Mainframe Brain Drain Raises Serious Concern

[steve2470]

http://www.informationweek.com/infrastructure/networking/mainframe-brain-drain-raises-serious-concern/d/d-id/1127720?f_src=informationweek_editorspicks_rss&google_editors_picks=true

The sharpest young gun in your IT shop might have a precocious set of in-demand skills, from cloud computing to mobile development to Hadoop and other big data platforms. But ask them to find their way around a mainframe, and they'll likely say: "A what?"

Keith Kohl, director of product management at Syncsort, recently encountered this firsthand when speaking with a group of Hadoop pros. "They understood Hadoop, they understood big data, they understood distributed -- like Linux -- systems," Kohl said in an interview. But there was a notable gap in the group's collective expertise. "It became apparent they didn't even know what a COBOL copybook is, which is absolutely required for mainframe data -- it's one of the most common schemas for mainframe files. They don't even understand how to get the structure of mainframe files and use that to ingest mainframe data into Hadoop [or elsewhere]."

While you might not find the mainframe much in today's startup environments, many longstanding enterprises still rely on the machines, which date back to the 1950s. That's especially true in sectors such as banking and financial services, healthcare, retail, and telecommunications, according to Kohl. The lack of mainframe experience among younger generations of IT pros could become a pressing problem for CIOs in those and other fields in the not-so-distant future.

"The people that do run the mainframes are starting to retire," Kohl said. "It's not uncommon for the systems programmers, the mainframe developers [and] architects, to have been in their jobs for over 30 years, 35, even 40 years -- which is getting up there."

*end*

Don't we have a few COBOL programmers here on DU ?

[valerief]

1. Identification, Data, Environment, Procedure.

Yeah, but all the jobs have been shipped to India first and now China. Why would anyone learn COBOL, JCL, VSAM (more DB2 now, of course) programming if they can't get a job using it?

[Larkspur]

2. I'm a mainframe COBOL programmer

have been so for over 30 years.

I work in the financial services sector. Was laid off in 2008 but got hired back by my former employer's temp service company, so since July 2009 I have been a contractor doing work for my former employer similar to what I did when I was laid off.

[wandy]

3. Ya just gotta love it. COBOL, sure but I prefer Assembler............

This from a retiree who spent his Sunday making a small office's "video games" fly in formation.
Oh well, its beer money.

[seveneyes]

4. A Ginzo Graduate could make a bit of money peddling some JCL now

With a secure 3270 connection, Grandpa or Grandma can work from home and make a little extra on the side.

[hootinholler]

5. I never coded COBOL

I always found it ugly and wordy.

PL/I now that's where it's at! Anyone remember ISPF?

[longship]

6. I used COBOL years ago.

It is a horrible computer language. Totally non-procedural. Code reuse is pretty damned difficult. I hated it.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. I'm a mainframe systems programmer. Really it's Z/OS 2.1 now, but basically

the same as OS, MFT, MVT, VS1, SVS, MVS, and OS/390. I've been in the mainframe business since 1969. Retired from IBM in 2002 and immediately went to work at a local university. Been here almost 12 years. I'll turn 66 in July and will just keep on going.