It’s been decades since COBOL was considered a cutting-edge programming language, but a new survey from Micro Focus and Harris Interactive found that COBOL is still critical to many enterprise applications. Among those surveyed, 85 percent said COBOL apps play a strategic role in their business, and 92 percent of COBOL apps with at least 1 million lines of code are considered strategic.
Other key findings from the survey included the following:
- Half of COBOL applications remain in use for at least 10 years.
- 55 percent of COBOL apps will be modernized over the next 24 months.
- 52 percent of COBOL developers use Agile software development processes.
- 26 percent of COBOL developers are over the age of 55, and 64 percent are over the age of 45.
