[bastardoperator]

Could they not get more juice out of a single, modern server? I get porting over to a new system and migrating is a huge time suck and a good enough reason not to do it if everything is working, just seems excessive for 14 cores.

[Macha]

> Could they not get more juice out of a single, modern server

They could probably get more performance out of one core on a modern phone, never mind a single modern server. But you see some really old systems in a lot of equipment, not because the porting costs are expensive, but the certification of proving the new system works the same is more than the operational cost of the legacy equipment.

[api]

I’ve heard of consultants who will virtualize systems like this in place using qemu emulation of CPUs like Alpha and Sparc and run it on a single server or in the cloud.

[dragonwriter]

Sure, but the capital and one-time cost of acquiring and shifting to the modern server would be non-zero, and it would entail some risk. (While OpenVMS is maintained and runs on newer systems, that doesn't mean the software that matters on the existing cluster would run without modification.)

It probably would save operating costs, and probably over a reasonably short window, if it was done successfully, though.

[rubitxxx10]

> Could they not get more juice out of a single, modern server?

Maybe the software they use won’t easily run on a modern server.

You could ask them, but you might have to hook up your modem and try to call them. Maybe they have a BBS you could leave your question on.