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/