It seems to me that some companies are looking to move off COBOL and mainframes to say Linux and Java, because that is what someone was employed to do, not because it's necessarily a good idea.
I think COBOL systems would be plenty maintainable if the owners of the systems invested in maintaining them. If companies just let people retire, attempt to hire replacements with unremarkable salaries, then maintenance is a problem.
If they paid salaries that reflected how critical this work is, I don't think it would be that big a problem to find and keep good developers.
We have critical economic infrastructure being treated as annoyance and a cost centre.
I think COBOL systems would be plenty maintainable if the owners of the systems invested in maintaining them. If companies just let people retire, attempt to hire replacements with unremarkable salaries, then maintenance is a problem.
If they paid salaries that reflected how critical this work is, I don't think it would be that big a problem to find and keep good developers.
We have critical economic infrastructure being treated as annoyance and a cost centre.