[Info-vax] OpenVMS servers and clusters as a cloud service

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2018-01-11 04:09:17 +0000, Grant Taylor said:

> On 01/09/2018 10:54 PM, Grant Taylor wrote:
>> The biggest reason I've seen, is one word, "ignorance".  Ignorance of 
>> <wildcard>.  (I've seen more than I want to admit to.)
> 
> I feel the need to follow up.
> 
> I see people's ignorance as a potential opportunity to teach them and 
> to help them learn.  (It's also a two way street.)
> 
> Together we can come up with a better system.  I as the admin can 
> better anticipate faults and hopefully be able to deal with them 
> better.  The end user is also educated to know that they need to do 
> something to avoid the problem.  Hopefully we learn from each other, 
> grow together and ultimately provide a better product or service.
> 
> Ignorance, as in the lack of knowledge, is not good or bad in and of 
> itself.  It is a fact.  What is done with that fact is what matters.


Yes.  And the choices are obvious: upgrading the folks working with the 
APIs and commands and configurations, or simplify and abstract and 
automate the requirements and the tools and the APIs.  Both approaches 
are certainly necessary, but the latter approach is far more aligned 
with the longer-term trends.


Something to ponder:

"Are you rewarding people for building a whole bunch of complex stuff 
that no one can maintain or are you rewarding people for doing the 
simplest thing?" -- @lizthegrey

Implementing designs and UIs for what are increasingly-complex 
requirements simply and consistently is much more difficult than many 
folks might realize.   Doing things simply is also a core part of the 
foundation of the original design and implementation of VAX/VMS.   That 
simplicity and consistency is a detail that's also become more 
difficult to discern over the decades, particularly as the compromises 
of compatibility have accrued.   Yes, folks can and do need to learn 
the APIs.  But handing folks a box of API parts from the last 
millennium and that's designed to be API- and (usually) 
source-consistent with those old apps is not going to suddenly going to 
win VSI a windfall of new apps and new ISVs and new deployments.   The 
port to x86-64 is just the first part of what's necessary here, too.   
Balancing ease of use and simplicity, and compatibility and the 
willingness of existing customers to adopt breaking changes, is a 
tremendously difficult business problem.



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