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

[David Wade]

On 16/02/2022 03:10, Richard Maher wrote:
> On 15/02/2022 9:04 pm, 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.
>>
>> bill
> 
> My guess is the keyword here is "virtualized" if all upgrades, 
> management etc was in the cloud maybe the OS wouldn't matter?
> 
> Definitely if no re-write of legacy technical debt was involved

If they have decided to move, by the time its got to this stage I think 
it highly unlikely they will change their mind. Firstly some one would 
have to admit they have made a wrong call. This generally doesn't happen.

Secondly skills set consolidation on the Windows or Linux platform makes 
sense. Having to manage VMS and have VMS skills available is expensive 
and risky. It will also mean extra expense for new VMS licences, and may 
mean extra expense for backups. Virtualized Windows licences are 
essentially low cost (free) for small instances. If you have an 
enterprise licence on the virtual host then you can run as many virtual 
instances of windows as the server will support.

Pretty much the same goes for FORTRAN. Unless there is something special 
about FORTRAN that the application needs I would expect it to be moved 
to a "modern" language such as C# (its no longer modern, but its current).

So to me remaining on VMS can only be justified when:-

1. There are legal or regulatory reasons to remain. Typically for safety 
critical systems in aviation, nuclear energy, train operations etc.

2. You have a lot of VMS and you don't have the funds to move.
-> this means your business is doomed to fail as VMS will get more 
expensive.

3. You don't actually understand the business logic in your systems.
I would expect this to fail any audit checks....

.. but these are the challenges facing VMS Software. A key one is 
knowing which sites can be persuaded or need to stay on VMS and which 
will move any way.

Dave