[Info-vax] VSI Subscription Licensing Exchanges

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 5/25/2021 10:12 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 5/25/21 9:34 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>> And so, this has happened with one of our customers.  I don't remember 
>> the name of the app(s), but it's a cloud based solution.  The new 
>> system was to go live last November (2020).  Still hasn't happened.
>>
>> A test sometime prior converting over to the "new cloud based system" 
>> had the new vendor quite proud that they were able to handle 10 tasks 
>> in 5 minutes.  This for a company that was handling over 20,000 
>> internet service connections a day, along with all the in-house 
>> running of the company's business.  (I'll leave the math as an 
>> exercise for the reader.)
>>
>> Last I heard, the vendor had decided they had to re-write the core 
>> system.
>>
>> So, anyone want to replace a rather complex application?
> 
> Let me relate a story.
> 
> University is an IBM shop.  All of the applications are locally
> written.  All the usual stuff, AR, AP, GL,, Payroll, HR.  And
> add to that the entire academic gradekeeping system.
> One day C-level exec goes away to a conference and learns all
> his peers are using VMS on a VAX.  Comes home and orders conversion.
> All work is done in house and is totally successful.  University
> runs on VMS  for more than a decade.  Successfully moving forward
> to VMA on the Alpha.  Everyone is happy.
> Then, one day again, C-level goes to a conference and learns all
> his peers have moved to Banner.  Do I need to go further?  Conversion
> took less than a year and everyone is happy.  Another decade forward
> and no one even remembers what VMS was.
> 
> With the exception of people running systems with custom hardware
> (which would pretty much imply still being on a VAX!) it takes
> much less than most people here think to move to a different system
> and there are more companies providing that kind of service than
> there are providing support for VMS.

Successful migrations are happening every day.

But unsuccessful migrations are also happening every day.

Experience shows that there is a risk associated with such projects.

Even though each individual work item may be simple then a huge
number of such work items becomes an issue.

IT projects does not scale linear.

And it does not help that a combination of decision makers with
little knowledge and young developers with little experience often
are convinced that for mitigation the priority should be:
1) right process
2) right tools
3) right people

(I believe in the opposite order)

Arne