The content of your e-mail is, as always, absolutely correct, and just oozes
with class.

Jeff, I am but a mere peasant COBOL programmer, and I fear that my days of
being able to send a "Jeff Vance" an e-mail asking for some help on some
lame error I'm making in a CI script may be coming to an end.

I will move on in the IT life as will everyone else, but one thing will
never change, I will always use the "Jeff Vance" part of hp as my benchmark
for what I expect any company to be.

Now, without sounding like a mushy goodbye letter, I want to make this
statement: In both my professional and personal life, it will always be one
of my greatest pleasures to have had the opportunity, over the last 15 years
, to work with the people, products, and services of a company made up of
"Jeff Vances"...thanks Dude.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: VANCE,JEFF (HP-Cupertino,ex1) [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 11:47 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      CSY official announcement
>
> Hi all,
>
> Wed morning, around 9:00 PST, a press release from HP begins as:
>
> "PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 14, 2001 -- Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HWP)
> today
> announced that it will begin advising customers to transition from HP
> e3000
> servers to other HP server platforms over the next five years. The rapid
> evolution of technology away from proprietary platforms and customer and
> partner
> decisions to move to other HP platforms led to the transition plan."
> ...
>
> All of the details can be found at www.hp.com/go/e3000.
>
> Here is my summary:
>
> o  CSY has announced end of support for the e3000 to be Dec 31, 2006.
> We will continue to sell new 3000s and to enhance MPE through
> Oct 31, 2003.  Beyond Oct. 2003 R&D activities will be limited.
>
> o  CSY made this decision on its own.  Carly had nothing to do with it.
> Compaq had nothing to do with it.  HP would not get rid of a cash cow.
> CSY Management started seeing the irreversible decay in the 3000
> "ecosystem" (which includes CSY's business, ISV's business, consultant's
> business) a while ago and decided that the best long term course was to
> give as much advanced warning as possible.  They felt it was in our
> customer's best interest to get early notification so planning could begin
> as soon as possible.
>
> o  Your e3000 will run just fine for the next several years, and more!
> BUT, you do need to take our announcement seriously.  If your business
> and/or your career depends on the 3000 you need to develop a plan
> taking this 5 year roadmap into consideration.
>
> o  What about open source?  CSY does not currently have plans in this
> area, but we welcome your feedback and suggestions (and we have already
> captured the points made so far). We are open to all suggestions,
> some of which work best in a true open source model, and others work
> optimally in a limited licensing model. We will make it a priority to
> listen to suggestions and provide timely feedback in this area. At the
> same time, it is important that we hear the perspectives of our customers
> and partners on this important topic.
>
> o  We are not going to be able to port MPE to IA-64. We have made some
> initial IA-64 progress, but had a *long* ways to go.
>
> o  We recognize that customers with large, complex and evolved home
> grown applications will have challenging issues to deal with. HP will
> be offering consulting and other services.  Third parties will provide
> help too.  We also understand that this news comes at a time when IT
> resources are constrained more than ever, and many of you will need to
> create migration plans, and run your business at the same time.  The HP
> DSPP site will shortly be showcasing 3rd party partners that provide
> migration services.
>
> o  CSY is offering good incentive programs to help customers move to
> to other HP servers -- both h/w and s/w incentives.  The details are
> on the CSY Web site (www.hp.com/go/e3000).  There is an FAQ here too.
>
> o  Several h/w models and OS versions have extended support due to
> this announcement.  Again, the Web site has the details.
>
>
> So the news is sad for many of us on this list, including the
> numerous folks from HP who choose the 3000 as their career.  There
> are people on this list that worked hard on IA-64, worked
> diligently to make Image the best DB possible, squeezed as much
> performance as possible from our hardware, made the OS scale from
> tiny to absolutely huge, and ported wonderful, new tools from the
> Unix side.  Everyone has given part of their life to this great
> product and it does hurt to see it on its way out.  With change comes
> opportunity.  Let's embrace the new opportunities that lay ahead.
>
>
> Best Regards,
>  Jeff Vance, CSY
>
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