Main News Desk

Micro Focus Announces Support for COBOL Standardization and Modernization

Urges IT industry to modernize COBOL systems and applications during economic uncertainty

NEWBURY, England, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - October 29, 2008

Micro Focus (LSE.MCRO.L), the leading provider of enterprise application management and modernization solutions, today announced at the COBOL WG4 standards meeting in Ontario, CA, its continued commitment to current and future COBOL standardization and modernization. As enterprises increase their focus on ROI from IT spend, Micro Focus urges organizations to modernize COBOL systems and applications to maximize their investments in existing IT systems.

With its support of the International Standards Organization (ISO) 2002 standardization of the COBOL language and active participation in future COBOL standards, Micro Focus enables organizations to modernize their existing systems and cost-effectively extend them to the latest technology innovations, including Web services, J2EE and .NET, without undertaking the costly “rip and replace” approach.

COBOL modernization and standardization is also critical for the training of a new generation of programmers, many of whom are entering a job market with a strong demand for COBOL expertise due to the growing IT skills shortage. In fact, Micro Focus last year launched the Academic ConnecTIONs (ACTION) Program, partnering with schools to train students in core COBOL skills by providing universities with free access to the latest technology and teaching tools for enterprise application development. Now with over 75 member universities in 14 countries, Micro Focus expects more than 5,000 ACTION program graduates each year. This helps connect enterprises with young developers equipped with essential COBOL and related skills.

Micro Focus has also already implemented COBOL/XML support across Windows, UNIX and Linux, which provides natural COBOL syntax, and enables COBOL applications to create, consume and update XML documents that can be shared with other systems regardless of platform and language. The standards committee has based their proposed future COBOL XML technical report on the innovative support already provided by Micro Focus as part of its latest COBOL development and deployment solutions.

Using Micro Focus Net Express® with .NET (for Windows), Server Express Ô (for Linux and UNIX) and Mainframe ExpressÒ (for PC-based mainframe development) products for development and Micro Focus ServerÔ products for deployment, Micro Focus customers can cost-effectively ensure their COBOL assets continue to hold a strategic place in the enterprise. Extending COBOL based applications with Micro Focus enables organizations to cost-effectively re-use original code containing valuable business logic, retain and develop their existing programming skill sets, and migrate to easy-to-maintain, modern IT environments.

Executive quote

“With over 200 billion lines of COBOL code in production today, this programming language is at the heart of core systems across every industry,” said Stuart McGill, CTO of Micro Focus. “As CIOs are forced to make some tough decisions on IT spending, it is critical that they modernize and extend the capabilities of the programming language that makes up the vast majority of their systems and applications. In short – it’s time to start viewing COBOL as an asset. As COBOL evolves, it continues to thrive alongside the latest technologies to ensure that core existing applications can benefit from the interoperability of object orientation, XML and service oriented architecture (SOA).”

Customer quote

“COBOL continues to be a relevant and crucial part of the information services curriculum, as we are teaching 100 students per year with the latest COBOL technology,” said Professor Harry Simmons, Course Director at New York City of Technology. “Working with updated, standards-based COBOL means students will be utilizing the latest in COBOL innovation, enabling graduates to obtain employment at leading companies who continue to value COBOL for core applications.”

About the company

Micro Focus, a member of the FTSE 250, provides innovative software that allows companies to dramatically improve the business value of their enterprise applications. Micro Focus Enterprise Application Modernization and Management software enables customers’ business applications to respond rapidly to market changes and embrace modern architectures with reduced cost and risk. For additional information please visit www.microfocus.com

Bookmarklets:

Recent Press Releases

2010 Archive

2009 Archive

2008 Archive

2007 Archive

Jump to:

Main News Desk

Micro Focus Announces Support for COBOL Standardization and Modernization

Executive quote

Customer quote

About the company