Rocket® COBOL

Rocket COBOL things we're proud of this month Hi everyone, Welcome to Rocket® COBOL Fuel, your monthly source for all things COBOL. In this issue, you’ll learn about the Technical Debt Management tools and the ongoing Beta Program.  A 5-Step Recipe for Technical Debt Management   What if all the industry noise around technical debt is missing your organization’s greatest opportunity? Every IT leader feels the silent drag: legacy code that slows down innovation, rising operational costs, and talent tied up maintaining what’s already there. But what if you stopped viewing technical debt as an immovable anchor, and started treating it as a roadmap for strategic modernization? The technical debt management market is rapidly evolving, and so is the conversation. In fact, Gartner® has just issued its first Magic Quadrant™ for technical debt management tools and named Rocket Software a Challenger with solutions including Rocket COBOL Analyzer. Below, you’ll find a practical, step-by-step reci

Rocket ACUCOBOL things we're proud of this month Hi everyone, Welcome to Rocket® ACUCOBOL Fuel, your monthly source for all things COBOL. In this issue, you’ll learn about the Technical Debt Management tools, Rocket COBOL Analyzer, and the upcoming webinar on ACUCOBOL data modernization.  A 5-Step Recipe for Technical Debt Management   What if all the industry noise around technical debt is missing your organization’s greatest opportunity? Every IT leader feels the silent drag: legacy code that slows down innovation, rising operational costs, and talent tied up maintaining what’s already there. But what if you stopped viewing technical debt as an immovable anchor, and started treating it as a roadmap for strategic modernization? The technical debt management market is rapidly evolving, and so is the conversation. In fact, Gartner® has just issued its first Magic Quadrant™ for technical debt management tools and named Rocket Software a Challenger with solutions including Rocket COBOL An

Hi everyone,Thanks to everyone who joined our webinar about unlocking COBOL unit testing using GenAI. To those who couldn't make please feel free to watch it on demand. Webinar materialsWebinar recording Webinar deck is in the attachments AI Unit Testing Beta Program Quiz winnersThank you to everyone who actively participated in the quiz as well! We’re going to share the gifts with the 5 quiz winners next week:Kyle W. Paul R. Jonathan S. Lucas M. Per S. Webinar questionsAs promised, below are our answers to the questions raised in our webinar - Unlock COBOL Unit Testing with GenAI, held last week. For those you that missed it, the recording can be found here.We did our best to answers as many questions as we could with the limited time we had but below are the questions we couldn’t get to, as well as written responses to those we did.How does the assistant mock the data for data base lookup? Can it?In the Beta release, the testing assistant provides support to create a Program Controll

Hi everyone,Welcome to Rocket® ACUCOBOL® Fuel, your monthly source for all things ACUCOBOL. This edition covers a vision for Rocket ACUCOBOL products, Visual Studio Code demo, and recap of COBOL Days.  Rocket ACUCOBOL Roadmap With the release of Rocket ACUCOBOL extend 11 last year, we’ve taken an important step forward. Now, we’re looking ahead and sharing our vision for what ACUCOBOL modernization looks like next. You can also watch Dominique Sacre, Product Director for Rocket ACUCOBOL, walking through the roadmap here, starting at 51:00.Like any journey, this roadmap will continue to evolve, shaped by your priorities and the changing market. Rocket® ACUCOBOL-GT® Extension for Visual Studio Code [Demo] Equip your teams to develop ACUCOBOL applications using one of the world’s most popular and widely adopted development tools. See the extension in action in the short demo: COBOL events Thanks to everyone who joined our in-person events dedicated to COBOL modernization and networking in

May we share some Rocket COBOL updates?Hi everyone,Welcome to Rocket® COBOL Fuel, your monthly source for all things COBOL. In this issue, you’ll learn about the GenAI-driven unit testing for COBOL applications, COBOL x JSON capabilities, and COBOL events. Unlock Unit Testing for COBOLwith GenAI [Watch webinar recording] You’re already testing applications today but as the pressure to deliver software faster and more frequently grows, unit testing becomes essential to ensuring quality long before code ever leaves the engineering team.COBOL applications were not originally designed with unit testing in mind, making adoption challenging. GenAI changes that.  This month, we’re excited to introduce AI‑driven unit testing for COBOL through a beta program and webinar. Watch the webinar recording to see the AI Unit Testing demo in action and join the beta to be among the first to try these new capabilities. COBOL x JSON Demo We’re excited to welcome you to the new episode of COBOL in Action,

Hi everyone,I’d like to invite you to our upcoming webinar, Unlock COBOL Unit Testing with GenAI, on May 27 at 10 a.m. ET / 3 p.m. GMT. You’re already testing COBOL applications today but as the pressure to deliver software faster and more frequently grows, unit testing becomes essential to ensuring quality long before code ever leaves the engineering team. That’s exactly what we’re going to address in the session.  You’ll learn about a new GenAI-driven capability that helps plan, generate, and analyze unit tests for COBOL, and see it in action through a demo. At the end we’ll have a live Q&A featuring Rocket product managers and engineers, so you’ll be able to ask us anything about unit testing, COBOL modernization, and Rocket solutions. Register here To make it more engaging, we’ll also have a COBOL quiz with gifts from Rocket® Software so make sure to join us live. 

