I've been corresponding with Jeff by email, and I thought the group might
be interested in some of the statistics I've sent him...,
 
The facts are that the MPE installed base is about 65,000 systems, and it is
growing, but not at the same rate as our UNIX installed base.  But that doesn't
mean that the HP 9000 is replacing the HP 3000 as a product.  The HP 9000 is
a perfectly adequate machine for most midrange applications, which is where
MPE's bread and butter USED TO BE, at least traditionally.  Today, MPE machines
are almost all being sold into mission critical environments.  That means there
are fewer of them being sold - not all applications are mission critical.  But
it also means that there's a continued role, (and an essential one) for MPE
systems to play.
 
During the last 8 years, the HP-UX lab has done an outstanding job of making
the 9000 a suitable machine for commercial applications, in many instances,
using the older MPE/V operating system as a model.  But during the last 8
years, the MPE lab has also been working hard to improve MPE/iX as well.
We have been continuing to make the 3000 a better performer for OLTP
applications, as well as making it more reliable and scalable.  UNIX is now
as good as MPE used to be - but MPE has improved at the same time.  For
example, when the Series/70 was the biggest machine you could buy from HP, it
supported somewhere between 100-125 users in an OLTP environment.  Today's HP
3000s are used to support over 1000 users on Corporate Business System
hardware.  Our UNIX machines also support large user communities, but I've
never seen a single HP 9000 supporting 1000 users on a single box, at least not
in a transaction processing environment.  If anybody on the net is aware of
such an installation, I'd like to hear about it.
 
The bottom line to all this is that HP is no longer a "single-solution"
company.  In the old days, all we had to offer customers was MPE - and it was a
pretty decent solution for most computing requirements.  Today, roughly 25% of
the HP 9000s are in shops that also have 3000s installed next to them.  This
has given us opportunities to survey customers that are dealing with both kinds
of machines on a daily basis.  Here are some of the results we've gotten from
our surveys...
 
Which do you work harder (i.e. mission critical app's, heads down OLTP)  the
3000 or the 9000?
a) We work the 3k much harder           75.7%
b) We work the 3k somewhat harder       12.6%
c) We work them Both the same           9.9%
d) We work the 9k somewhat harder       1.8%
e) We work the 9k much harder           0%
 
Which is more reliable?  Your HP3000 or HP9000?
a) We find the 3k to be much more reliable              69%
b) We find the 3k to be somewhat more reliable          9.7%
c) We find them to be Both about the same               15%
d) We find the 9k to be more reliable                   2.7%
e) We find the 9k to be much more reliable              3.5%
 
How easy to manage is the HP 3000 compared to the HP 9000?
a) The HP 3000 is much easier to manage than the HP 9000        55.8%
b) The HP 3000 is somewhat easier to manage  than the HP 9000.  20.2%
c) The ease of management of the two systems is about the same. 18.6%
d) The HP 9000 is somewhat easier to manage than the HP 3000.   3.9%
e) The HP 9000 is much easier to manage than the HP 3000.       1.6%
 
Does all this mean that UNIX is not the best solution for our customers?
Put it this way.  In the beginning, I think HP did a spectacularly poor job of
positioining MPE in relation to UNIX.  We effectively told customers that you
could have one or the other, but not both.  And that was a horrendous mistake.
It's one we're trying to correct now.  The best way to use HP technology is to
use UNIX where UNIX makes sense, and to use MPE where MPE makes sense.
 
I think HP has shown that UNIX is "reliable enough" for most commercial
applications.  And for those applications that need mainframe class
reliability & manageability, MPE is more appropriate for those environments.
In the last year or two, we've discovered that our truly "leading edge" shops
have learned (and in many cases taught us) how the two machines can be used
side by side - using MPE where MPE makes sense, and using UNIX where UNIX makes
sense.