Conference 7.286::digital

Fine by me

Alan

[PATHWORKS consultant!]

it's the GLOBE, don't forget.  They'll say whatever they want.
The Digital spokeman is a Corp. PR guy, I seriously doubt that
he used those words or that he has any list, of any kind.

Mark

    <SPECULATE ON>
    
    I would speculate that the company will (finally) make some definitive
    statements to our customers and the general public about our software
    business. In short, I suspect we will have a list of "Fish" and a list
    of "Cut Bait" items. We have been dabbling in the software business for
    a very long time in a wide variety of areas. The current market and our
    current financial condition dictate that we no longer dabble in
    anything. 
    
    Management may not have a list of every 'Q-number' for public display,
    but I would suspect that they would at least say: We are going to focus
    our software efforts on the following things: (list of things). We   
    will no longer be putting effort into: (list of things). Customers who
    have products in the latter category will be taken care of by
    (announcement of disposition plans and who is taking over products we
    are no longer going to do at Digital). 
    
    <SPECULATE OFF>
    
    This is what I would expect. 
    
    /se
    

    Rdb was sold today ... for full details see VTX LIVEWIRE.

    This is not rumor.  Oracle and Rdb signed an agreement for, among other
    things, Oracle to purchase the Rdb business.  The press release
    follows.
    
    Mike
    
    Rdb Marketing Manager
    
    

    This is a very positive move for Digital, Rdb, and the Rdb customers.
    
    Mike
    
    

ANNOUNCEMENT AT A GLANCE

On September 1, 1994, Oracle Corp. and Digital Equipment Corporation made
several significant announcements.  The announcements address two areas.  First,
Oracle has acquired Digital's Rdb database and repository businesses, including
all software products and customer support services. Oracle has also extended
offers to Digital's database and repository engineering, marketing and support
staff as a part of the agreement. Second, Oracle and Digital announced a new
strategic relationship encompassing the availability of Oracle's major product
lines on Digital systems; the availability of the Oracle Media Server on
Digital's video server; and reseller agreements. 

Oracle Acquires Rdb and Repository businesses for $108 million in cash.  
The agreement includes:

* Digital's widely-used Rdb relational database management system.

* Digital's CDD/Repository (and CDD/Administrator), Digital's core repository
business. 

* Digital's DBA Workcenter, an integrated toolset for database administration
and tuning, including RdbExpert, DECtrace, Graphical Schema Editor, InstantSQL. 
Additional products included in the agreement are DEC Rally and DEC DBMS. 

* All of Digital's related support services.

Oracle Announces New England Development Center.

* Oracle extends offers to 250+ related Digital engineers, management and
support employees worldwide. 

* New England Development Center to focus on scheduled enhancements of the
product set and integration of select technology with Oracle's product roadmap. 

* Oracle to add a Colorado Springs Rdb Support Center to its worldwide customer
support services network. 

Oracle Brings Product Suite to Key Digital Platforms.

* Oracle adds support for Digital's Windows NT for Alpha AXP in addition to
existing support for OpenVMS VAX, OpenVMS AXP and DEC OSF/1 AXP platforms. 

* Oracle products targeted for these platforms are Oracle7 parallel database,
Oracle cooperative Development Environment (CDE), and Oracle Cooperative
Applications Release 10. 

* Oracle will make Oracle Workgroup Server product available on Digital's
Windows NT for Intel platform. 

Oracle, Digital Bring Oracle Media Server to DEC OSF/1 AXP.

* Oracle and Digital to cross bid solutions in interactive, information highway
proposals 

Oracle and Digital Ink Reseller Agreements.

* Digital will sell Oracle products including Rdb, Oracle7, CDE and Oracle
Applications. 

* Oracle will sell Digital's transaction processing and data integration
software products. 

* Other components of the agreement include cross-training, joint marketing
activities and the continuation of the companies' Enterprise Solutions Program. 



Digital Press Contact:	Chuck Malkiel
			508/493-4164


ORACLE ACQUIRES DIGITAL'S RDB, REPOSITORY AND DBA WORKCENTER BUSINESSES 

Oracle Retains Digital's Rdb Employees and Support Services Worldwide
Companies Expand Strategic Relationship

Redwood Shores, Calif., Sept. 1, 1994 -- Oracle Corp. and Digital Equipment
Corporation today announced the signing of agreements providing for the
acquisition by Oracle of the assets of Digital's Rdb database, CDD/Repository
and the DBA Workcenter suite of database administration tools and all
corresponding support businesses for $108 million in cash.  The acquisition will
be accounted for as a purchase transaction. 
   As part of the agreement, Oracle is making every effort to retain the
employees related to these businesses.  Employment and incentive offers have
been extended to approximately 250 Digital engineers, management and support
employees responsible for the development and maintenance of the Rdb database
and repository businesses.  To facilitate a smooth transition of the Rdb
development team, continue product delivery commitments, and provide continuity
for Rdb customers worldwide, Oracle announced that it will create the Oracle New
England Development center, the first such facility for Oracle in the U.S. based
outside California.  Oracle will also a Colorado Springs Rdb support center to
its worldwide customer support and services network. Employees in other
worldwide locations will be integrated with existing Oracle operations in those
countries.  These steps ensure that customers will continue to benefit
from substantially the same products, support and service that they receive
today. 
   Oracle's intention is to make significant investments in the Rdb technology
set.  Oracle will continue to enhance its capabilities and quality and will
extend the existing gateway technology for connectivity between Rdb and Oracle7
to ensure interoperability between the two database server products.  In
addition, Oracle will complete announced porting plans for Rdb to operating
systems such as DEC OSF/1 and Windows NT for Alpha AXP. Oracle will create an
Rdb Customer Advisory Council to ensure an open forum on Rdb future directions. 
   "We are extremely pleased to welcome the Rdb product line and its world-
class customer base into the Oracle family," said Raymond J. Lane, Oracle's
executive vice president and president of Worldwide Operations.  "As exhibited
by our commitment to the development and support centers and their employees, we
are ensuring a seamless and professional transition for customers worldwide. 
   "This agreement strengthens our partnership with Oracle and confirms our
business strategy to focus on our core competencies and to cooperate with our
partners. Even more importantly, it guarantees the continued development and
support for Rdb and a smooth transition for our customers," said Enrico
Pesatori, vice president and general manager of Digital's Computer Systems
Division.   "We are confident that our customers will be pleased with the level
of commitment Oracle brings to the database product set, and we look forward to
our future work together." 
   Digital will continue to be responsible for all existing contracts through
expiration or for fifteen months (whichever is shorter) while Oracle will act as
the service provider.  Thereafter, customers will be able to take direct
advantage of Oracle's service and support offerings.  Digital will continue to
offer consulting services for the Rdb product set, and will add consulting
support for Oracle7 products. 
   All agreements will be effective upon the close of the transaction, pending
government approvals. 
   Rdb third-party vendors and many existing Rdb resellers will have the
opportunity to join Oracle's Business Alliance Program, enabling them to take
advantage of a variety of programs and services designed to make them more
successful in creating complementary products and selling Oracle technology. 
   "As the vendor of PowerHouse, the leading 4GL development tool for Rdb
environments and also as a supplier of tools for Oracle7, we know what a
powerful combination these products provide to customers," said Ron Zambonini,
president, Cognos, Inc.  "Cognos has long-standing relationships with both
Digital and Oracle, and we are enthusiastic about the agreement." 
   "We think Oracle's acquisition of Rdb is very positive for third-party
developers such as IBI and for customers," said Gerald D. Cohen, president,
Information Builders, Inc.  "As a leading provider of tools for both the Oracle
and Rdb databases, we see a high degree of synergy in the technologies and the
emphasis of both these companies enterprise-wide applications." 

EXPANDED STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP
As part of the agreements, Oracle and Digital outlined an expanded strategic
relationship encompassing the availability of Oracle's major product lines on
Digital systems; the availability of the Oracle Media Server on Digital's video
server hardware; and reseller agreements.  In addition, Oracle and Digital
reaffirmed their commitment to continue the joint development and marketing
activities previously announced in July as part of the Enterprise Solutions
Program. 

Expanded Oracle Product Availability
To further integrate product offerings, Oracle will port Oracle7, Oracle
Cooperative Development Environment (CDE) and Oracle Cooperative Applications to
Digital's Windows NT for Alpha AXP platform.  These Oracle products already
support Digital's OpenVMS VAX , OpenVMS AXP, DEC OSF/1 AXP.  Oracle will also
make available its low-end Oracle Workgroup Server product on Digital's Windows
NT for Intel platform. 

Oracle Media Server
Oracle and Digital will collaborate to bring the Oracle Media Server to the DEC
OSF/1 AXP platform.  The companies will include each others products on a non-
exclusive basis in "information highway" business proposals. 
   The Oracle Media Server, introduced by Oracle in Feb., 1994 is a digital
"multimedia library" that stores, retrieves and manages all forms of
information: video, audio, images, text and tables.  It has been chosen for the
delivery of interactive services by BT (formerly British Telecom), Bell
Atlantic, Bell South, and US West.  It is also a part of the first deployment of
interactive multimedia services in Ipswich, Suffolk County, UK by BT. 

Reseller Agreement
Under the agreements,  Digital will resell and distribute Oracle software
products as part of Digital's hardware server sales efforts as well as its
Multivendor Customers Services offerings.  Digital's sales force will be
compensated to sell both Oracle7 and Rdb offerings in addition to Oracle CDE
development tools and Oracle Cooperative Applications.  Oracle will resell
Digital's transaction processing and data integration software products. 
   Oracle sales training and certification programs will be extended to the
Digital sales force.  As well the companies will work on joint marketing
activities including advertising and direct marketing to promote their
solutions. 

Digital Equipment Corporation is the world's leader in open client/server
solutions from personal computing to integrated worldwide information systems.
Digital's scalable Alpha AXP platforms, storage, networking, software and
services, together with industry- focused solutions from business partners, help
organizations compete and win in today's global marketplace. 

Oracle Corp., a $2 billion company with headquarters in Redwood Shores, Calif.,
is the world's leading supplier of information management software.  Oracle
develops and markets the Oracle7 family of software products for database
management; Cooperative Development Environment (CDE), a complete set of CASE
and application development tools for enterprise-wide, client,/server computing;
and Oracle Cooperative Applications, packaged client/server solutions for human
resources, accounting and manufacturing.  Oracle software runs on personal
digital assistants, PCs, workstations, minicomputers, mainframes and massively
parallel computers.  The company offers its products, along with related
consulting, education and support services, in more than 90 countries around the
world. 

