Number 97 (Update of Volume 9, Issue 6)

IBM's adaptations, versus HP's

HP's not the only vendor pondering the merits of using the same servers for both Unix and non-Unix environments. While HP tells its customers about the merits of the HP Adaptive Enterprise, IBM looks forward to adapting its iSeries/AS400 servers to use Unix this summer. The technology that IBM will offer is going to let iSeries customers run AIX, IBM's Unix, in a separate partition on Big Blue's eServers. IBM had to make changes to both OS400, the iSeries operating environment, as well as AIX to make this happen - the kind of engineering investment made easier by a robust customer base. More than 400,000 iSeries and AS400 servers still chug away, even by the most modest estimates.

The whole IBM virtualization exercise - Linux is also supported on eServers, along with Windows - made one HP 3000 customer wonder why MPE/iX couldn't make the grade in the Adaptive Enterprise. The question came up after HP said it's re-opening the subject of turning HP 9000s into HP 3000s. Mark Wonsil, a consultant and developer of MPE solutions over the Web, wrote on the 3000-L mailing list:

"How is HP's experience going with Virtualization, i.e. the "Adaptive Enterprise?" I would have thought that a virtual MPE machine running under HP-UX (or Itanium) could have saved a lot of expense of keeping MPE running during a transition period. It certainly would have been easier to support new hardware. It would have given a smoother path to an HP-UX or Linux environment if different OS partitions could share file space, peripherals, etc. If HP could have pulled it off, it would have made this white paper so much more impressive.

"But instead of getting the Adaptive Enterprise, we seems to be experiencing the Extinctive Enterprise. It makes one wonder that if HP can't save money and meet customer demand by using their own theory of virtualization, why would a customer think they could? I accept reality, but I also can't help but wonder "What if?" With decades of virtualization experience, I am sure that the IBM marketing group will be happy to answer that question."

Amisys opens consulting business

Take a customer base with a lot of surround-code around a complex MPE application, and a plan to move those customers to HP's Unix, and what do you get? Amisys Synertech figures the answer is a rich field to mine for consulting contracts, all while saving the customer money and time. The vendor which has ported its Amisys 3000 application to Amisys Advance (see our April issue of the FlashPaper for the latest on that) announced a new technical services group "to help a growing number of customers quickly and efficiently migrate to the new Amisys Advance software platform." Al Gain, former VP of product development at Amisys Synertech, was selected to lead the new group. According to Gain, the group's goal is "to focus its automation and migration expertise to deliver real value to customers moving from the Amisys 3000 healthcare payer information system to Amisys Advance.

Replacing the 3000 application with the evolutionary Advance requires expertise, Gain said in a press release. "The successful migration to the Unix platform requires careful planning, strong leadership, experienced project management and teamwork between business and technical resources," he said. "No other entity has the hands-on experience that we do with Amisys Advance. Through our packaged technical services solutions, we're the only company that can complete the migration process rapidly and at the lowest cost."

The new consulting group has packaged solutions that include Amisys 3000 to Unix migration; surround code migration; data cleansing and migration; migration planning; hardware sizing and planning; and evaluation and installation of third-party software. Amisys was pulling the "we built it" trump card in its consulting announcement. "Only Amisys Synertech's staff of seasoned experts is fully trained on Amisys Advance and completely understands the scope of effort and technical requirements involved in managing a successful migration." We recall that Transoft was a key player in porting Amisys 3000 to Amisys Advance, and Transoft has probably done a lot more migrations, too. But with four other HP Platinum migration partners also looking for such business, there's no apparent shortage of assistance for the Amisys evolution. Amisys customers were invited to call 800.216.9756 and select option 3 to hear more about Amisys Synertech's technical services. And why not? As Gain claimed, "There's almost no learning curve or training costs involved."

PatchWatch: Measurement Interface fixed

HP is still working on patches to fix bugs in MPE/iX, but there are some new guidelines to getting repairs out of the vendor. The subject came up as HP announced it has fixed a bug in the Measurement Interface (MI), one that has been biting the 99X-class of HP 3000s.

"Our system is a 997/800 with 8 Gb of memory running MPE/iX 7.5 with a few reactives in place," reported Paul Courry. "As this is a generalized MI bug I would suspect it is generic to at least the 997 series and perhaps more widespread."