Hi everyone,Welcome to Rocket® ACUCOBOL® Fuel, your monthly source for all things ACUCOBOL. This edition covers a potential solution to skills shortage in the ACUCOBOL industry, ACUCOBOL x GenAI Demo, and the list of supported platforms. Bridging Skills Gaps for the ACUCOBOL teams Many organizations are facing a familiar set of challenges: retiring specialists, limited documentation, and ongoing difficulties hiring and onboarding new ACUCOBOL talent. In this environment, full system rewrites can seem appealing. In practice, however, rewrites often take years to complete, and nearly half exceed their original budgets and timelines,making them a costly and high-risk path forward.As GenAI capabilities continue to evolve, they offer a promising way to address ACUCOBOL skills gaps. With upcoming GenAI features in Rocket ACUCOBOL products, along with existing third-party AI tools, developers from any background can more easily navigate, understand, and analyze ACUCOBOL codebases of any size

What’s up with COBOL in April? Let’s seeHi everyone,Welcome to Rocket® COBOL Fuel, your monthly source for all things COBOL. In this issue, you’ll learn about the GenAI-driven unit testing for COBOL applications, upcoming events, and modernization story from Jove Informática. COBOL, Unit Testing, and GenAIHow does it work? Unit testing is a level of testing designed to validate that a ‘unit’ of software performs as it was designed, where a ‘unit’ is the smallest piece of testable software. Instead of testing the full application with sometimes million lines of code, you only test the part of the program that has been changed.Traditionally, this has proved difficult for COBOL applications both on and off the mainframe as the code was not written with this type of testing in mind. The Rocket Unit Test framework makes this adoption possible.With the framework, unit testing allows teams to validate business logic at the smallest level, detect regressions early, and modernize safely without

Hi everyone,We have exciting news as Rocket Software has been invited to participate in the upcoming Gartner Magic Quadrant for AI-Augmented Code Modernization Tools with our Rocket Visual COBOL solution.Gartner places strong weight on customer feedback, and your perspective as a COBOL modernization champion would be incredibly valuable in helping position Rocket Visual COBOL as a top solution in this space.We'd appreciate if you shared your experience with Visual COBOL using the Gartner review portal here: https://gtnr.io/cDTKG5zFHThe review takes about 10 minutes. As a thank you, you’ll receive a $25 gift card, or you can choose to make a $25 charity donation after the review is verified and published. If you have submitted your review and don’t receive your gift card, reach out to me via s.kovalenko@rocketsoftware.com and I’ll be happy to help.

Hi everyone,Thanks to everyone who joined our recent webinar about ACUCOBOL x GenAI (watch the recording) and shared such thoughtful questions. We received a wide range of topics from UI controls to AI‑assisted development workflows, modernization and code analysis.Here are the webinar questions and answers from our team. If you have any other questions, let us know in the comments.Question: I have seen elements for maximize and minimize in the screens—are these fully functional in ACUCOBOL?Answer:Yes, they are fully functional.When using Rocket AcuToWeb, the Web.Resize configuration in the gateway.toml file can automatically maximize your screen based on the ratio you define. This allows the application to adapt cleanly to different screen sizes.At runtime, screen elements can be repositioned dynamically, although this does require some additional coding. If you prefer to avoid manual repositioning, version 11 introduces NTF‑SCALING, which automatically resizes screen elements without

Let’s discuss how GenAI can change skills shortage challenge Hi everyone, Welcome to our monthly Rocket ACUCOBOL newsletter. This edition covers a potential solution to skills shortage in ACUCOBOL industry, ACUCOBOL x GenAI Demo, and webinar quiz winners.  GenAI-Assisted Development and the Skills Question Many organizations are grappling with retiring specialists, limited documentation, and ongoing hiring challenges. As a result, some consider full rewrites instead of modernization. However, rewriting projects often take years, with nearly 50% exceeding budget and timeline expectations, making this a high‑risk decision.As GenAI capabilities continue to mature, we see meaningful potential to ease the ACUCOBOL skills challenges. With upcoming GenAI features in Rocket ACUCOBOL products and 3rd party AI tools, developers of any background can navigate, understand, and analyze ACUCOBOL codebases of any size or complexity. These tools are already helping simplify hiring, onboarding, and cro

