© 2003 Acucorp, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Future of COBOL

by Gerold EkströmAcucorp, Inc.

Agenda Overview

• Introduction

• COBOL’s business advantages

• True value of COBOL applications

• Why an opportunity exists now

• Strong case for preserving the COBOL

• Interoperability provides the key to COBOL’s future

Acucorp

• Founded in 1988

• Headquartered in San Diego, California

• Subsidiaries in France, Germany, Netherlands, U.K.

• Over 1 million end users in 75 countries

• Modern solutions that extend and enhance business applications

Longevity of COBOL

• Predictions of its demise were unfounded.

• The “older generation” outlasted the younger languages.

• COBOL just keeps delivering.

COBOL Advantages

Well-known for Business Strengths

• Reliable, stable language

• Focus is on solving the business problems.

• Natural language statements provide ready access to managers and coworkers.

• Open-ended structure enables interoperability with other technologies.

True Value

Key is Business Logic

• Critical business processes have been automated.

• Hundreds of refinements have occurred over the years.

• Key corporate knowledge is embodied in the COBOL.

• In some cases, that knowledge is not well-understood by current employees. Thus, it exists only in the code.

Why COBOL Can Seem Risky

• No longer fashionable

• Programmers aging

• Youngsters not too keen on COBOL

• Training programs hard to find

• Universities treating COBOL as “dead”

• Hardware and O/S often obsolete

• Some code monolithic and hard to maintain

So Why Keep It?

Sheer volume of well-functioning business routines• Hundreds of thousands of businesses relying on proven COBOL

applications

• Operating smoothly and dependably

• Costly to rewrite or replace

• Risky to rewrite or replace (Capers Jones) - 50% of rewrite projects over budget - 25% behind schedule - over 25% rescheduled or cancelled - final system has less than one-half of planned features

• Business logic is often not understood, thus hard to duplicate

The Opportunity

Preserve the Business Logic

No need to disrupt the business

• COBOL can interoperate with .NET, Visual Basic, Java, C#, XML.

• COBOL functions can become Web Services.

• Programmers can talk to COBOL modules without knowing that the modules are in COBOL.

• COBOL routines can talk to Java and Visual Basic programs without knowing which language they are talking to.

• It’s all about following standard protocols.

The Acucorp Vision

Modularize COBOL at Your Pace

• Identify specific business functions performed by your COBOL.

• Separate each function into a self-contained COBOL module.

• Choose how many you want to start with.

• Identify only those that you wish to expose to the outside world.

• Each module becomes a Web Service.

COBOL as Web Services

Web Services

• COBOL modules are packaged in a standard way.

• Businesses can make use of their own services to structure their code. Over time, companies can clean up their application code at a comfortable pace.

• Communicate with .NET, Java, C#, and Visual Basic programs when it makes sense to do so, without any regard for which language is being addressed.

• Open new markets and add e-commerce capabilities.

Today’s Reality

Not all businesses are ready for interoperability today.

• COBOL-centered applications are thriving.

• Some businesses prefer an all-COBOL approach.

• Acucorp is committed to supporting and enhancing COBOL, just as we have been since 1988.

• Our natural extensions to COBOL are handled in a way that is familiar to COBOL programmers. They can be adopted at a comfortable pace.

• We’ve added verbs to create graphical user interfaces; transparent connectivity to databases; ODBC compatibility; distributed processing; thin clients; a graphical workbench; and much more.

Continuing the Acucorp Path

Embrace Interoperability When Ready

• Acucorp’s technology will offer a simple and elegant way to transition to Web Services.

• Preserve the business rules in the COBOL code.

• Benefit from experienced COBOL developers who know the business processes in addition to the technology.

• Communicate with .NET, Java, C#, and Visual Basic programs when it makes sense to do so.

• Open new markets at a prudent pace.

Summary

• COBOL modules embody critical business logic that can be preserved and can continue to function.

• This presents a huge opportunity.

• To continue to thrive, COBOL must interoperate with new technologies.

• COBOL code can be modularized and exposed to the outside world at a pace that suits the business.

• Many languages can communicate with each other, COBOL included, as long as they adhere to standard communication protocols. In this way, COBOL will benefit businesses for many years to come.

• The biggest challenge will be to extract and document the business rules.

Thank you!