[Info-vax] Comment on the future of OpenVMS

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <p_KdnVWTUa78HnjXnZ2dnUVZ_h6dnZ2d at giganews.com>,
	"Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilbert88 at comcast.net> writes:
> Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> In article <3200fbed-ffec-45e0-8af4-bcc19291797d at h2g2000vbd.googlegroups.com>,
>> 	Neil Rieck <n.rieck at sympatico.ca> writes:
>>> On Oct 25, 10:03=A0pm, Arne Vajh=F8j <a... at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>>>> Neil Rieck wrote:
>>>>> This week I e-attended the 2-day Oracle-RDB in Nashua, NH. I just
>>>>> wanted to pass on a few quotes from the presentation which can also be
>>>>> found in the presentation material.
>>>>> http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/rdb/tech_forums/index.html
>>>>> 1) Oracle on OpenVMS continues because Oracle Database & Oracle Rdb
>>>>> business is healthy & valuable
>>>> Oracle is good at making money.
>>>>
>>>>> 2) Cooperation between Oracle & HP development teams means better
>>>>> performance and manageability for you
>>>>> 3) 150,000+ combined customers=85
>>>>> =96 41% of Oracle customers run HP servers
>>>>> =96 70% mid-range HP-UX servers & 90% of Superdomes run Oracle
>>>>> =96 90+% HP OpenVMS database servers use Oracle (either DB or RDB)
>>>> There are not many alternatives!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> The following two points were presented verbally (so are not in the
>>>>> presentation material)
>>>>> 4) Itanium blades (running OpenVMS) are making new inroads into
>>>>> semiconductor manufacturing.
>>>>> 5) Itanium blades will soon appear with 32 and 64 cores
>>>>> Here are two comments of my own:
>>>>> 1) In the porting presentation we were all told how Oracle-DB (not
>>>>> RBD) was ported from VMS to Solaris and then developed from there. As
>>>>> time passed it became more difficult to port back to VMS. VMS changes
>>>>> when morphing into OpenVMS, as well as ODS-5, made back-porting for
>>>>> them somewhat easier. Back-porting got even easier with the "UNIX
>>>>> portability initiative" which they contributed to.
>>>>> 2) In all this I sensed some enthusiasm from all participants (both
>>>>> Oracle and HP) which I haven't sensed from HP-only gatherings for 3 or
>>>>> 4 years. I kept on thinking that if HP really did something really
>>>>> stupid to OpenVMS, that Oracle would be there (with deep pockets) to
>>>>> pick up the pieces. After all, 150,000 combined customers is nothing
>>>>> to ignore.
>>>> I don't think it will happen.
>>>>
>>>> But Oracle is fundamentally a software company and most of their
>>>> business is in reliable systems, so VMS would probably fit better
>>>> than with a company which makes most of its money from
>>>> printers and PC's.
>>>>
>>>> Arne
>>> You may be correct. I have been accused of viewing the world through
>>> the prism of optimism. That said, Oracle's track record as a company
>>> is better than most. If I could travel 10-years back in time to tell
>>> myself that "Oracle bought Sun" I would have been skeptical. While it
>>> is unlikely that Oracle could ever buy HP, I think Oracle would buy
>>> the OpenVMS division of HP "if HP lost interest in OpenVMS". But this
>>> is all conjecture.
>> 
>> Interesting scenario.  Here's mine (or at least what I would be doing
>> if I were at Oracle.
>> 
>> I just bought Sun.  I now own Solaris.  Oracle already runs on Solaris.
>> I would be developing Solaris to be the platform on which Oracle runs.
>> I would remove anything that Solaris now has as a general purpose OS
>> and concentrate on the things Solaris needs to run Oracle.  And then 
>> I would offer it as my primary platform for Oracle at no additional cost
>> to Oracle customers.  Advantages: Single platform to maintain, security,
>> reduced cost to my customers.
>> 
>> But we shall see.
>> 
> 
> I think you forget that people run more than Solaris and Oracle!  The 
> machine (or machines) will be running accounts receivable, accounts 
> payable, inventory, . . . .

At my day job I have a number of "database servers".  That's all they do.
The applications reside on other systems.  Microsoft also considers that
a "best practice" for their SQL systems.  Why would Oracle not deliver
a database engine that is a complete system?

They must have had a reason for buying Sun.  We know it wasn't Sparc and
personally, I doubt they bought the whole company just to get the rights
to Java.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>