Hi everyone, Thanks to everyone who joined our Rocket ACUCOBOL webinar yesterday. The recording of the webinar is available now. You can watch the recording anytime and share it with your team.Some useful materials:Webinar recording Webinar deck is in the attachments COBOL Day in Milan on April 14 If you want to share your modernization story on one of our events, please contact me via skovalenko@rocketsoftware.comThank you to everyone who actively participated in the quiz as well! We’re going to share 5 winners of the quiz next week. Last but not least, we’ll answer all the webinar question here on the forum in the upcoming days.

COBOL and Vibe Coding in one sentence? Yes.Hi everyone, Welcome to our monthly Rocket COBOL newsletter. This edition covers a potential solution to skills shortage in COBOL industry, Sammons modernization story and webinar quiz winners.   COBOL Vibe Coding and the Skills Question Our product manager, Guy Sofer, recently experimented with vibe coding using a COBOL application and shared his experience on LinkedIn. The outcome sparked internal discussions and a broader question: Will the COBOL skills shortage remain as challenging as it is today? Read Guy’s post here: COBOL Vibe Coding – Really?? | LinkedInMany organizations are grappling with retiring specialists, limited documentation, and ongoing hiring challenges. As a result, some consider full rewrites instead of modernization. However, rewriting projects often take years, with nearly 50% exceeding budget and timeline expectations, making this a high‑risk decision.As GenAI capabilities continue to mature, we see meaningful potentia

Hi everyone, Thanks to everyone who joined our webinar with Brad Curry from Sammons Financial Group yesterday. To those who couldn't make please feel free to watch it on demand.The recording of the webinar is available now. You can watch the recording anytime and share it with your team.Some useful materials:Webinar recording Webinar deck is in the attachments COBOL Day in Milan on April 14 COBOL Day in Madrid on May 6 If you want to get access to the Rocket COBOL Roadmap, please contact me via skovalenko@rocketsoftware.com If you want to share your modernization story on one of our events, please contact me via skovalenko@rocketsoftware.comThank you to everyone who actively participated in the quiz as well! We’re going to share 5 winners of the quiz next week. 

Hi everyone,In just 1 hour we’re going to have a webinar with Sammons Financial Group where Brad Curry, Principal Architect at Sammons, will share their experience with re-architecting their COBOL application with .NET, APIs, and containers.Make sure to join to learn about their approach and ask Brad questions. Registration linkOne of the slides: See you soon!

Hi everyone,In just 1 hour we’re going to have a webinar with Sammons Financial Group where Brad Curry, Principal Architect at Sammons, will share their experience with re-architecting their COBOL application with .NET, APIs, and containers.Make sure to join to learn about their approach and ask Brad questions. Registration linkOne of the slides: See you soon!

Hi everyone,The first step in any modernization journey is gaining a clear understanding of your application with its dependencies, data flows, and integrations. That’s why I’d like to invite you to our upcoming webinar, Modernizing ACUCOBOL®: Instant Analysis & Development with GenAI, on March 31 at 10 a.m. ET / 2 p.m. GMT.   Here’s what you’ll learn during the webinar:   From code to insights   See how to visualize and structure your ACUCOBOL code, accelerate onboarding for new team members, and tackle technical debt with a single solution.   Visual Studio Code Extension + GenAI Demo  Explore how Rocket® ACUCOBOL-GT® Extension for Visual Studio Code and integrated GenAI capabilities can streamline your development processes, boost productivity, and simplify onboarding  Rocket® ACUCOBOL® Roadmap  Get an exclusive preview of the Rocket® ACUCOBOL® roadmap, including upcoming products and VS Code extension updates.  We’ll wrap up with a short ACUCOBOL quiz and giveaways from Rock

Hi everyone,This year, we’re excited to bring you real‑world COBOL modernization stories directly from the enterprises doing the work along with our expertise. This way you can see what is possible for your COBOL applications as well.  That’s why we’d like to invite you to our upcoming webinar, Sammons x Rocket COBOL: Growing with .NET, APIs, and Containers, on March 26 at 11 a.m. ET / 3 p.m. GMT. Our guest speaker Brad Curry from Sammons will share how they’re modernizing their COBOL applications to drive new business value, streamline processes, and prepare for the future with .NET and containers. At the end we’ll have a live Q&A featuring Brad and our Rocket experts, so you’ll be able to ask us anything about COBOL modernization and Rocket solutions. Register hereLet us know if you have any questions or want us to cover any specific topics on the future webinars.See you soon!

