Month: March 2021

The COBOL programming language became 60 years old in 2019, and the Mainframe environment turned 55. During that time, many technology trends have come and gone. Nevertheless, COBOL has managed to persist through the introduction of PCs (Personal Computers), the Internet, and the popularity of the Java programming language. These major trends seem to find a way to incorporate COBOL instead of eliminating it. The last couple of years, especially with the Global Pandemic, have not been any different in terms of technology trends that have impacted and even strengthened, COBOL. This article touches briefly on 5 of those trends.

1. Modernization:

One such trend is the Modernization of Computer Systems. For example, there is currently a trend for industries to introduce newer technologies to work with and enhance their existing tools. According to a Micro Focus survey, 70% of companies would rather use this method than replace their old systems. In this trending approach, the COBOL code itself could be modernized, and/or modern interfacing technologies could be introduced.

2. Digital Transformation

Similarly, an extension of Modernization is Digital Transformation, where organizations rethink their (old) legacy systems in order to overhaul processes, operations, and relationships with customers. In this procedure, the existing COBOL code is kept but modularized to be used with newer technologies like the Cloud.  As Bartollk (2020) mentions in his article,  COBOL forms the Basis for Digital Transformation, in Digital Transformation, the existing system is recognized as an essential foundational technology and is preserved.

3. New Demand for COBOL Programmers

Since the Covid Pandemic, there has been a higher demand for COBOL programmers, because the old systems are the ones paying the associated benefits such as unemployment payments. According to an article by Murray (2020),  Sudden Demand for COBOL Programmers – They Need Help Too!, COBOL programmers are coming out of retirement to fulfill the need for people to maintain these Benefit systems. This requirement to process unemployment claims on often 40-year-old systems has created a spike in jobs for COBOL programmers.

4. COBOL Course revival

Another recent trend involves the revival of COBOL courses. Most universities and colleges stopped teaching COBOL many years ago, but in response to the demand caused by the pandemic, two of COBOL’s big names, Micro Focus and IBM, have begun rolling out COBOL courses for both beginners and professionals.

5. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI), in terms of COBOL code translation, is another trending topic in the field. For example, the automation involved in AI makes it possible to translate millions of lines of code quickly and generate test cases equally as fast. In this way, legacy code could be replaced with newer technology. In the case of COBOL, an option would be to replace the legacy COBOL code with Java code.

What’s Next?

It is remarkable to see that, after 60 years, COBOL is still such a relevant and newsworthy topic. After all the recent trends related to COBOL, we can only imagine what may be next.

What trends have you noticed lately in the programming world? Are there any that have affected you personally?

Part of providing content through Social Media is to ‘listen’ for information about your chosen niche in order to understand the conversations that you may want to become involved in. Since my focus is COBOL, I make it a point to listen daily for news and articles related to the COBOL programming language. If you have a strong interest in a topic and you are a regular Social Media user, your Social Media listening should evolve naturally as part of that interest. For example, I have instinctively incorporated listening for COBOL topics into my daily Social Media routines, not only to keep up with content others are providing, but because I am genuinely interested in the information shared.

Favorite Social Media Monitoring Tools

Google Alerts

One of my preferred Social Media listening tools is Google Alerts. I set up a daily alert to listen for COBOL content. The results–which generally include articles, courses, and job opportunities–are sent to my email. I can quickly scan through them to find the ones that interest me. I favor this tool because it is free, and it gives me a summary of the information that I am looking for.

LinkedIn and Facebook Searches

Another of my favorite listening methods on Social Media is to search within the applications. For instance, if I search for COBOL within LinkedIn, I get lists of courses, groups, companies, posts, events, etc., all content within the LinkedIn realm that concentrates on COBOL. Similarly, a search for COBOL in Facebook provides related groups, posts, pages, etc. I perform these searches frequently enough to know what is new in these applications in terms of COBOL. I like to use these types of searches since I can perform them easily while I am reviewing my newsfeeds.

Sources of News and Updates

Facebook Newsfeed

One of the best sources that I have of news and updates on COBOL-related topics is a Facebook group called ‘COBOL Programmers’. It has about 18,000 members, and there are frequent, current posts. I have joined this group to get updates into my newsfeed which I review daily. There are articles as well as interesting discussions in this group. This source of information is useful to me since the members are mostly experts in the COBOL programming field.

LinkedIn Newsfeed

Another great source of current COBOL information and discussions are the ‘Mainframe’ group and ‘COBOL Programmers’ group on LinkedIn. They have approximately 47,000 and 15,000 members, respectively. There are frequent, current article and discussion posts to these groups by industry professionals, which makes these groups valuable sources of information.

 

As users of Social Media, we are all listening to our chosen topics. Did you also find that your Social Media ‘listening’ developed naturally, or did you consciously create a listening strategy?