The IT 'cowboys' didn't ride into sunset.
They were fired by banks which are/were stupid enough to cut corners on people who know things about their infrastructure before migrating to more modern systems.
FTA:
>One COBOL programmer, now in his 60s, said his bank laid him off in mid-2012 as it turned to younger, less expensive employees trained in new languages.
>In 2014, the programmer [...] was brought in as a contractor to the same bank to fix issues management had not anticipated.
Also FTA:
>Accenture’s Starrs said they go through a “black book” of programmer contacts, especially those laid off during or after the 2008 financial crisis.
>The job ultimately took five years and cost more than 1 billion Australian dollars ($749.9 million).
So, in short: a bank fired some old people to pay a billion dollars to a contractor who would hire the same (!) people to do the job.
The 'problem' is entirely self-made.
They were fired by banks which are/were stupid enough to cut corners on people who know things about their infrastructure before migrating to more modern systems.
FTA:
>One COBOL programmer, now in his 60s, said his bank laid him off in mid-2012 as it turned to younger, less expensive employees trained in new languages.
>In 2014, the programmer [...] was brought in as a contractor to the same bank to fix issues management had not anticipated.
Also FTA:
>Accenture’s Starrs said they go through a “black book” of programmer contacts, especially those laid off during or after the 2008 financial crisis.
>The job ultimately took five years and cost more than 1 billion Australian dollars ($749.9 million).
So, in short: a bank fired some old people to pay a billion dollars to a contractor who would hire the same (!) people to do the job.
The 'problem' is entirely self-made.