Legacy Systems has been in use for the past number of decades. Their functions range from running financial transactions such as ATM systems to management information systems all over the world. COBOL the Common Business-Oriented Language is an example of a legacy system. However, the convergence of Computers, digital technologies and the innovations over the internet platform in the last decade calls for elimination of legacy based systems and substituting it with client-server or web-based systems. The information technology management curriculum should not include learning more about COBOL and legacy system software.
Old systems run by COBOL are found in almost all government systems irrespective of location. These include payroll systems, Medicaid Management Information Systems, state financial systems, unemployment benefits and tax systems. Essentiality it is correct to say that almost 90% of state agencies are run by more than 2 decade old COBOL code. A bid to modernize these systems by installing new modules to keep up with the latest internet based technologies is usually unsuccessful because of lack of interoperability between legacy and new technologies. Forcing COBOL to do something it was not intended to do is far much worse than building a new system. COBOL systems were built at a time (50s and 60s) when internet has not been invented. As such, it cannot be integrated with modern technologies to yield the same favorable results.
It is evident that internet is the primary key to success in today’s business as companies need to optimize, implement and rationalize workflows with little risks and vulnerabilities. They need to deliver specialized technology-based business solutions in real time to increase service delivery and improve customer experience. This is possible through utilization of internet as a platform of communication. Emerging information and communication technologies hinged on internet have immense strength on business world in sustaining growth and improving customer experience. However, the fact that legacy systems were specifically build for a platform other than the internet means that they cannot be continually utilized in this age to provide enhanced performance and support real time business processes. This trickles down to colleges and universities. It would be a waste of time and resources to still hold on to COBOL and legacy systems software in the information technology management curriculum yet they would soon be phased out.
Old systems has witnessed recently have real impacts on the delivery of services. According to NASCIO, old UI systems performed ineffectively in delivering services under an increased demand. As a result of economic recession, an overwhelming demand for unemployment claims was reported in the US and the increased demand literary crashed the states back-end databases and websites. At this era where each and every second matters in terms of service delivery, there is need to shun the old systems and implement new and operational systems. The old systems running on ancient programming languages such as COBOL fail to keep up with expanding business needs and as a result causing looses amounting to billions of dollars. California’s Employment Development Department is an example of a state department that experienced dire consequences as a result of failed legacy systems. Congress repeatedly had to extend the length of time individuals could get unemployment benefits as COBOL programmers toiled over line of code in their 1970s system.
Old systems are not efficient in terms of security. In their deployment, web service presentation layer is put in front of a old legacy environment. Since they are internet-incompatible in nature, they present added complexity and weaker security than a modern portfolio built with security features from the ground up. Further, legacy systems lack the functionality for efficient data reporting. Government departments and private entities using these systems lack transparency in their data reporting since the data is held back in the system with no functionality to pull it out for better decision making.
According to an annual survey conducted by NASCIO on upgrading legacy systems with modern technologies, more than half of the CIO revealed that their respective companies or departments were at an advanced stage of replacing the old systems. Many states in the US (27) reported in 2009 to have implemented or planning to implement ERP as a replacement of the old systems(Reilly, 2006). In spite of the financial impacts it would have on federal and state governments, it is notable that collaborative attempts to implement multi-state systems are in the right direction. Of more concern in the use of COBOL and legacy systems and software is the wave of retirements expected among senior IT staff. NASCIO estimates that CIOs expect a shift out of 30% of their staff in the next five years. Loss of expertise to execute and maintain more than 220 billion line of code in COBOL is a sign of automatic exit in the technology world. This is another reason why the information technology management curriculum should abandon COBOL and legacy systems. A common believe among business executives and CIOs is that old systems are not efficient any more to gather for the anticipated service delivery and advanced security. The price tag for modernizing state systems is high with majority of US states reporting an estimated $30 million to $120 million for an ERP as per statistics from University of Wisconsin-Platteville (2006).
The simple fact that there is tons of working legacy code in use and which require maintenance should not be the sole motivation to holding on to outdated and inefficient technology. New efficient solutions are created everyday in the technology world and it takes less effort than continuously and slowly improving on those that have been in existence for decades.
An increasing number of Universities and colleges are abandoning COBOL programming language as a result of its verbose nature that does not align with the mathematical model and orientation. Modern and more exciting languages such as Java C# and Scala are being used providing more powerful support for programmers by allowing them to concentrate on the ideas behind the program rather than the mechanics. The trend is replicated in the business world where cost-efficiency, flexibility, operability and security are desired. Aging systems will definitely stop working some day and as much as most business entities as wary of transitioning to the new systems, it is a necessity that must take effect some day. In order to overcome challenges posed by old software solutions, a total war is declared to get rid of it(Bannister, 2011). The first phase of declaring war on legacy systems should start from abandoning it from the information technology management curriculum. Afterwards, viable applications are used to migrate the usable COBOL codebase TO Java and related platforms. This will ensure that the transition is successful without business losses and other detrimental impacts.
References
Khan, M. B. (2003). COBOL. Encyclopedia of Information Systems Volume 1I (pp 113-126). :. In B. V. New York: Academic Press.
Narins, B. (2002). World of Computer Science. . Detroti, MI: : Gale Group Thomson Learning.
Williams, M. CIO’s seek ways to replace legacy systems. CIOZone. . Retrieved from http://www.ciozone.com/index.php/Government-IT/CIOs-Seek-Ways-to-Replace-Legacy-Systems.html.
Bannister, D. (2011, Dec 2.). Managing complexity – living with legacy systems. Banking Technology. Retrieved fromhttp://www.aciworldwide.com/en/News-and-events/ACI-in-the-news/111202-Managing-complexity-living-with-legacysystems.aspx
Reilly, Edwin D. (2003). Milestones in Computer Science and Information Technology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
