Brent writes:
> I have an account which is politically divided over whether to remain on
> HP3K/MPE/Image or migrate to HP-UX.  Two or three years ago, they did an
> internal assessment, and determined that the HP3K's future was dim.  One
> camp believes that has changed, the other camp hasn't seen the light.

Based on the information presented at IPROF, I would say that today MPE
has greater(!) long-term viability than UNIX, NT, and every other platform
you might care to suggest.  Let me explain...

What I mean by this is that it looks as though MPE will remain a viable,
high performing, supported, maintained, and enhanced platform well into
the next decade.  HP showed plans for increasing performance at the high
end with new boxes for something like the next eight years.  So today
anyway, it looks as though you could stay on the 3000 for the next ~8
years and then you could upgrade to an even bigger 3000 that would
probably be viable for several more years after that, even if HP stopped
making new 3000s after the ~8 years.

I think I have a pretty good idea of what MPE is going to look like in
ten years, and it's probably a lot like what it is now, plus ten years
of enhancements here and there, and it will almost certainly run today's
applications unchanged.

On the other hand, I can pretty much guarantee that today's UNIX and
Windows applications are not going to be what you're running ten years
from now.  I would expect a UNIX shop to have to roll their applications
two or three times over that period, and I would expect any Windows NT
shop to be replacing their application (and hardware and system software)
about every year or two over the same period.

This is not replacement due to user-desired enhancements, but due to
software, hardware, and OS vendor requirements to move to the latest
technology, whether or not it does the customer any good.  After all,
you're not going to keep Intel and Microsoft in business if you don't
replace all your hardware and software every 12-18 months so that they
can keep their sales volumes where they are today.

So "today's MPE" probably has a significantly greater longevity than
"today's UNIX" or "today's Windows", leaving the customer with a lot
more time to focus on using their computers  to solve their business
problems rather than constantly replacing and upgrading everything.

Which world would you rather live in?  The nice relaxed MPE "solve our
business problems" world, or the 25x8 rush-rush-rush internet-years-as-
dog-years world of blindly throwing away today's technology for
tomorrow's, which will be thrown away the day after that?

Samba, Java, Apache, Sockets, POSIX, etc., have shown that the 3000 can
quite effectively interoperate with as much of the rush-rush-rush world
as one wants to get involved with, while allowing the core business
functionality and data to remain safely on the stable and well understood
(and yet not stagnant) MPE platform.

G.