Popular HP Server Bid Farewell

Hewlett-Packard is enticing owners of its once-popular, now-doomed e3000 servers to buy HP-UX or Linux systems. The most likely migration path will be to HP 9000 servers running HP-UX, although buyers could also move to Intel-based ProLiant servers. HP is using a number of migration programs, including one that provides e3000 customers with "loaner" HP 9000s until they can make a full transition. It's also doing free migration assessments through HP Services and software and hardware trade-in rebates.

HP's approach to retiring products will be closely watched, especially as it reconciles its product line with that of the newly acquired Compaq. Gartner analyst Paul McGuckin says this process "might help them see what works and what doesn't when they phase out [Compaq] Tru64" Unix machines.

Virginia International Terminals, which manages Virginia's shipping ports, using four e3000 servers to track 1 million containers annually along the state's shoreline, is taking HP up on its offers. When HP said it was discontinuing the e3000, "it sent a shock wave through our organization," says Clark Farabaugh, Virginia International's assistant IT director. It took advantage of HP's loaner program to begin migrating its container-management apps to HP-UX, scuttle its old e3000 Turbo Image database, and adopt the more Web-friendly Oracle 9i.