3000 NewsWire

Alliance proves migration pace picks up

    After many years of competition for HP 3000 customers, two vendors which once sold 4GL tools now work together to help those sites away from HP 3000s.

   Speedware and Cognos act in a new alliance that can put Speedware’s migration teams inside a Cognos site, doing the engineering and consults that lead to replacing HP 3000 PowerHouse with other Cognos products.

   Cognos sells Windows tools as well as HP-UX and IBM AIX versions of PowerHouse, which was once a product with more than 7,000 HP 3000 licenses worldwide. Now Speedware has studied with Cognos to learn the details of PowerHouse, training to the point where Speedware can lead in a Cognos migration engagement.

    Christine McDowell, Speedware’s manager of Strategic Migration Alliances, said the pace of 3000 migrations is one element that has sparked its alliance with a classic rival.

    “There’s been a significant increase in the [migration] activity within the market space,” she said. There’s been an increase in market opportunities for these migrations.”

   Such Speedware-led projects “over the past year or so that have led to the formalizing the partnership,” she added. The Speedware education in Cognos products has taken place over migration projects, as well as in formal classes at Cognos.

   “Because we have successfully completed several migration and modernization projects to date, we’ve had the opportunity to have our own resources certified [in Cognos products], McDowell said. “We’ve built our own resources on Cognos expertise.”

    “We’ve been certified and have we good successes to leverage and announce. [Cognos] has training we have taken.”

    Speedware is on the lookout for Cognos specialists, independent consultants, who can help in future engagements with the PowerHouse customers who need to migrate from the 3000. Speedware feels like it has in-house experience, but is open to working with independents, too.

    “We have the experience in-house,” McDowell said. “That being said, we encourage all independent Cognos consultants to call us, to find ways that we could potentially be working together.”

    The “sweet spot” for Speedware, McDowell explained, is the experience Speedware can offer for third-party software working alongside PowerHouse on 3000s.

    “Companies looking for migration options often recognize there is much more to their environment than the technology that their applications are written in,” McDowell said. “Third party utilities, for example. There are so many different aspects to a migration that often their software partner doesn’t have all the answers. We’re partners with a lot of companies like Cognos.”

HP Explains its RTU, Part Two

HP unveiled a new Right to Use license for HP 3000 customers this month, a program the vendor will use to ensure customers have a way to upgrade systems with legal MPE/iX licenses. HP will sell a customer a new Right to Use license during an upgrade, discounting the "delta" between the new license cost and the value of the customer's existing MPE/iX license.

The program is arriving as news to some resellers of HP 3000 systems and processors for the server. One reseller reported hearing nothing from HP about the RTU program until his February NewsWire arrived.

While we aim to break news first, it's surprising to learn some resellers have been left out of HP's pre-briefing loop. Client Systems, HP's only "authorized" 3000 reseller in North America, got full notice of the program in advance. (Good thing, too, since HP mentioned the reseller several times during a pre-briefing interview with us.)

Here then is the second part of our 30-minute Q&A with HP's Jennie Hou and Ross McDonald — explaining how the RTU works, what it might cost, and who will need to deal with it. On that last note, it seems that dealers of HP 3000 systems and parts, at least those who are doing upgrades, will be dealing with the RTU. (If you've missed the Q&A's first part, you can find it here.)

How will a customer determine what their upgrade path is for this RTU? A Web site page with tables and graphics?
    Hou: It’s all posted on our Web site. Several pages talk about our hardware upgrade program. There is a matrix that tells about permissible upgrade paths.

So what are the limitations in upgrades?
    Hou: No cross platform or cross chassis upgrades, like from a 9x8 to a 9x9.

What is the range of deltas a customer can get for their existing MPE/iX license?
    McDonald: The deltas vary between levels. $62,000 is the biggest delta between two license levels. For example, if a customer goes from a N-class 500 3-way to a N-class 750 4-way [list price of $89,500], the customer will get a $62,000 credit when purchasing a $89,600 license. The customer pays the license price, which is the delta of those two price points.

Who needs to pay attention to this new Right to Use license?
    McDonald: People who want to upgrade their systems to get more performance. If your existing system has a valid license and it’s meeting your needs, you can run on that license forever.

Is there any supplemental fee with the RTU license?
    McDonald: There is a fee if the HP CE comes out to do the validation; there’s no extra fee if the validation is done remotely. When they come out to modify the stable storage, there is a fee to do that.
    Hou: They will charge you on an hourly basis, and the fee for this varies.

