From: arne@vajhoej.dk   
      
   On 8/18/2025 6:31 PM, Dan Cross wrote:   
   > In article <107r3h2$1vod3$1@dont-email.me>,   
   > Arne Vajhøj   wrote:   
   >> On 8/16/2025 6:46 PM, Waldek Hebisch wrote:   
   >>> Arne Vajhøj  wrote:   
   >>>> It would not make sense for Oracle to port if they expect   
   >>>> customers to migrate away in a few years.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> And it would not make sense for customers to move to x86-64   
   >>>> and migrate away in a few years.   
   >>>   
   >>> Why not?  Succesful platform migration may take a lot of time.   
   >>> When migration is done in incremental way important part is   
   >>> increasing portability of source code.  During that production   
   >>> runs on existing system, in this case VMS.  Assuming that x86-64   
   >>> part is succesful, that is VSI customers can easily move   
   >>> software to x86-64 VMS, it make sense to use x86-64 as intermedite   
   >>> step.  Namely, one has gain on hardware side, that is ability to   
   >>> retire old hardware and run on new one.  And move to x86-64 can   
   >>> test some aspects of migration, before it is fully done.   
   >>   
   >> If they were to migrate it would be lower cost to stay   
   >> on Itanium and just do one migration instead of two. From   
   >> VMS Itanium to VMS x86-64 may not require any code changes, but   
   >> planning, project management, test etc. still make it expensive.   
   >>   
   >> Any incremental increase of code portability could just as   
   >> well be done on Itanium.   
   >   
   > Well, except that Itanium hardware is becoming increasingly   
   > unobtainium.   
      
   If the plan is to migrate off VMS in let us say 5-8 years, then   
   they would go to IslandCo and buy a bunch of spare servers and   
   various spare parts and put it on the shelf. Hardware cost money,   
   but that hardware is probably cheaper than even creating a   
   good estimate for a Itanium to x86-64 migration.   
      
   I have been there. Early 00's. Old mid 90's Alpha's with disks that   
   occasionally went bad. Gray and green StorageWorks for those that are   
   interested. We bought a pile of disks from IslandCo. Did a disk go bad,   
   then pull it out and put a new one in and the RAID controller rebuilt.   
      
   Arne   
      
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