<<    "PSST ... Carly we want to let the world in on your secret ... with  the HP
e3000 your organization manages the manufacturing of over $20Billion of
products>>

      The systems you are talking about are a "web" of inconsistencies, hard to trace, hard to research, hard to manage, poorly documented, of very cumbersome design, full of holes, obsolete technologies and on and on, product of years of a mix of changing technologies and constant upward/task change and "promotions" of the very hp employees that designed these systems.  That is why HP is doing a lot of migrating.  That is why HP is about invent and change.  Because they have no choice, otherwise the giant will drop like a rock from within.

      Whatever you think the big giant is, chances are that you are wrong unless you have been there.   I dag the giant deeper than a lot of people I know, through out and worldwide.  What I found would make a grade school programmer apprentice look like a pro.

      Concerning uptime hardware and operating system wise they have a stable platform, so do others.

      I am not trying to create conflict here but it amazes me to read about this and the "collection" effort in progress.   Anybody with some "cloud" can get a first hand impression from the horse's mouth if they try hard enough.