Now that we have discussed the tremendous value of our nation’s critical legacy software applications and the dearth of developers qualified to enhance and support them, we need to confront the stark reality we will face if the last legacy programmer disappears before we overcome the biggest threat to our economy.
This threat results from hundreds of billions of lines of COBOL and RPG code that run 80% of the world’s financial transactions and the perilous shortage of technical resources capable of supporting them. These scarce COBOL and RPG developers who enhance and support our legacy applications are a vital, irreplaceable prerequisite to the successful digital transformation of our nation’s critical legacy software.
No amount of executive buy in, available funding or powerful technology can obviate the need for these legacy technologists and subject matter experts who perform the heavy lifting. It will take more than:
· the commitment and resolute determination of the leaders of our government agencies and corporations to reinvent and revolutionize how their organizations operate
· abundant Federal infrastructure funding and the formation of public private partnerships dedicated to shoring up our crumbling technology infrastructure
· the most powerful, state of the art technology built by the greatest minds in the industry to address our nation’s greatest vulnerability
There is no substitute for the experts who understand the critical systems and who support them successfully every day. We need experts who are able to:
· configure and run the automation
· evaluate the existing functionality and customize the transformation of the critical software when necessary
· design and implement parallel test scenarios, quality assurance and user acceptance testing
· ensure the comprehensive and equivalent functionality of the transformed and redeployed applications
· plan and execute the phased implementation of this enormous effort while minimizing the risk and disruption to their organization
The invaluable functionality of our critical legacy systems, once our nation’s greatest asset, cannot be preserved and transformed without these essential resources.
The average legacy programmer is at or beyond retirement age and will not be willing or able to assist in this effort indefinitely. Without the help of legacy COBOL and RPG developers, we will suffer a breakdown of our declining enterprise technology infrastructure. How will our government agencies and corporations operate without it?
Time is of the essence. We must act now to fully complete our digital transformation before the last legacy technologist vanishes.
ETS can help you make the transformation https://www.etsassociates.com/contact-us.
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