March 2004

HP extends its support for MPE/iX 6.5

Most-widely installed version gets two extra years of HP care

HP has changed its mind about how long it will support a large group of its HP 3000 customers. HP wouldn’t promise its support plans would be the last HP roadmap item to shift, either — but the company doesn’t want its 3000 customers to think the changes mean an HP change of heart about the platform.

In a move that can help companies who are electing to homestead for several more years on HP 3000s, HP is extending its support of the 6.5 release of MPE/iX until the beginning of 2007.

The release, the most widely installed version of the operating environment for HP 3000s, was scheduled to exit HP’s support plans at the end of this year. HP confirmed in mid-February that it will honor support contracts for 6.5 users through December 31, 2006, the same date as the 7.0 and 7.5 releases of MPE/iX.

The decision disappoints some software vendors in the community, those who were looking forward to dropping support for 6.5 once HP ended its support. At the last HP World conference, officials from ERP vendor eXegeSys and development and reporting tool supplier Cognos said HP might send the wrong message with such an extension. Customers needed to be motivated by curtailing support on older releases, said eXegeSys president Paul Dorius.

HP sees the extension differently, an assist to customers who are planning migrations away from the platform. In a release prepared by HP’s Services Division, the vendor said that adding two more years of HP support for the majority of the HP 3000 base will simplify transition planning.

“Input from customers, HP’s Platinum Partners and many third party software suppliers has made it clear that many customers running this older version would rather focus their limited resources on transition efforts, instead of investing in OS rolls,” the HP release stated.

“We always said we intended to listen to the e3000 community feedback,” Wilde said. “We continue to work hard to try to understand the needs that are out there. Our recommendation is that our customers and partners plan their transition strategies. Our focus will be to facilitate that transition, and support our customers while they transition.”

HP added that it expects that extending the support life of more than half the installed customers’ MPE/iX releases will help customers who intend to leave the platform.

“This two-year extension will allow customers to focus their efforts on executing their migration activities to other HP platforms, instead of operating system upgrades,” HP’s statement read. “This extension also enables all HP e3000 hardware and software end-of-support dates to coincide with one another, allowing for a simpler and more tightly integrated transition strategy for both the customer and HP.”

The change of the software support date is a revision of HP strategy that might impact the greatest number of HP 3000-using companies. HP officials estimated that half of the customer base is using MPE/iX releases at least as old as 6.5.

While the extension met with clear resistance from some in the 3000 partner community, Wilde said the benefit to the customers and the long-term impact had to be balanced against support resources the third parties must keep in place.

“I’m very sensitive to the partner aspect of this, but we need to keep the end user customer needs and the partner needs in balance,” Wilde said. “We need to make sure HP’s business needs are represented in there, and balance all those. HP needs to make the right decision to maximize long-term customer and partner satisfaction and revenue.”

Support for the release won’t be the same as HP support for 7.0 and 7.5 releases, HP said. HP said it must freeze enhancements for the 6.5 release in order to extend its support. While critical issues will get HP repairs and patches, some fixes for HP 3000 problems on 6.5 will require customers to upgrade to a newer release. Wilde said that 6.5 fixes that demand extra HP effort would also require a move to 7.0 or 7.5.

“Support customers electing to stay on MPE/iX release 6.5 can expect no new enhancements and no new peripheral support to be offered,” HP said. “It also means that, although existing MPE/iX release 6.5 patches will continue to be available, new patches will be limited only to critical defects, and in specific situations HP’s resolution to a particular problem may require the customer to upgrade to MPE/iX release 7.0 or 7.5.”

Even through some 6.5 support will consist of a recommendation to move to a more current MPE/iX release, HP has no plans to charge any differently for the 6.5 support contracts. HP warned its customers that they should check with their third party software vendors to verify the third parties will support 6.5 beyond the end of this year.

Vendors see little change

Several suppliers of support for HP 3000s said the HP extension wouldn’t change much for the community’s support picture. Terry Floyd, founder of the ERP software support house the Support Group, said many of the 6.5 sites have already made other arrangements.

“The reason people are on 6.5 is because they’ve dropped support with HP, and it wouldn’t matter,” Floyd said. “HP’s doing good by doing this, but it’s a surprise.” The Support Group doesn’t offer direct MPE/iX support, but does support the operating environment as part of its MANMAN support for HP 3000 shops. The company also consults to migrate ERP sites to non-3000 packages such as eXegeSys’ eRP application, and TSG’s customer base includes sites using 6.5.

Customers who might return to HP support could be paying up to 18 months of back support fees to HP, but the vendor didn’t want to say if such a penalty would always accompany a return to support. “The customer should contact HP about that,” said PR manager Greg Caldwell of HP Services.

HP’s 6.5 support extension surprised at least one HP 3000 site which had migrated four systems and in-house applications to the 7.0 release. “Why did I just spend a million dollars to upgrade to 7.0 if HP was going to do this?” asked the MIS director. The government site had upgraded to 7.0 during 2003, spending its budget on staff time and software.

Third party alternatives to HP’s support might be affected by the extension, but neither HP or the leading independent MPE support house expected the extension to impact support business. Mike Hornsby of Beechglen said HP’s move doesn’t change the support market with less than 1,000 days of HP support left.

“We’re coming down to the HP end game now, and just because they extended 6.5 support, it doesn’t really mean anything over about 1,000 days,” he said. “It’s like extending unemployment benefits by a few months, when what they really need is a job. You can’t run 6.5 on the A-Class or N-Class servers. It’s really too late to have anything but marginal impact.”

HP’s Wilde left options open for other changes to HP’s transition roadmap in the future. “We’re listening for other feedback,” he said. “If customers have needs that aren’t met by our current road map, they should come talk to HP. Our plans for 6.5 are a reflection of what’s been conveyed to us.”