Hi everyone,

As we're preparing exciting things for you about the upcoming Rocket Visual COBOL 11.0 release, it's a great opportunity to reflect on how COBOL continues to successfully support critical systems around the world. Here are five reasons why COBOL remains ideal for enterprise-grade applications.

• Designed for business and built to last

  COBOL was purpose-built for high-volume data processing, complex reporting, and precise financial calculations. Every day, COBOL applications process nearly 200 times more transactions than all Google and YouTube searches combined. High performance and rock-solid reliability have always been hallmarks of COBOL systems.

• High portability: it runs just about anywhere

  COBOL applications written decades ago still operate seamlessly on today's platforms, from mainframes to the multicloud. Thanks to COBOL's portability, mission-critical applications have adapted across generations of technology and will continue to do so. Enterprises can reuse core business logic and quickly embrace innovations in the IT landscape, without rewriting applications from scratch.

• Easy to learn

  COBOL's English-like syntax simplifies onboarding and cross-training for developers with any background. While some see COBOL as unusual compared to the more compact and syntactic languages, today's AI-driven world highlights the power of plain language. Now, writing clear prompts is key to getting the right results and in that way, COBOL was ahead of its time.

• A proven heritage

  Billions of lines of COBOL code run the core systems behind the world's most vital services - handling everything from salary payments and tax records to banking transactions, patient care, global logistics and in many more places you might not expect. These are not fringe apps; they are foundational, often operating at national or global scale with zero tolerance for downtime. With decades of dependable performance, COBOL has earned the trust of the world's most essential industries.

• Evolving with the enterprise

  The language itself has evolved, with support for programming concepts like object-oriented design and strong typing. Beyond the language, COBOL-powered applications have kept pace with the broader tech landscape, integrating with containers, APIs and microservices, .NET, Java, CI/CD pipelines, and multicloud environments. It's a language rooted in legacy but built for the today's enterprise.

What makes COBOL stand out for you and your business? Share your perspective, we'd love to hear it.

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Sava Kovalenko
PMM
Rocket Software Forum Member
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