What does the RTU have to do with Advant or Ideal offering what they call Generic Replacement Boxes?
    McDonald: I don’t want to comment on any specific company or people who may be doing something in this space at this time. That’s something HP will address on a case-by-case basis.
    Our current focus is to clarify what it takes to have a valid system, so that customers can ensure they have a valid license and the right to run MPE/iX on the systems they are using.

What other changes does the RTU bring to the 3000 community?
    McDonald: With this policy statement we are actually relaxing some of our requirements on the hardware that can be put into a system. The policy doesn’t talk about whether the CPU boards that you’d put into a 3000 have to be original 3000 parts.

So these once had to be original 3000 CPU boards, and now they don’t have to be?
    McDonald: Yes.
    Hou: We relaxed that part because we feel it will offer our customers more flexibility. Availability of CPU boards will be key, because customers are asking for them.

As part of HP’s policy statement, I see this sentence: “Using MPE/iX on original, upgraded, or modified hardware systems without the appropriate right-to-use license and/or software license upgrade from HP is prohibited.” Is that language in the original MPE/iX license that most customers hold now, or has HP added the right-to-use language to the existing license?
    Hou: No, but it is implied. We’re trying to cover various scenarios, but the bottom line says that the system that you are upgrading has to be an original e3000 system.

Would it be going too far to say the RTU is once again a revenue stream for HP from the 3000 community, now that HP has made this announcement?
    McDonald: Theoretically it is; however, this was not an objective and we are not looking to make money on this.   
    Hou: The main driver is what we can do to help our customers, to enable them to continue to do upgrades in the used system market.

So HP’s motivation is to help customers adhere to HP’s licenses?
    McDonald: For the customer who cares about software licensing, and wants to do the right thing, I think it really helps them. And those are lots of good customers that we want to keep. This was not an easy activity to go through on a product that we’re winding down. The partners we have discussed this with also really appreciate that we are trying to ensure clarity and consistency in terms of licensing in the HP e3000 community.

HP sounds off on new 3000 licenses

HP briefed us about its plan to issue Right To Use licenses about five days before the official RTU announcement. We wanted to know more than the five HP documents might tell about the first HP 3000 product to enter the Corporate Price List in more than four years. A Q&A interview was in order.

Today and tomorrow we'll share HP's answers and details about RTU licenses — a product you will never need concern yourself with, until you want to upgrade HP 3000s in your shop. And oh yes, customers are upgrading, even in the months following HP's initial deadline for leaving the market.

HP granted us a 30-minute interview on the subject, without receiving any of our questions in advance of the interview. In exchange, we have allowed HP to review and revise its answers; after all, in this Q&A feature we're let the subjects express themselves as they would like to be understood.

Their answers have been edited by us for brevity, before we submitted them for HP's revisions, but no question went unanswered. HP also supplied us in advance with the versions of those Web documents which it posted on Feb. 12. You can find them at www.hp.com/products1/evolution/e3000/products.html.

Our interview subjects were HP employees Jennie Hou, an e3000 R&D project manager with focus on the customers, partners, and business; and Ross McDonald, e3000 R&D Lab Manager.

Why introduce a Right to Use license at this point in the HP 3000’s lifespan?

McDonald: Two reasons. When purchased upgrade kits were no longer available, we realized that customers needed a way to create a valid system.

   Additionally, there seemed to be confusion in the marketplace on how customers could ensure they had valid e3000 systems. We’ve been working on it for a number of months, trying to get this out in a timely fashion.

    We’re putting a product back on the pricelist to enable this for the 3000. We’ve been winding down the 3000, so it was not expected that we would do this. We’re really doing this to accommodate customers who need to upgrade their systems.

What seems to be prompting the confusion among customers?

    Hou: We just started getting some calls from our customers, asking how to do a license upgrade.

   

Do you expect to authorize other third-party companies other than Client Systems to issue the RTU license?
    Hou: No, but other US resellers/brokers can obtain these licenses through Client Systems. In the US, Client Systems is the only authorized reseller that can issue the e3000 RTU license. They will perform the necessary verification steps before each license is issued. This RTU license product is available worldwide and there are other resellers in other regions.

Is there anyone else in North America who can do these upgrades?
    McDonald: In terms of modifying the stable storage of the HP e3000s?

Yes, absolutely. Who can do this?
    McDonald: The HP CEs will do the actual work. At this time we do not intend to increase the number of people who can modify stable storage.

