-- [ From: John P. Burke * EMC.Ver #2.10P ] --
 
At Interex '95, Carol Mills (HP9000 boss) and Olivier Helleboid
(HP3000 boss) each gave a future/strategic directions presentation
for their respective product lines.
 
In their presentations, each displayed a diagram of the IS model
du jour: 3-tier distributed client/server. Much was made at the
Management Roundtable and on HP3000-L about the fact that Carol's
diagram ignored the HP3000 while Olivier's diagram gave prominent
place to the HP9000.
 
GSD's indifference towards the HP3000 is a well-known historical
fact. Carol's leaving off the HP3000 in her talk was not
surprising to me. What was surprising (and a bit chilling) was
Olivier's diagram (reproduced [crudely] here from his handout):
 
 
  Desktop:                              Windows, HP-UX
 
---------------------------------------------------------
 
  Department and
  Application Servers:                  Windows NT, HP-UX
 
---------------------------------------------------------
 
  Enterprise and
  Business-Critical Servers:            HP-UX, MPE/iX
 
 
 
Several things to note:
 
- What are we to make of a diagram from the person responsible
  for the HP3000 that concedes the middle tier in the 3-tier C/S
  model to Windows NT and HP-UX? One of MPE/iX's greatest
  weaknesses is its inability (or HP's unwillingness) to be
  scaled to the desktop; however, I always thought it's
  worry-free operation made it an excellent department or
  application system.
 
- Even in the one tier where Olivier placed the HP3000, he did
  not list it first!
 
- If MPE/iX's only role is as an enterprise server than HP had
  better hurry to provide > 4GB files and support for the
  peripherals an enterprise server needs (eg optical jukeboxes).
 
But why am I surprised? After all, this is the organization that
placed expensive ads in ComputerWorld, InformationWeek, etc. that
did not list any contacts (as opposed to the ads for the HP9000
which listed both an 800 number and a Web Page). Do you suppose
HP really wants to sell any of these systems?
 
John Burke
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