IBM and Sector7 Move to Displace Compaq Alpha Installations

We all know that Compaq has pretty much transferred its Alpha division over to Intel, but not much has been said about support for current Compaq Alpha users. Sensing that these folks may be feeling a bit abandoned, Sector7, a company that specializes in UNIX to UNIX migrations, and IBM have announced that they will be offering Compaq VAX/Alpha OpenVMS and Tru64users a free initial assessment to determine cost and time to re-host their custom or package applications to IBM pSeries RS/6000 computer systems. This type of consultation usually isn't cheap, but the offer from Sector7 and IBM will eat consultation costs of up to a $100,000 depending on the application size. Jon Power, president and CEO of Sector7 USA is quoted as saying "Alpha OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX clients have invested millions of dollars in applications to run their businesses and I doubt they ever thought that being forced to migrate to a totally new computer system was what Compaq meant by protecting their investment in Alpha platforms." Ouch, pretty strong words. The philosophy here seems to be that if users don't want to eventually move over to an Intel architecture, IBM will happily let them know how much it will cost to switch over to its products and even hook them up with people who can help them do it. You can bet the next step will be discounted prices for those who seek to switch teams. Sector7 services include enterprise application re-platforming, legacy application management, OpenVMS consulting, support and contracting, testing and implementation, "application renovation," and server consolidation and migration. Though we certainly have absolutely no idea how good these folks are pulling off these feats, that's basically the whole ball of wax aside from buying the machines. And a damn smart business move.