   					###

Note to Editors:	The following are trademarks of Digital Equipment 
   			Corporation: Rdb, CDD/Repository, DEC, Digital, Alpha,
   			Alpha AXP, OpenVMS, VAX 
			
   			The following are trademarks of Oracle Corp.: Oracle, 
   			Oracle7, Cooperative Development Environment,
   			Cooperative Applications, Oracle Media Server 
			
   			Intel is a trademark of the Intel Corporation
			Windows NT is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation
			OSF/1 is a registered trademark of Open Software 
   			Foundation, Inc.

    
   "Avid Technololy is to take over the news division of news room 
    computer manafacturer BASYS."
    
    BROADCAST 2nd September 1994
    
    So I guess its goodbye from me!!

				Trace (VNS Computer News)

    re: .6
    
      Mike,
    
      A positive move for Digital?  Maybe.  Rdb - perhaps.  Rdb customers? 
    What customers?  How the heck am I supposed to recommend engineering
    solutions to business problems when I don't know what the #%$ our
    product set is?  I wish *somebody* would talk to people in the field.
    
    chg

ref .6

>>    This is a very positive move for Digital, Rdb, and the Rdb customers.
    
......could someone out there be so nice to help me understand that.......


    
>>    Even more importantly, it guarantees the continued development and
>>    support for Rdb and a smooth transition for our customers," said Enrico
>>    Pesatori, vice president and general manager of Digital's Computer Systems
>>    Division.

......does it say Oracle is a better guarantee than Digital??? 
    
    
    (I always thought our 'MicroSoft-Partnership' is the most tricky
     one......)
    
    Hubert

  Where is Digital's Rdb group located? Any idea where Oracle's "New England
Development Center" will be located? Do the 250 people who will be offered
jobs at Oracle comprise the entire Digital Rdb group?

> Where is Digital's Rdb group located?

ZK2-1 (Spit Brook in Nashua, NH)

> Any idea where Oracle's "New England Development Center" will be located?

Close to where we are now to aviod MA taxes and to provide a reasonable commute
for those employees living in MA.

> Do the 250 people who will be offered jobs at Oracle comprise the entire
> Digital Rdb group?

No.

michael

    nit: "were offerred" and "accepted"
    
    ed

    > Do the 250 people who will be offered jobs at Oracle comprise the entire
    > Digital Rdb group?                                                
    
    Let me clarify my response a little. The 250 consists of at least:
    
    	All of Rdb Engineering
    	CDD, Rally, DBTools (I assume all)
    	All of DBMS Engineering                          
        Customer support center folks
    
    There are many other folks too. As I've mentioned before, we also have
    open reqs in Rdb Engineering.
    
    michael    

    
    What ever happened to DATATRIEVE ?
    

    It wasn't included in the announcement so I assume that it's not part
    of the deal.
    
    michael

>                   <<< Note 3366.11 by VNABRW::REISENAUER >>>
>......could someone out there be so nice to help me understand that.......
.
.
.
>......does it say Oracle is a better guarantee than Digital??? 

	I'd guess that the vast majority of the people involved int he deal
	think so. Otherwise the engineers would've taken the offers from
	Sybase, Microsoft, and a host of other companies that have been
	hovering over the Rdb engineering group like vultures. 

	It's not like we didn't have choices. I would guess (and it's only
	an informed guess) that 75% of the group had interviewed with other
	companies, and 50% had other offers in hand. The decision to go to
	Oracle wasn't based on taking the offer or losing your job; it had a
	lot to do with what will happen to the product into which we have
	the last n years of our lives.

	Roy

<    What ever happened to DATATRIEVE ?

i'm not sure. its either stuck in a loop or still processing the query...


OH!, You mean,  "Was the DATATRIEVE product sold too?"  No.
    

    re: .21
    
    Isn't that DTR FOREVER . . . AND EVER . . . AND EVER . . . 
    
    --bonnie, former DTR writer...

Ah yes, Datatrieve...  HELP ADVANCED WOMBAT; PLOT WOMBAT, guide mode
(aka Dodo-trieve).  I liked it a lot.

				Steve

Ahh yes, Datagrieve....

   My introduction to the power of relational joins...  I loved it...
   Won't do abreviations on its own ...   I hated it.

   World's most archaic 4GL ... (OK, would you believe 3.125GL ?)
   One of zillions of programming languages (COMMAND LANGUAGES, excu-u-u-se me!)
     for the non-programmer.

   Digital's last foothold in Data Manipulation (until they sell RMS out from
   under it!)

   A great little tool, if you didn't try to push it too far...

Dave

I've heard that people who don't work specifically for Rdb,
but do consulting and support type work, want to go with Rdb, 
but are being prevented from doing so by their organizations. 

What's to stop a Digital employee from applying for a job
at Oracle anyway after the split takes place?

    
    	Nothing.

|>I've heard that people who don't work specifically for Rdb,
|>but do consulting and support type work, want to go with Rdb, 
|>but are being prevented from doing so by their organizations. 

    The list of names to be offered positions was formulated early
    (sometime in June/July).  If your name wasn't on that list, you could
    not get added to the list without an act of high up management (at
    least this was the case in Digital MCS).  It also worked in the other
    direction, if your name was on the list, you had no other choice (other
    than not signing and then resigning from Oracle).

|>What's to stop a Digital employee from applying for a job
|>at Oracle anyway after the split takes place?

    Nothing!  Oracle has told us (at least in the support area) that they
    are definitely going to be hiring since we (CSC) are very understaffed.

    RE: How is this good?

    I think this was mentioned from the standpoint of Rdb and the
    customers.  Finally, Rdb will be marketed by a company that knows how
    to market and compete in the market (Oracle is making money!).  Since
    Oracle is a true "Software Company", Rdb can be sold for what it is,
    and not an "add-on" just to leverage a larger CPU or Disk Farm as many
    Digital Salespeople have done (I'm not saying all of Sales does this).

    I'm definitely looking forward to it!

    	Mike

    I personaly can't wait to see a marketing presentation of Rdb by
    Oracle's wizards.  Then we can find out how good we should be.
    
    (Stock's down 1/4 today.)
    
    ed

I'm sure the ads will be something like this:


	"We've got Digital's Rdb technology and, for a few months anyway,
	their Rdb experts.  We'll pick out the best pieces, stick them
	in Oracle, and throw the rest away.  So buy Oracle now, it'll
	soon have the best of both products."

We get bashed enough for trying to position three different operating systems,
but at least they can be distinguished.  Oracle and Rdb are direct competitors
in the DEC market.  Why on earth would Oracle maintain Rdb as a separate
product line?  It makes no sense.

						Steve

    Re: .29
    
    >Why on earth would Oracle maintain Rdb as a separate product line? 
    
    It gives them the Rdb revenue.  If they kill it, they have no guarantee
    of replacing that revenue with Oracle revenue; there are plenty of
    other database vendors out there who could provide migration --
    especially if there's resentment against Oracle for killing it.
    
    In the long term, the two products will probably merge.

    >Why on earth would Oracle maintain Rdb as a separate product line? 

	Using that logic, GM should make only one car, and IBM just one
	computer. Any color you want, as long as it's black.

	In the long term the products will merge -- that's the plan. But it
	won't and can't happen overnight. Believe it or not, much thought
	has already been put into this, and much mroe will be put into it in
	the future.

	Roy

    Rdb has many features that ORACLE 7 lacks.  Some of those features
    are based in what I perceived to be the DEC culture and we tried to
    continue through the 15 releases in the last 10 years, for example
    being able to install a new version without rebuilding the database.
    Grant you I got those messages from Bill Noyce and Steve Klein but
    we have striven to make every upgrade easy, only failing once.  Each
    version has tried to improve upon that by somehow making Rdb yet
    easier to upgrade.  Yeah, we tarnished our haloes a few times by
    making cutomers recompile this or that but we worked on it and tried to
    do better.  Now customers can run 4 different versions of Rdb
    simultaneously in their clusters -- or even on the same machine.  To my
    knowledge no other successful database product allows that.  Being the
    missionaries carrying this new concept to the left coast seems to me to
    be an almost insurmountable task, and yet, this is the least of all of
    teh differences in the products.
    
    We, Rdb engineering, can only do what we have always striven to do: to
    make Rdb the best prduct that it can be.  We must also carry over the
    Rdb philosophies to Oracle.  Can we do it?  I dunno, but it'll be a
    good try.
    
    We, of all of digital's products, know that it is difficult or
    impossible to maintain and support two similar products, so we must
    work to make the idea work.  Untimately the goal is that there will
    be one product.  For it to be one product without Rdb's ease of use
    or VLDB features would be unconscionable.  For there to be one product
    without Oracle's support for [now] 90 platforms would be inconceivable.
    I submit that we, Rdb Engineering, have the task of our careers ahead
    of us.
    
    For the next few years, Rdb is limited to running on digital platforms.
    Rdb supports databases in the 50GB and n00GB range as well as it
    supports single user 1MB or smaller databases, but on digital
    platforms.  I believe that if Oracle says "this product is being ported
    to xyz hardware, buy it now on Alpha" customers will accept the
    arguments and buy Rdb and Alpha.
    
    After the dust settles, please support the transition.  Our success is
    your success.
    
    ed
    
    (i would have corrected the spellos but I haven't figured out how to
    edit remotely  :-)   )
    

    I don't think this was the entire announcement regarding software.  I
    believe WPS will be sold/transitioned to WordPerfect and you may see a
    basket full of other applications (DECwrite, etc.) sold to either a
    Novell, Microsoft, Lotus or Borland.  Basically, we are definitively
    not in the apps business, we leave that expertise to our partners. 
    Those products were often developed at a time when there was a gaping
    hole in product offerings by the industry, so we met that need with
    product.  Industry has since filled the hole with many more resources
    than we would ever want to put into it so we can now either transition,
    retire or sell the product.  We seem to be getting back to religion,
    core values, basics if-you-will.  We make excellent hardware, extremely
    advanced middleware and maintain good services.  It is in these areas
    that we will consider our core competencies and it in these areas by
    which we will succeed.  We will leave industry expertise and point
    solutions through applications to our partners.
    
    ..Larry

    Of course Oracle will not killl Rdb, neither will they actively
    promote, market or sell it either. With no activity at all, the
    investment would pay back in 1-2 years time.
    
    They will comfort customers with existing functionality, add a little
    (only 6.1 and 6.2 are committed), port to NT (OSF nearly done) and then
    smoothly redirect business towards their mainline of business. They
    have no marketing and presales staff trained on Rdb, neither do they
    intent to have that in the future.
    
    I must say I'm really impressed by the way they 'massaged' all the
    people who are part os the transation because all 'engineers' say they
    are thrilled, enthousiastic etc. Looks like they devided the notesfiles
    between themselves. If I were an engineer, I would not count on
    Digital to keep on selling Rdb in the future.
    
