Home COBOL’s Not Dead. Make it Play Nice with the Modern Enterprise

COBOL’s Not Dead. Make it Play Nice with the Modern Enterprise

COBOL, one of the oldest programming languages created, is often thought to be as dead as Latin. Yet, as we reported in October, COBOL remains a consistently in-demand skill for enterprise developers. Why? Maybe because, according to an announcement from application modernization company Micro Focus, there are still 220 billion lines of COBOL code in active use in enterprise applications today. Micro Focus claims that COBOL still powers 70% of the world’s businesses.

How do you deal with all that legacy code? One way is to re-write everything. But Micro Focus offers another solution – and no, it’s not COBOL on Cogs. MicroFocus offers a tool called Visual COBOL that enables developers to deploy COBOL code to Windows, UNIX, Linux, .NET and Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and the Microsoft Windows Azure. Visual COBOL translates COBOL code directly to the JVM, allowing developers integrate COBOL applications with Java.

Visual COBOL integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio and Eclipse to give developers a modern programming environment for COBOL.

From Micro Focus’s announcement:

“There is an ongoing shift towards examining the impact and specific role of the chosen language in conjunction with selecting a platform,” said Mark Driver, Research Vice President of Gartner Research. “Taking COBOL to new platforms like .NET, JVM or the cloud supports a growing trend toward developers choosing the best language for the job, independent of the choice of best deployment platform to use.”

The obvious advantage is that this is much quicker and cheaper than re-writing all these legacy applications from scratch. The disadvantage is that there will still be a lot of COBOL lurking around your enterprise. But that might not be such a bad thing.

Some more interesting tidbits from the announcement:


  • COBOL systems are responsible for transporting up to 72,000 shipping containers, caring for 60 million patients, processing 80% of point-of-sales transactions and connecting 500 million mobile phone users.

  • It has been estimated that the average American relies on COBOL at least 13 times during the course of a routine day as they place phone calls, commute to and from work, and use credit cards.

  • Around 5 billion lines of new COBOL code are added to live systems every year.

  • There are over 200 times more transactions processed by COBOL applications than Google searches each day.

About ReadWrite’s Editorial Process

The ReadWrite Editorial policy involves closely monitoring the tech industry for major developments, new product launches, AI breakthroughs, video game releases and other newsworthy events. Editors assign relevant stories to staff writers or freelance contributors with expertise in each particular topic area. Before publication, articles go through a rigorous round of editing for accuracy, clarity, and to ensure adherence to ReadWrite's style guidelines.

Get the biggest tech headlines of the day delivered to your inbox

    By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Unsubscribe anytime.

    Tech News

    Explore the latest in tech with our Tech News. We cut through the noise for concise, relevant updates, keeping you informed about the rapidly evolving tech landscape with curated content that separates signal from noise.

    In-Depth Tech Stories

    Explore tech impact in In-Depth Stories. Narrative data journalism offers comprehensive analyses, revealing stories behind data. Understand industry trends for a deeper perspective on tech's intricate relationships with society.

    Expert Reviews

    Empower decisions with Expert Reviews, merging industry expertise and insightful analysis. Delve into tech intricacies, get the best deals, and stay ahead with our trustworthy guide to navigating the ever-changing tech market.