StrongHold & Migrating to Windows

[Ron Seybold]

Georgia, thanks for your detailed report on the forced migration away 
from PowerHouse on the HP 3000. Great Falls is doing some novel 
things with their HP 3000s, even as they transition away from the 
platform grudgingly. We ran an article in our 3000 NewsWire this 
summer about their use of PDF as a report distribution platform on 
the 3000. It comes as no surprise that they've got their eyes open 
about their PowerHouse future.

Lists like this are the lifeblood of every computing community that 
contributes to them, even when they carry a notice of products that 
carry you away from what you know. PowerHouse customers are like many 
others in the IT world today, being nudged from legacy to commodity 
solutions by vendors eager to winnow their playing fields.

I would like to hear more about StrongHold, and especially the 
customer who's done the beta-testing of the product. This is the 
second migration tool mentioned here that's aimed at the PowerHouse 
customer. Like Core Migration, StrongHold looks like it's got a 
manual finishing step to get the PowerHouse code completely replaced 
by Java. I'd like to know what kind of database StrongHold will 
migrate a customer to, or if it's even got a database migration 
component.

Plenty of PowerHouse customers are sticking with the language even in 
the face of HP's forced march away from the 3000. Some day they might 
not be able to stick, for reasons of geography like Georgia's 
situation, or retirement of a key programmers. Alternatives are 
rarely a happy thing, since they challenge the years of intellectual 
investment of experts here. But migration is rarely sparked by 
availability of tools. Business decisions, by vendors as well as 
users' management, often prompt a move away from a platform, whether 
it's PowerHouse or the HP 3000. Change is tough. Tools can make it 
easier, if you have to weather it.
-- 

Ron Seybold, Editor In Chief
The 3000 NewsWire
Independent Information to Maximize Your HP 3000
http://www.3000newswire.com
512.331.0075 -- rseybold@sbcglobal.net