[Info-vax] And another one bites the dust....

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 2/15/22 09:02, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 2/15/2022 8:04 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> National Computing Group
>> West Mifflin, PA
>>
>> Document, plan and execute the modernization of Fortran applications 
>> running on OpenVMS systems to a virtualized Windows Server environment.
>> --------
>>
>> Does anyone watch for these postings and then try to convince them to
>> not move away from VMS?   Or at least find out why they are moving.
> 
> It is VSI's job to monitor migrations and argue for keeping VMS.

Agreed.  But does anyone actually do it?

> 
> Why people are moving off VMS are pretty well known. Generally being
> on a niche platform is considered a risk. The wording above hint
> that not being able to run on VMWare servers is a significant
> problem for that company as well.

"virtualized Windows Server" does not necessarily mean VMWare.  Windows
has its own virtualization product.

> 
> So if VMS 9.2 has been released 2-3 years ago then maybe (just maybe)
> this company would have kept VMS. But it was not.
> 
> It would be good for VSI to push info about VMS x86-64. If I were
> responsible for marketing at VSI then I would send out an offer
> to join the VMS x86-86 field test program to every company that is
> using VMS. Not because there necessarily will be any benefits for
> them or VSI of them joining, but because it send a strong
> signal that VMS x86-64 is just around the corner.

Maybe, but the push seems to be for virtualization and I saw a number
of OpenVMS job announcements that seemed to be production floor systems
which probably can't virtualized.  I even saw one that involved VAXen
and the description was good enough to know this was real and not just
boilerplate in a vacancy announcement.

bill