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COBOL, My Saving Grace

COBOL, My Saving Grace

Early 2025 will mark 45 years of my IBM mainframe-centric career that began as a COBOL applications programmer. As a language, COBOL differs from the terse, mathematical programming languages and Assembler languages.  COBOL is perfect for people who don’t have a...

Enhancing IMS Performance with Dataset-Level Encryption

Enhancing IMS Performance with Dataset-Level Encryption

In a recent virtual user group session, Dennis Eichelberger, a veteran with over 45 years of mainframe and database systems experience, presented an insightful discussion on implementing dataset-level encryption for IMS (Information Management System). Hosted by...

COBOL PART 3: The Experts’ View

COBOL PART 3: The Experts’ View

As COBOL reaches 65 years of loyal service in the IT world, this third piece in a four-part homage how a veteran IT technology has remained successful for so long. We previously introduced some of the reasons behind COBOL’s enduring success as a business language. Yet...

Thoughts, experiences, and insights about COBOL

Thoughts, experiences, and insights about COBOL

Looking back, I can still vividly remember the year when I graduated from college with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Information Technology. It was 2008.  Coming from university, I was quite confident in the skills and exposure that I acquired. PHP with...

PART 2: COBOL— Thriving to survive

PART 2: COBOL— Thriving to survive

As COBOL reaches 65 years of loyal service to the IT world, this second piece in a four-part homage attempts to answer how a veteran IT technology has remained successful for so long. In the modern age, enterprise IT has grown in scale and complexity beyond...