October 25, 2011 — When most listeners hear the term “Cobol” they think of computing done with paper cards in huge rooms with raised floors.

That’s IF they have even heard of Cobol.

However, they may not realize that 90% of all daily financial transactions take place in a Cobol environment.

On today’s show, Tod Tompkins from Microfocus will discuss how agencies take a look at applications in Cobol and migrate to other areas, perhaps other systems or even to the cloud.

He makes a compelling argument that these kind of projects can pay for themselves in the first year.

The recent federal debt ceiling and budget debate accentuated and highlighted pressures across government.

Every agency will face the inevitable challenge of significant budget cuts in information technology (IT) and the systems/programs IT supports.

There are approaches, however, for reducing spending and eliminating the need for future debt ceiling increases, not in terms of launching new and complex IT programs, but refining and re-hosting current legacy systems.

These systems still account for the core of agency operations, and simple measures can be taken to dramatically reduce their operating costs by multi-millions of dollars, while providing a foundation for transitioning agencies to other cost savings initiatives.

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