Posted by Rick Fowler, TCC Director of Mainframe Services
There is an article on the CIO website that looks at how CIO’s are planning for the skills shortage created as IT professionals with mainframe skills are aging out of the workforce. Florentine, S. (2015, August 10). How legacy technology is creating the next skills gap. Retrieved July 28, 2017, from http://www.cio.com/article/2960639/leadership-management/how-legacy-technology-is-creating-the-next-skills-gap.html.
The article makes an interesting point that we use technology based on COBOL or on a mainframe-based system a lot more than we think. For instance, most online banking and airline reservation systems utilize legacy technologies. The article points out that most CIO’s agree that the mainframe will continue to be a key business asset for the next ten years.
The talent behind the creation of this infrastructure has been in the workforce for over thirty years and they are retiring and leaving behind a gap in skills to maintain these systems. This skills gap is leaving CIO’s wondering how to fill the void.
The article notes that improvement in education and training are necessary to train incoming graduates with the skills necessary to fill the jobs in the field. It also notes that companies need to create a culture that is attractive to developers by stressing how the current, hot technologies are dependent on older foundational infrastructure. This may make it easier for companies to attract new talent interested in gaining experience on legacy enterprise computing.
For more information on TCC’s mainframe managed services, please visit our website http://www.e-tcc.com/managed-services.
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