[Info-vax] Rendez-vous autour de VMS" of January 31 2023 report

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 2/20/2023 12:44 PM, ultr... at gmail.com wrote:
> On Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 5:41:04 AM UTC-5, John Dallman wrote:
>> In article <tsq2vo$3utev$1... at dont-email.me>, jan-erik.... at telia.com
>> (Jan-Erik Söderholm) wrote:
>>> English version of the meeting notes:
>> The license news is good. The ADA news is not, but is hardly unexpected.
>>
>> Bare metal is a question of market segments, as far as I understand it.
>> Enterprise IT shops in the US tend to be strongly in favour of
>> virtualising everything. What is the compelling use case for bare metal?
>>
>> The costs of bare metal are considerable, since x86 hardware has a vast
>> range of designs. There are probably 50-100 times more x86-64 server
>> designs than the total numbers of Alpha and Itanium server designs
>> produced by DEC, Compaq and HP for running VMS. Supporting it requires
>> writing enormous numbers of VMS device drivers, a skill that is not at
>> all common today. The VSI staff who can do it can do other things which
>> will be more valuable to the company.
>>
>> Running under virtualisation needs only a few VMS device drivers. The
>> actual hardware is managed by device drivers for the virtualisation
>> software. Those are written by the hardware manufacturers so that
>> virtualisation software can be run on their machines. Those hardware
>> manufacturers are not going to start writing VMS device drivers unless
>> VMS becomes /much/ more widely used.
>>
>> This view may seem negative, but it reflects the commercial reality that
>> VSI need to cope with.
> 
> how about so software developers can write apps for small and mid size customers who don't want to run virtual ...
> 
> they don't have to support all x86 platforms how about just one like HP bladeservers they are doing now?

Most small and mid size customers also run virtual (VMWare on prem,
or IaaS cloud).

Yes - some will prefer physical.

And VSI previously had a relevant specific HP Proliant model
on the target list.

But VSI are prioritizing what gives most bang for the buck right
now - and that is virtual.

Those that are current or potential future customers for
VSI and have a strong preference for physical should contact
VSI and let their voice be heard.

Arne