Looking ahead 10 years, not three
July 25, 2006
HP 3000 migration plans often swing between Windows and HP-UX as target platforms. While plenty of sites want to preserve their applications in a migration, other sites need a new app to replace their 3000 programs. While people say the application decides the platform, some apps — Ecometry comes to mind — are offered on both environments.
Which to choose? The rate of change appears to be on a three-year cycle for Windows customers. HP's estimating it will support its HP-UX version 11i v3 — coming out late this year — until 2016. That's more than the lifespan for Windows 98, which Microsoft yanked this summer to make a big mess in IT. (Some IT pros would argue that Win 98 has been unusable for some time, but it's still on lots of desktops.)
Server-grade environments will get better long-term treatment, but Microsoft is making sea changes faster than HP plans to de-commission its HP-UX versions. Some have even longer lifespans, according to HP's Mark Silverberg, HP's new Manager of Transition, Consulting and Workshops.
(These estimates are new to HP, a spinoff of the acquisition of Digital server business. Many of the US Defense contracts for systems demand a specific end of life date. HP 3000 owners might look on these estimates with some envy, although the dates do not predict the total departure from the OS.)
Look at the HP promises for HP-UX 11i v1. That's the final HP-UX release crafted exclusively for PA-RISC hardware — your garden-variety HP 9000 replacing HP 3000s at migration sites. Released in December of 2000, 11i v1 is estimated to have a support lifespan until 2013.
That's virtually the entire lifespan of Windows from its first usable release in 1990 to the latest Win2003 Enterprise version. Microsoft's environments might look more affordable when making a shift. Customers who rely on Windows, however, appear to be buying into a much more change in a what looks like a lot less years.