HP has been presenting a series of six webcasts to enable HP e3000
customers to address the strategic and technical issues that are
involved in making the transition from the HP e3000 to other platforms.
Registration for the transition webcasts is available on the web at
http://webcenter.hp.com/cgi/desktv/csy/2418/index.pl

I'm happy to announce that HP will also be offering a 7th webcast in
2002.  This new program will cover the contents of MPE/iX release 7.5.
Registration for this event will be opened in the near future at on the
same registration page used by the transition webcasts.

The following information applies to the six webcasts in the transition
series.

1/23 Transition Considerations: First Steps
================================
In this program, we identified the five options that exist for making
the transition from the HP e3000 to other HP platforms:
*    Some applications can be "retired" if they are no longer needed
after 2006.
*    Some applications can be left on MPE/iX after 2006 if they are not
critical to the organization, and can be used without HP support.  HP
does not recommend this approach.
*    Some applications can be replaced using "shrink wrapped" software
solutions available for the target platform.
*    Some applications can be migrated to other platforms.
*    Some applications can be rewritten in order to run on other
platforms.

During this webcast, we interviewed Maya Milster, a consultant who has
migrated HP e3000 applications to other platforms for HP.  Maya
identified some of the leading tactical pitfalls that have caused HP
e3000 transition projects to suffer unnecessary delay as or to fail all
together, and identified ways that customers can avoid these pitfalls.

Streaming Video of this program is available at:
http://www.hpclients.com/desktv/2698_01-22-02/e3000_transitions_e.htm


4/23 Planning the Project
===================
In any HP e3000 transition project, strategic and platform decisions
must be primarily driven by business issues. However, technical issues
relating to the languages, user interfaces and databases must be taken
into account if the strategic direction is to be workable. In this
program, we’ll begin by identifying the business issues that surround
MPE/iX migrations. We’ll identify new programs and incentives that HP is
providing to make it easier and more cost effective for HP e3000
customers to move to other HP platforms.
Next we’ll begin begin to explore the technical issues in detail. We’ll
explore the tactical issues that drive the three key decisions that lie
at the foundation of any hp e3000 transition project:
*    How do I decide if it makes more sense to Replace my applications,
Migrate them or Rewrite them?
*    What is HP going to do to help me identify candidates for the
"replace it" strategy?
*    Now that HP has announced that it will discontinue MPE/iX, how do I
know they won’t do the same thing to HP-UX? Once I’ve decided on a
strategic direction, how do I choose the best destination platform?

Having identified the major strategic issues, we’ll identify the key
technical and tactical issues that will have a bearing on your strategic
decisions: Language issues, User Interface issues, Database issues. In
the upcoming webcasts, these technical issues will be explored in
detail.

Streaming video of this program is available at
http://hpmsweb1.com/content/250_257/04-23-02.htm


5/21 Language Issues
================
Most HP e3000 software was written in COBOL. However, many HP e3000
applications were written in other languages. FORTRAN, C, Pascal, SPL,
RPG and a variety of 4GLs have all been used at one time or another. For
customers who are faced with the task of moving software from MPE/iX to
other operating environments, one of the first technical issues that
must be explored is the availability of compatible compilers on your
destination platform of choice. The availability of compatible compilers
may be a determining factor in your decision to replace, migrate or
rewrite.
In this webcast, we'll examine language options on HP-UX, Linux and
Windows, and see what compatibility issues exist among them. We’ll
answer questions such as, "When does it make more sense to port software
to another platform, (keeping the code that you have)? When does it make
more sense to rewrite software into another language (using your current
code as a guideline, and rewriting the application in a different
language)? When does it make more sense to walk away from your current
application and replace it with "off-the-shelf" software?"
Assuming that a choice is made to migrate an application, we’ll look at
the issues involved in doing that.

Streaming video of this webcast is available on the web at
http://www.hpbroadband.com/program.cfm?key=052102

6/25 User Interface Issues
=====================
Many HP e3000 applications rely on a user interface based on MPE/iX’s
VPLUS subsystem. These HP e3000 applications were originally designed to
work with HP block mode terminals. Using 3rd party software, these apps
can be enhanced on the HP e3000 to utilize a web-browser or other
client-server interface. Many of these third party solutions are
portable to other platforms beside the HP e3000, meaning they can be key
components of a HP e3000 transition strategy. In this webcast, we’ll
take a close look at the 3rd parties that provide VPLUS solutions on
HP-UX, Linux and Windows.

7/23 Database Issues
================
HP’s TurboIMAGE DBMS is perhaps the most widely used MPE/iX subsystem.
Virtually every HP e3000 application uses TurboIMAGE to some extent. In
this webcast, we’ll examine the alternative ways that TurboIMAGE data
can be ported to other platforms. We’ll also determine the best way to
port applications that contain reference to proprietary TurboIMAGE
intrinsics to other platforms. We’ll examine the pro’s and con’s of
using a TurboIMAGE-like DBMS (such as HP/Eloquence), as opposed to using
a TurboIMAGE-wrapper to access data in a mainstream RDBMS such as
Oracle.

8/27 Putting it All Together
====================
In this webcast, we’ll complete our examination of porting hp e3000
applications to other platforms by examining the specific alternatives
that are available to HP e3000 customers, including simulation of the HP
e3000 environment on other platforms. Now that all of the key tactical
issues have been identified and laid to rest, we’ll return to the
strategic questions that were raised in the first and second webcasts in
this series, and see how the tactical issues ultimately determine the
best strategic direction to take. We’ll take a closer look at the
various hp e3000 simulators that are available from third parties. We’ll
talk to customers who have already made the decisions we’ve discussed,
and identify some of the pitfalls and roadblocks that they’ve
encountered – and see how they were able to solve the problems and move
on.

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