COBOL at 60 — a Living Legend
A White Paper from Micro Focus International
Thomas Carlyle's saying "No pressure, no diamonds" can apply to many things, but to the COBOL programming language? In the digital era where the only constant is change, COBOL's Diamond Anniversary is the perfect milestone to assess the pressures it has endured to remain at the top of its game six decades on.
This white paper looks at the topic through three dimensions:To access the full publication, click here: COBOL at 60 — a Living Legend
- Why the world needs robust — and ever-changing — business technology
- What Innovation means in terms of technology, and talent
- The special ingredients that gave COBOL its everlasting power
Thoughts on Turning 35
An essay by Bonnie Castello
Highlights - Forecross mines internal data, discovers wealth for clients.
✓ dramatic price reductions
✓ Fixed-Price Guaranty
✓ additional no-cost services during vendor evaluation
✓ expanded focus on staff expertise
Approaching our company's 35th anniversary and riding a wave of nostalgia, a group of curious Forecross staff members launched what we now refer to as our "Big Dig." No, we were not attempting to build another tunnel under Boston Harbor.
To access the full publication, click here: Forecross: Thoughts on Turning 35
It's Not Magic
An essay by Don Estes on the design of automated modernization projects
When there is residual value in a legacy application, an automated modernization project can extract and use that value in a highly cost/effective manner. Of course, in some cases this is futile, but in many if not most projects it has significant technical and financial merit.
An automated modernization project, also referred to as a "conversion", "migration", "legacy revitalization" or "legacy renewal" project, is inherently different from most projects in which IT professionals will participate during their careers, and in several different ways. When this specialized type of project goes awry, it is almost always from a failure to appreciate these differences and to allow for them in the project plan.
Properly controlled, an automated modernization project should be the least risky of any major project, but a failure to implement the proper controls can make it a very risky project indeed. Automated modernization projects obtain their substantial cost savings and short delivery schedules by extracting highly leveraged results from the automation. However, it is easy to forget that a lever has two arms, and - improperly implemented - you can find leverage working against you rather than for you in your project.
To access the full publication, click here: It's Not Magic
CA's "Cash Cow in the Basement" Scheme Continues
A LinkedIn blog by Christopher O'Malley, President and CEO at Compuware
Posted September 3, 2016 - CA's "Cash Cow in the Basement" scheme that declares victory on their mainframe business and aggressively harvests profits at the consequence of customer value continues. CA cut mainframe R&D investment by another $3M during the last quarter adding to the $116M in...
Updated January 25, 2018 - Well in the time that's passed since this blog was written, CA has kept good on its promise, with the precise of a surgeon's scalpel, to maintain margins through expense cuts on CA's Mainframe Solutions group relative to...
To access the full publication, click here: Cash Cow in the Basement
What You Need to Know About Modernization
An essay by Don Estes on when and how to approach a modernization project
Modernization of existing software applications, including especially the rationalization of multiple applications with similar purposes into one, has to be evaluated on the basis of cost, risk, and business value within the constraints of available resources. Doing so is not a skill possessed by most IT professionals, so all estimates should be suspect unless the person has a solid track record with modernization projects and sufficient range of experience to be credible. Even then, it is advisable to retain a healthy skepticism, as the next project may range outside their experience.
To access the full publication, click here: What You Need to Know About Modernization