HP's Daren Connor, Internet Product Manager at the HP 3000 division (CSY), wouldn't say when Open Market told CSY it was dropping sales of its Web Server and Secure Web Server products. But HP has done its part to place copies of Open Market's software in customer sites. HP concluded a promotion on May 31 that gave away a free copy of Open Market's Web Server when customers bought any HP 3000.
HP licensed the program code from Open Market in 1995 and then took it inside the CSY labs to create an MPE/iX port of the product. HP also agreed at that time to provide first-line support for the product and became the only supplier of the MPE/iX version of the software. Last year Open Market stopped selling the nonsecure version of their Web server for any platform, but continued to sell a Secure version of its server.
Connor said Open Market recently informed HP "that Open Market was no longer going to be in the Web server business for any platform, including the HP 3000." "They've told me they don't plan to make any announcement to that effect," Connor added. "We're as disappointed as anyone."
The Secure Web Server product remained on Open Market's Web pages as of presstime, and Open Market had issued no press release notifying customers of dropping the line. But spokesperson Beth Winkowski said the action was "probable." She added that support will continue for those customers already using Open Market's products.
HP appears to be as surprised as anyone. CSY's spring promotion directly preceded Open Market's notice to HP that it was dropping the software which HP just placed in customers' hands. While HP is the primary support contact for the product, it relies on Open Market to resolve more complex support issues. CSY also looks to Open Market to engineer enhancements to the product.
Open Market's decision also means the Open Market Secure version of the product apparently won't ever be shipping from CSY, even through HP is already holding orders from customers. Secure Web Server has been an orderable item on the HP price list since February 1. Connor said HP doesn't want to ship a secure Web server solution that won't ever be enhanced.
"For those who have ordered the Secure version, we feel very strongly that it's not a good strategy for those folks to go down that path [of taking delivery]," Connor said. "The reason is obvious -- there will be no more future enhancements to that product. We are strongly discouraging customers who have ordered that product from taking delivery of it."
Despite HP's current efforts in supporting the Web Server version of the product, Connor said the issue goes beyond such bug-fix activities. "This is a very dynamic area of technology," he said. "I think within six months there will be evolving areas of technology that people will want in their Web Servers -- and Open Market won't be there to provide that functionality."
Connor added that CSY is unwilling to make a commitment to Web Server development. Simply taking on the frozen code from Open Market isn't a good long term solution, he said. "We need to make sure the solution meets the needs of the largest group of people -- those who haven't made any sort of Web server software purchase," Connor said.
The future of 3000 web servers
Connor said he has been contacting the customers who have been waiting
for the
Secure Web Server. He also has an idea that many HP 3000 sites who are
serious about
using the Web with their 3000s are willing to let the server reside on
another platform
integrated with the HP 3000. Connor based his view on discussions held at
this spring's
IPROF conference, which included a half-day meeting of a SIGWEB special
interest group
"It was pretty clear to me that the majority of folks out there who were doing more than playing around with the Web were heading toward a front-end box being their Web server and incorporating the 3000 as a back-end server database," Connor said. (See our coverage of SIGWEB in the May 1997 issue, "IPROF Reporting, (Web) Page Two.")
With the demise of Open Market's software, the HP 3000 community now has a single commercial solution for a Web server, the $495 QWEBS from QSS. (See "A Tale of Two Web Servers" in our April 1997 issue for details on QWEBS at work in a customer site.) QSS principal Duane Percox said Open Market's decision might leave him with the only commercially supported Web server for HP 3000s, but the decision is not good for the HP 3000.
"I'm disappointed," he said. "QSS is happily selling and supporting QWEBS, and it's being used at lots of sites. But it's good to have options, and it would be nice to have a Posix-based Web server for the 3000." QWEBS is completely MPE-based.
As for prospects of another commercially-available secure Web solution
for HP
3000s, HP's Connor pointed to C2 Systems' Stronghold, a Web server based on the
popular Apache freeware that has been enhanced to support SSL-level
security. C2
supports a entry-level version of the product for $495, but it only runs on
Unix
platforms.