[Info-vax] Real live example...

[Simon Clubley]

On 2023-02-20, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>
> They are almost there with the first step of getting
> VMS production ready for running on x86-64. That will
> help quite a bit for VMS that it can run in the same
> infrastructure as anything else - VMWare on-prem or
> VM's in IaaS cloud or whatever the IT department is
> standardizing on.
>
> Next step should be the compilers/libraries/tools/platform-software.
>
> Will it be easy? No!
>

If that's what you think is required, then it most certainly isn't and
what VSI should _really_ be doing they show no evidence of doing.

Make no mistake, the above is essential and must be done as soon as
possible, but it's not the most important thing VSI should be doing.

The most important thing that VSI should be doing is convincing the people
that sign the cheques that staying with VMS is the safest option for them
instead of those people paying for a migration project.

VSI need to be cultivating a feeling of familiarity and safety towards
VMS in the minds of these people instead of what is the current thinking
in those people of VMS being a risky obsolete technology that is holding
back the company and putting them at risk.

Even IBM understands this. IBM have cultivated an entire environment that
gives people structured knowledge and training on z/OS for free, in what
was originally known as the Master the Mainframe program.

To the people that have been through this process, z/OS is no longer some
weird unknown operating system, but something they are now familiar with
and understand.

VSI should have had similar programs for both technical and management paths
and they should have had them years ago. _That_ is the single most important
thing that VSI should have been doing - to induce a culture of knowledge and
familiarity towards VMS in the current generation of people.

The reason why the above is so important is that it works towards convincing
the managers that staying with VMS is the safest option for them.

You are thinking about this at a technology level Arne. Wrong. :-) You need
to be thinking about it in terms of the concerns going through the heads of
the people who sign the cheques.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.