Blog

In my previous post (https://vmssoftware.com/resources/blog/2024-09-30-application-services/) I talked about the unfortunate incremental decline in the number of ISV solutions available for OpenVMS and what can be done about this situation, with my general thesis being that with a little ingenuity and imagination it is invariably possible to devise excellent alternative solutions, often by leveraging open-source products and open standards, such that the resultant replacement solution if done properly may be in some ways superior (and arguably more cost-effective) than its no-longer supported and proprietary counterpart. In this post I will aim to continue with this general theme of "creative modernisation", based around a talk I gave at the recent Bootcamp event in Boston in which I demonstrated the ACMS product working on VSI OpenVMS x86-64, but before launching into the details of what I presented in this session I should just mention how great it was to catch up with old friends at Bootcamp and to see not only many familiar faces but also a good number of new ones. The event was without question a success, and what struck me most was the level of enthusiasm displayed by all those in attendance, which was absolutely great to see.

"There are many OpenVMS customers running large, complex, business-critical custom-written software applications. While these applications continue to serve the business well, many of them now need to interoperate and exchange data with external systems and applications running on other operating systems. The options available are to replace the existing OpenVMS-based system or to modernize it in some way so that it can continue to operate in a modern heterogeneous computing environment."

Following on from the recent webinar in which we briefly introduced VSI Application Services, I thought it might be worth providing a little more information by way of a short blog post. Looking at it very simply, VSI Application Services are a set of services designed to help you get the most out of your OpenVMS application environments, and while the primary aim is to provide services to help you move your OpenVMS applications to VSI OpenVMS x86-64, the overall scope of the services portfolio is much more general than that, ranging from workshops and small consulting engagements to investigate and advise on various modernisation options, through to assistance with major modernisation initiatives (such as porting to x86-64), and application maintenance and support, where we take over the task of looking after your application code. In short, if it’s anything to do with maintaining and enhancing your OpenVMS application environment, we are here to help, and we’d love to hear from you!

As standard support for OpenVMS V8.4-2L1 for Integrity ends in December 2024, we strongly recommend that customers upgrade to V8.4-2L3. While extended engineering support for V8.4-2L1 remains available, the transition to V8.4-2L3 is advised to ensure increased compliance with the latest standards and continued optimal performance. However, some customers have encountered issues with the RTL8 kit on V8.4-2L3, which have hindered their ability to upgrade. This article aims to outline these issues and provide our recommended solutions.

If you go online to order an umbrella, it doesn’t really matter what truck it shows up in: what matters is that it shows up on time and performs as advertised. Technology should work the same way. The hardware you have in place or how your systems are configured shouldn’t even be considerations: everything should just function perfectly every time. This is the promise of virtualization, and over the last three decades, it has gone from a pipe dream to reality. In today’s cloud-enabled world, your hardware should be no more than an afterthought.

For those of you who have not heard of Dave Cutler, let me give you a bit of background to this giant of modern day computing. He was one of the lead engineers on the first version of VMS back in the 70s, part of the legendary team founded by Gordon Bell; he was one of the original architects of VMS!

I was reading this article recently: A CIO's guide to legacy system modernization. By all means read it yourself; however a quick executive overview…

Part of my job is to read publications, articles & blogs on technology and the directions it is going in. I recently came across this article On premises vs. cloud: The major similarities and differences and it got me thinking.

When we kicked off the CLP back in 2020, our idea was to replace the HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist program. As everyone knew HPE had pulled out of the OpenVMS market some years previously, and the Hobbyist program was heading to its inexorable end.

They say timing is everything, and only last week I was talking to Brett Cameron about databases on OpenVMS; you know the dialogue: what is the future; is it proprietary or open, relational, or NoSQL, DBaaS, and so on? The usual stuff.