    Henny

    
    
    	Optimistic thinking is good, but, like Grayhack has stated, 
    	reality is REAL....
    
    	Being gullible in the business world is dangerous.

    >I must say I'm really impressed by the way they 'massaged' all the
    >people who are part os the transation because all 'engineers' say they
    >are thrilled, enthousiastic etc. Looks like they devided the notesfiles
    >between themselves. If I were an engineer, I would not count on
    >Digital to keep on selling Rdb in the future.
    
    And I'm impressed at how much you think you know about this deal
    without the benefit of talking to Oracle technical, sales, and
    marketing people.  Do you think the folks in Rdb engineering are
    stupid, or blind?  We've had many opportunities over the past few
    months to interact with Oracle at many levels.  They love Rdb as
    much as we do, and they certainly respect the technology.  I seriously
    object to being called "massaged" - I'd say that's an extremely
    unfair and incorrect observation.
    
    But anyhow, you're missing the key point, as have many outsiders who
    are observing this deal.  Rdb was dead at Digital.  It had NO future. 
    This was made vividly apparent to us when Palmer came and spoke to our
    group last April (right after we destroyed the TPC-A benchmark and
    Digital couldn't decide if it should publicize the numbers!).  Then
    people in the development group started to leave for companies such as
    Oracle, which knows how to market and sell software.
    
    Rdb has a life at Oracle - the engineers, and others involved in the
    deal realize this - that's why nearly everyone involved in the deal
    is making the switch (and why others wish they could come along).
    Digital and Oracle will continue to sell Rdb - there are strong
    sales incentives to do so.
    
    Yes, the two products will ultimately be merged.  So is this bad?
    Do you object to having a single product that has all the great
    features of Rdb and Oracle rolled into one?

	If DEC doesn't give a shit about RDB, and I think it's true they
	didn't, then lets take the $108million, lose some more headcount 
	and run. The deal is done folks. Let's move on. The only thing
	DEC has to worry about now is putting the proper spin on this
	to the customers.

	Best of luck (really!) to the folks moving to Oracle. Kick some
	database butt!

							mike

    I think the handwriting is on the wall.  Digital has decided to be a
    niche hardware vendor.  It will sell Alpha chips, if it can, disk
    subsystems, networking products, and the minimal amount of software
    required to sell those products.
    
    It is probably time for the rest of us to move on.
    
    Bob

    re: last few
    
    "Rdb at Digital = death"  Absolutely.
    
    Rdb group moving to Oracle - I'm jealous.  Really.  
    
    Bob needs to make it official - next week perhaps?

    I worry for the fate of "the [rest of] the entire software business"
    more than I do for Rdb.
    
    ed
    (We still have Reqs.)

    I agree with .38's assessment...
    
    --bonnie

      .38 forgot Digital's most lucrative business, Service. 
       Our service business generates half our revenue and
       probably more so in the future as the selloffs continue.
       Focusing on *profitable* hardware niches makes sense. But
       to say that's are only future source of revenue is far
       from accurate.

    A minor nit: revenue does not necessarily mean profit.  No one knows
    which bits of Digital are profitable below CEO level, especially not
    when you take into account investment.  Was Rdb ever profitable, for
    instance?
    
    dp

    Did I read an earlier note aright? DBMS has gone too?
    
    I have one big fear about this. I thought that the price was very low,
    and when I think of all the internal application software we have based
    on Rdb and DBMS, I wonder how much it's going to cost us to continue to
    use those products. Consider also products like the CDD which use
    RdB... I suspect Oracle have a bargain there.
    
    Cheers, Laurie.

    	This is all kind of scary. If Digital actually decides (and I do
    not think the final plan is even close to determination) to become a
    NICHE BOX vendor, we are toast.
    	Even today most of my VARs are in high dungeon over having Digital
    tell them they have to buy PCs from this guy, printers from that
    fellow, terminals from this gal, and support from that lady, and boxes
    from me. Software be damned in essence.
    	If Digital is going to dismember itself, the SLT will find that the
    pieces may sell, but what will be left will have no value. There is no
    such thing as niche systems vendors today. You either have significant
    marketshare in something, or you are history. This is an industry with
    as much excess capacity as the airlines, and one that may never reward
    survivors per se.
    	While I recognize how many of you feel who have cast your fates (if
    you will) with certain products, the fact remains that we are a SYSTEMS
    house, and if we don't act like one, we will be soon disregarded by the
    customers both past and present. I am most concerned.
    
    		the Greyhawk

    
    Wasn't DEC DESIGN built on RDB/CDD?  Or maybe that was already
    discontinued or outsourced - sorry - it's getting harder and harder to
    remember which software products are consistent with the KOOL-AID -
    it's still ok to drink this stuff isn't it?  I'm feeling dizzy...
    
    

    Re: .34
    
    >neither will they actively promote, market or sell it either
    
    So, right now press releases are trumpeting to the world that Oracle
    sales (and Digital sales) will be goaled for selling Oracle _and_ Rdb. 
    You think Oracle is going to stand before the world and say, "Nope,
    changed our minds."?  Do you think Oracle could pull that off without
    any kind of backlash?

re: .48

Do you think they care?  Do you know of Oracle's sales reputation?

Bob

    I think they care if it affects their bottom line.
    
    If Oracle has made written commitments (and incenting their sales
    people on Rdb sales might very well be part of the contract) and then
    violates those commitments, they leave themselves open to lawsuits. 
    
    Oracle's market value is about $11 billion.  (Digital's market value is
    about $3 billion.)  The largest share of Oracle's revenue is on Digital
    platforms.  Sounds like some people either don't know or don't care
    about their sales reputation.  A lawsuit, especially regarding such a
    visible deal, could certainly change that.

    There is a special account set up for questions regarding this deal.
    Send mail to WILBRY::RDBNEWS. If you would like to be added to the
    interest list, send mail to OOTOOL::TAYLOR with subject of your message
    as: Please add me to the RDBNEWS.DIS list and content of your msg as
    follows:
    
    nm%node::username !full name, position, location

For internal use only
                     
TOP FOUR QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Oracle Rdb Acquisition and Oracle/Digital Strategic Relationship Announcement

Q: 	Why is Oracle purchasing Rdb?
A:	Oracle sees a great opportunity in the synergy between the Rdb customers
and their enterprise-wide, mission-critical applications, and Oracle's core
competencies in supplying the technology and support for these applications.  In
addition, Oracle is very pleased to welcome the excellent Rdb engineering and
support talent, to acquire the Rdb award-winning technology, and to
significantly expand Oracle's strategic relationship with Digital. 

Q: 	Why is Digital selling Rdb?
A:	Digital's product strategy is to focus on its core competencies and team
with vendors with complementary products.  As Digital realigns its product
strategy, Digital will focus its business on the following areas: industry
leading systems, world-class network and data integration software, state of the
art operating systems, and multivendor support and consulting services. Digital
will serve its customer's database needs by delivering open integration
middleware products such as DB Ingetrator and by working closely with leading
database vendors such as Oracle. 
 
Q:	How will customers benefit from this agreement?
A:	Customers will benefit from this acquisition because of Oracle's strong
commitment to the Rdb customer base and the Digital market.  Oracle will enhance
and maintain Rdb and port Rdb to key Digital operating environments including
OSF/1 AXP and Windows NT.  Digital and Oracle will work together to ensure that
Rdb and all other Oracle products are optimized for the Alpha AXP systems
environment.  In addition to this product commitment,  Rdb customers now have
access to the world's largest dedicated relational database support organization
for a wide range of services ranging from 24x7 telephone hotline support to
strategic planning for information systems.  Finally, Rdb customers can choose
to purchase the Rdb product from either Oracle or Digital; they can maintain
their relationship with the current Digital sales team or develop a new one with
the Oracle sales team. 

Q:	What is the future of Rdb?
A:	Customer satisfaction is extremely important to Oracle.  Oracle is
committed to enhancing and maintaining Rdb and is establishing an Rdb Customer
Advisory Council to ensure that customers continue to play a key role in the
future directions for Rdb. 

Today Oracle offers Rdb customers with several database options.  Customers who
want to stay with Rdb can continue to take advantage of Rdb's unique features
such as mixed VAX and AXP cluster support. Customers who want to coexist with
Oracle can do so with products such as Oracle's Transparent Gateway to Rdb or
Digital's DB Integrator.  In the long term, Oracle plans to combine the Rdb and
Oracle product, therefore offering a superset of functionality in an enhanced
Oracle product set ensuring smooth customer upgrades. 



COMPREHENSIVE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

ORACLE RDB ACQUISITION AND ORACLE/DIGITAL STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT


GENERAL:   

Q: 	What is Oracle acquiring? 
A: 	Oracle has acquired Digital's Rdb database and repository 
businesses including all software products and customer support 
services.  Oracle has also extended offers to Digital's database and 
repository engineering, marketing, and support staff as part of the 
agreement.  In addition to the acquisition, Oracle and Digital announced 
an extended strategic relationship encompassing the availability of 
Oracle's major product lines on Digital systems, the availability of the 
Oracle Media Server on Digital's video server hardware, and several 
reseller agreements.  

Q: 	Why is Oracle purchasing Rdb? 
A:	Oracle sees a great opportunity in the synergy between Rdb 
customers and their mission-critical applications, and Oracle's core 
competencies in supplying the technology and support for these 
applications.  In addition, Oracle is very pleased to welcome the 
excellent Rdb engineering and support talent, to acquire the Rdb award-
winning technology, and to significantly expand Oracle's strategic 
relationship with Digital.  

Q: 	Why is Digital selling Rdb? 
A:	Digital's product strategy is to focus on its core competencies 
and team with vendors with complementary products.  As Digital realigns 
its product strategy, Digital will focus its business on the following 
areas: industry leading systems, world-class network and data 
integration software, state of the art operating systems, and 
multivendor support and consulting services.  Digital will serve its 
customer's database needs by delivering open data integration products 
such as DB Integrator and by working closely with leading database 
vendors such as Oracle.   

Q:	How will customers benefit from this agreement? 
A:	Customers will benefit from this acquisition because of Oracle's 
strong commitment to the Rdb customer base and the Digital market.  
Oracle will enhance and maintain Rdb and port Rdb to key Digital 
operating environments including OSF/1 AXP and Windows NT.  Digital and 
Oracle will work together to ensure that Rdb and all other Oracle 
products are optimized for the Alpha AXP systems environment.  In 
addition to this product commitment, Rdb customers now have access to 
the world's largest dedicated relational database support organization 
for a wide range of services ranging from 24x7 telephone hotline support 
to strategic planning for information systems.  Finally, Rdb customers 
can purchase the Rdb product from either Oracle or Digital; they can 
either maintain their relationship with the current Digital sales team 
or develop a new one with the Oracle sales team.  

