Some of the longest-standing 3000 customers continue to serve IT with MPE this year. These are often not large corporations. Glenn Osaka, who managed HP's server futures in 1996, said big customers wouldn't get an HP recommendation for MPE computing. We learned about that strategy in an interview during the NewsWire's first year. It was a chilling moment for us, all-in on the 3000 like many companies of the day. Osaka was spot-on with his forecast about HP's recommendations, even in the face of renovation from the 3000 product managers.
Smaller sites, though, tend to their own strategy. Even after they join larger ventures, they find the 3000 to be a useful platform for missions like distribution. National Wine and Spirits stands among that group, still using its MPE/iX application this year. We heard from James Dove, a senior programmer analyst at Global Associates who's working for the beverage distributor in a contract service arrangement.
The pandemic, and how to work through it, gave him a reason to connect to the 677 members of the HP 3000 Community at LinkedIn. Dove said, "I've been working from home for the past several years anyway, so COVID did not change that. I am in my third year on my current contract working on the HP 3000. I'm loving being back working on this platform and hope to keep it up until retirement."
Dove got into IT through service in the Air Force. "I got my start on Honeywell in the Air Force. My first experience was on a Burroughs 3500. The one thing I remember is it had drum storage."
"Then I worked for a few companies that had Honeywell in my early years. l even worked on one contract that had both Honeywell and an HP 3000. The manager there said I saved him from hiring a second contractor. I jokingly said, 'Then I should get paid for at least one and a half times the rate!' That didn't happen, of course."
National Wine and Spirits is now a part of the Republic National Distribution Company, a collection of corporations that serve beverage distribution throughout the US. Bob Thorpe and Kim Borgman remain the administrators at National Wine and Spirits, as they have for more than 20 years.
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