[Info-vax] OpenSSL CSWS-2.2-1

[Craig A. Berry]

On 4/13/19 1:10 PM, Neil Rieck wrote:
> On Sunday, April 7, 2019 at 11:20:27 AM UTC-4, Craig A. Berry wrote:
>> On 4/7/19 9:21 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>> On 4/7/19 10:06 AM, Neil Rieck wrote:
>>>>
>>>> We attempted to move support from HPE to VSI last year but our
>>>> management would not approve the purchase of software relicensing by VSI.
>>>
>>> I know this is not what people want to hear and I will be blamed
>>> for the bad news (always shoot the messenger!) but I have seen
>>> this as a potential sticking point since the announcement of the
>>> creation of VSI.
>>
>> If you were the conveyor of non-bogus information, then people might be
>> more receptive.
>>
>>> When the recent discussion about Intersystems was going
>>> on I saw it again.  There is a very finite expense in
>>> VARs moving to the new version of VMS.  Both on the
>>> current architecture and on the future new architecture.
>>> One must buy new equipment to develop, test and maintain
>>> the product on the new architecture.  One must buy the
>>> new version of the OS and the necessary licenses to use
>>> it.  And one must weigh that cost against expected revenues.
>>
>> When we moved to VSI from HPE a couple of years ago at the time our HPE
>> support contract was expiring, it was a whole lot cheaper to get a
>> support contract with VSI including new licenses than to renew with HPE.
>>    So switching to VSI meant saving money immediately, not incurring any
>> extra expense.  Our licenses included upgrade rights to the x86_64
>> version when it becomes available.
>>
>> People running unsupported will have some cash outlay to switch to VSI.
>>    But people running unsupported are not planning for the future anyway.
>>
>> As far as buying new hardware to make a platform switch, do you really
>> think it will be cheaper to maintain 10-20-year-old Alpha or Integrity
>> hardware over the next five years than to get some brand new x86 kit (or
>> possibly just spin up some VM instances on a host most companies already
>> have available)?
> 
> Unfortunately that was not my experience.
> 
> In 2015, we purchased a brand new rx2800-i2 from HP and this meant trading in Alpha licenses (OpenVMS, C, C++, BASIC, FMS) to get new Itanium equivalents. The total purchase (which was not cheap) also provided three years of hardware and software support.
> 
> Three years later, our software support agreement with HPE was expiring so I reached out to VSI where I was told that I needed to buy new licenses, then upgrade the OS in order to get a one-year support contract. The new business quote from VSI was three times larger than the software support renewal from HPE.
> 
> I recommended going with VSI but middle management (who were making the decisions and would need to sign off on the approvals) absolutely refused. From their perspective, we had just bought new licenses 3-years earlier from HP and didn't give a damn about anything else. In fact, one middle-manager said to me (paraphrased) "that if VSI took over the OpenVMS product line from HP/HPE then they (VSI) should honor the HP licenses"
> 
> While I disagreed with him, I could see his point of view.

Did you try pricing a three-year support contract?  It may be that VSI
does not offer attractive trade-ins without that, or it may be that they
stopped offering such deals shortly after we got ours.