On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:41:29 -0700 (PDT), in bit.listserv.ibm-main you wrote:
> > >Pete Dashwood wrote: >> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message >> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> > http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=666 >> > >> > (Not from where I'm standing - but I might not be standing the right >> > place) >> >> I have been saying similar things for some time. >> >> The arrogance of IT alienated it from the rest of the organization... >> >> (I believe this was a major factor in the demise of COBOL; users just got >> pissed of with being treated like crap and grabbed any alternate solutions >> (packages, outsourcing, SaaS) as soon as they became available. Added to >> this, you have a rising generation who are much more computer literate than >> their parents were and are quite cappable of devising their own (albeit, >> "imperfect and disintegrated" from an IT perspective) solutions with >> spreadsheets and databases. The resulting chaos is what we're seeing today. >> Getting a hold on this and integrating disparate IT operations throughout >> the company so that a coherent picture can be derived is a large part of >> what some IT departments are doing. This represents a shift in IT away from >> technical service and into management of information. the role of the >> Technocrats is being ever diminished.) >> >> The split between the Business and IT has always been a contrived one. Agile >> methodologies recognise this and are successfully (re-)combining the two. >> >> Is IT becoming extinct? Depends what you mean by "IT"... >> >> I don't think IT is becoming extinct (yet...) but the need for businesses to >> develop in-house IT applications is definitely under threat. There are many >> alternatives and some companies are getting really good value from dropping >> their IT departments. It is MUCH cheaper to simply buy the service than to >> do it yourself. >> >> In-house IT development is expensive (prohibitively so if you insist on >> using procedural languages like COBOL with line-by-line hand carved >> solutions...embedding your business into millions of lines of archaic >> geek-code), and nobody likes the IT department anyway... they consistently >> treat people who are not technical with condescension and arrogance and are >> not exactly warm and friendly when you need an IT service. Their track >> record is abysmal, and most of the organisation would be very glad to see >> the back of them. Why would you go to IT. cap in hand, when the new students >> in your department can knock you up a desktop solution in a day or so that >> is exactly what you need? >> >> The role of the in-house IT department to develop and provide services will >> definitely be taken out of the corporate environment and relegated to a >> handful of software companies. >> >> Long term, the Nirvana is for people to interact with, and utilise the power >> of, computers, without requiring specialist knowledge or interfaces or >> go-betweens (like the Priests of COBOL). When this is attained (and it is >> still a fair way off, although steps are made towards it every year...) THEN >> you could say IT was extinct. >> >> Meantime, there are ASPECTS of IT which certainly are becoming, or even have >> become extinct. >> >> Have you heard anyone discussing "EDP" recently? >> >> Pete. >> -- >> "I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything." > >The demise of Cobol, eh? > >Odd then, that the estimated value of Cobol code currently in >production is over $10,000,000,000,000. That's TRILLION. That estimate may be vastly overstated. A large number of in-house COBOL systems and packages written in COBOL have been replace by things like SAP. Many companies change from the mainframe because the package they believe will best run the business doesn't run on the mainframe and the reliability of box x using operating system y is good enough. Is Peoplesoft (now from Oracle) still in COBOL? Does Oracle's language still generate COBOL? > >And I'm not a Cobol coder, I code in a FAR more civilized language, >Rexx. > >Mickey Clark Morris ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
