OpenMike: Look to the Independent Market

March 2002

Look to the Independent Market

OpenMike is a guest editorial space and talking point for the 3000 community to express its views. In an era where emotion and analysis run abreast for the community’s attention, we want OpenMike to be a forum for the way you feel about the future and what you believe is important to the 3000 community. Send your contributions of less than 1,500 words to us for consideration at editor@3000newswire.com.

By Bill Towe

I propose that the HP 3000 community continue business as usual in the HP 3000 environment. Do not migrate, do not discontinue using the HP 3000. Get third-party support — it is superlative to HP’s support. HP’s last “HP 3000” technician who performed for us had to read up on the HP 3000, being only HP 9000 certified. HP does not teach HP 3000 to its techs anymore. To find someone who knows HP 3000, you must look to the independent market.

Our community as a whole has the technical expertise to manage with the number of technicians HP 3000 certified for 30 years! The 9x7 family is the largest HP 3000 family in operation today. It is no longer available for HP support as of April 2002. When it was created, it was produced in such mass production that the surplus of 9x7 equipment is enormous, and will be available easily for the next decade.

We have the software developers and vendors to continue to create better and newer applications for our environment. They will continue to develop and create, if we continue to purchase. We will petition HP to open up MPE for the community to maintain. If not, we will find another way; I have some customers that still run MPE/iX 5.5 without problem. Can one name another computer environment that is more stable, has less downtime, better performance, longer durability and requires less coddling than the HP 3000? Remind your bosses, directors and board members of this when asked.

I recommend that each of you currently running an HP 3000 9x7 look for alternative resources to continue to operate this system. There are many qualified independent resellers and service provider companies in the US today that provide excellent HP 3000 hardware and support options and will continue to do so far past HP’s “death” date. HP cleaned the market up three years ago. Our choices are many and highly qualified. Every industry has undesirable participants — you simply must be careful when interviewing a company.

I truly believe we as a community can pull together, pool our resources and continue without HP. Not only can we maintain our current status, but I truly believe we can grow. It is time we moved out of the shadow of HP, from under the hammer continually held over our heads. Don’t change your environment just because HP said so. This is our environment now. HP created it, and we honed it, developed it and raised it as a child of our own. HP no longer wants it. We do. And when HP sees we can survive on our own, you can bet the house that HP will want back in.

I have been in this industry for 11 years. My company, BlueLine Services, is an HP 3000 services provider, one of many qualified companies. We provide HP 3000 systems and peripheral hardware sales and support. We continue to support all the HP 3000 servers HP has slated for discontinuance as well as those that are already off support. The large number of qualified HP 3000 companies like ours will help perpetuate our community beyond the suffocating grip of HP. These companies can be the HP of our future. All we need is for our community as a whole to join in.

Since the announcement of the HP 3000 dissolution, the community is migrating to third-party support and sales companies independent of HP in record numbers. Let’s continue. We will not go quietly into the night. We will stand and fight for our HP 3000s. Hewlett-Packard cannot take this community from us. We have the right and the resource to reap the reward of our labors now, and well into our future. Remember, a monsoon is made up of single drops of water.

Bill Towe is president of BlueLine Services LLC, an HP services and sales provider company based in Dallas, Texas.