Do You Know Cobol? If So, There Might Be a Job for You. -- Journal Report
September 21 2018 - 1:58PM
Dow Jones News
By Max Colchester
Ten years before man walked on the moon, a group of software
engineers created the Common Business-Oriented Language -- better
know as Cobol -- to standardize business computer programming.
Not long after, in the early 1960s, Bill Hinshaw began plying
his trade as one of the thousands of Cobol programmers working in
banks across the world. Now, more than 50 years later, the
76-year-old coder is still working in Cobol, much to his
amazement.
"I was coming to the end of my career and I thought that Cobol
might be going away," says Mr. Hinshaw. "But it has actually
grown."
Indeed, despite its advanced age, Cobol is still the most
prevalent programming language in the financial-services industry
world-wide. Software programmed in Cobol powers millions of banking
transactions every day and underpins critical computer
mainframes.
And Cobol isn't going away anytime soon. Banks and other
companies have come to the uncomfortable realization that ripping
out old mainframes is pricey and complicated. Transitioning to new
systems is likely to take years, and besides, a lot of the older
tech works just fine.
The problem is that Cobol isn't popular with new programmers.
So, with a generation of Cobol specialists retiring, there is a
continuing hunt to find a new generation of programmers to service
this technology.
In Texas, Mr. Hinshaw's company, the Cobol Cowboys, a group of
mostly older programmers, is training U.S. military veterans in the
programming language. Accenture PLC is coaching hundreds of Cobol
programmers every year in India and the Philippines to work at
banks. In Malaysia, one consultancy that provides engineers versed
in Cobol for its clients, iTAc MSC Outsourcing, has adopted the
slogan "Keeping the Dinosaurs Alive."
A host of companies offer online courses in Cobol in places like
South Africa, India and Bangladesh. Developing economies are key
technology-outsourcing centers for banks.
Can't let go
Detractors say Cobol isn't versatile and results in reams of
code, because it is partly written in actual English words. It's
also used to configure mainframes, which isn't exactly a
career-enhancing proposition for young coders in an era dominated
by cloud computing.
Still, for banks that expect to be tied to their old technology
to some extent for the foreseeable future, fluency in Cobol remains
key. While a bunch of smaller banks have successfully ripped out
their old core processing systems, no major bank has dared to do
so, says John Schlesinger, chief enterprise architect at Temenos, a
company that sells software to banks. The cost of a major overhaul
and the risk of a botched upgrade leaving customers without access
to their bank accounts are too great, he says.
That's not to say old technology isn't costly for banks. Finance
companies are expected to spend $261 billion on technology this
year, with 67% of that spent on maintaining older systems,
according to research company Celent. And it's expensive and
complex to bolt onto these systems the kind of new, snazzy services
that a wave of emerging financial-technology companies are pitching
to consumers.
Several companies are making hay while the sun still shines on
Cobol. Micro Focus International PLC is offering courses to some
400 colleges to train Cobol programmers. The company, one of whose
specialties is upgrading old computer systems, polled its customers
last year and found that 90% plan to use Cobol systems for the next
decade.
"We don't see that demand going anytime soon," says Derek
Britton, who runs a unit at Micro Focus that modernizes old
systems.
Nod to Hollywood
Mr. Hinshaw's Cobol Cowboys -- the name is a nod to the Clint
Eastwood movie "Space Cowboys," about a crew of aging test pilots
-- has a team of some 200 freelance coders. The average age is
around 60. "They can work when they want to," says Mr. Hinshaw.
"They can spend time with their grandchildren."
When it comes to coding, age is in the eye of the beholder, says
Mr. Hinshaw. Several other coding languages have comfortably
slipped into useful middle age. For instance, the coding language
"C" -- one of the most popular of all time -- is still widely used
more than 45 years after it came on the scene.
And Cobol isn't retiring on his watch, Mr. Hinshaw says. "I
don't see Cobol going away in my lifetime."
Mr. Colchester is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in
London. He can be reached at max.colchester@wsj.com.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 21, 2018 13:43 ET (17:43 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Accenture (NYSE:ACN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024