Retiring Programmers Create Cloud Headaches For Mainframe Users
Cloudtech, Tuesday, June 17th, 2025
There are few advantages to growing old, but if you were lucky enough to train, back in the hidden midst of times past, in programming languages COBOL or PL/I, you may have landed in later life into a well-paid role maintaining legacy mainframe systems.
A large part of the market for mainframes collapsed in the 1990s when the price of computing and mass storage fell dramatically. But mainframes still exist, and continue to run to this day, powering at least parts of essential systems in industries such as finance, insurance, government departments, and retail.
But as the last generation of COBOL programmers seek a well financially-cushioned retirement, companies are being left with the prospect of core systems failing, and no one qualified to keep them running. Now available in AWS Zones based in North Virginia, US and Frankfurt, Germany, and initially presented at re:Invent 2024, the AWS Transform for Mainframe can help companies transition from 'big iron' to cloud native platforms. The transition brings the advantages of scalability and extensibility, factors that limited the possibilities open to decision-makers in organisations whose core computing functions were based on mainframes like the IBM z series.