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

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 2/15/2022 9:43 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 2/15/2022 9:04 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> On 2022-02-15, Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com> 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.
>>
>> By the time a porting effort gets to that stage, it's usually too late
>> as emotionally they are in a place where they have decided they need
>> to get rid of the old system and only the details of how that is to
>> be done needs to be worked out.
>>
>> What is interesting however, is why now instead of, say, 5 years ago ?
>>
>> Did they initially wait for VSI to complete the port to x86-64 VMS,
>> but now, 7.5 years later without a production-ready version of x86-64 
>> VMS,
>> did they finally decide to move away from VMS ?
>>
>> I wonder if anything could be done to keep other customers waiting
>> a little longer, or if it's simply too late and some customers have
>> decided to finally move from VMS ?
>>
>> One problem might be that you can't emulate an Itanium system, unlike
>> an Alpha system, so people might be having concerns around the age of
>> their Itanium systems.
> 
> Another possibility is Oracle.
> 
> I found the ad and it said Oracle.
> 
> And Oracle announced end of VMS support for Oracle DB
> client in October 2020.
> 
> October 2020 + problem analysis + budget approval
> sort of fits with a project start spring 2022.
> 
> On the other side I am not sure about the Fortran support
> in Oracle DB client.

Also worth mentioning is that VSI has a solution for
the "Oracle problem" - to use the SQLRelay product.

It is actually quite nice. I like it.

But of course not everybody may share my opinion.

Arne