Let’s talk about the AI-lephant in the roomHi everyone, Welcome to our monthly Rocket COBOL newsletter. This edition tackles the biggest question of the month (or maybe even the year): How is GenAI changing COBOL modernization?Code Translations vs. Modernization:What’s the difference This week, COBOL made headlines again as the debate around AI‑generated COBOL resurfaced. The market reaction and the conversations online point to one thing: change is no longer coming. It’s here.Though after more than 5,000 successful COBOL modernization projects, we’ve learned one lesson that matters now more than ever:Code translation is not the same as software modernization. And confusing the two can put enterprises at real risk.Code Translation Is Useful. But Language Isn’t the ProblemMany AI companies promise rapid “COBOL modernization,” but what they’re really talking about is syntax translation. And while COBOL is a straightforward language (ask any COBOL developer you know), and AI can certainly

Hi everyone,COBOL is known for its exceptional portability. Applications written decades ago continue to run reliably on today's platforms, from latest versions of operational systems to multicloud environments and ARM.Beyond deployment, COBOL applications integrate seamlessly with today’s IT ecosystems, including containers, APIs, microservices, .NET, Java, and CI/CD pipelines.This level of portability helps you preserve core business logic while still moving quickly to adopt new technologies.If your business requires a platform update, database integration, or cloud deployment, check out the list of supported platforms for Rocket COBOL:The list of supported platforms: linkAny questions or platform suggestions for the future updates? Let us know in the comments. 

Hi everyone,COBOL (and ACUCOBOL) is known for its exceptional portability. Applications written decades ago continue to run reliably on today's platforms, from latest versions of operational systems to multicloud environments. Beyond deployment, COBOL applications integrate seamlessly with today’s IT ecosystems, including containers, APIs, microservices, .NET, Java, and CI/CD pipelines.This level of portability helps you preserve core business logic while still moving quickly to adopt new technologies.If your business requires a platform update, database integration, or cloud deployment, check out the list of supported platforms for Rocket ACUCOBOL:The list of supported platforms: linkAny questions or platform suggestions for the future updates? Let us know in the comments. 

Hi everyone, Thank you all for an incredible 2025. It’s been inspiring to see more customers upgrading to Rocket ACUCOBOL extend 11 and adopting VS Code Extension to accelerate modernization without disruption. Looking ahead, 2026 will bring even more innovations shaped by your needs and feedback. Expect richer content, deeper insights, and more customer success stories that show how to drive innovation with ACUCOBOL. Welcome to our first newsletter of the year, featuring the comprehensive list of supported platforms and January update of VS Code Extension.  Extend your ACUCOBOL applications with supported platforms & integrationsExplore a comparison chart highlighting supported platform for Rocket ACUCOBOL extend 10.0 and Rocket ACUCOBOL extend 11.0.Learn more about supported:Operating systems Containerization services Cloud platforms Databases UI/UX tools Deployment optionsand more.VS Code Extension | January UpdateLast year, we introduced one of the biggest updates to Rocket ACU

The 1st COBOL newsletter of the year, featuring practical GenAI use cases in COBOL modernization and some of the 2026 trends. Hi everyone, Thank you all for an incredible 2025. It’s been inspiring to see more customers upgrading to Rocket Visual COBOL 11.0 and adopting GenAI in Rocket COBOL Analyzer to accelerate modernization without disruption. Looking ahead, 2026 will bring even more GenAI‑powered innovations shaped by your needs and feedback. Expect richer content, deeper insights, and more customer success stories that show how to drive innovation with COBOL. Welcome to our first newsletter of the year, featuring practical GenAI use cases in COBOL modernization and some of the 2026 trends to kick things off. COBOL Now: High‑value enterprise use cases for GenAI Industry analysts are clear: GenAI delivers the greatest value when it augments engineers, not replaces them. Here are a few examples of how GenAI is already bringing meaningful impact to COBOL modernization efforts today. 1

Hi everyone,As we move further into 2026 and preparing more ACUCOBOL insights for you, we’d love to hear from you about what would help you get even more value from your ACUCOBOL applications this year.Are there product features you’d like us to walk through in more detail? Industries or use cases you want us to highlight? More real-world modernization stories? Or maybe you’d enjoy something lighter, like ACU memes you can share with your teams.Whatever would make this community more useful and meaningful for you, please share your ideas in the comments. Your input guides what we create, and together we can make this space even more supportive for you and your business.Looking forward to hearing from you,Rocket ACUCOBOL Team