HP 3000 customers still want updates about HP's support of MPE and
the HP 3000. We get messages regularly from people like Alex Purves,
the Six Sigma Expert at Raytheon's UK operations, who asked last week:
"Can you please provide me with the latest position of HP support of
MPE/iX?"
This question may have a different answer very soon. We don't know
what HP's end-of-2005 announcement will cover, but a pretty safe bet is
an update on the MPE source code licensing issues. HP has not promised
any kind of third-party license for MPE post 2006 — yet. But time draws
near for the decision-mulling process to end; HP promised news by the
end of this month.
To answer Alex's question, at the moment, HP is committed to support
MPE/iX with HP engineers until Dec. 31, 2006. All year long HP has
said, "2006 means 2006." We'll see if it that's what it means soon
enough. If HP means to shift that deadline, the sooner the vendor
announces that good news, the more it will seem like a goodwill gift to
a customer base that has been struggling with migration deadlines by
the end of next year. We can't say if any change in that deadline is
even a remote possibility. We can only say that it's not impossible —
because it's not the end of 2006, yet. And HP has been listening to
customers who are migrating. The vendor knows there's customer anxiety
about meeting that 2006 deadline.
In the meantime, there's other questions to consider, like, "What is
HP's support level, anyway?" From reactive to proactive to
mission-critical, there's lots of levels to spend support dollars at
HP. Reactive works for most people: Something breaks, and HP helps you
fix it. Other levels of support don't get nearly as much pickup by the
3000 community, a very DIY bunch that's been cautious with their
spending.
Across the board, you can spend less and get better support for most
enterprises with third parties. The level of HP support to help out on
the most complex problems is about the only place where HP might
surpass a third party — if HP still has the bandwidth to write patches
to fix problems like the LargeFile mess in IMAGE. (We haven't heard
anything about that fix going into beta-test, five months after it crept into alpha testing.)
The customers' spending caution is the reason those migrations have
moved so slowly so far. Slower than HP expected. Slower than
third-party partners expected — both those selling migration services
and tools, as well as those trying to get alternative support
businesses ramped up. Companies haven't budgeted much for their 3000
enterprise, compared to Windows or Unix installations. Migration is big
and can be costly, too, depending on which strategy you choose for your
transition. People have expected 2006 to be a watershed year for
migration — at least HP was pointing to that kind of future just two
months ago. That's when HP's Alvina Nishimoto, manager of the HP
migration center, told HP Technlology Forum attendees that HP expects
something of a panic in 2006. Back in October we reported:
According
to HP’s Migration Center manager Alvina Nishimoto, “The majority have
some sort of plan by now,” she said. “It’s going to be a little bit of
a panic now, as people start to wake up to the fact. The ones that are
waiting the longest are the packaged app folks, because they do think
it’s going to be faster [to move to a packaged app]. It’s faster, but
they still have all their surround code, and they don’t necessarily
think of the implications of the surround code."
If the vendor can avert that panic, somehow, thousands of customers
might feel some relief. HP has been saying for quite some time now it
will extend some support services beyond 2006 — where it can, as
resources allow — if you have a clear migration plan for them to review.
Just ask customers like Hertz what their migration deadline is. If all
that doesn't exactly sound like "2006 means 2006," well, HP can reply
that migration is a complex matter. It must be, when we see how long it
has taken for a decision about source code licensing to surface. If it
surfaces soon. Stay tuned here — we'll report what HP tells the world.