InformationWeek

November 30, 1998

Will Reliability Rule?

Users face choices about OpenVMS/VAX systems

By Martin J. Garvey

lustered VAX servers based on the OpenVMS operating system were running companies' critical applications when Microsoft was just developing DOS for IBM's PCs. Today, some 200,000 OpenVMS/VAX systems are still the server of choice for key business processes at many organizations. There is no more scalable, reliable, and available machine on the market. In fact, OpenVMS/VAX clusters have achieved the highest levels of availability recorded, according to some industry reports.

But VAX and OpenVMS were created by Digital Equipment. After Compaq acquired Digital earlier this year, some IT managers debated whether they should stick with the platform, or migrate to Unix or Windows NT systems.

For its part, Compaq says it will continue to support and upgrade OpenVMS, which it calls its premier offering for the most critical computing requirements, for the foreseeable future. "We have a viable long-term business model for OpenVMS, without question," says Rich Marcello, VP of the OpenVMS business group for Compaq. "We'll enhance it for at least five years." Indeed, new high-end, Global Solution Alpha servers released this fall will run either OpenVMS or Digital Unix. All Compaq will say about its VAX systems, though, is that it's still selling inventory.

While some customers consider Compaq's statement of support to be tepid, those who call continuous uptime their key requirement say they'll continue to rely on the OpenVMS/VAX solution, or will add Alpha servers running OpenVMS. That includes Rob Palatnick, managing director of technology for Government Securities Clearing Corp. in New York. Downtime is inexcusable: His company will guarantee securities trades to the tune of $220 trillion this year alone. On its peak day this year, it handled $2.9 trillion in trades.

For Palatnick, NT and Unix systems are too risky--since they must be located together to function as a cluster, a disaster at one site could knock out the whole operation. But a cluster of 10 OpenVMS/VAX servers in Manhattan and New Jersey are able to complete transactions in microseconds while providing backup for each other.

"None of the tools or other operating environments come close to what VMS can do," Palatnick says. "Even though our volume is increasing, we've never had a performance problem."

Robert Desautels, president of Harvard Research Group, says Palatnick's viewpoint is on target, but adds that few customers have such high availability, reliability, and performance needs. For those users, too many obstacles may exist to keep the systems in wide use much longer, including difficulties with maintaining hardware.

For example, at the Corian division of DuPont & Co. in Buffalo, N.Y., IT engineer David Graf says finding VAX parts is next to impossible. The countertop manufacturer has had to resort to drastic measures to keep its VAX systems running. "The last time we [needed an upgrade] we had to buy system parts from a junk dealer," Graf says.

Companies ready to start moving away from the platform have several choices. For instance, Compaq has its own program, Affinity, which offers customers technology and services for transitioning from VAX to Alpha-based systems, and from OpenVMS to NT or Unix. The program helps companies get set up so that the different environments can coexist during the transition. It also automates the rollover.

While Compaq says it has 20,000 users enrolled in the program so far, Affinity isn't the right choice for every company. Ben Worsham, project manager for carpet manufacturer Shaw Industries Inc. in Dalton, Ga., considered using the service last year, but turned to Sector 7 consultants, an Austin, Texas, IBM business partner, due to cost issues.

"We got to the end of the equipment life cycle and our own studies showed heavy hardware maintenance costs and programming issues to support application interaction between VAX and the new systems," Worsham says of his Affinity options. "It came out cheaper in the long run to migrate to a completely new application and a platform that was more open and just get rid of the older stuff." The costs: $4.5 million to migrate within Compaq over five years, vs. $3.5 million for the new IBM RS/6000 system. Worsham expects to shut down his 35 OpenVMS/VAX servers in the second quarter of next year.

Applications At Issue
Other customers find faltering OpenVMS application support to be their biggest concern. "We see a lot of laboratory applications coming down the pike to Unix and NT but not to OpenVMS," says Jerry Jacquot, director of global shared services with Rhone Poulenc Rorer Pharmaceutical in Collegeville, Pa. Jacquot says Rhone Poulenc will continue to run existing OpenVMS applications on its VAX servers for now, but it doesn't plan to perform any system enhancements, and it will eventually phase out its VAX computers and legacy applications.

Graf says DuPont has the same problem. Its OpenVMS manufacturing application, Distributed Control System from Fisher Rosemount Systems Inc., is moving to NT.

Analyst Desautels says independent software vendors won't develop products for OpenVMS any more. "I surveyed the vendor base a year ago, and they were all moving to either Unix or NT, curtailing all development on OpenVMS," he says. "Some third parties are supporting cash-cow applications, but it's maintenance only."

Compaq has higher hopes, however: Not only will it continue to upgrade the operating system, but it has committed to help fund the development of OpenVMS applications, co-market them, and try to get the applications to market faster.

But there's also the question of support. "Viability was one of the reasons for migrating away," says Shaw's Worsham. He had other concerns, too. "Compaq isn't going to charge us any less today for maintenance and support, and will probably charge us more for it in the future." Analyst Desautels agrees that support will get increasingly expensive for OpenVMS/VAX systems. It's only natural, he says, for the vendor to want to devote its support resources to more strategic systems, and that means there will be fewer people to service the older platform and higher costs to get jobs done.

While Compaq won't comment about specific hardware and software support cost issues, it says that its boost of the operating system shows that it considers OpenVMS a strategic product with new features that need to be supported. Last month, Compaq made its first promised enhancement to the operating system since it acquired Digital, when it released 19 new features in version 7.2. These include Galaxy software, which lets users run multiple instances of the operating system in a single box, and the Component Object Model for integrating applications in NT/OpenVMS environments, thus providing cheaper and easier software maintenance.

Marcello says Compaq is adding hot-swappable features, and the ability to make OpenVMS hardware a client on NT servers. He expects OpenVMS on Alpha machines to lead in vertical segments where reliability, availability, serviceability, and scalability needs are high, including health care, gaming and lottery, stock markets, government, and manufacturing.

Still, only users can determine what strategy is best for their needs. DuPont's Corian division, for instance, is building a plant in Spain where NT-based servers will be the standard. "We wouldn't change if we didn't have to, because OpenVMS/VAX is so reliable it's scary," Graf says. "But our corporation says try to head to NT."

While there are no plans now to switch systems in the United States, Graf says a successful NT implementation abroad may lead to changes at home, and eliminate about 6,000 or 7,000 VAX machines.

Palatnick, though, is in it for the long haul. "To some VMS customers it's like Chicken Little, the sky is falling, get out quick," he says. While other companies may be willing to trade the advantages of OpenVMS for more accessible, lower-cost solutions, he says that maintaining the highest reliability for his critical operations is more important.

Photo by Mark Escher