Mainframe programming is decidedly un-sexy in the IT industry. But as the baby boomers skilled in maintaining mainframes retire, there is heightened demand for IT graduates to replace them, says The Chicago Tribune
Mainframes have been around for decades, but have decreased in popularity in favor of distributed computing solutions in which tasks are doled out among multiple smaller computers. COBOL or assembly language might as well be Sanskrit in the programming world.
However, many large companies still prefer to use mainframes, which are often run by an aging workforce still fluent in those “dead languages.”
Unsurprisingly, IBM, the largest producer of mainframes, has furnished Illinois State University with its System z 890 in order to train more students in mainframe technology. —Hurley Goodall
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