[Info-vax] Real live example...

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 2/21/2023 8:42 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> 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.

It is obvious that VSI need to push VMS.

But just pushing BS does not work out long term.

Long term something of substance is needed.

Staying on VMS will not be considered the safest option just because
VSI says so.

Staying on VMS may be considered the safest option if VMS is
seen as having a future.

VMS will be seen as having a future if it runs on standard
infrastructure, has the the compilers/libraries/tools/platform-software
that is needed and has the applications needed.

> 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.

Maybe.

But whatever IBM is doing has not stopped the decline of z/OS.

Sounds like a nice initiative.

But it has not changed the fundamental problems of z/OS with
expensive hardware and usually very old software.

> 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.

I believe that is what I am doing.

Arne