Q:	What is the future of Rdb? 
A:	Customer satisfaction is extremely important to Oracle.  Oracle is 
committed to enhancing and maintaining Rdb and is establishing an Rdb 
Customer Advisory Council to ensure that customers continue to play a 
key role in the product's future directions.    Today Oracle offers Rdb 
customers several database options.  Customers who want to stay with Rdb 
can continue to take advantage of Rdb's unique features such as mixed 
VAX and AXP cluster support. Customers who want to coexist with Oracle 
can do so with products such as Oracle's Transparent Gateway to Rdb or 
Digital's DB Integrator.  In the long term, Oracle plans to combine the 
Rdb and Oracle products, therefore offering a superset of functionality 
that ensures smooth customer upgrades.  

Q:	Why did Digital choose Oracle? 
A:	Digital wanted to place Rdb customers in the hands of a company 
that understands the enterprise environment and has a world-class level 
of service and support.  Oracle unquestionably meets and exceeds 
Digital's requirements.  

Q: 	How will Oracle position Rdb vs. Oracle7? 
A: 	Rdb offers a database application development environment for 
customers committed to a Digital specific platform solution.  Oracle7 
offers an open systems software solution for customers with mixed 
computing environments.   Rdb fully supports OpenVMS VAX and AXP 
clusters and permits upgrades from VAX to AXP without reloading the 
database.  It supports multiple versions on the same system or cluster, 
online metadata changes, and state-of-the-art tuning and DBA management 
features.  Oracle7 is the leading parallel database solution for mixed 
computing environments.  Its new Parallel Everything architecture 
supports parallel query, parallel index, parallel load, parallel backup, 
and parallel recovery across SMP, clustered, and massively parallel 
processing (MPP) systems.  

Q:	Will Oracle migrate Rdb customers to Oracle? 
A:	Oracle is highly committed to the Rdb customer base and the 
Digital market.  Today Oracle offers Rdb customers several database 
options.  Customers who want to stay with Rdb can continue to take 
advantage of Rdb's unique features such as mixed VAX and AXP cluster 
support. Customers who want to coexist with Oracle can do so with 
products such as Oracle's Transparent Gateway to Rdb or Digital's DB 
Integrator.  In the long term, Oracle plans to combine the Rdb and 
Oracle product set to offer a superset of functionality in the Oracle 
product set.  Rdb customers who want to move to Oracle can pursue this 
path with Oracle's or Digital's consulting services.   In the long term 
Oracle plans to offer a database product which is a superset of both Rdb 
and Oracle, giving customers a uniquely smooth migration to Oracle.  The 
direction for this new product offering is to provide Rdb customers with 
a set of steps which resemble an upgrade not a conversion.  

Q:	When will we know more details on the product plans? 
A:	During the time period between signing the agreements and closing, 
Oracle and the Rdb team will conduct an Operations Review to map out 
additional details in such areas as product plans, software packaging, 
and product pricing.  Oracle's goal is to articulate the details of 
these plans shortly after government approval.  

Q: 	How does this acquisition relate to the recently announced 
Enterprise Solutions Program? 
A:	The Enterprise Solutions program is a new strategic initiative 
between Oracle and Digital designed to provide a comprehensive solution 
for customers seeking to downsize from mainframe class computers to 
powerful, open, relational systems.  ESP will be delivered through a 
complete program model, or "Virtual Corporation," where customers will 
have the option to purchase products and services from a single source.     


BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL:  

Q:	Will Digital still be in the database business? 
A:	Digital has an open database strategy and will join with its 
strategic vendors to meet customer requirements.  Although Digital will 
not build and market its own general purpose database product, Digital 
will serve its customers database needs by delivering open data 
integration products such as DB Integrator and by working closely with 
leading database vendors such as Oracle.  

Q:	How much revenue did Rdb generate last year? 
A: 	In the last 12 months, the Rdb and related software businesses 
brought in a little over the $108 million purchase price.  

Q:	How much revenue is Oracle projecting to bring in the coming 
months from Rdb? 
A: 	It is Oracle's policy not to provide projections of future 
revenues or earnings.  

Q: 	How was the purchase made?  How will this impact Oracle's FYQ1 
quarterly earnings? 
A: 	The Rdb business acquisition is a cash transaction.  It is 
Oracle's policy not to provide projections of future revenues or 
earnings.  

Q: 	Does Oracle take over the payrolls of the Rdb personnel?  Will 
they be getting paycuts? 
A: 	As part of the agreement, Oracle is making every effort to retain 
the employees related to these businesses.  Employment and incentive 
offers have been extended to approximately 250 Digital engineers, 
management, and support employees responsible for the development and 
maintenance of the Rdb database and repository businesses.  Over 95% of 
the offers have been accepted.  

Q: 	What will be the pricing for Rdb?  How will customers react to 
being charged for Rdb?  Hasn't it just been included as part of a 
Digital hardware sale? 
A: 	Once acquired, the Rdb product will be incorporated into Oracle's 
product set using Oracle standard business practices.  Rdb will be 
priced using Oracle's standard per-user pricing.  Overall, we expect a 
positive reaction from customers because we are extending the life of 
the product and offering strong options to preserve their investment.  
Digital will offer Oracle and Rdb AdvantageServer hardware bundles so 
that both products will be included in Digital hardware sales.  Digital 
will also have the rights to sell Oracle and Rdb products combined with 
Digital software or hardware products and services.  

Q: 	Does this mean the price for Rdb will go up? 
A: 	In some cases prices will go up and in other cases they will go 
down.  For example, the cost per-user for an Rdb development license may 
go down while runtime license pricing may be increased.  

Q: 	How many Digital employees will be joining Oracle?  How does this 
affect Oracle's previous statement that it will limit headcount in 1994? 
A: 	Oracle is very excited about incorporating the high quality Rdb 
management, engineering, and support talent into the Oracle 
organization.  With this transaction, Oracle has extended offers to 
about 250 individuals from Digital into its payroll.  The majority of 
these will be located in a new Oracle East Coast Development Center 
based in Southern New Hampshire in the United States. 
	As announced, Oracle is expanding its business through additional 
sales and distribution channels.  In addition, Oracle is acquiring this 
strategic business to increase its revenue stream and to incorporate key 
Rdb technologies into its product set.  

Q:	Which types of Rdb employees will join Oracle? 
A:	Oracle has made offers to all Rdb employees including the 
engineering, product management, product marketing, technical writing, 
customer support, and sales consulting staff.  

Q: 	Will the Oracle East Coast Development Center only be for Rdb 
engineers? 
A: 	Yes, at this time the East Coast Development Center will house the 
Rdb engineering and marketing staff.  

Q: 	Does this acquisition indicate that Oracle will continue to 
acquire other technologies and products to add to the Oracle offering? 
A: 	Oracle is evaluating strategic products to expand its business 
into existing and new markets.  The Rdb transaction is part of this 
strategy.  

Q:	Will Rdb be its own product line within Oracle? 
A: 	Yes.  Rdb will be its own product line and will be incorporated 
into Oracle's Product and Platform Technologies Division.    

PRODUCT AND TECHNOLOGY:  

Q:	Which specific products is Oracle acquiring? 
A:	Oracle is acquiring Rdb, its database repository, and other 
related database administration tools.  With this agreement, Oracle will 
specifically own DEC Rdb, CDD/Repository, DBA Workcenter (including Rdb 
Expert, DECtrace, Graphical Schema Editor, InstantSQL), DEC RALLY, and 
DEC DBMS.  

Q: 	Will Rdb technology be rolled into the Oracle family of products? 
A: 	Advanced Rdb technologies will be selectively rolled into future 
versions of Oracle products.  The Rdb database administration tools will 
be used to expand Oracle's already extensive offering.  High on the list 
is Rdb's DBA Workcenter product that offers advanced database monitoring 
and tuning products which will be enhanced to work with the Oracle 
database.   

Q:	Will Rdb be ported to non-Digital platforms? 
A:	In addition to the current VAX OpenVMS and AXP OpenVMS ports, 
Oracle will port Rdb to key Digital operating environments including 
OSF/1 AXP and Windows NT.  No non-Digital ports are planned at this time 
for the Rdb database though Oracle plans to integrate DBA Workcenter 
into the Oracle product set and offer these products on Oracle's key 
hardware platforms.   

Q:	How will products be shipped to customers? 
A:	As a Oracle product, Rdb will packaged on Oracle media and in 
Oracle hardcopy and online documentation formats.  

Q:	Will Rdb versions now lag behind Digital OS releases? 
A:	This alliance ensures the Rdb team coming to Oracle has the same 
access to pre-release and field test software that they have always 
enjoyed.  One of the reasons why Oracle is establishing the East Coast 
Development Center is to ensure that the Rdb organization has the easy 
access to the people with whom they have worked closely in other parts 
of Digital.  

Q:	Will Rdb be optimized for AXP OSF/1 or is it just for OpenVMS 
customers? 
A:	The port to OSF/1 UNIX is in field test now and Windows NT 
development is under way.  Rdb is for all Digital customers and will be 
optimized to use AXP's 64-bit architecture to support customer VLDB 
requirements.  

Q:	Many Rdb customers rely on the tight integration of ACMS and Rdb.  
How will this be supported by Oracle and Digital? 
A:	Both Digital and Oracle recognize the importance of ACMS to many 
of the largest Rdb customers.  From a technology perspective, the tight 
integration will not change.  This alliance includes agreements so that 
the same level of integration will be maintained through pre-release and 
field test programs.  In addition, Oracle will be reselling ACMS and 
both companies' consulting organizations will be offering consulting 
services for these products.  

Q:	Will Oracle change the name of Rdb? 
A:	Oracle plans to change the name of DEC Rdb to Oracle Rdb.   

SERVICE AND SUPPORT:   

Q: 	How will Rdb support contracts be handled? 
A: 	Oracle is highly committed to supporting the Rdb customer base. 
Rdb customer support personnel are transferring to Oracle to ensure 
continuity with Technical Assistance Requests.  Until a customer's Rdb 
support contract expires, Oracle will act as an agent for Digital to 
continue providing support to these users.  Digital support terms and 
conditions will remain constant until contract expiration or 15 months 
from closing, whichever comes first.  Additionally, a customer can 
choose to convert to an Oracle contract before their contract expires.    

Q:	Will support pricing change? 
A:	Pricing and some other operational details will be determined 
during the Operational Review period between signing agreements and 
closing.  Any change in support service pricing will be effective at the 
time a customer renews or converts the Rdb support contract to an Oracle 
contract. 		 

