The Code That Runs the World
If you checked your bank balance today, that transaction likely passed through a mainframe running COBOL, a language designed in 1959.
There is a massive shortage of COBOL developers. Yet, rewriting these mission-critical systems is terrifying. One bug could erase millions of dollars.
The Trap of "Big Bang" Re-writes
History is littered with failed modernization projects. Companies try to stop everything, spend 3 years rewriting the platform, and flip a switch. It almost never works.
The AI-Assisted Strangler Pattern
We advocate for the "Strangler Fig" pattern: gradually replacing specific pieces of functionality until the old system creates nothing.
AI accelerates this massively:
- Code Understanding: LLMs are surprisingly good at reading ancient COBOL or Fortran and explaining what it functionally does in plain English.
- Test Generation: Before we engage a single line of code, we use AI to generate thousands of test cases based on the old system's inputs and outputs.
- Transpilation: AI assists in porting the logic to Go or Rust, maintaining the exact business rules.