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LUGnotes
July 1996

Contents
======================================
Next Meeting: Tuesday, July 30, 1:00pm
The May Meeting
State of the Chapter
Job Listings
Digital Survey
Directions to the CNA Corporation


Next Meeting: Tuesday, July 30, 1:00pm
======================================

ESILUG will meet on Tuesday, July 30, from 1:00-4:00 p.m. at the CNA
Corporation in Alexandria, Virginia (see directions on page 4).  The
agenda is as follows:

1:00     Introductions and Q&A

1:15     Digital Listens
Digital wants to know why current VAX customers have not switched
to Alpha. Dave Baker, Digital Equipment, has a brief survey (enclosed)
that he encourages ESILUG members to complete. At the meeting,
Dave would like to have a dialogue with LUG members about this
subject. Dave will take your "three wishes" back to Digital, whether
they are about business practices (licensing, sales, etc.) or technical
matters. He will return responses to us at our next meeting.

1:30     PolyCenter Overview and Update
Paul Rosenbaum, Digital Equipment, will give a technical overview of the
PolyCenter products, and describe where PolyCenter is headed now
that Computer Associates has acquired some of the PolyCenter
products. He will address how PolyCenter fits into both the OpenVMS
and Windows NT environments.

2:30     Integrating Microsoft Exchange and the Internet into an OpenVMS 
Messaging Environment
Microsoft Exchange is groupware and electronic messaging software
for Windows NT.  It includes gateways for X.400, the Internet and
other Microsoft Exchange Mail Servers.  In this session, Paul
Rosenbaum, Digital Equipment, explains what Microsoft Exchange
means to organizations that are currently running electronic mail on
OpenVMS, and how VMSmail, ALL-IN-1, TeamLinks and Message
Router applications can be integrated into a Microsoft Exchange
environment running on NT.  Jim Taylor, Advanced Paradigms, will
provide a demonstration of Microsoft Exchange.


The May Meeting
===============

ESILUG met on May 21 at Digital Equipment Corporation in Greenbelt,
Maryland. Thanks go to Digital for providing the facility and the
refreshments!  After a quick Q&A session, the main presentations
began.

Digital Clusters for Windows NT
-------------------------------
Steve Davis, Digital Equipment Corporation, gave a technical overview
of Digital Clusters for Windows NT. This product allows two Windows NT 
servers to share disk resources via a shared SCSI bus (and preferably a 
private Ethernet as well). When one system fails, the other system 
assumes its duties. Clients access cluster resources transparently using 
a single cluster name. Optional client software allows automatic failover 
for clients. Microsoft has licensed Digital's clustering technology for 
use in future Microsoft clustering solutions. Steve described some 
failover scenarios and discussed configuration guidelines and tips.

Windows NT for OpenVMS System Managers
--------------------------------------
Jim Becker, System Solutions Incorporated, presented the DECUS session he 
would later give at the June St. Louis symposium. Jim provided a series 
of translations from the terminology and tools of OpenVMS into the 
equivalent terms and tools of Windows NT. Copies of the presentation (and 
other St. Louis session notes) are available on the
DECUS Web page at http://www.decus.org.



State of the Chapter
====================
by Bill Mayhew, President of the DECUS U.S. Chapter

