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Debating the necessity of moving away from mainframe and COBOL because experts are becoming scarce is a misconception. The real thorn in the side of modern businesses is the loss of control over their legacy applications. These applications, often managed by experts navigating blindly, are offered miracle cures that only thicken the technological fog and increase technical debt.
These systems, designed 40 or 50 years ago, are silent witnesses to a bygone era, yet they remain at the core of today’s IT infrastructure. Imagine: in 2024, we are juggling ancient applications in a world saturated with technological innovations like AR/VR, cloud computing, and AI. Billions of lines of COBOL code are still in use, discreetly but efficiently orchestrating the backstage operations of vital sectors such as healthcare, banking, insurance, transportation, and government administrations worldwide. This is a colossal, complex, and often misunderstood legacy, perfectly symbolizing the adage: “You can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you come from”. This knowledge of our IT origins is crucial for navigating the technological future.
The instinctive reaction to this legacy has often been to seek to replace it with turnkey solutions promising simplicity and modernity. From modern programming languages to cutting-edge development platforms, the offer is vast, but the execution often proves disappointing. Attempts at modernization sometimes result in spectacular failures, swallowing astronomical sums for zero or counterproductive results.
With the advent of AI, a new path seems to open: understanding and automated analysis of old code. ChatGPT, Watsonx Code Assistant, and other AI tools promise a revolution in the approach to legacy systems. However, while these technologies offer fascinating prospects, they do not replace the intuitive and deep understanding of systems that only a human can have. This is where the true strength of AI lies: not as a replacement but as a complement to human expertise.
The real challenge lies in conveying the original intent of the developer, this tacit knowledge that has dissipated over time. AI tools, as advanced as they are, struggle to grasp this intention without close collaboration with humans who still possess this knowledge. We are on the brink of an era where AI could potentially recreate and document this intention, but for this, it must be guided by those who still have an intimate understanding of the systems in question.
This symbiosis between human and machine could pave the way for a reclamation of our IT heritage, where every inherited line of code would be the foundation for building the future system. It is a process of rediscovery, where cutting-edge technology and ancestral knowledge meet to reinvent our digital world.
This is a call for the mobilization of the last guardians of this essential knowledge. Their expertise is crucial for educating our legacy AI systems to secure and transform our IT infrastructures in a sustainable and efficient way. In parallel, at CobolCloud, we are working on developing a suite of tools and methodologies based on open source to facilitate this transition. Our goal is to break the dependence on software vendors and strengthen the autonomy and sovereignty of our information systems.
This ambitious project must rely on a synergy between traditional human expertise and the innovative capabilities of AI. Together, they can not only preserve but also revitalize our IT heritage, ensuring a safe and dynamic technological future.
In conclusion, reclaiming our enterprise applications primarily developed in COBOL requires rediscovering the spirit and intentions of the Original Programmer. This is the first essential step that will allow us to rethink our Information System as a whole, integrating the core of COBOL applications with today’s emerging technologies.
Published on: programmez.com
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