VSI business doubled between 2016 and 2017.

Of course, without hard numbers this is pretty much meaningless.  1 -> 2

> 
> VSI support contracts purchased now include rights to upgrade, which
> includes rights to x86_64 releases. As far as I know, platform switches
> have previously always involved buying new licenses, albeit sometimes
> with a trade-in discount.

Yeah, MS misses the boat on this one.

> 
> They have agreements or statements of support for products from seven
> big storage vendors. One is Kove, which I'd never heard of, who sells
> virtual storage based on DRAM, not flash. NetApp is still a work in
> progress, which means we're still running unsupported at my day job.

Wow, DRAM...  Gonna have a big battery like my 11/44's?  :-)

> 
> There is a steadily growing list of layered products and open source
> ports being added to the portfolio. I believe it was OMNI/OSAP, GKS, and
> syslogd that were mentioned as being newly available.
> 
> It sounded like VSI TCP/IP 10.5 has been delayed by a quarter or two but
> is still coming this year.
> 
> There is a developer program in progress with three tiers. There will be
> an announcement soon.

Interesting.

> 
> There is an education program in the works.

Even more interesting but very likely too little, too late.

> 
> They still intend to take over the hobbyist program, but it sounds like
> that will be after both developer and education programs are up and 
> running.

As I said above, it is probably too late for an educational package for
VMS but if their still thinking about it, anything more complicated or
more restrictive than the Hobbyist Program will go no where.  You need
to take into consideration just what being a Professor means.  And it
doesn't mean doing administration or administrative paperwork.  As a
matter of fact, most faculty contracts (yes, they're unionized!!) would
prohibit it.  The point of contact needs to be a computer administrator
like what I did for 25 years.

> 
> There will be a webinar series announced on March 12 (or maybe that was
> the inaugural webinar?).
> 
> That's what I remember.

Sounds like progress, anyway.

bill