Poll: 44 percent of 9x7s going third-party

HP captures one-third of 9x7 systems as upgrades in survey

This month’s end of HP hardware support for Series 9x7 HP 3000s may not be changing many customer plans, according to a survey of those owning the most popular system. That’s because the largest group of those customers appear to have already moved beyond HP’s reach while continuing to use the platform.

A survey administered to hundreds of HP 3000 sites owing Series 9x7 servers shows that 44 percent of the machines are already under third-party support. Many of the sites now have no relationship with HP at all, but continue to use their 3000s in production environments.

More than 200 sites selected at random were contacted by e-mail during March by the NewsWire, which received reports from 49 companies for a response rate of 25 percent. The respondents reported on the plans for 62 of the 9x7 systems.

Estimates of 9x7 ownership among the 3000’s shipped base of machines run as high as 40 percent. HP stopped selling the systems in 1997, but broke new ground with the models’ smaller footprint and better cost of ownership.

Less than half the systems surveyed have been traded up to or are planned to become newer HP 3000 models. HP appears to have enjoyed some success in moving part of the 9x7 owners to its latest machines, the A-Class and N-Class models. Sixteen of these new systems were sold to surveyed 9x7 owners, but those new models replaced 23 9x7 computers. Consolidation was a common theme among sites continuing their relationship with HP.

Few systems surveyed were destined for the scrap heap, even if companies were moving away from them. Several customers planned to sell their 9x7s for spare parts, while another expressed confidence that the 9x7 he sold off would serve another company.

“The 9x7 boxes are quite good and reliable,” said Jim Haeseker, technical operations manager for General Chemical Corp. “I don’t doubt that they’ll be running elsewhere for many years to come.” General Chemical proceeded with its plans to consolidate three Series 9x7s onto one new N-Class system, even after hearing HP’s Nov. 14 announcement about its exit from the 3000 community.

Third-party improvement

Several customers bragged of getting better third-party support than HP ever delivered. “These guys are 100 times better than HP ever thought about being, and about one-third the price,” said Mike Howe of the Texas Municipal Power Agency about his Beechglen (software) and Surety Systems (hardware) support.

Ken Fisher of Inolex Chemical touted cost savings. “We have been off HP hardware and software support for over two years,” he said. Beechglen supports his HP 3000 software, while Atlantic Technical Services does hardware support. “We save over $20,000 dollars in support costs per year,” Fisher said. “We have been very satisfied with ATS and Beechglen.”

Other sites still use HP to support their newer 3000s, but let third parties service the older equipment which HP considers obsolescent. One customer reported that “for the first time since 1976, HP is not receiving support revenue from me,” opting to work out problems on his own.

Increases in HP support pricing on 9x7s pushed some companies away from HP, rather than into an upgrade. “HP tripled our disaster recovery support contract,” said one 987 owner who didn’t want his name used. HP will extend his company’s 987 support contract thru October, an arrangement that’s been available for the asking at some HP offices.

The customer is also considering buying a second 987 as its disaster recovery plan. “This will also be our backup for parts for our production box.” The production 987 will get more memory and a second processor — “except third-party software upgrade cost is making that a hard decision.”

Budget-bound plans

Many customers cited a slow economy as the reason they are sticking with what HP calls unsupported hardware. “Due to budgetary constraints we will most likely be keeping our 937 through 2004,” said Diana Vaughn of Island County, Washington. “I have plans to upgrade memory and disk space in hopes that this keeps our performance adequate.”

Some 9x7 owners will go to a Series 9x8 system in time, but the market for HP’s older hardware is tightening. Officials at Phoenix 3000, the suppliers of authorized refurbished hardware in North America, reported their 9x8 stock dropped by two thirds in the months following HP’s announcement.

Other customers remain bound to their in-house applications running fine on older MPE/iX releases. “We plan to keep this 937 system functioning for five to seven years,” said Connie Selito of Cat Fanciers’ Association, the world’s largest registry of pedigreed cats. “We are looking at third-party hardware support, and have dropped software support.”

Upgrades to A and N

A little more than a third of the 9x7 systems have become new 3000 models, a choice that’s been available for less than a year. HP started to ship its new systems in volume during the summer of 2001, just months before it began deliberating its exit from the market.

The cost of newer hardware was sometimes completely offset by savings in 9x7 support fees. “We will be getting our A500 on a 60-month lease,” said Ed Stein of auto parts maker Calsonic Yorozu, “and our total monthly cost including maintenance will be about $800 less per month than it is now with just the 24x7 maintenance for our two 9x7 systems.”

Upgrades were sometimes accompanied by migration away from the older 3000s. Investment analyst Fayez Sarofim & Co. is moving its 9x7’s RJE applications to NT, while its core applications are surviving on new N-Class systems. Even here, a third-party support firm is getting new business. “We plan to solicit third-party support for a few months,” said George Willis, “just in case we experience unexpected hardware failures.”

Performance bumped some customers into new purchases to replace 9x7s. “We are phasing out the 957,” said Gene Calai of Quadax. “We recently replaced it with a N-Class 220 Mhz. We do Speedware development, so we really needed some power. That N-class screams!”

But Quadax is continuing with its 987 in production as well, a two-processor system used for EDI. It was recently put on third-party support and the company still uses HP for software support. “We are planning on continuing to run the 987/200 as long as we can get support,” Calai said.

Everlasting service

Among customers choosing newer hardware, some continue to use their 9x7s for less mission-critical functions. Rich Trapp of MBS said his company’s 917 will become a Series 918, while the 917 will do service as “a crash and burn, training machine. We haven’t decided whether or not to put it on third-party hardware support yet. If it becomes critical, we will. The only reason we would scrap it is if we actually need more horsepower.”

Even some customers who replaced their 9x7s with newer HP 3000s regret HP’s decision to exit the market, and wonder about HP efforts on behalf of the product. Computrol Inc. bought an A-Class in October to replace its 9x7. “Coupled with MPE, you can’t beat it,” said MIS manager Carol Lowe. “It was installed in January. Too bad HP didn’t do more to promote and sell the HP 3000.”