Q:	How will Oracle and Digital handle existing consulting projects 
using Rdb? 
A:	Digital and Oracle Consulting will staff consulting projects using 
Rdb.  No Digital Consulting personnel will be transferring to Oracle 
Consulting. This alliance assures that the continued close relationship 
between Digital and Rdb development to ensure projects will come to 
completion.    

Q:	Will Digital Consulting have the option of supporting non-Rdb 
databases in projects? 
A:	Of course.  Digital Consulting has trained and continues to train 
specialists and consultants in the use of products other than Rdb.  This 
is part of the general philosophy of being able to undertake consulting 
projects which are multi-vendor in nature.  

Q:	By purchasing all Digital products, customers had single vendor 
support.  It now appears this will no longer be true. 
A:	Digital and Oracle will work together to ensure customers receive 
high quality support services.  The Rdb support personnel will become 
Oracle employees so Oracle will have the level of expertise required to 
support Rdb and customers will continue to work with many of the same 
personnel they have worked with in the past.   

SALES AND MARKETING:  

Q:	How will Rdb be sold? 
A:	Both Oracle and Digital sales reps will be incented to sell both the
Oracle and Rdb products and support services. Oracle sales reps will get
Reseller credit for every Digital sale.  In addition, Oracle will be
incorporating this product into its established lead generation and tracking
procedures. 

Q: 	Just how will Digital resell Oracle products? 
A: 	For selected products, Digital can sell standalone licenses, 
licenses in Advantage Server or other software and hardware bundles, or 
embedded Oracle or Rdb licenses in products such as CDD/Repository.  
With this agreement, Digital can also establish reseller agreements with 
Digital software that is packaged with full use or runtime Oracle 
software as well as Digital hardware which is sold bundled with full use 
or runtime Oracle.    

Q: 	Will Oracle be training Digital sales people on how to sell Oracle 
products? 
A: 	As part of our longstanding strategic relationship, Oracle has 
already trained hundreds of Digital sales and sales consultants on 
Oracle products.  This training program will be extended and enhanced to 
ensure Oracle product knowledge by the Digital distribution 
organization.  The Rdb organization will also train Oracle sales and 
sales consultants on the product so that they can sell Rdb effectively 
to new customers.  

Q: 	How will Oracle sales sell Rdb? 
A: 	Rdb product specialists from Digital's current Rdb sales 
consulting team have been made offers to join Oracle and will assist 
Oracle sales reps on Rdb sales.  This model is working successfully with 
other Oracle products such as Oracle Applications.  

Q: 	Will Rdb be proactively "pitched" to Oracle customers?   
A: 	At least 30 product specialists will be responsible for ensuring 
Oracle meets its sales targets for Rdb.  In addition, these technical 
specialists will be cross-trained on both Oracle and Rdb products to 
support customers' current technical requirements and to help them with 
their short and long range Information Systems strategies. For Oracle 
prospects with Digital systems, Oracle sales reps will typically lead 
with Oracle and offer Rdb to Digital customers who request it or when 
the Rdb technology is better suited for the customers total requirement.  

Q:	Will the Digital and Oracle sales forces be given a special 
incentive to convert Rdb to Oracle? 
A:	No.  Oracle is committed to the Rdb product and its installed 
base.  In the long term Oracle will combine the Rdb and Oracle 
technologies into a single product with a superset of the current 
product's capabilities.  

Q:	Which marketing programs will be jointly executed by Digital and 
Oracle? 
A: 	Oracle and Digital have committed 1/2 million dollars each to an 
AXP upgrade marketing fund including advertising, direct mail, seminars, 
field training and other activities.  The purpose of these activities is 
to leverage upgrade sales for both companies.  

Q: 	Rdb has had limited marketing this year -- does Oracle intend to 
advertise the product? 
A: 	Details of marketing plans will be developed during the 
operational review period between signing agreements and closing.  

Q:	Will Rdb Expo take place on October 10-12? 
A:	Yes, the event will take place as planned.  The following year, 
Oracle will combine the Rdb Expo with the International Oracle User Week 
(IOUW).  

Q: 	How will this agreement impact Oracle sales? 
A:	Oracle believes that this agreement will result in better field 
teaming between Oracle and Digital, therefore will increase sales in 
many regions of the world.  The combined Oracle and Digital sales forces 
in over 90 countries worldwide is one of the largest direct sales 
organizations selling a relational database.  To support this effort, 
Oracle will co-implement with Digital coordinated account plans and 
alliance recruitment programs worldwide.  

Q:	To whom do I pay outstanding invoices? 
A:	Outstanding invoices should be paid to whomever (Oracle or 
Digital) issued the invoice.  

Q:	If a customer has a question about interfacing Rdb with other 
Digital products, who do they call? 
A:	Either Digital or Oracle.  Digital will continue to have product 
managers and field personnel familiar with how Rdb interfaces with other 
Digital products.   Oracle's Rdb product specialists will also be 
available to answer questions about these interfaces.  

Q: 	What percentage of the database market does Oracle now have? 
A: 	Oracle does not calculate market share analysis and leaves that to 
the industry analysts.   

RELATIONSHIPS:  

Q:	How does this agreement impact Digital's relationship with other 
database vendors? 
A:	Although Oracle and Digital are entering into an extended 
strategic relationship, Digital has an open database strategy and will 
maintain alliances with all key database vendors.  

Q:	How does this agreement impact Oracle's relationship with its 
other hardware vendors? 
A:	Digital is an important strategic vendor for Oracle.  Like 
Digital, Oracle has an open alliance strategy and will maintain 
relationships with all strategic hardware vendors.   

CUSTOMER:  

Q:	I see this as a positive move.  Which other Digital products can I 
expect to see moving to other vendors? 
A:	Digital is committed to building alliances with vendors who have 
the same engineering, service, and support philosophy as Digital.  
Digital believes that Oracle is a perfect example of this principle; 
Digital cannot imagine a better corporate parent for the Digital 
database business than Oracle.  

Q:	I see this as a negative move.  How can I have confidence in the 
future of other Digital software products? 
A:	Oracle is very committed to the Rdb customer base and will support 
the Rdb product through its 4300+ support and service personnel.  In the 
80s, Oracle's philosophy was to grow its marketshare.  In the 90s, 
Oracle has moved to a service-oriented sales model which has been well-
received by Oracle customers.  Oracle welcomes the Rdb customers to its 
family of advanced software solutions providers and users, and looks 
forward to working closely with the Rdb customers in the future.  
Digital is committed to building alliances with vendors who have the 
same engineering, service, and support philosophy as Digital.  Digital 
believes that Oracle is a perfect example of this principle; Digital 
cannot imagine a better corporate parent for the Digital database 
business than Oracle.  

Q: 	Will the type of service change? 
A:	All supported Rdb customers with existing support contracts will 
receive a joint letter from Digital and Oracle's Worldwide Customer 
Support organization explaining the extensive Oracle support offerings 
and the process for renewing their contracts with Oracle.  

Q:	My support contract with Digital doesn't expire until 1995.  Will 
I still be able to obtain support from Digital? 
A:	Oracle is very committed to supporting the Rdb customer base.  
Support terms and conditions will remain constant until contract 
expiration or 15 months from closing, whichever comes first.  At 
contract expiration, customers may renew their Rdb support agreements 
with Oracle.  

Q:	How does this agreement impact outstanding orders with Digital?  
Will my current quotes be honored? 
A:	All outstanding Digital orders and contract renewals for the Rdb 
and repository products will be processed by Digital until closing is 
complete.  After closing, customers can purchase 1st year support 
through either Oracle or Digital for new licenses and renew existing 
support contracts with Oracle.  

Q: 	Who do I call for support? 
A:	For Rdb technical questions, supported customers should call 
Oracle at 1-800-223-1711 or you can continue to call the Digital support 
number.  Oracle and Digital will send a letter to Rdb supported 
customers explaining the extensive Oracle support offerings and the 
process for renewing their contracts with Oracle.  

Q:	What happens if I have a problem that may involve both Rdb and 
other Digital products? 
A:	Digital and Oracle have been supporting mutual customers for years 
and the two support organizations already communicate well to solve 
customer problems.  The two companies are now finalizing the details of 
a new support agreement to formalize the relationship and maintain a 
high level of customer support.  Today when a customer subscribes to 
Oracle's Worldwide Customer Support services, the customer is ensured 
that Digital and Oracle are communicating efficiently to solve the 
customer issue.  

Q:	If a customer wished to undertake a conversion from Rdb to another 
product, is Digital prepared to help with this process? 
A:	Yes, both Digital and Oracle Consulting have expertise in the use 
of many such products and can plan and implement a conversion project.  

Q:	What do I do if I'm dissatisfied with Oracle? 
A:	If you are not satisfied with Oracle product, service, or support, 
please escalate your concerns through Oracle's senior management.  
 	For sales issues, please escalate to the Worldwide Distribution 
Regional or Area Vice President.
 	For Worldwide Customer Support, escalate any business issues to 
Oracle Client Relations.  For technical issues related to a single 
Technical Assistance Request, please escalate to the Duty Manager on 
call.  For technical issues related to multiple Technical Assistance 
Requests, escalate to the Duty Manager on call.  For general issues, 
escalate to the Division Super Centre Director.  In the Americas contact 
Tom Holmes.  In the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, contact Mick 
Stone.  For Asia Pacific, contact John Darragh. 
	Of course, customers will continue to have the option of working 
with their Digital sales representative or establish a new relationship 
with the Oracle account manager.  

Q:	Where do customers go for more information? 
A:		For additional information use the following contact points:  
Oracle:		US Telephone			1-800-ORACLE1 
		Outside US Telephone		1-415-506-5701  
		Customer Support		1-800-223-1711 			
		Business Alliance Partners	1-800-323-7355  		

Digital:	U.S. Telephone			1-800-DIGITAL
  		Europe Telephone		352-91-754-567
  		FAX				603-881-1868  		
		Internet			rdbnews@wilbry.enet.dec.com
 			  

RESELLERS AND OTHER ALLIANCES   

Q:	I'm a reseller.  How will the change in support affect me and my 
customers? 
A:	Oracle is highly committed to providing excellent technical 
support for all Rdb customers and resellers.  Rdb customer support 
personnel are transferring to Oracle to ensure continuity with Technical 
Assistance Requests.  Until Digital Rdb support contract expiration, 
Oracle will act as an agent for Digital, to continue providing support 
to Rdb customers.  Digital support terms and conditions will remain 
constant until contract expiration or 15 months from closing, whichever 
comes first.  Additionally, a customer can choose to convert to an 
Oracle contract before their contract expires.    

Q:	Will Rdb resellers continue to sell Rdb services? 
A:	Resellers that have a reseller agreement with Oracle to sell Rdb 
or Oracle will be able to sell Oracle support services.  For more 
information resellers can call the Business Alliance Program hotline at 
1-800-323-7355.  

