NewsWire FlashPaper, May 1997
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NewsWire FlashPaper, May 1997

News so hot it might ignite

HP 3000 sales are growing faster than spring lawns.
The HP 3000 division has enjoyed a great string of sales quarters where its broken its quota, going back well into 1996. The period that ended last month must have been the best in the string yet, because HP reported to its channel partners and sales reps that CSY is at 150 percent of quota for the first half of fiscal 1997. In order for the numbers to average out at 150 percent over two quarters, the second quarter of 1997 had to "blow the doors off," according to CSY's marketing manager Cathy Fitzgerald. That's exactly what happened, and she offered an explanation of why. Customers are broadening their minds about what the best choice is for their systems. Now that NT has captured a very serious part of the mindshare that Unix won in the early part of the decade, customers understand there's no one perfect choice for business systems. This makes the HP 3000 a safer choice to stick with, upgrade on, and buy outright for the first time. (And yes, there's new business being written for HP 3000s, in places like banks and universities as well as the mail order and healthcare industries). Resellers as well as HP's sales force share in CSY's quota party, a measure of revenues rather than systems installed.

NT is bringing more than comfort to HP 3000 system choices.

Windows NT is also providing connectivity to HP 3000 sites who want a more cost effective way to connect MPE/iX systems to corporate networks. The Samba file sharing software has now moved to an 0.7 version, now available at 3k's FTP site. The 0.7 version installs a little bit easier than previous ones, and it has an extensive sample configuration file now (no small comfort, since configuration has been the rough point for many sites pressing Samba into 3000 service). Samba/iX now offers three different PM flavors: a "full fat" version which is a PM program run by PM user, a "low fat" PM program that can be run by a non-PM user, and a " fat free" non-PM program run under INETD.
While Samba isn't an NT-only phenomenon for HP 3000 sites -- it can connect 3000s to Windows systems, or even Unix boxes -- it's the leading candidate to become a full-fledged HP product for use in connecting 3000s with NT systems. HP will be giving the software a tryout from CSY's own Jazz server as a freeware product before it moves on "productizing" Samba, one of several investigations CSY is looking at to supply NT integration. HP also mentioned support for the CORBA and COM messaging middleware technologies during its strategic TV broadcast this year about HP 3000 directions. HP has said that nothing in the MPE/iX architecture precludes extensions to incorporate Microsoft's Common Object Model for managing objects. This would let HP 3000s participate in server sharing, processing client requests alongside NT and Unix systems. It's just the lastest example of technology that the HP 3000 can assimilate. (See our June issue for more details).

Those big-boy HP 3000s drive a better bus.
The connectivity on HP 3000s is getting an overhaul with the latest Corporate Business Server (CBS) models, which we introduce in a front page story in this issue. The most significant change to the CBS design is a pathway to the faster links like Fiber Channel and ATM, delivered by way of a new High Speed Connect (HSC) bus in the Series 997 systems. Previous CBS systems, called Emerald-class 3000s by the customers who use them, employed a dual upper bus converter which accepted HP Precision Bus I/O card cages. The new systems have an HP-HSC Bus Converter, which accepts two HP-PB Bus Converters, which then accept those HP-PB I/O card cages. If you're wondering, all your existing Emerald-class cards will plug into the newer systems. The addition of the two HP-PB Bus Converters means there can be 12 HP-PB I/O channels on a single system, delivering up to 168 HP-PB interfaces where there were once only 112. But the most important part is that the newer HSC bus can take on HSC I/O cards to incorporate technologies such as Fiber Channel, which HP says is the future of its peripheral connectivity. (See our June issue for more details).

Orbit waded into a competition with Unison over 3000 backup.

