ComputerWorld's Jaikumar Vijayan recently interviewed Peter Blackmore,
Executive Vice President of HP's Enterprise System Group. Some lowlights
[the complete article is at
http://www.computerworld.com/printthis/2003/0,4814,79158,00.html]:
ComputerWorld: Where does OpenVMS fit in the overall scheme of things at HP
these days?
Blackmore: [note emphasis mine - jpb] It is already well on its way to being
ported to IA-64. We will continue to support it on IA-64. It is a very
special class of operating system. We are not planning to do anything else
other than to continue supporting this environment, as well as the 450,000
users around the world that are on this. So we are going to maintain it and
make it run very well on Itanium. The same [is true] with the Non-Stop
environment. It currently runs on the MIPS chip. It will be migrated to
IA-64 as well.
Elsewhere, after extolling the virtues of HP-UX:
ComputerWorld: What's driving all of this interest in Linux?
Blackmore: The cost performance. The sweet spot for Linux is the
four-processor Unix application server and lower. When you take a
four-processor Unix application, even if it is mission-critical, you can run
it very effectively on Linux. It is not replacing very high-end clustered
machines. It is not replacing Windows. It is replacing Unix. [Note: Is that
the same as eviscerating the mid-range unix market? Four processors today.
How about very high-end clustered machines next year or the year after? Is
that when Linux eviscerates the high-end unix market? - jpb]
Elsewhere,
ComputerWorld: How has the merger changed things for your major accounts
specifically?
Blackmore: [note emphasis mine - jpb] I think what we have brought to those
customers is a strong alternative to IBM right across the technology and
service spectrum. Both premerger companies were strong, but didn't have the
breadth of portfolio. Today, HP has a $16.5 billion server and storage
business which is larger than IBM's equivalent. We have a very strong
services business, with 65,000 people. It is obviously not as large as IBM's
equivalent, but large enough to be very high-depth with capability. So what
the customers see from this is an organization that can step up to be a
trusted partner and provide a complete range of technology for the
infrastructure, data center and everything that surrounds the data center.
I suspect HP 3000 customers might have a special take on what it means to
treat HP as a trusted partner - jpb

John Burke

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