Q:	What will happen to the RSVP program under Oracle? 
A:	Oracle is pleased to extend membership offers to RSVP members to 
join the Oracle Business Alliance Program (BAP), a group of 4,000 
software vendors worldwide.  No entry fee will be charged.  To 
facilitate the offers, the Oracle Rdb product management group will 
support BAP management, therefore ensuring customer satisfaction during 
the transition period.  For information about Oracle's Business Alliance 
Program, call the BAP hotline at   

Q:	Will Digital be licensed to resell Oracle7 or Rdb to a reseller or 
distributor? 
A:	With this agreement, Digital can establish reseller agreements 
with Digital software that is packaged with full use or runtime Oracle 
software as well as Digital hardware which is sold bundled with full use 
or runtime Oracle.  Digital can establish these reseller agreements with 
all Oracle products including Rdb, with the exception of Oracle's 
Applications Products.  In addition, under Oracle's Business Alliance 
Program, members who have value-added packages may appoint resellers or 
distributors for Oracle.  Furthermore, Oracle and Digital have agreed to 
evaluate their joint distribution strategy.    

Q:	I already have an Oracle relationship manager.  Will that person 
now represent Rdb as well? 
A:	Yes, upon closing, Oracle account managers are authorized to sell 
Rdb.  

Q:	What will happen to DSRI? 
A:	DSRI will continue to be supported as a public interface to Rdb.  

Q:	We resell Rdb.  How will the pricing, terms, and business 
practices change? 
A:	Specifics on Rdb business practices will be developed during the 
operational review period between signing agreements and closing.  Until 
that time, resellers should continue with the current business practices 
as agreed to with Digital. 	 

Q:	Many leads for our Rdb product come from Digital sales.  How will 
this affect our leads process?  What is my relationship with Digital 
now? 
A:	This agreement should not affect your relationship with Digital. 
The value that you provide to Digital as a Digital platform software 
vendor does not change.  Digital will continue to resell Rdb, therefore, 
Digital will continue to need Rdb-based applications and tools in 
Digital accounts. 	
   	The lead exchange process with Digital should not 
change either.  In addition, Digital resellers who will also sell Oracle 
will enjoy the benefits of lead generation programs through Oracle's 
Business Alliance Program such as seminars and other activities.  

Q:	How much of this information can I share with my customers?  Do 
you have a briefing package that we can send them? 
A:	You may share this information with your customers.  Oracle is 
preparing a briefing package for all customers that will be sent to you 
in the near future. In addition, Oracle also invites the Rdb and related 
product resellers to join your colleagues at both the Business Alliance 
Program Conference (September 21 - 24, 1994) and the Oracle 
International User Week (September 25-30, 1994).   
	If you didn't receive a briefing package and would like one, 
please call 1-800-ORACLE1.   

PARTNER-SPECIFIC:

Q: 	Oracle products are now on Digital's price list.  Can we place our 
applications and products on Digital's price list?
A: 	Over the years, Digital has resold numerous third party software 
products. We will continue to do so when it makes good business sense 
for us and our customers. 

Q: 	Digital has indicated that they would not compete against partners 
yet your sales people can sell and are compensated for Oracle 
applications; i.e., financial, manufacturing, human resources.  Is this 
competing with partners?  
A: 	Through joint engineering and marketing initiatives, Digital is 
aggressively partnering with a number of companies who offer solutions 
which may compete with Oracle. We will continue to partner with these 
companies.  Note also that a number of our key application partners rely 
on Oracle as their underlying data base; our reseller arrangement with 
Oracle will in some cases afford us improved synergies with these 
applications partners.  

Q: 	Given Digital's strategic relationship with Oracle, how do I sell my 
products to Digital?
A: 	Each product competes on its own merits. Digital will continue to use 
its normal evaluation criteria when procuring software solutions. 
        
Q: 	Will Digital continue to invest in third party database accounts 
through seeds, engineering, marketing programs?
A: 	YES. Just as software vendors support multiple hardware vendors, we 
will continue to partner with multiple database vendors. 
        
Q: 	Will distributors be allowed to sell Oracle products?
A: 	This topic is still under discussion. Decisions will be made by 
product and the economics of distribution which offer the ability to 
address target markets.
        

OK, the Rdb deal is done, and is discussed at length in note 3185.  I'm still
very concerned about what is to be announced as the "future of [Digital's]
entire software business."

						Brian

    i think bob in .38 is right. and greyhawks fears in .45 are well
    founded. digital apparently is going to sever a lot in the area of S/W
    and try to focus on a relatively few offerings. i would suspect that
    we'll try to make money in the cut throat H/W side of the house.
    someone back a few hit on the last unkown (IMHO). and that's services.
    there seems to be a great deal of confusion in that area after the
    sale to CSC fell through. not sure what's going to happen to those
    organizations (plural intended). but if they get carved up or sold off
    then greyhawks fears will become reality. and digital may very well not
    survive. at least not as a serious competitor to any of the may systems
    vendors.
    
    i'm still waiting for the leadership aimed at generating more revenue
    and marketshare in profitable areas. all i see is memos that say "keep
    you nose to the grindstone, we need revenue". after several years of
    such memos its impossible to take them very seriously.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I think our customers believe we have no software direction.  At least
    they know we do not have a committed direction.  Can you say waffle!
    Come on guys how are customers going to believe us when we say follow
    us we know (NOT) where we are going!  :-)
    
    Will the customers believe us in networking, object broker etc..  Can
    our customers afford to believe us.  How many more to we have to get
    mad at us!
    
    - Mike
    
    

    We fully understand that the customers and analysts don't fully
    understand (or in some cases, believe) Digital's software strategy.
    
    The strategy has been in place since June (approved by CSD
    management), was outlined at the CSD management meeting in July,
    posted in VTX in July for all employees, and presented in August to
    the "Software Academy" field training event. In all cases, the story
    has been well received. 
    
    This story will be rolling out publicly over the next several months.
    We are starting to get good feedback from industry analysts but still
    have a way to go to get their full support.
    
    	/ Peter F. Conklin
    	  Corporate Consulting Engineer
    	  Technical Director, Software & Networks

re: .56

Peter, I THINK I've read everything available to me concerning our software
strategy, and I may be dense, but I sure don't know what our software strategy
is.  You mentioned that many of our customers and analysts don't understand/
believe it either.  If the employees don't understand it, our customers don't
understand and/or believe it, and the industry analysts don't understand
and/or believe it, what good is it?

I also think it is VERY SIGNIFICANT that customers and analysts don't BELIEVE
our software strategy.  They don't trust us.  I'd say that means we have just
about used up any remaining loyalty/goodwill.  That could be the death of us.

Bob

    Does COMPAQ have a software strategy?

>posted in VTX in July for all employees

Can you provide a pointer, please? I don't follow VTX regularly (now if
it had been posted on the Web ...). Thanks very much.

Many thanks.

re: .56

There is nothing in the VTX doc:
14-Jul-94  TRANSACTION PROCESSING (TP) SOFTWARE STRATEGIES        SS0012

which explains how I'll handle the following problem:
- ACMS needs CDD
- CDD has gone to ORACLE

How will both evolve ?
Can I be sure that ORACLE will keep CDD ? 
(I would not bet too much on its long life)
After what happened with RDB, can I really trust that ACMS will stay within
Digital ?
Do I perform misleading speculation If I believe the latest rumor 
about ACMSxp going away ?

I can see why customers have some difficulties to understand Digital software
strategy. Or, maybe they understand it just too well.

Christian-Luc 

>    Does COMPAQ have a software strategy?
    
    Sure, sell more bundled Windows licences than anybody else...
    (bundled, as in bundled with a PC :-)

I was at the Software Academy, and yes, something like our software 
strategy was presented.  The net was, we'll focus more.  There was an 
excellent vision presented, by Vijay ?, but it was at a 7AM optional 
meeting, and he did a 2 hour talk in 15 minutes.

The overall strategy was extremely general.  If something was approved, it 
had to be more specific.  Customers want to know, what's in and what's 
out.  What's our level of commitment to a given product or product set.  
This was not explained.

    re: .56
    
    Not to be negative, Peter, but a three-month old software strategy means
    very little.  Our customers know that our grand designs change every 9-15
    months.  This may be our current "long-term" strategy, but many of our
    customers have reason to believe that this time next year we'll have yet
    another "long-term" strategy.
    
    I can't say that I blame them.
    
    Until we learn to get on a course and stick with it, we will not be
    perceived as having any long-term plans at all.
    
    -- Russ

RE: .56

A software strategy may have been in place since June, but it has not 
been communicated to the rank-and file software engineers.  I are one 
:-) and your note is the first I've ever heard that such a strategy 
was in the works, let alone completed and approved!

The software strategy that can be divined by our actions (which in 
the end is the only one that counts, anyway) seems to be to avoid 
doing our own software as much as possible.  Where we are doing 
software as a legacy of the Olsen era (e.g., Rdb, our CASE tools 
except C and FORTRAN compilers), find ISVs willing to take those 
products off our hands.

--PSW

    re .62:
    
which explains how I'll handle the following problem:
- ACMS needs CDD
- CDD has gone to ORACLE

How will both evolve ?
Can I be sure that ORACLE will keep CDD ? 
    
    
    Digital will continue to sell CDD/R, so when the customer buys ACMS
    they should also buy CDD/R from Digital just as before. No change.
    (Revenue accounting will track this and make the appropriate royalty
    payment to Oracle per the reseller agreement.) This is no different
    than many other royalty bearing components in our products today, such
    as in DECwindows itself.
    
    You can be sure that Oracle will keep CDD/R since it is a dependency
    of Rdb. They certainly will keep Rdb.

> CDD/R since it is a dependency of Rdb.
    
    Actually, CDD/R is optional software for Rdb.
    
    michael

Taken from VTX's IR: Introduction to Digital's Software Strategy.
    
"Digital's Software Strategy is to engineer software products where we 
believe we can maintain a differentiated competitive advantage for our 
company and our customers, and which provide a migration path to Alpha.
Our software strategy embraces a substantial increase in FY95 in our software
portfolio offering through partnerships with independent software vendors
(ISVs) and major software alliances to achieve our customer software needs.
See Digital's Overall Software Strategy section for more details." 
  

Taken from VTX IR. Article of the same name:
    
        AN OVERVIEW OF DIGITAL'S SOFTWARE STRATEGY              15-JULY-1994
        ------------------------------------------              ------------


		AN OVERVIEW OF DIGITAL'S SOFTWARE STRATEGY

	Digital's primary line of business is the worldwide manufacture
	and sale of leadership, networked computing systems. Digital's
	software strategy is to provide world-class networked software  
    	for multi-vendor, heterogeneous environments, and market pull
	and leverage for Digital's networked computing systems.

