Hewlett-Packard purchased the Alpha choice of servers the moment they acquired Compaq who consequently had decided to buy the Alpha brand right after bought out DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) during 1990’s.
The Hewlett-Packard Alpha selection of servers is dependant on the DEC created Alpha processor and customarily runs the VMS os that is renowned for its security and stability. Unsurprising then, that HP Alpha Servers took over as the first selection for numerous MOD and gov departments that desired the upmost amount of safety and security and may afford little down time. Tru64 UNIX had also been introduced for the Alpha platform and the full selection of HP Alpha Servers can operate either OS.
Originally Hewlett-Packard stayed committed to the Alpha equipment and also road maps highlighted support for the Alpha range and VMS software (now identified as OpenVMS) past 2010. The HP Alpha Server spectrum was ultimately dropped to be replaced by the Hewlett-Packard Integrity choice of servers showcasing the new Intel Itanium processor. OpenVMS was optimised to run on the Itanium CPU thus the natural advancement path for typical VMS users was to upgrade to HP Integrity and run the later versions of OpenVMS. HP embarked with a huge project to educate conventional Alpha people and facilitate an enhancement route to Hewlett-packard Integrity. However, there are still many niche market applications which may have never been ported to newer OpenVMS versions and these require older Alpha components that are still capable of running VMS. It has brought about a number of Alpha users in spite of everything requiring Alpha hardware and support services to maintain their core applications functioning.
Few providers at this time have the knowledge and support for customers who still require these legacy Alpha Servers. A few offer used and refurbished servers and parts and so are capable to provide software and hardware rental coupled with hardware and software maintenance. The price of redeveloping software and purchasing new hardware vastly overshadows the cost of keeping a an older server supported and running, hence the marketplace for legacy andused HP Alpha servers currently.
Many of the services offered range from the supply and setting up HP Alpha hardware and software, rental services and on-site software and hardware maintenance services. Rental providers specifically, are extremely useful for brief peak requirements in business (for which you might require extra processors and/or storage products for a reasonably limited period of time), office moves and hardware/software upgrade work (in which you need to run a couple of environments for a restricted period to aid switch over) and identified jobs that only require products for a restricted time.