HP's fix is in beta test status now, according to Cathlene McRae, HP Senior Response Center Engineer. "The MI problem is the STOP_CPU accumulator has overflowed, causing the negative values. This problem is to be fixed in SCOMXN1 version A for 6.5, B for 7.0, C for 7.5. Hopefully the patch will be available for beta sometime in March 2004."

This led OpenMPE board director Donna Garverick, who signed on for a new full term through last month's elections, to outline the New Rules for HP bug patching for the 3000:

"The unfortunate realities these days for defect repairs are:

1) You've *got* to be willing to apply the patch when one is developed. The old days of 'reporting a problem but letting someone else test the patch' are gone.

2) For some defects, if only one customer reports it -- it may not get patched....probably worked-around, but not patched. (I know because I'm in that boat)

3) If it's that important -- bring it up on OpenMPE-l and 3000-l. You may be able to get someone else to try to reproduce the problem and also report it. with enough customers saying 'hey this doesn't work' -- HP will respond.

"4) Don't forget point #1!"

HP 3000 flies highest in online success

Internet performance tracker Keynote Systems reported that Southwest Airlines, which still drives its Web-based ticket sales with HP 3000 servers, was the only airline to score a perfect 100 percent in a test of Web-based transactions. One of the most successful transaction sites had one of the slowest response times. Only the 3000-driven reservation engine had a 100 percent success rate.

The online rankings covered airlines, hotels and travel agencies. The worst sites failed to complete one out every four transactions.

Southwest Airlines, Radisson hotels and Orbitz outpaced the successful transaction field at 100, 99.22 and 98.82 percent, respectively. The rate is the aggregate number of times out of 100 that Keynote's measurement computers could successfully complete the entire scripted transaction from start to finish. Keynote said online travel is the highest grossing retail category on the Web, accounting for $40.7 billion in purchases in 2003.

GHRUG offers wireless workshop

Denys Beauchemin, founder of the new Beaudeux Wireless & Storage Consulting and chairman of Interex, will be conducting a Wireless Communication Workshop for the Greater Houston Regional Users Group (GHRUG) on April 29, 8-5pm at Avnet in Houston, Texas (located near Hwy 59 South and Beltway 8).

"Wireless networks are sprouting up everywhere, but most people who put up these networks do not really know how they work and how to set them up properly," Beauchemin said. "This one-day tutorial is aimed at people who want to know more than just setting up an access point by following a wizard. There will be equipment on hand to examine and there will be a handout. There will also be a live wireless network, which may or may not be connected to the Internet."

Register through GHRUG's Bill Goodoff at goodoff@hal-pc.org, or Richard Pringle at 281.333.8009.

HP steps out of Customer First news

In the 1990s it was called the HP 3000 Advisor, and then later there was nothing printed at all, but HP has maintained a semblance of platform-specialized marketing news ever since we started The 3000 NewsWire. Now comes word that HP is shifting away from the platform-news business, shutting down its "Customer First Times," the PDF-Acrobat document that carried information about HP 3000s, along with HP 9000, OpenVMS and Itanium-based market items.

The move feels like a swan song for a concept that the 3000 group at HP pioneered. "Customer First" was a mantra that the CSY division wanted to promote to the rest of HP's server businesses. Contributor Terry Shannon -- whose "Shannon Knows DEC" newsletter became "Shannon Knows Compaq," and then "Shannon Knows HPC" - reported that "in an effort to save money and provide HP customers with content specific to their needs, HP is in the process of retiring the Customer Times magazine. Bad news for me, as I was a contributor to the publication." Shannon said the move was good news for those looking for customized content.

HP is replacing Customer First with "HP Technology at Work," also an online-only e-newsletter. The sign-up process only lets a reader ask for one of three kinds of articles: "Articles that are mostly technical, articles with some technical references, or articles that are low in technical references. Getting all three, like looking at a newsletter tailored to HP 3000s or HP 9000s (a 9000 Advisor was also printed in years past), seems to be an option you can't get from HP anymore. You can get a look at a sample of HP Technology at Work at hpitnewsletters.com/consolidatedsample. Sign up at <http://tinyurl.com/24pag>.