[Info-vax] Now you have way more things to worry about

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 7/7/2023 9:37 PM, David Turner wrote:
> I know that when I sell to Integrity servers and Alphaservers into 
> sensitive (GOV and Intl GOV) sites,considering  things like VMWARE or 
> VirtualBox or emulatos- these are considered middleware, and t'is  a 
> Grand Non Non to GOV customers unless tested and proven for years prior 
> to purchase.
> And even then, I am sure certain sensitive environments would not even 
> consider something like OPenVMS not running natively.
> ...  I know some are using emulators in very specific environments, but...

The usual definition of middleware is as in this model:

application
middleware
OS
HW

Virtualization software does not seem to fit that models
definition of middleware at all.

"tested and proven for years" would not be a problem for
VMWare ESXi. The last 20 years there has probably been more
server OS instances running in a VM on ESXi than on
physical HW.

The majority of Linux and Windows instances are running in VM's.
It seems very likely that the majority of VMS instances would be
running in VM's.

Being able to run in standard VM's like ESXI, Hyper-V or KVM
is probably one of the biggest selling points for VMS x86-64.
Now VMS actually fits into the corporate virtualization
standards.

My concern is that majority <> all. It seems likely to me
that some VMS users may not want to use VM's. Probably a small
share. But to pick a random number 5% is also some users.

I still believe that the strategy from a few years ago about
certifying one server for those that want a physical server
makes sense.

But obviously VSI got a lot of other stuff to get done, so it may not
happen right away. But I hope that it eventually does happen.

Arne