[Info-vax] Final Orace release on VMS.

[Marc Van Dyck]

Dave Froble wrote :
>
> The first question I'd ask is, what activity with Oracle on the Linux based 
> servers occurs.  Volume?  Performance requirements?
>
Complicated picture. OpenVMS both feeds the databases with new data,
and processes a part of if. Some data also comes from other linux
systems, and yet other ones process it. Some processing also occurs
on HP-UX, AIX, and Windows. Very intricated data flow.
>
> I can only guess at "regulated industry", however, I really see potential 
> issues with that designation, and serious ambiguity.
>
> What defines what software products must have "support", and just what is the 
> definition of that support?
>
> As an example, what is the issue, if any, for support on in-house developed 
> applications?
>
I can't be too specific, but let's say that we have an obligation to
prove that we have an active support contract for all commercial
products that we use, and control the sources for all the others.
This is audited yearly, as well as timely application of patches, etc.

> How do all your various systems access the data on the dedicated servers 
> running Oracle?  I'd think here is where you could get a bit "outside the 
> box" and perhaps solve some issues, or not.
>
> I'm assuming that applications access the Oracle database data using Oracle 
> client on the VMS, and other, application systems.  But, this perhaps can be 
> solved in other ways.
>
> For example, if there were services on the database servers, or other systems 
> that could directly access the Oracle database servers,, which would act as 
> an middleman between the application systems and the Oracle database servers. 
>  Then for example the VMS systems would "talk" to the middleman 
> application(s), and no longer need the Oracle client software locally.
>
Not going to happen. If we need to dedicate significant amounts of
resources to develop something just to keep the OpenVMS platform in
business, the decision will certainly be to dedicate those resources
to eliminate that platform from our IT landscape once for all. Until
now, I managed to keep this platform alive because it performs reliably
at a cost that is lower than its replacement. Take that argument out of
the equation and VMS is toast...

>
> If your management wants to blow some money, I know of a high priced software 
> architect who could possibly present some outside the box thinking on some of 
> your problems ....
>
Such a strategy might indeed work. I regularly observed that advice 
from
people coming from outside is trusted more than when it comes from
internal people.

-- 
Marc Van Dyck