For the customers who will upgrade, is HP assuming this RTU will apply to upgrades within their product line?
    McDonald: Yes. If customers don’t have a server to upgrade, they’ll have to go buy a system that comes with a valid license via the used market.   
    Hou: I want to stress that this license will be used in an upgrade situation, so you have to have an HP e3000 hardware system to begin with -- a system you can upgrade for a higher capability and capacity within the permissible upgrade path.

    How will you charge for this RTU license, since it’s a new product?
    Hou: The RTU license is structured in seven levels. It’s based on performance levels, from 9x8s through the N-Class. The price range will be from $4,000 for Level 1 up to $89,500 for Level 7.
    McDonald: For any upgrade, you’d subtract your current [license price] level from the RTU price. A one-way N-Class 380 is in Level 3. A 750Mhz 4-way is Level 7, so the N-Class models range from Level 3 to 7.

These levels don’t have anything to do with user-level license costs on the 9x8 and 9x9 systems, do they?
    Hou: No. The A and N-Class systems are unlimited for the number of users. They are two different things. This is a Right To Use license.

How can the customer determine how much their current license is worth, so they can calculate what HP will take off the price of the RTU? Is the worth based on the amount they paid for the license at the time they bought their system?
    Hou: No, it’s based on the new 7-level structure. When the customer calls HP or HP resellers, they can provide the customer with that pricing information. The key point is that they do not need to buy their [Fundamental Operating System] license all over again. They will pay the delta of the two different licenses.

So is there any way for the customer to know what that delta figure is before they have to call HP or an HP reseller?
    Hou: Customers know the product number is AD377A, so it’s easy to call and inquire.
    McDonald: The prices will be posted on HP’s Corporate Price List [CPL]. A document on the e3000 website describes the levels for any of the platforms you have.

Do 3000 customers have access to a CPL now?
    McDonald: No. They have to contact HP or their reseller. Also, these are list prices, so whatever purchase discount they may have will apply, and that will vary.

Let me ask again. Will HP look up what the customer paid for their license at the time of their 3000 purchase?
    McDonald: No. The system and license prices were often combined or bundled before, so we recalculated what the approximate prices would have been. So we had to figure out where the split was, and what was the MPE [portion]. We did quite a bit of analysis on trying to be fair to what the current market is, in terms of what it would cost to do this now. Then we tried to reduce it even more.
    It really doesn’t matter what you paid for it at the time. What really matters is what these level prices are now.

HP's Q1 strong; business servers, less so

HP put together a rousing first quarter for its fiscal 2007, with big gains in profits and revenues for the company overall. When you post a 26 percent increase in earnings, investors notice. But the report kicked the HP share price downward. Stock analysts remain concerned about the source for HP's future growth. Today the stock closed just under $41 a share, managing to eke about a $40 price after the Q1 figures.

This quarter's gains came from the surging PC and printer business, two operations that show vastly different profit margins. PCs return about 4 percent, while the printers and imaging products come in at 15 percent.

HP reported that a large measure of its profits appeared because of HP's continued cost-cutting. Revenue grew 11 percent overall for the company, but the numbers for the Business Critical Systems, where the Integrity server business lives, were down. CEO Mark Hurd said the company just missed the mark on selling and closing deals for Integrity servers running HP-UX and Windows.

Integrity is the target platform HP is urging its migrating 3000 customers onto. A good friend of mine at a reseller reports that the new Integrity business, where HP is attracting new customers, is mostly Windows-related. HP-UX Integrity purchases come from the installed base, by his anecdotal accounts.

Enterprise Storage and Servers and HP's Services business — the two arms that sell to the HP 3000 customer — posted the smallest revenue growth of any HP segment. Business Critical Servers showed a 6 percent decline in revenues. ESS grew just 5 percent, the same at HP Services.

HP announced that Integrity servers now make up 55 percent of all BCS system revenues, and that these Itanium2-powered servers saw growth of 75 percent from the 2006 first quarter.

As an example of the continued cost cuts, HP announced plans to freeze its pension plan for US employees. In July it will reduce eligibility for its subsidized retiree medical program. Once again, HP will offer an early-retirement program, called EER, which it expects to be accepted by about 3,000 employees.

Last time around, some very senior HP 3000 manpower took an exit with their EER benefits. Employees who don't take early retirement can benefit from an increased company contribution to their 401(k) plans.

Enterprise storage and servers, overall, posted revenue gains of 5 percent. PCs and printers had their usual improving quarters. Industry-standard servers — those powered by Xeons and running Windows — showed strong results, too.

If you're so inclined, you can listen to HP's press conference with market analysts at the company's Web site. We'd recommend some skipping of the first half hour; the interesting part began with analysts' questions. The gateway for the recorded press conference is at HP's Investor site, and the Webcast runs best under Windows.