[This is excerpted from an article that appeared June 6, 1996, in
Update.Daily, the daily newsletter of DECUS 96/St. Louis.]
     As the end of the fiscal year approaches, it's a good time to assess 
the state of DECUS US Chapter, reflect on the year just passed, and make 
some suggestions for the future.
     Financially, the Chapter's position is fairly stable, but 
challenging. Our financial state is heavily driven by participation 
levels in our National Events. In addition, some one-time costs, such as 
the market studies by Booz, Allen and Hamilton which were necessary to 
gather enough data to begin to turn around our business performance, had 
a negative effect on this year's finances. We will operate at a 
significant deficit this year.  However, we don't have real numbers yet, 
because our financial condition is so dependent on the spring Event.  The 
audited results will be posted on the chapter's Web pages when available, 
later this summer.
     On the other hand, we are expecting significant improvements next
year, with a return to Anaheim, major attractions as keynote speakers
and a diversified and reinvigorated technical program.
     Attendance and relevance continue to be major focuses of the
Board of Directors. We have invested effort and resources during the
past year to turn the National Event into the kind of activity that our 
traditional audience says they need, and we are beginning to focus on 
reaching out to new audiences in the Windows NT and UNIX spaces.
     The San Francisco event broke the trend line of continuous 
attendance declines, and exceeded our budget estimates, but attendance 
here in St. Louis has not been as high as we would like to see. [A DECUS 
Board member reported that attendance was about 1,500 in St. Louis.]
     The Board has made a strategic decision to further integrate the
attendees' experiences in all portions of the National Event, including 
the Trade Show. This means less marketing content in the technical 
program, but more opportunities for Trade Show vendors to provide 
in-depth technical information on how to use their products....
     We are finding it difficult to recruit volunteers, and some of us
are particularly concerned about where future Program Teams, project
managers, and Board members will be found. But we have completely
revised the methods through which volunteers can propose Chapter
projects, get Board approval and funding, and lead those projects to
fruition....
     DECUS must not lose focus of the fact that to succeed, we must
serve the membership. That is harder than it seems because our
membership consists of many different constituencies, with different
perceptions and needs from a Digital-related user society. The Board's
job is to fully understand those perceptions and needs and to create
or facilitate the projects, services, and relationships that address
them.
     Finally, I want to thank all of you for the privilege of serving
on the Board these last two years, and for serving as President for
the past eleven months. It was an experience I will never forget.


Job Listings
============
- U.S. News & World Report needs Tech. Prgmr/Analysts: Reqd: BS
  Prefrd: VAX/VMS, PCs, Oracle, COBOL, VB. Resume/Sal Req to
  Programmer@USNEWS.COM  EOE  Principals only
- System Solutions Incorporated has three openings: Windows NT
  Administrator, VMS System Manager, Novell Administrator. Contact Jim
  Becker, jbecker@ssi-hq.syssol.com, 301-309-9508 x110.


Digital Survey
==============
Dave Baker, Digital Equipment Corporation

We are trying to find a simple answer to a nagging question...Why
haven't our customers upgraded or migrated to Alpha? If you'll take 5
minutes to complete and fax back this survey below, we will send you a
nice gift for your trouble.

It's as simple as 1,2,3 (and we do 3)!
1.  Please take 5 minutes to complete this form
2.  Please fax back to 301-918-7790 marked "Attention! David Baker",
    or E-mail to dave.baker@cop.mts.dec.com
3.  Receive a nice gift for your trouble!


Name:   
Title:  
Organization:  
Address:  
City/State/ZIP:
Phone:                                         
FAX:  
E-Mail:  

Number of VAXs installed:
Models:  
OpenVMS versions:
Applications/Databases (include versions):  

      
Please indicate the relative importance of each of the following
statements to your decision not to migrate to Alpha at this time by
placing a number (1=most important, 2=next most important, etc.) in
the blank space before the item.  Use "N/A" if the statement does not
apply.  The additional information is optional, but much appreciated.

     Software re-licensing costs are prohibitive.

     The VAXes are running fine and we see no need or benefits
     to migrate to Alpha or 64-bit technology.

     HW incompatibilities between VAX and Alpha. Example:

     Applications not available on Alpha.  Which apps:

     We are moving away from Digital as a vendor.  To whom:

     Too costly in terms of time & resources to migrate. 

     Considering migration, but don't know where to start.

     Technical and Financial obstacles are too great.

     We don't have the money or the time

     Other reason, not listed above:
 
 
Thank you for participating in this survey!!


Directions to the CNA Corporation
=================================
4401 Ford Ave., Alexandria, Virginia

From the Capital Beltway take I395 North to King Street (Rt 7) West,
then turn left at the first light onto Park Center Drive (at Copeland's
restaurant).  Go 1/2 block to the parking garage entrance on the right.
Look for the door on the right near the back of the garage marked CNA. 
Bring your parking ticket into CNA to be validated.  Go to the security
desk in the lobby.  The meeting will be held in the conference room on
the first floor; security will direct you.


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* Computer Sciences Corporation        Fax:   301-794-9530                *
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