[Info-vax] VSI strategy for OpenVMS

[Dave Froble]

On 9/14/2021 8:19 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 9/14/2021 12:39 AM, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
>> In article <shopcl$b49$2 at gioia.aioe.org>, =?UTF-8?Q?Arne_Vajh=c3=b8j?=
>> <arne at vajhoej.dk> writes:
>>
>>> On 9/13/2021 4:29 PM, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
>>>> In article <sho5ts$lt3$1 at dont-email.me>, Dave Froble
>>>> <davef at tsoft-inc.com> writes:
>>>>> Yes, there are multiple reasons to run a VMS cluster.  But compute
>>>>> resources for the most part is no longer one of those reasons.
>>>>
>>>> There are certainly many big VMS customers who run clusters partly for
>>>> increased computing power.  Of course, disaster tolerance, rolling
>>>> upgrades, and so on are also reasons.
>>>
>>> 30 years ago: certainly.
>>>
>>> Today: not so sure.
>>>
>>> A single Itanium got lots of power.
>>
>> Sure, but what are big VMS customers doing today?
>
> Most likely running the same applications they did 30 years ago.

If someone has been running an application for 30 years, then it is 
probably very important to them.

>>> Disaster tolerance can be achieved in different ways.
>>
>> But none as good as a VMS cluster.
>
> Businesses are interested in application availability. They
> do not care whether that is provided by OS features or
> application features.

Businesses, by and large, are not capable of evaluating such features. 
Sure, there are better and poorer methods, and some may have chosen 
poorer.  But that in no way changes what is better, or not.

>>>>> I have no information to know what the breakdown is among VMS cluster
>>>>> users.  But, I'll pull an Arne and state my factless opinion.  I'm
>>>>> thinking that VMS clusters will not be an issue for many VMS users.
>>>>
>>>> Does "many" mean more than half?  Even if more than half of the users,
>>>> perhaps not more than half of the machines.
>>>
>>> Half??
>>>
>>> I would be surprised if it was >5%.
>>
>> Probably all of use are familiar with some part of the VMS market and
>> none of us has an overview.
>
> True.
>
> But cluster pricing/setup/monitoring/programming questions
> appears rather rare both here and other places.

Most likely users of VMS clusters have more knowledge than they could 
find here.

Cluster pricing and marketing has been a great failing of DEC, Compaq, 
HP, and we await to discover how VSI will do so.


-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
DFE Ultralights, Inc.
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