I started a discussion on LinkedIn.com recently where I asked others to explore how we could break down the barriers of adoption of VMS as an application platform. Some of the comments have been enlightening.

There has been the belief that VMS is in maintenance mode. This is far from the fact but is part of the FUD that needs to be dispelled to help all who support and depend on the VMS environment for their livelihood.

Another set of comments has focused on the lack of developer exposure to VMS while in college or other training. A fairly easy, but long term issue to resolve by once again pushing to get VMS in front of students. HP and its VMS predecessors have had the Educational Licensing Program in place for a long time - but not much marketing behind it to push to product into the arena. Many people are unaware of the this program.

Still more comments on the idea that VMS is just too good. No hordes of support and development personnel - unlike much of its competition. If this is the case then the managers of the organization are not pushing their pencils very effectively to see the TCO for VMS is generally lower than any other solution.

And of course then there is the application issue. VMS has been losing applications each time it has been migrated to a new platform. When Alpha was introduced fewer applications were there than on VAX. Now with the Itanium/Integrity platform fewer applications still. It is not that the migration of the applications should be difficult, it just that it appears management must think that the customers do not want the applications on the platform and then do not migrate them and they fall behind.

So, now the discussion needs to be how do we get more applications available on the platform - FAST?

I do not think I have the answer to this yet. If I did I would expect HP or others would be beating a path to my door. As we explore this I will report back. Or, better yet, go to the LinkedIn.com discussion and comment yourself.

VMS is too good of an environment to wither. More exposure by more people is one of the keys to moving it forward.

Spread the word.

Train the people.

Implement the solutions.

Over the last few months I have been engaged in support activities for new customers on VMS in areas remote from my offices here in the Southeast. These have been clients new to VMS but very familiar with their own business. They have needed a some specific help in various areas of VMS with which they are not experienced.

These new clients have been in Puerto Rico and Lebanon. Access to their sites have varied. We have initially used the client as our extended hands and eyes by communicating with email. This has had the effect of giving these new clients more confidence in knowing the commands and functions they are executing on their own systems. A more effort has been required my clients have enabled VPN connections for us to access the VMS environments as well.

This is not unlike work we have preformed for clients over the years. During the time of the Y2K "crisis" I was committed to spending time with my wife's family in England. So, I managed the Y2K transitions for a major client entirely from the Yorkshire area of the UK. This transition came off with a glitch - customer HAPPY!

Virtualization has been a function of my service offerings for many years - the Virtual System Administrator or Remote System Manager. This allows the client the flexibility of having me available at anytime, day or night and yet lets me spend time with my family or other clients as necessary.

VMS has been well suited for this remote/virtual administrative function since it was introduced. Little if any of the administration of the system must be done from the physical system console. Truly a great operating environment.

Well, back to work for a client someplace in the world.

Bill.

We are starting this blog to keep you informed of our efforts to push OpenVMS forward and out of the stagnant position it is in both within Hewlett Packard (HP) as well as in the world of IT in general.

The cry is NOT "VMS is dead, LONG LIVE VMS!" But more appropriately, LONG LIVE VMS! It is the BEST EVER!.

We want to emphasize that we are not part of HP, BUT we are strong supporters of VMS and want to see it succeed and grow as the best development and computing environment available for most any application - not just the business critical applications.

A bit about myself, Bill Pedersen. I am a self admitted "VMS Bigot". I have been around VMS since before it was released. NO, I was not part of the development team. I was customer in the mid-1970s when VMS was just being thought of and had minor input as far as requirements from a scientific prospective. I was at the University of Washington at the time in the Department of Oceanography and was the project manager for a "portable" computer system we used at see. Portable meant we had a computer room we built inside a 20 foot shipping container we loaded on the ship and took to see - PDP-11/45s and such.

When VMS was announced in San Diego at the Fall 1977 DECUS Conference I ported a user mode application while at the conference - Chess-11. Possibly the first user application ported to VMS.

Since then I have worked for DIGITAL, run my own consulting company with many customers, participated in several startups, run a Vermont Country Inn and many other things. I still PUSH VMS. I still work with it. I also work with other systems and environments but VMS IS the BEST!

You might note that I do not always say OpenVMS. Open is silent most of the time when I talk about this environment. I have been around it way to long to worry about the full name. And in ways think that the "Open" should be dropped. It has caused too much confusion along the way - complaints about people thinking VMS is open source - which is not - and therefore should be "cheap". Well, VMS is not cheap, it is not as expensive as it used to be but...

I look forward to many more contributions to this blog and also look forward to discussions with others as they comment on my blog and other activities I discuss.

Thanks!

Bill.