© 2003 Acucorp, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Future of COBOL by Gerold Ekström Acucorp, Inc.

Agenda Overview Introduction COBOL’s business advantages True value of COBOL applications Why an opportunity exists now Strong case for preserving the COBOL Interoperability provides the key to COBOL’s future

Acucorp Founded in 1988 Headquartered in San Diego, California Subsidiaries in France, Germany, Netherlands, U.K. Over 1 million end users in 75 countries Modern solutions that extend and enhance business applications

Longevity of COBOL Predictions of its demise were unfounded. The “older generation” outlasted the younger languages. COBOL just keeps delivering.

COBOL Advantages Well-known for Business Strengths Reliable, stable language Focus is on solving the business problems. Natural language statements provide ready access to managers and coworkers. Open-ended structure enables interoperability with other technologies.

True Value Key is Business Logic Critical business processes have been automated. Hundreds of refinements have occurred over the years. Key corporate knowledge is embodied in the COBOL. In some cases, that knowledge is not well- understood by current employees. Thus, it exists only in the code.

Why COBOL Can Seem Risky No longer fashionable Programmers aging Youngsters not too keen on COBOL Training programs hard to find Universities treating COBOL as “dead” Hardware and O/S often obsolete Some code monolithic and hard to maintain

So Why Keep It? Sheer volume of well-functioning business routines Hundreds of thousands of businesses relying on proven COBOL applications Operating smoothly and dependably Costly to rewrite or replace Risky to rewrite or replace (Capers Jones ) - 50% of rewrite projects over budget - 25% behind schedule - over 25% rescheduled or cancelled - final system has less than one-half of planned features Business logic is often not understood, thus hard to duplicate

The Opportunity

Preserve the Business Logic No need to disrupt the business COBOL can interoperate with.NET, Visual Basic, Java, C#, XML. COBOL functions can become Web Services. Programmers can talk to COBOL modules without knowing that the modules are in COBOL. COBOL routines can talk to Java and Visual Basic programs without knowing which language they are talking to. It’s all about following standard protocols.

The Acucorp Vision Modularize COBOL at Your Pace Identify specific business functions performed by your COBOL. Separate each function into a self-contained COBOL module. Choose how many you want to start with. Identify only those that you wish to expose to the outside world. Each module becomes a Web Service.

COBOL as Web Services Web Services COBOL modules are packaged in a standard way. Businesses can make use of their own services to structure their code. Over time, companies can clean up their application code at a comfortable pace. Communicate with.NET, Java, C#, and Visual Basic programs when it makes sense to do so, without any regard for which language is being addressed. Open new markets and add e-commerce capabilities.

Today’s Reality Not all businesses are ready for interoperability today. COBOL-centered applications are thriving. Some businesses prefer an all-COBOL approach. Acucorp is committed to supporting and enhancing COBOL, just as we have been since Our natural extensions to COBOL are handled in a way that is familiar to COBOL programmers. They can be adopted at a comfortable pace. We’ve added verbs to create graphical user interfaces; transparent connectivity to databases; ODBC compatibility; distributed processing; thin clients; a graphical workbench; and much more.

Continuing the Acucorp Path Embrace Interoperability When Ready Acucorp’s technology will offer a simple and elegant way to transition to Web Services. Preserve the business rules in the COBOL code. Benefit from experienced COBOL developers who know the business processes in addition to the technology. Communicate with.NET, Java, C#, and Visual Basic programs when it makes sense to do so. Open new markets at a prudent pace.

Summary COBOL modules embody critical business logic that can be preserved and can continue to function. This presents a huge opportunity. To continue to thrive, COBOL must interoperate with new technologies. COBOL code can be modularized and exposed to the outside world at a pace that suits the business. Many languages can communicate with each other, COBOL included, as long as they adhere to standard communication protocols. In this way, COBOL will benefit businesses for many years to come. The biggest challenge will be to extract and document the business rules.

Thank you!