Customers consider transition from 3000

Spot poll shows few companies changing plans due to HP notice

Last month’s HP news of 2007 end of support starts Transition era

Customers are beginning to make decisions about the future of their HP 3000 systems, choices that lead further into HP’s offerings, outside HP’s support as well as completely away from all Hewlett-Packard products. Many are still waiting to see what develops other than HP’s options to move to Unix, NT or Linux.

HP’s only North American distributor for the system plans to continue business as usual. “Client Systems understands HP’s business decision,” said CEO Mike Murphy, “and we will continue to support the channel and the 3000 community as our top priority, through the Solutions Center/Market Manager and 3kworld.com. We firmly believe the purchase of an A- and N-Class server today is still a wise and sound investment.”

The distributor of new systems to North American resellers said purchasing A- and N-Class servers now lets customers capitalize on future enhancements, “giving them another five or more years to plan their migration strategies.” HP said it will cease selling the systems Oct. 31, 2003; customers must switch to third-party support by January 2007.

HP pointed to an “erosion of the ecosystem” it sees around the 3000, including tools, middleware, and channel partners to sell the product — “even the ability of customers to get MPE expertise to work in their datacenters. It’s all become more difficult over time,” said marketing manager Christine Martino of HP’s 3000 division (CSY).

“We just don’t think that ecosystem is going to be around to sustain the 3000 as a viable platform,” she added, saying “application providers are looking at much bigger markets to spend their money and time on.”

HP believes its decision is aimed at customer planning, “So they don’t get to the point five or seven years from now where it can’t be a viable business solution,” Martino said. “We don’t want to leave any customer in that position.”

“It’s a recognition that we’re not going to be able to reverse those trends,” said Winston Prather, general manager of CSY. Prather said HP’s estimates led to the decision. “We’ve tried lots of things, and in the past months we’ve come to this conclusion. If we know what the future will look like five or six years from now, I feel compelled to tell customers that.”

The only immediate action HP recommends is planning. “In the coming months people need to step back, understand and evaluate,” Prather said.

HP is trying to reduce the cost for those who will migrate with some discounts. Owners of A- or N-Class systems, and those buying them before November, 2003, will get a free transformation of their HP e3000s to HP 9000s, as well as an unlimited license for HP-UX. Database purchases in such a switch will be the responsibility of the customer, since 3000 sites will be giving up IMAGE/SQL for something they’ll have to buy.

Series 900 trade-in credits will be available, with no end date, for a 35-to-60 percent discount toward replacing them with an HP 9000 system. These deals also include an unlimited HP-UX license. HP had a brief program to give 3000 customers discounts on switching to HP 9000s before now, an unadvertised plan extended to customers who were using Oracle on the 3000.

HP is also offering 30 percent discounts on its Intel-based servers for those migrating customers who choose to move to NT/2000 or Linux, the “Welcome e3000 Customer” discount.

Customers change little

Response to a spot poll by the 3000 NewsWire about the Transition showed customers not changing plans much in light of the HP news. Most regret the choices they have before them.

“Our parent company told us years ago we would be moving to an IBM AS/400,” said Glenn Corbin, IS Manager for Portion Pac. “We will stay with the HP 3000 until we move. Our lease runs out in July 2003. My guess is we would stay month-to-month at that time.”

Some customers have been prepared to migrate for awhile, but are determined to stretch out their ownership. Yen Darcy, system administrator at Vanguard University, said that due to the movement which their app provider is making to Unix and NT, “we are sort of mentally prepared to migrate. The announcement from HP changes nothing here except the realization that we now have an even firmer deadline for the migration than before.

“I am very sad that the time has come for HP to pull the plug on MPE/iX and HP 3000s,” Darcy added. “I personally intend to try to keep my HP 3000s around for several more years after migration, even if I have to maintain them myself.”

