Archive - News and Events

January 2010

News - NHS Blood and Transplant - case study by HP

Watch the NHS Blood and Transplant "Pulse renewal" project keynote video.

Read the NHS Blood and Transplant "Pulse renewal" project case study by HP.

Read the NHS Blood and Transplant "Pulse renewal" project Availability Digest article.

It describes how the NHSBT made use of HP OpenVMS systems on Integrity Servers to build and run the world's biggest single donor database and blood product production control system. The disaster-tolerant system infrastructure was designed and built by XDelta on behalf of HP in collaboration with the application provider and system maintainer Savant. The database vendor was Mimer. The hardware reseller was OCSL.

Further details about the "Pulse renewal" project and its success in the 2009 Itanium Solutions Alliance Innovation Awards are available here.

June 2005

OpenVMS Symposium (advanced technical bootcamp), HP OpenVMS Engineering, Nashua, New Hampshire, USA

The John Wisniewski Spirit Award

VMS Engineering created this award in 2004 in memory of a larger-than-life guy called John Wisniewski. He was a well-known and passionate OpenVMS expert who poured huge amounts of energy into his teaching, writing and consulting work. John was the guy who started the OpenVMS Hobbyist programme and who trounced all-comers at DEFCON with an impregnable OpenVMS system.

Previous recipients are Brian Schenkenberger (of Tmesis in the USA) and Al Meier (OpenVMS Ambassador for HP in the USA). This years recipients are Colin Butcher (of XDelta Limited in the UK) and Kerry Main (OpenVMS Ambassador for HP in Canada).

Colin was presented with the John Wisniewski Spirit Award by Ann McQuaid (head of HP OpenVMS Engineering) at the HP OpenVMS Symposium in June 2005. This award from peers and colleagues within the VMS community around the world recognises the outstanding contribution, quality and value of his work over many years.

On a more personal note - it came as a huge surprise and it is a wonderful thing to have received. Thank you.