For decades, mainframes and COBOL-based systems have been the backbone of enterprise computing, powering industries such as banking, insurance, healthcare, and government.
Despite the rise of modern database technologies and cloud-based solutions, legacy databases remain deeply embedded in mission-critical operations.
Rather than facing extinction, mainframes and COBOL are experiencing a resurgence—driven by modernization strategies,
integration with newer technologies, and the ongoing need for stability, security, and scalability. But what does this mean for DBAs, and how should organizations approach the future of legacy databases?
The Staying Power of Mainframes and COBOL
Mainframes continue to process a vast majority of the world’s financial transactions and are trusted for their ability to handle high-volume, high-speed workloads. The global mainframe market was valued at approximately $2.5 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.4% during the period between 2024 and 2032. Indeed, mainframes are reported to be used by 71% of Fortune 500 companies.
IBM’s zSystem mainframes are not stuck in the past either, as they are evolving to support cloud-native workloads, AI, and real-time analytics. COBOL, despite being more than 6 decades old, remains prevalent, with billions of lines of active code still running in production. The challenge isn’t the technology itself—it’s the perception that these systems are outdated or incapable of adapting to modern IT demands, which is totally inaccurate.
Modernization Strategies for Legacy Databases
Rather than wholesale replacements, organizations are adopting strategies to modernize their legacy systems incrementally. There are several useful and proven approaches to legacy modernization.
One tactic is to use APIs and middleware integration to allow legacy databases to be exposed via RESTful APIs. Such an approach can be used to enable modern applications to seamlessly interact with your legacy system.
Another technique is to adopt a hybrid cloud strategy that combines and unifies public cloud, private cloud, and on-prem infrastructure to create a single, flexible, cost-optimal IT infrastructure. Hybrid cloud architectures can increase the agility of your organizations. A hybrid model can be used to maintain critical workloads on-prem while auxiliary processes migrate to the cloud.
Furthermore, code refactoring and automation can play a significant role. Modern COBOL compilers integrate with DevOps pipelines, enabling continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) practices. When DevOps is embraced by an organization, DBAs will be aligned more closely with development and applications teams. By deploying agile development, with DBAs participating in teams along with the developers, you get increased cooperation and communication between the folks coding the application (that’s Dev) and the folks developing and managing the database (that’s Ops, or the DBAs).
Finally, embracing AI and machine learning is mandatory. Simple automation, while useful, is no longer sufficient. AI-powered database optimization and administration tools help improve mainframe efficiency while reducing manual workload.
The Role of the DBA in the Legacy Database Future
DBAs play a crucial role in ensuring that legacy databases remain secure, efficient, and adaptable. Skills in performance tuning, high availability configurations, and database security remain vital. However, modern DBAs must also embrace and develop cross-platform expertise. Understanding how mainframe databases interact with cloud platforms and distributed systems is crucial as hybrid environments become the norm.
Additionally, DBAs need to move past manual tactics and simple scripting to embrace AI-powered automation. Leveraging tools such as Ansible, Python, and SQL automation frameworks, DBAs can streamline and optimize operations.
And let’s not forget security and compliance. Ensuring that legacy databases and systems meet today’s regulatory requirements for data protection and privacy is essential. As the number of data breaches continues to increase, along with the burgeoning avalanche of new regulations, security and compliance will become more and more a part of the DBA’s core responsibilities.
Looking Ahead
While new technologies continue to emerge, legacy databases, programs, and systems are not going away anytime soon. Instead, they are evolving alongside modern innovations, proving their value in mission-critical environments. Organizations that invest in modernization strategies and equip their DBAs with the right skills will continue to benefit from the stability, scalability, and security that mainframe systems and COBOL applications offer.
Rather than viewing legacy systems as obstacles, it’s time to see them as essential components of a robust IT strategy—ones that can coexist with, and even enhance, the modern data landscape.
In fact, why not rename the nomenclature altogether, changing the term “legacy” to “heirloom” systems? After all, we cherish and protect heirlooms and that is what we should be doing with our legacy … er, I mean, heirloom systems!