Application developers may not have much time to get a 3000 alternative proven. Richard Trout of mail-order catalogue supplier Educational Experience said at his Ecometry shop “one way or another we’ll be migrating off the e3000. If Ecometry can prove their Unix platform by March 2002, we’ll probably migrate to there; otherwise we’ll be looking for alternatives to Ecometry.”

Some customers will avoid HP in their migration, because they’d personally prefer to stand by the platform in a homesteading movement.

“Homesteading sounds interesting if someone can head it up and pull the [MPE] code from HP,” said Darwin G. Hatch, a system administrator at HMO Kaiser Permanente. “The company I work for will migrate, and you can bet your last dollar that it will not be to another HP platform. I am disappointed in HP, to put it mildly.” Hatch thought his migration process would take three years.

Deane Bell of the University of Washington won’t be moving as a result of the HP announcement. “Our plans are to remain on the 3000, which is currently a Series 969. We’re intimately tied to our software vendor and their application, which has far too many hooks into IMAGE and the OS to seriously consider a move.”

An IT director at a distributor of household hardware sees the announcement as a reason to execute a migration first proposed five years ago, then postponed for Y2K. HP provided a reason to leave.

“I am on the path to move off the HP 3000 and need not feel remorseful for abandoning it to the scrap heap,” said Garry Smith at the Charles McMurray Co. “It has been with great sadness and much trepidation that I faced the fact that I would no longer be involved with our beloved HP 3000. Thanks to the Hewlett-Packard management for making the killer decision that will let me sleep peacefully.”

The option to homestead is earning scrutiny at some companies. “At this stage, we are waiting to see,” said Ed Harrison at Eveready Insurance Co. “Our preference certainly would have been to continue on the HP 3000. Key questions for us are a hardware platform and level of support for HP hardware past 2006, how third-party packages transition to a new machine, and what platforms offer compatibility.”

Scott Ehret, IS Manager at Willamette Industries, said an outside entity taking over MPE would give him the best course. “We are not making any migration plans at this time,” he said. “I am hoping the CSY division separates somehow from HP to form an established company that can continue to support and develop MPE and IMAGE. If this happens, I can justify to my management that continued HP 3000 development is a safe direction to head. I have confidence in the third-party support provided by the HP 3000 community.”

Jim Phillips, IS Manager at Therm-O-Link, said his company doesn’t have any budget to switch, but won’t consider HP in the shift it may have to make.

“At the very best, I see a massive conversion/rewrite to another platform,” he said. “So we will be staying on the 3000 for at least the next few years. After that, we’ll see. We’re looking at Unix or Linux, but I guarantee you it won’t be on an HP server.”

Customers who are migration-bound have heavy research in front of them. “We will be migrating,” said Bob Lewandowski of ASAP Software, a PC product distributor. “I will spend the next six months researching options, and hope to get a lot of questions answered at the e3000 Solutions Symposium in April.”

Some customers who were going to migrate have dropped HP from their target platforms because of losing the 3000. “We will now look at Sun and IBM,” said Brian Spanel, CIO of healthcare provider Centene Corp. “HP left too many people and companies high and dry.” He doesn’t think much of an OpenMPE movement, either.

“Everyone rallying around the flagpole and saying we will support the HP 3000 from now till hell freezes over is just plain stupid,” he said. “These software companies may be able to keep the operating systems and support software alive — but without the development of additional hardware, faster chips, larger disks, faster tape drives, it will just prolong an agonizing death for the users.”

One user in county government wondered if the announcement was timed correctly. “I wish HP had given the new boxes some time before deciding to axe MPE,” said Diana Wilson of the Roanoke County, Virginia IT department. “I’m disappointed that I may be forced to move to Unix — I’ve been told by HP themselves that it is not as stable as MPE and there’s a large learning curve.

“My biggest concern at this point is our in-house systems that use IMAGE,VPlus and COBOL, and what it is going to cost us in time and resources to convert them. If it’s cheaper or takes less time to purchase vendor software, then we may no longer be an HP shop — that would be a real shame.”