Is the Mainframe going the way of the “DouDou” when it comes to Legacy Modernization?

As I go about evangelizing how my firm assist’s organizations and agencies keep the most valued countenance’s of a legacy system….dependability, security and accessibility with the common goal of increasing agility, It seems ‘legacy’ has become a dirty word. The high financial impact of mainframe licenses combined with the realization of a decreasing workforce of COBOL folks presents a persuasive argument for the re-implementation of legacy apps in new languages and technology.

Is it just me or was it just in the last decade, the idea was that the mainframe was headed to extinction? But I’m consistently having conversations with agency IT managers that support that over the past few years mainframes have been going through an evolution or a rethinking as translation of legacy applications becomes an important piece of modernization. Has anyone else noticed an increase of installed base of mainframes seems to be expanding and a general mutiny from the “sweep the floor theory”? Translation rather than “Re-design, Re-architect and Re-write” may be as has happened with mainframe computers, become viewed as the way of the future. So, the question stands: if one (agencies) has a modernization project with a moderate budget which didn’t desire re-doc, re-design from the ground up, nor rewrite, then what would industry suggest? My suggestion…. modify the language to a modern idiom and resuscitate the DOU-DOU!
I would love to hear yours!

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