The words deserve the music of graphics, too. The Q1 PowerPoint slides are in a PDF file.

HP goes into overtime on time zones

The spring-forward date to Daylight Saving Time is still about two weeks away, but HP will be working close to the clock to finish its revisions for the HP 3000's time-tracking software. Last year HP had revised the TZTAB files for the HP 3000, tables updated to follow the new spring-forward dates in the US and elsewhere.

The 3000 community has already done the work to prepare their systems for the first change in the DST's starting date in 20 years. With HP's revised table in hand, and managers offering advice on the process, what else did the diligent 3000 owner need?

Well, HP has just reported that the revised table is bit wobbly around its Atlantic regions, and elsewhere. Jeff Vance, HP engineer and link to the 3000 community, said the HP labs are working on a couple of legs of the time table.

We in vCSY were about to release the latest TZTAB file, which is based on the HP-UX TZTAB, when it was discovered that we now have incorrect information for Alaska and some Atlantic regions. The HP-UX team is working quickly to address this problem, and as soon as they are done we will make the file available on Jazz, in addition to providing a regular patch.

After posting his report that verifies the link from HP-UX lab work to the abilities of the 3000, Vance said additional information is available on a Wiki page about the time zone shifts.

Ever helpful in the classic Hewlett-Packard tradition, Vance added that "If you have any questions please contact [me] at jeff.vance@hp.com

Why join OpenMPE? Getting connected with providers

Voting in the OpenMPE board elections proceeds for the next nine days. Even if you're not all that involved with who serves on the advocacy group's board, there is another reason to head to that Web site. OpenMPE tracks service and hardware providers for the community, with a listing available on that Web site.

If you're in the business of helping companies stay on the 3000, this looks like a tangible benefit for your time you spend joining. OpenMPE is keeping four lists of providers: Hardware Support, Hardware Broker, MPE/iX Phone Support, and Consultants.

OpenMPE members join for free by answering seven questions and providing contact information. The form for provider listings, also free, follows directly below the membership sign-up questions.

Once you join, you're a member of a community. OpenMPE runs its own mailing list to give its membership a way to reach out to each other. Traffic has been light on that list, but in these days of e-mail bombardment, or a host of Off Topic postings, light traffic might be a benefit.

Many companies are doing interim homesteading with their 3000s before they make their transition. Proof of that? How about a new HP license for Right to Use MPE/iX? The customer base is still buying hardware in the marketplace. The OpenMPE membership looks to be a good way to stay in touch during a transition, or an "infinite homestead." That's the one you'll pull off as long as you can, with no transition date planned now.

After all, even HP won't commit to a firm end to its 3000 business. Its December, 2005 announcement said HP would extend its 3000 support until the end of 2008 "or later."

Seven days, 36 OpenMPE votes

After seven days of voting — which got off to a bit of a late start on Feb. 12, because of a Web snag — the 2007 election for OpenMPE board directors has delivered 36 ballots. Including mine, using my free membership to select who will brainstorm with HP about its HP 3000 endgame policies.

Five candidates are running for four open seats, so there's some mystery about who will continue to serve. The candidates are incumbents Chuck Ciesinski, Paul Edwards, Birket Foster and Alan Tibbetts.

Anne Howard, a 3000 veteran of the K-12 application business, has tossed her hat into the ring, too. You can vote at the OpenMPE.org site. Be sure to join as a member first. You need a membership number to cast a valid ballot.

The election runs for 13 more days including today. If you're inclined to compare turnout so far, after one week of voting last year we had 55 ballots on hand. The final count of 2006 ballots was 111, so the community has a good share of its turnout still in the hands of customers and members.

We think that HP's decision to revive licensing for the 3000s, at least for the upgrading customer, puts the future of the system in a new light -- and might give the community the idea that their server won't have an exit even within a couple of years. After all, a 3000 product did make its way onto the HP Corporate Price List.

But things can change, especially plans at a corporation of HP's size. It would be a good thing to have a committed OpenMPE board, ready to work if HP's estimate of its market exit is truly end of 2008. That is just 22 months away. Your vote matters in the coming two weeks.

Ticking time zone clocks

Steve Cooper, one of the founders of Resource 3000 partner Allegro Consultants, updated the 3000 community on important details about the upcoming time zone changes. These are the adjustments managers must make to keep up with the new start and end of Daylight Saving Time.

Just when you thought you had the latest Time Zone Table file on your 3000, the world has gone and changed the rules again.

