Oxford University Press wins oldest HP-UX prize
A server running happily after 10 years of service wins Hewlett-Packard's hunt to find the U.K.'s oldest, working HP-UX installation.
The find is the result of a competition, launched by Hewlett-Packard in April, to locate the oldest HP-UX installation in continuous service.
The server belongs to Oxford University Press, the publishing arm of the elite university, and it's still running happily after more than 10 years of service.
Oxford University Press is the largest university book publisher in the world, and the Oxford English Dictionary is its largest project. The publisher has 11 terabytes of data stored on its main systems alone, including 5TB in production. Its old HP-UX systems sit happily in a data center alongside its multicore alternatives.
As recognition of its support for HP-UX, HP has awarded Oxford University Press a prize of an entry-class Integrity server, a license for HP-UX 11i v3, installation and a three-year "Support plus 24" care pack from HP. The award was received by technical project manager Geoff Butler.
Oxford University Press' HP-UX server is used to track the life cycle of its books. The system was based on a package which was developed over a period of three years or so, Butler said. Once the Oxford University Press was happy, the system ran--and ran. "It just does a job well," Butler said. "But it is an important job--mission-critical."
The server fits into a wide range of systems at the publisher, running various applications, including Oracle and SAP, which Butler also works on.
Colin Barker of ZDNet UK reported from London.