Never ones to shy from a scrap over backup competition, Orbit Group International launched a competitive upgrade campaign that it said is designed to "rescue" users of RoadRunner, a long-established backup solution from Unison Software. Orbit's offer will give HP 3000 users some discount when they move to Backup+/IX, although the discount is determined on a customer-by-customer basis. (Read that "get the best deal you can.") There's not a lot of hard evidence yet that the RoadRunner customers need rescuing, though. When Unison acquired Tymlabs five years ago, a next-generation solution for Tymlab's BackPack users was already in development in RoadRunner. Now Orbit's claiming that Unison's support of the HP 3000 market is thinning. As evidence Orbit points to statements made in Unison's last few 10-Q SEC reports which say Unison "anticipates that HP 3000 license fees may decline in the future, as [Unison] continues to focus on the open distributed systems market." (Gee, we thought the HP 3000 was an open and distributed system, with a Posix interface and all that talk of distribution through Shareplex and NetBase). Indeed, Unison reported that its HP 3000 business did decline in its quarter ending Feb. 28. But MPE customers are still greater in number at Unison than those of any other platform, according to VP of Marketing Jack Brown.
Brown had an interesting comment to make on Unison's forecast about declining 3000 business: it hasn't really happened. "We thought customers were going to be migrating, and it just hasn't panned out that way," he said. "People are holding on to their legacy systems." We'll ignore that legacy crack and note more than a few companies have experienced this same phenomenon: HP 3000s that don't get replaced. It's that old 5-year replacement strategy you hear about -- no matter what year you ask about it, replacement is always five years away (yeah, right).
Anyway, our quick random poll showed customers who use RoadRunner seem uniformly satisfied with their product, and nobody could identify enhancements they'd asked about but never received. Unison's Brown said his company is moving a zero downtime version of RoadRunner into beta tests this month. Meanwhile, Orbit's Marketing Manager Guy Smith said his company will upgrade RoadRunner customers who use the regular product to Orbit's Zero Down Time option, while those using the RoadRunner Online Module can move up to Orbit's Delta technology, which reduces backup time by only backing up changed data. Is it a better deal than using RoadRunner? We're no judge, but competition tends to improve product offerings on both sides of such a struggle. Check up on your solution's value by calling Orbit at 510.215.9000, or Unison at 408.988.2800.

WRQ is turning its attention to Java software.

The trouble with the Internet, and its attendant technologies like Java, is that nobody has quite perfected a profitable business model for it. It's especially troublesome to longtime, successful software providers operating in the networking and connectivity space. But all that isn't keeping WRQ from jumping into the hot cup of Java that's brewing on many an IS manager's planning sheet. The $130 million software company announced plans to bring its Reflection connectivity software into the Java model later this year, giving companies another way to drive down the cost of linking to strategic systems such as the HP 3000s that built WRQ's success. The WRQ plan will deliver a terminal emulator that exists as a Java client, downloaded thin from servers including the HP 3000. The client will run on almost any Web client that has Java capability, such as PCs or Macs running either Netscape's browsers or Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

What you'll get inside that client is still to be determined, but WRQ wasn't shy about saying that it's bound to be less than is delivered in its Windows and Mac-based Reflection clients. The object of such an offering isn't to replace those existing clients with a Java offering, but to give managers a lower-cost way to offer connectivity to a different type of HP 3000 user -- perhaps one who accesses the 3000 less frequently, or only needs a limited subset of features in a terminal emulator. How much you'll save in choosing the Java enabled Reflection, and how that savings compares to lower-end competitors like Minisoft, remains to be seen. But it would appear that host-based licensing and counting active users will be making a comeback, as this decentralized decade gives way to the network-driven 21st Century. What's new, like Java-based Reflection, is new -- and those older things like host-based, IT administrator-configured computing are new again, too. The hardest part might be calculating the new business models. (See our June issue for more details)

A free HP 3000 emulator is making its debut this month.

While WRQ is working on cutting down the cost per connected desktop, another initiative will be providing a completely free connectivity tool to link PCs with HP 3000s. AICS Research (505.524.9800), which makes the superior QueryCalc spreadsheet and reporting tool that runs native on HP 3000s, is releasing a early version of QCTerm, a basic, freeware HP 3000 terminal emulator that for the moment has only been programmed in Visual Basic. Wirt Atmar of AICS stresses that the software he expects to make available by month's end won't be complete for all functions, but it has achieved "terminal velocity" -- graphics performance speeds equivalent to a standard HP700/92 terminal when used on a 100MHz Pentium processor. Atmar admits that QCTerm is still about 2-3 times slower than Reflection's graphics in its present, "pre-alpha" version, and intends to keep developing it until it equals Reflection's graphics speed. The project is being developed to give QueryCalc customers their own terminal emulator, but the freeware client will be available via the Web for all to download.

That new SMTP gateway for 3000 e-mail has a broader target market.

Our friends at E-Mail Inc. called to explain that their new SMTP-X/3000 gateway runs on a lot more than just MPE/iX 5.5 systems. In fact, the software that gives e-mail applications such as E-Mail's One-Stop Mail or Open DeskManager a binary MIME attachment capability runs on any HP 3000 using MPE/iX 4.0 and later. E-Mail, celebrating its 10th anniversary of HP 3000 software solutions, has also released an update to its Access/3000 for MCI Mail. The MCI Mail gateway works for HP 3000 sites who use MCI as their Internet gateway. MCI Mail's long-awaited MEP 2 gateway MIME fix solves MCI gateway troubles with receiving Binary attachments from Internet users due to the lack of MIME support. UUENCODE attachments were the only type of files getting through the current gateway. On April 26, MCI rolled out the MIME fix into worldwide use. Access/3000 users can get a special fix that works in conjunction with MCI's changes at no cost by contacting E-Mail (818.836.4788, Sales@emailinc.com)
Copyright 1997, The 3000 NewsWire. All rights reserved.