In the 21st century, searching for professional COBOL
developers might give you a negative impression that you are seeking something
less mainstream, right?
This is an inside story: COBOL programming language, despite
being a 90-year-old brainchild, is very much alive and running – due to its
support for business-critical applications.
Given the abundance of modern programming languages you may
wonder, do I stick to COBOL or replace it with a new-age programming language
such as Python or Java?
Your decision rests on your specific business needs.
Robert Glass, an American software engineer, and writer,
identified 3 ways COBOL is excellently suited for business programming rather
than general purposes –
- COBOL AS400 programming stands out in handling
diverse data sets, mixing strings, floating-point, integer, and decimal
types, required for intricate business programs and databases.
- COBOL’s
true decimal data types guarantee precise financial calculations,
prominent for accounting systems
- IBM COBOL
programming efficiently manages extensive external
record-structured data, promising flawless business-oriented data
management.
Thus, COBOL is a purpose-built language that excels at
transaction processing with a remarkable amount of resiliency.
Before you decide on anything, here are some interesting
facts about COBOL programming language.
- 27,000+
new global companies adopted iSeries COBOL, with the United States, United
Kingdom, and Italy being the top customers – as per 6Sense.
- There
are over 220 billion lines of COBOL programming code and 1.5 billion are
written each year, which includes the code that powers 80% of in-person
financial transactions. – according to Forbes.
- The
top industries leveraging COBOL AS400 are :
- 1.
Insurance
- 2.
Consulting
- 3.
Engineering
- 4.
Banking and Finance
- 5.
Transportation System
- 6.
Software Development
The matter of fact is, that as long as there are companies
and leaders who believe in the legacy system and choose to rely on the
robustness these systems bring to business, COBOL programming language and COBOL
programmers will stay in demand.
What is the reason for iSeries COBOL's relevance despite
technological advances?
COBOL has been a foundation for business and transaction
applications for over a decade now.
Are you thinking why hasn’t anything better replaced
COBOL yet?
To unwind this, we need to understand how COBOL was brought
into operations and how it paddled the era of computing for various industries.
Created in 1959, COBOL was born in the era of
custom-tailored programming languages; the computing era where programming
languages were written for a specific purpose.
For banks, insurance companies, and government institutions
it was a deal of high-cost consumption to join the computing age.
You can imagine the amount required to create a new
programming language to suit their personalized systems, huge right?
This created a demand for a Universal Business Language to
run business operations smoother and faster.
Grace Hopper, the mother of COBOL programming, pioneered the
universal business programming language that could function across business
systems.
Since 1997, there hasn’t been a successor that could carry
the massive batch processing as sturdily as COBOL.
Despite that, replacing billions of lines of COBOL and the
cost involved is unimaginable.
Today, businesses worldwide run over 220 billion lines of
code written in COBOL. It seems practically exhaustive to replace each of the
business programs with a modern language without disturbing the core structure.
In comparison to today’s modern programming languages
– iSeries COBOL programming language is different in
various ways and has certain limitations –
- It
doesn’t allow vibrant memory allocation.
- No
programmer wants to write a compiler code in COBOL.
- It
doesn’t allow easy access to low-level features of the OS.
- The
most common forms of the AS400 COBOL programming language can’t use
recursion.
In modern business terms, COBOL is a domain-specific
programming language and is limited to business domains and programming.
Moving on, let’s explore what sets COBOL apart from
modern programming languages in the modern business world.
How is COBOL Different than Other Languages?
If you’re looking for rational developers for iSeries and
enjoy the perks of common languages such as C, C++, Java, etc., then COBOL is a
completely different form of programming language.
It differs from typical general-purpose language and doesn’t
perform tasks that are commonly performed in high-level programming languages.
Knowing that COBOL was introduced before UNIX and C saw the
light of day, it isn’t surprising that its foundation is laid differently.
As the name describes, COBOL Common Business oriented
Language, was invented for business applications.
Have a look at the list, which highlights the primary
difference between COBOL language and modern-day languages:
- In a
single file, COBOL codes can be very long.
- Data
items are defined with a picture statement.
- Like
COBOL, there is no parametrized functioning.
- Datatypes
(int, float, double) are absent in COBOL.
- OOP
was introduced in COBOL in the year 2002 only.
- All
data items or variables are global, as COBOL calls them.
- COBOL
programmers don’t provide splitting code across various channels.
- Language
codes are divided into different divisions (Data, Identification,
Environment, and Procedure).
Stating the uniqueness of the COBOL language from other
languages, are you wondering where is AS400 COBOL being used in the 21st
century?
Industries Demanding COBOL Developers?
Top Industries using COBOL
COBOL is used in various industries. Have a look at some
significant industries:
- Software
Development Companies
- Banks
& Financial Institutions
- Engineering
Institutions
- Transportation
System
- Government
Agencies
- Insurance
Companies
Despite the widespread usage of COBOL, a question
persists in the minds of new-age AS400 users and decision-makers, such as
yourself – Is it wise to rely on COBOL or move on with trending modern
languages?
Let’s explore.
Should You Hire a COBOL Programmer in 2025?
Even though modern programming languages appear to be young
developers’ first choice, the world needs more languages to work on.
Why?
Because different languages are better at handling different
tasks.
For example – COBOL is good at
processing financial data & number crunching, while Java and C are
effective for front-end UX.
The programming languages must fit the purpose, and
according to the nature of the problem, there should be a language to use.
So, why are modern business leaders, such as yourself,
looking for COBOL programmers instead of writing applications using modern
languages?
Well, there is no harm in staying updated with the
modern-day business languages but when it comes to the security &
robustness of applications, COBOL is the safest bet that business leaders
prefer to take, even after 60 years.
Also, giving a thought to replacing COBOL with trending,
modern language isn’t harmful but dreadful enough to execute due to certain
factors.
Such as
- ROI
triggers
- The
number of resources taken into consideration
- On
top of all, the training costs to get the things right.
These select few factors are enough to lose the replacement
appeal for any business leader.
With the increasing number of retired COBOL developers
besides the ones who are on their way to retire, at times it gets difficult
to source COBOL talent for your development project.
Conclusion
In a world where IT continues to power the business
environment, the longevity of IBM iSeries services and the need for COBOL
programmers in today’s business environment is increasing.
COBOL programmers and IBM iSeries services are here to stay for long.
As demand will grow for non-agile and innovative systems, it
will be challenging to bring any other technology onboard that can merge with
the existing setup.
That’s why COBOL is the best choice even for the new-age
business leaders. And when dissenters continue to challenge the existence of
IBM iSeries services, the COBOL programmers will keep proving
their worth.
If you have any queries regarding the iSeries services or
need COBOL programmers for your project, feel free to connect
with Integrative
Systems at contact@integrativesystems.com.
Integrative Systems is an US-based IBM iSeries consulting
services provider and an IBM Silver Business Partner having served for more
than twenty years in this field.
Source- https://www.integrativesystems.com/cobol-programmers/