Conference azur::mcc

5791.0. "letter to worried DECmcc customer" by BIGUN::ANDERSON (The Unbearable Fuzziness of Marketing) Fri Dec 17 1993 01:21

    [also posted in the IMDOWN::NETVIEW conference]
    
    what follows is a letter written in response to one of our local
    DECmcc users concerns on where they were with DECmcc and Netview.
    
    Its not been approved by corporate POLYCENTER folks.
    
    Keith
    POLYCENTER Marketing, Australia

    	  <to address>


          Dear <>

          Thank your for your letter of <>. Firstly, let me
          assure you, that I appreciate your concern about the
          POLYCENTER Netview program announcement, and understand the
          level of investment taken to establish your DECmcc-based
          management environment.

          The reason for your staff receiving little information with
          regard to migrating to POLYCENTER Netview relates to the
          sensitivity of the joint announcement with IBM, and the
          subsequent development of plans for that program.

          POLYCENTER Engineering is drafting a plan that will identify
          the future directions of DECmcc, the new Netview manager, and
          the migration path for those DECmcc users that decide to move
          to a Netview manager framework. That plan will outline the
          functionality intended in the DECmcc to Netview convertors,
          license migration strategy & pricing, and the services
          available to plan and implement network management frameworks
          and migrate from DECmcc to Netview.

          While we have the preliminary details now, we should see the
          first full version of the migration plan very early in the
          new calendar year, and we will provide an update for you on
          the progress of the plan, by the last week of January.

          Digital plans major announcements in February, which will
          include more detail on POLYCENTER Netview.

          In response to your four queries:

            -  POLYCENTER Netview will have a different level of
               functionality to DECmcc. In some areas, Netview will be
               superior and in others DECmcc will be superior (such as
               support for very old devices). For example, Netview will
               provide better SNMP support and a better user interface.

            -  The migration is intended to be as low cost as possible
               with minimum disruption. Due to the long time period
               available for migration (DECmcc users can take years to
               migrate if they desire), migration will probably be a
               staged process.

            -  The intent with POLYCENTER Netview is to lower the
               operational support costs below those required to
               support DECmcc. Initially, this may not be the case due
               to the need to become familar with the new framework -
               training will be available to overcome this.

            -  Digital will provide a skilled trained representative to
               assist you to plan, develop, implement, and manage any
               migration to POLYCENTER Netview.

          We look forward to meeting with you in the new year, to
          provide a further update.


          Yours sincerely


	  <>

	  Summary of key points:

            -  DECmcc Status: DECmcc currently is the management
               product of choice for the OpenVMS VAX platform
               environment, and will continue to be supported for at
               least 3 years. Digital acknowledges that in that period,
               there may be reasons as to why another platform may
               become a better network and system management platform.
               DECmcc is being maintained, with new operating system
               version support being planned today.

            -  POLYCENTER Netview is intended to become a superior
               management platform over time. Any differences in level
               of functionality between DECmcc and Netview are being
               documented. These differences will be identified in
               technical documents describing the two frameworks, and
               how to migrate/convert a DECmcc system to a Netview
               system. The Netview platform will be released in a
               staged fashion with increasing levels of capability at
               each stage, probably spanning 1994 and into early 1995.
               This will be most noticeable with the level of DECnet 
               support, which will increase over that time period. At
               this time, definite plans have not been announced for
               the level of support for older (non-SNMP) terminal
               servers, bridges, and routers.

            -  Digital entered into joint engineering and marketing
               relationships with IBM and Microsoft on Netview to
               obtain the broadest number of ISV integrated
               applications. Recently, Microsoft, IBM, and Digital have
               announced the intent to integrate Microsoft's HERMES
               into Digital's port of Netview onto Windows NT, to
               integrate management in that environment too.

            -  Digital is engineering DECnet and OSI support into the
               POLYCENTER Netview framework so that non-SNMP OSI
               environments can be managed.

            -  Technical differences between POLYCENTER NetView and
               DECmcc will be documented.

            -  Digital will document how to plan and implement the
               process of migration.

            -  A technical convertor will be developed to automate the
               conversion of DECmcc structures, alarms, etc.. into
               Netview.

            -  DECnet IV and OSI management will be developed as
               additional modules, but users migrating from DECmcc will
               receive equivalent modules at minimum cost.

            -  The exact capabilities of the convertor and migration
               process will be evolved by directly working with some
               key customers. Digital is considering allowing a year
               for the final version of the migration process to be
               determined.

            -  As much of the conversion process will be automated as
               is reasonably possible.

            -  As Netview licenses involve a royalty payment to IBM, a
               small cost for license migration is possible.

            -  One idea being considered is that DECmcc customers who
	       purchased the highest level of DECmcc support (e.g. Framework
	       400, 200) will have the lowest license migration costs,
	       reflecting the high level of service those customers are paying
	       for. 
    
    	    -  It is clear yet for what time period that the cheap license
               migration offer may be available.