A new patch has just been released on HP-UX, with the following updates:

PHCO_35991:
    ( SR:8606475843 CR:JAGag30156 )
    tztab(4) needs to be modified for Mexico Daylight
    Saving (DST) changes.

    ( SR:8606475841 CR:JAGag30154 )
    tztab(4)needs to be modified to support Western Australia
    DST changes.

    ( SR:8606475842 CR:JAGag30155 )
    tztab(4) needs to be modified for Canada DST changes.

    PHCO_34673:
    1. Indiana will support Daylight Savings Time (DST) from
    April, 2006 onwards.

So, if your system or any of its users care about Mexico, Western Australia, Canada or Indiana, then you may need a newer TZTAB than you previously thought.  And, if you care about the rest of the United States and haven’t updated your TZTAB file yet, you might as well get the latest version when you do the update.  The clock is ticking...

Web Console: A good left arm for 3000s?

I'm in the process of installing my first Secure Web Console and have a question. The installation instructions look like the SWC will replace the current 700/92 terminal, as there is only one serial port on the console/LAN card in the server. It feels like I'll be cutting off my right arm in doing away with the "console." Not that we use it that much in day-to-day operations — but it has become a bit of an old friend over the years, and I feel a bit of pending loss.

Since this is the case, could there be problems from not having the physical console there, and having to fly with the SWC? And if the SWC dies for any reason, can you just put the serial cable back on the terminal?

— John Bawden

Craig Lalley replied to the final question about putting the serial cable back on, "Yes, you can." Wes Setree added very recent information about an installation just today. "Actually, I just configured a SWC a few minutes ago."

We keep our old terminal and keyboard on the cabinet and could switch the cable from the SWC to the terminal in case I need to use the terminal while sitting right there at the server (reboot perhaps). So far I have not had any need to switch the cable back and forth between them, since the SWC allows for a remote reboot if necessary.

Greatest 3000 user conference to saddle up

Anne Howard, a Greater Houston RUG board member and candidate for the OpenMPE board of directors (get to the OpenMPE site, join for free, and vote!) has offered the first article about why you should reserve this September's travel for the next HP 3000 Conference.

We'll let this 3000 veteran tell the story herself here. Put the middle weekend of September on your travel requests. This conference is going to be inexpensive to attend, as well as travel to in Texas.

I want to tell you about the greatest little user conference in Texas. The November 2006 Greater Houston Regional User Group Conference (GHRUG) was an outstanding opportunity for system administrators and end users to get up close and personal with some of the most dynamic people in the HP world. Held at the University of Houston Clear Lake just outside the gates of Johnson Space Center, our little Texas event had quite an international flair with presenters from all over the world.

Canada’s Birket Foster from MBFoster.  Nicholas Fortin from Speedware/Activant and Gilles Schipper from GSA, Inc. Michael Marxmeier from Marxmeier Software AG joined us from Germany and and ScreenJet’s  Alan Yeo came over from from England.   

Charles Finey from Transformix Computer Corp joined us from California, and we had Texas’ own leading HP consultants Matt Perdue, Paul Edwards and Bill Hassell, along with Richard Sonnier from Nimble Services.   

The presentations were fantastic and the keynote from Adager's Alfredo Rego was riveting. 

What our little conference did not have was a high price tag. The entire three-day event was only $200.

The other thing we did not have in 2006 was a lot of attendees. And that is a shame. It was a great conference with ample opportunity to spend one on one quality time with some very knowledge HP professionals. These folks are just too busy to spend much personal time with individuals at the big national and international conferences. It isn’t that they don’t want to, they do. But there are just so many people. Not so with regional conferences.

These smaller events cost far less than going to the big conferences and give more opportunity to get close and ask questions. And we very much appreciate the effort these presenters make to come and support our regional group.

The GHRUG user group is very active and is committed to its mission of providing timely and relevant information to technology professionals. This year’s conference is scheduled for September 2007 at the University of Houston, Clear Lake. What we need now is to hear from you. Tell us what you need and we will find the best presenters possible.

Some people think of GHRUG as HP 3000 concentric. While back in the heyday of the HP3 000 this might have been the case, it is no longer. Along with the HP 3000 presentations on homesteading and migration, the 2006 conference had some excellent non-HP 3000 presentations such as HP-UX security and migrating databases to MySQL, with plenty of time for back and forth discussion.

So tell us what you need. Unlike some other HP user groups, membership in GHRUG is free. Visit us at www.ghrug.org and let us know what you are using these days at your sites — and what presentations would benefit you the most. If it involves HP, we are there. We hope you will be too!