	The central theme of Digital's software strategy is focus.
	We are exploiting Digital's core competencies in distributed
	computing, integration and networked software by investing in
	the development of open client/server middleware for Alpha and
	Intel clients and servers.  In a focused manner, we are porting
	this infrastructure to other platforms to support the multi-
	vendor,  heterogeneous environments of our customers today.

	Digital's software strategy builds on our software's successes
	of the past with focused investment in the future.  Our
	strategy is to attract new customers through multiple selling
	channels and extensive third party alliances, while providing
	new capabilities to our existing customers and ensuring that
	their investment in Digital software is protected. We are
	committed to our installed base and will continue our
	investments to ensure their smooth migration to Alpha AXP and 
	open client/server computing.

	Partnering is the cornerstone to the evolution of Digital's software 
        strategy.  Digital will leverage the strengths of other companies in 
	all aspects of our software business and partner for Applications,
	Services, Products, Engineering, Technology, Application
	Development Environments or Channels when our customers will
	benefit from such a collaborative agreement.  Through this
	extensive program of partnering and establishing collaborative
	alliances with other leading industry software businesses, our
	customers receive greater choice, improved service, more
	support, increased functionality, and simply, better software
	value.

	In addition to partnering more aggressively, we are implementing
	other changes that are making Digital software easier to buy,
	install, use and maintain.  By simplifying our software licensing,
	we are reducing the software cost by ownership throughout the
	software life cycle.

	Digital's software strategy is built on the strength of Digital's
	competitive advantages: our open client/server technologies
	that are scalable from PC-LAN workgroups to global, networked
	enterprises, our years of expertise in multi-vendor integration
	and engineering of networked software and services, and our
	leadership in emerging technologies, such as enterprise object
	software.

	Digital has the knowledge and expertise to design, build and
	support heterogeneous, scalable, open systems and networks.  We
	are using our competencies to develop and deliver the integration
	frameworks and middleware necessary to implement our focused
	software strategy.




			DIGITAL'S SOFTWARE STRATEGY VISION


	By leveraging our proven expertise in distributed computing
	and network integration, Digital is building a future vision
	of transparent information access, anytime, anyplace.

	The VISION we are working towards:

	PROVIDING INFORMATION
			... What you need
			     ... When you need it
				 ...  Where you want it.. TRANSPARENTLY

	Users want transparent access to information on different
	systems.  They want to be able to use information as easily as
	making a phone call.  Like the telephone, they want easy,
	convenient, value-priced, high performance access to information
	they need, whenever and wherever they need it.  At the same
	time, end users also want to choose the platform or technology
	that is best for their particular applications.

	By providing a higher level of integration and information
	access based on object oriented technology, Digital is
	responding to the dramatic changes in how and where people get
	their work done.  We envision a seamless, global style of
	computing for customers, that allows them to use information as
	a corporate asset and gives them the opportunity to focus on
	their real business.

	With a software business the size of a Fortune 200 software 
        company, Digital has proven itself as an information
	enabler.  With two decades of distributed computing and
	successful implementations of networked software, Digital has
	the experience to initiate and support the evolution: from
	product to framework to the core components of a client/server
	infrastructure, and ultimately to an information utility:

	 PRODUCT ---> FRAMEWORK ---> C/S INFRASTRUCTURE ---> INFORMATION
							       UTILITY 

	What unique value does Digital bring to this future vision?
	Digital is the best multivendor integration company in the
	history of the industry, a position we intend to maintain.
	Other companies will achieve parts of the vision, i.e.,
	transparent access for the desktop, or for the mainframe.
	Digital will achieve the full vision with scalable, transparent
	access based on enterprise objects, reflecting the different
	styles of computing that exist in our customers' environments.


		DIGITAL SOFTWARE STRATEGY:  SCOPE AND SYNERGY

	SCOPE:	WHAT PRODUCT AND MARKET SEGMENTS IS DIGITAL TARGETING?

	Digital's Software Business is focusing internal engineering
	efforts on an integrated, core infrastructure for client/server 
	markets worldwide. This client/server infrastructure is a further
	refinement of Digital's framework-based software architecture. 
	Frameworks are the technical blueprints for implementing open 
	client/server products and services.
	
	Digitals' client/server infrastructure represents the convergence
	of several frameworks:

	o Data Integration				o Network Integration
	o Messaging Integration (includes Mail)	 	o Enterprise Objects

        Layered on the client/server infrastructure is Management Integration,
	which along with the infrastructure, provides the base services 
	for the Workgroup, Production and Technical Integration frameworks. 
	Over time the client/server infrastructure will add increasing levels 
	of object-based services.

	Digital plans to deliver the open, core client/server infra-
	structure and frameworks on Alpha AXP and Intel platforms and,
	in a focused manner, port to other systems for multivendor,
	heterogeneous support. The efforts to provide the client/server 
	infrastructure and frameworks across our leading operating systems -- 
	OSF/1, OpenVMS and Windows NT are well underway. 


	SYNERGY: WHAT IS DIGITAL DOING DIFFERENTLY TO GAIN EFFICIENCIES?

	In all aspects of our software business, Digital is aggressively
	pursuing partnerships for applications, for product, for technology,
	for services, for engineering, for application development 
	environments and for channels. These joint efforts produce greater 
	software profits and streamline our internal processes to make us 
	more competitive in commodity software markets.

	In some cases, we are partnering with other companies to
	engineer new or existing products, delivering greater functionality 
	or support in a shorter timeframe than we otherwise would. The rigor 
	of strategically reviewing product offerings in all areas is a common 
	business practice systematically exercised by all companies, including 
	Digital. We will, in most cases, maintain responsibility for sales,
	distribution and service, but always, customer satisfaction. Our goal 
	is to make these partnerships transparent to our customers, except 
	for the added benefits to be gained by them, such as greater choice, 
	improved service, more support, increased functionality, and better 
	software value.

	Digital will continue to distribute and support applications
	developed by our Business Partners, dramatically enlarging
	the portfolio of solutions from which our customers can
	choose.  To make our products more easily available and to
	achieve higher volumes, we are increasing the number and variety
	of our distribution and support channel partners.

	This shift to partnering is indicative of a different Digital,
	one that understands the need to focus its internal resources,
	and at the same time, knows the importance of developing
	partner alliances to achieve our business goals. 

re Note 3366.66 by GEMGRP::gemnt3.zko.dec.com::Winalski:

> A software strategy may have been in place since June, but it has not 
> been communicated to the rank-and file software engineers.  I are one 
> :-) and your note is the first I've ever heard that such a strategy 
> was in the works, let alone completed and approved!

        I had a similar reaction to this topic and this discussion.

        In fact, it made a lot of sense that we didn't yet have a
        software strategy in place, since this has been a period in
        which the fundamental business issues were being revisited.

        While software is important (especially to us software
        engineering types :-), software strategy clearly can only be
        set once we decide what businesses we will be in.

        Bob

re: .71

Whew!  That sure sounds like something written by a committee after too many
late night meetings!  If they'd used the word "focused" one more time i think
my eyes would've permanently crossed. %^)

It's interesting that Enterprise Objects was one of the four core competency
thingies since we just through CDD/Repository over the wall to Oracle.

What i get out of this is: operating systems and probably some compilers still,
NetView and whatever other type of system/network management "frameworks" we
still sell, maybe some management tools to put in those frameworks so they
don't look so naked, middleware stuff like X.400, X.500, DCE components, one
or more of LinkWorks and ObjectBroker and DECmessageQ...hmmmn...what else?
Pathworks?  Or will that be deemed too uncompetitive in the larger market?

Gee, it looks like (with RDB and DBMS gone) DEC Standard MUMPS is our leading
in-house developed database/TP software!  Won't THAT be a bitter pill for IM&T
management (which has been scorning DSM for ages)!

You would think that with this "strategy" things like ALL-IN-1 Classic, VTX,
Notes, DECnet/OSI, etc., would finally be put out of their misery...but don't
bank on it!
								- paul

re .56

From the responses in this topic it is clear that Peter may think we have
a software strategy but whatever it is; it has not been communicated. Why do
people not have the courage to say what's in and what's out. We are all
grown up's and can manage either way.  And if we are going to pull out of
this tailspin the list of what's OUT better be very big and the list of
what's in better be very small. 

>	Why do people not have the courage to say what's in and what's out.
>	We are all grown up's and can manage either way.

	Anybody who regularly reads this notesfile would probably disagree
	with your contention that "We are all grown ups." 

	Roy

re: .73


>Gee, it looks like (with RDB and DBMS gone) DEC Standard MUMPS is our leading
>in-house developed database/TP software!  Won't THAT be a bitter pill for IM&T
>management (which has been scorning DSM for ages)!

DSM is Digital Standard Mumps, just a detail.

And it still has some major customers!



	DSM actually has been key in some major accounts.  

	Old press clipping from July of 1992.

	These are only now being deployed as DSM Alpha Clusters
	if it gets past the benchmarks.

	/ejr

     "Digital gave SAIC the winning edge for the Defense
     Department's $1 billion healthcare contract."

     Spokesperson, Lee R. Murphy
                   Vice President/General Manager
                   Computer Systems Operations
                   Systems Application Group, SAIC

     "SAIC is the government's largest employee-owned supplier of
     information systems solutions.  But we needed Digital's
     architecture, global support and expertise to win the
     contract to install CHCS, a comprehensive health-care
     information system, in over 750 Department of Defense
     medical facilities worldwide."

     "By using Digital's VAX family, we put together a
     cost-effective system that can support every DoD center, from
     the smallest to the largest.  Plus Digital's development
     tools let us write software rapidly and maintain it
     efficiently."  

     "Working with Digital we are assured of reliable systems
     performance worldwide and effective service both overseas
     and in the U.S.  We proved that no other computer company
     could support a program this large and expanding this
     rapidly.

     "Digital's total support was the key to winning the largest
     contract in SAIC history.  We now look forward to developing
     opportunities in the commercial healthcare marketplace."

     The rewards of working together.

     Digital's flexible architecture provides access to
     tomorrow's technology while protecting current investments.

     Today, with a consistent systems foundation that supports a
     wide range of applications yet lowers development and
     expansion costs, Digital gives your people an elegantly
     simple way to work together more productively, creatively,
     efficiently, and competitively.

     A way to work together like never before.

     Digital has it now.

     (c) The Digital logo and VAX are trademarks of the Digital
     Equipment Corporation
     (c) CHCS is a registered trademark of SAIC

	
	DSM again.  VA loves it.  This was the replacment
	contract for all VAXs with Alpha Clusters.

