FlashPaper Dec. 2001: A Gartner analyst called HP's 3000 departure "a happy goodbye'

December 2001

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A Gartner analyst called HP’s 3000 departure “a happy goodbye”

Leaning on the advice of analysts during the coming Transition for the HP 3000 appeared to be a questionable choice, after reading a report from Gartner Group analyst Andrew Butler on CSY’s decision to depart the community. Butler traced the system’s history incorrectly, saying the HP 300 was the predecessor to the HP 3000, rather than more likely candidates the HP 2100 and HP 1000. Butler's report also omitted the redesign of the system for the same hardware as the HP 9000. He then asserted that the HP 9000 is “HP's main range of systems today and will be transitioned to Intel processors.” But when an HP 9000 is transitioned to Intel processors, the only part of it that truly makes it a 9000 is the operating environment, HP-UX.

Without explaining his position, Butler’s report said that “A similar transition might have been possible for the 3000 series.” Such a transition was more than possible, it was promised by HP. Gartner's assessment was “such a transition would not have been very sensible. Gartner believes that HP's decision to phase out the 3000 line is a smart one. Customers using the HP 3000 are being offered reasonable terms for moving to other HP products,” apparently a reference to steep discounts for buying replacement HP 9000 servers but no discount on purchasing database replacements for IMAGE.

The bias for the 9000 alternative became apparent in the fine print. Gartner customers who read the report learned that before coming to Gartner, Butler spent 14 years with HP, marketing HP 9000s. How happy the alternative will be remains to be seen. Another software vendor noted that HP is no longer accepting any proposals for new in-house systems based on HP-UX, or using the HP 9000, choosing the platforms of Linux, Windows NT and Intel-based hardware. Some customers expect the same proprietary epithet to be attached to HP-UX in the future — and say they’ll avoid another such “happy goodbye” in Transition by steering clear of anything outside the Wintel and Linux fold.