	/ejr

 
Account Information
 
  Account Name : DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
  City         : WASHINGTON
  State        : DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
  Country      : USA
  Division reference applies to : VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
 
Account overview
 
     The VA operates the largest healthcare organization in the US, with
     over 170 Medical Centers in the US and Puerto Rico.  They treat
     veterans and their dependents.  They rely on an internally developed
     suite of mission critical applications to support clinical and
     administrative requirements.  This suite is collectively refered to as
     the Decentralized Hospital Computer Program.  Modules include
     Admissions, Lab, Pharmacy, Surgery, Nursing, etc....
 
 
         DESCRIPTION OF THE CUSTOMER'S BUSINESS NEEDS:
 
     The customer was running in a Digital VAX/VMS environment.  The
     VAX systems were costly to upgrade and maintain.  On a positive
     note, OpenVMS provided the customer with a "bullet proof" production
     environment.  This required as close to 100% availability as
     economically possible, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.  They needed
     automatic failover which did not require operator intervention,
     the ability to do on-line backups, high data integrity, and modular,
     scalable growth.  They needed to accomplish this with a operating
     environment that cost less to upgrade and maintain than their
     current VAX solution.  And last and as important as all of the
     above they need quick, consistent, system response times.
 
 
         SOLUTION DIGITAL PROVIDED (identify new or add-on business):
 
     Digital developed a complete re-design of its solution architecture,
     COMPLETELY REPLACING all hardware, software and service products and
     procedures in place with the VAX platform. We replaced large
     VAXclusters (CI and DSSI) with ALPHApc clusters running OpenVMS,
     VMS Clusters, Volume Shadowing, DSM, TCP/IP Services for VMS,
     and NAS300.  The ALPHApc clusters are comprised of 4 to 6 DEC2000/
     300's on a FDDI ring.  The clusters support databases up to 20
     Gigbytes + shadow sets.  Digital storage works products and
     rackmount solutions engineered and manufactured by CSS complete
     the hardware configuration.  Digital Consulting Services and
     Multivendor Customer Services are supporting this program with
     a service methodology custom designed to the VA's specific require-
     ments.
 
 
         WHAT ABOUT THE SALE IS STRATEGIC TO THE CUSTOMER OR DIGITAL?
         (Please quantify benefits):
 
     To the Customer:
 
     - They have reduced their annual maintenance by approximately
       $7Million/year.
     - They now can do online backups,
     - The systems function 24 hours a day,
     - They have eliminated the negative impact on patient care and
       the increased cost of using manual procedures,
     - They have a platform that scales,
     - They are confident that they will be able to meet the challenges
       that national health care reform will bring.
 
     To Digital:
 
     $27 million in ALPHA systems, peripherals, software and services.
     We are no longer the dying minicomputer vendor.  The ALPHA was chosen
     over an Intel 486 solution.  The customer views us as cost
     competitive, offering significant value add, a vendor to continue
     to invest in well into the future.  Significant add-on business and
     new business is being generated because of this "new" perspective
     on DEC.
 
         LIST THE KEY PRODUCTS REQUIRED FOR THE CUSTOMER'S SUCCESS IN THIS
         APPLICATION.
 
     DIGITAL CPUS AND ALPHACLUSTERS	 : AXP/150 (also known as DEC2000/300)
     DIGITAL OPERATING SYSTEMS   	 : Open VMS
     DIGITAL NETWORKING PRODUCTS 	 : FDDI, TCP/IP for VMS
     DIGITAL PERIPHERALS	    	 : Storage works.
     DIGITAL SOFTWARE/APPLICATIONS	 : DSM, VMSclusters, NAS300
     DIGITAL SERVICES	    	 : DCS, MVS, CSS
 
 
         DID WE DISPLACE ANOTHER VENDOR'S SOLUTION?  PLEASE SPECIFY:
 
     We protected our installed base, completely swapping out VAX-
     clusters in 98 Medical centers and 7 Information Systems Centers.
     We beat an Intel 486 solution proposed by another vendor.
 
     IF THERE WAS STRONG COMPETITION FOR THE SALE, PLEASE IDENTIFY. Yes
       THIRD-PARTY COMPANIES            : Lockheed Integrated Solutions
       THIRD-PARTY HARDWARE             : Acer, MEGAdrive
       THIRD-PARTY NETWORKING           : CISCO
       THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE/APPLICATIONS: Micronetics, UNIVEL, Microsoft
       THIRD-PARTY SERVICES             : Olivetti
 
 
     $27 million NOR, 500 Alpha PC's, over 3000 disk drives, Digital
     Linear tape, VMS, DSM, etc...  The VA will run 98 of their largest
     medical centers on Digital AXP technology.
 
     DEC 2000 MODEL 300 AXP SERVER
     ALPHA AXP SYSTEMS
 500 DECPC AXP/150
 
Software
 
     OPENVMS
     DSM SERIES
 

Does anyone know if the VTX IR info is available on the Web? Thanks for
any info.

    http://www-idf.mso.dec.com/mcgarry/ir/ir_fp.html
    
    Angus

    I get a 
    SOCKET: Connection  has been refused.
    
    Anybody know how I can resolve this?
    
    re roelof

Thanks, Angus. I had tried that URL but got errors with it, so thought
it was offline. Seems ok now.

re .79

should we be using this in conjunction with VTX IR?  

How robust is this?  I went in today and did a keyterm search on 'ucx'
and it didn't find anything.

Are the same individuals that are developing VTX IR involved with this
project also?

	Regards,

	 kam

    
    You might try TCP.  Also, I thought I read where UCX (TCP/IP Services)
    was now a lame duck and another company's product would be replacing
    it.

OOPS!  I thought that 'ucx' worked in VTX IR and I was just trying
see if they were the same.  Went there today and you're correct
'tcp' is the proper keyterm.

WHAT! Cancelling DEC tcpip Services for OpenVMS???!!!  This is a
GREAT product.  We now have both Client and Server and comparable
features as the competition (according to the Product manager the
last time they presented to us).  Business Partners like this product
also - it from DEC with DEC Support.

This is the major problem with DEC - no more software products.  And 
when you're having problems with a product there are no conference to 
get assist from the developers and user community.  This is why I
hate MS Word.  Can't get any assistance.  At least with DECwrite, 
which in my opinion was superior to MS Word, you had TONS of assistance
from Developer's and User's.

The feedback in that URL is defective.  I requested guidelines on how
we should be using and testing the information available.  When I 
sent in my feedback I got the following:

<HEAD><TITLE>400 Bad Request</TITLE></HEAD>
<H1>400 Bad Request</H1><BODY>
Your client sent a query that this server could not understand.<P>Reason:
unknown method "POST"<P>
</BODY>

	Regards,

	 kam

Re: .83

You read incorrectly.  Instead, we're going to have Process Software's
help in beefing up UCX.  There's also work going on for tighter integration
of TCP/IP capabilities in OpenVMS.

					Steve

I'm a developer in the UCX group.  I thought it might be a good idea
to kill the "UCX is dead" rumor before it got too far.

Basically, we have bought the right to incorporate pieces of
Process Software Corp.'s TCPware product into our UCX product.

Here is our latest marketing statement on the issue.

From: fortier@ucx.lkg.dec.com (Mary Ellen Fortier)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms,vmsnet.networks.tcp-ip.ucx
Subject: Re: DEC now cooperates with TCPware
Date: Fri, 9 Sep 94 17:49:13
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Littleton, MA
Lines: 31
Message-ID: <34ql8p$si4@nntpd.lkg.dec.com>
Summary: Digital Response

Several readers have wondered why Process Software Corp. was selected as
Digital's partner in the OpenVMS TCP/IP software market.  Business
partnerships are determined based on a number of factors, never on one
single element.  In evaluating long-term partnerships, organizations
compare partners based on technology, customer, cultural, business models,
and other factors.  Digital conducted a thorough evaluation based on these
and other criteria and determined that the best partnership for Digital to
further its ongoing commitment to OpenVMS customers delivering best-in-
class TCP/IP products was one with Process Software.  This relationship
is a strong statement of Digital's continued commitment to TCP/IP on
OpenVMS.

However, why take our word on it?  Below is a quote given to us by a
leading (independent) industry analyst regarding the Digital/Process
relationship.
 
    	"This is a win-win agreement for both companies.  
    	DEC's commitment to the best-of-breed technology in
    	Process Software's TCPware will result in a stronger,
    	more resilient OpenVMS product offering.  In a networking
    	industry increasingly dominated by robust specialists,
    	TCPware is a solid technology choice for such 
    	a partnership."
    
    	Greg Cline
    	Business Research Group
    	Thursday 8 September 1994

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
M. E. Fortier                                   Fortier@UCX.LKG.DEC.Com
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Subject: Usenet Posting on TCPware
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 94 11:43:18 -0400
From: "M. T. Hollinger" <MyTH@ucx.lkg.dec.com>
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	That is GOOD news!  We have Process Software's TCPWare in house to test and 
reproduce with eXcursion and PATHWORKS and it is a great, SOLID product.  Their
people are a joy to work with.


Tracey

>I'm a developer in the UCX group.  I thought it might be a good idea
>to kill the "UCX is dead" rumor before it got too far.

As RDB engineering tried before to kill the so-called rumor ...

>    <<< Note 3366.88 by KETJE::SYBERTZ "Marc Sybertz@BRO - DTN 856-7572" >>>
>                     -< Are you also part of a big deal ? >-
    
    Absolutely not.  If you or your customer are concerned about the future
    of the product, you can contact the product manager to confirm this. 
    If you're looking for more information about the Process Software deal,
    then Mary Ellen Fortier can help you.  The UCX product itself is
    definitely *not* being cancelled, or sold to a third part.
    
    tim
    Yet Another UCX Developer.
    

    By the way, we have an open req.

Note 3366.89 by NAC::TRAMP::GRADY 
    
    >Absolutely not.  If you or your customer are concerned about the future
    >of the product, you can contact the product manager to confirm this. 
    >If you're looking for more information about the Process Software deal,
    >then Mary Ellen Fortier can help you.  The UCX product itself is
    >definitely *not* being cancelled, or sold to a third part.
    
    i don't doubt your conviction or sincerity of belief tim. but i heard
    almost the exact same words from very senior people in two other
    product areas in the last 6 months. those people and products are
    history. nothing is definite anymore in this company.  not UCX, not
    VMS, not me, not joe next door. its the way it is. and i can assure
    you that the bulk of the customers i deal with daily are even more
    confused. until this company comes out and states, uncategorically,
    what it will continue to pursue, product wise, and in reasonable
    detail, we'll continue to lose customers at an alarming rate. its very
    late in the ballgame and we need a home run. REAL quick.
    

<    By the way, we have an open req.

so does/did rdb...

    That's why I mentioned it - it was a joke.

    Well, Rdb filled some and still has more open reqs.
    
    ed