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?? | LinkedIn
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 COBOL skills challenges. With GenAI Insights in Rocket COBOL products, developers of any background can navigate, understand, document, and analyze COBOL codebases of any size or complexity. These tools are already helping simplify hiring, onboarding, and cross‑training, making COBOL systems more accessible today and more sustainable for the future.
Upcoming COBOL Days
Join us at our upcoming in‑person COBOL Days, where you can explore product updates, see live demos, and connect with fellow COBOL practitioners. You’ll also hear firsthand modernization stories from COBOL champions across the industry.
COBOL Day in Malan | STUDIOFARMA Modernization Story
April 14
Register
COBOL Day in Madrid | Modernization Stories from RSI, Indra Group, and ANOOK
May 6
Register
Growing with .NET, APIs, and Containers
In March, we hosted a webinar with Brad Curry, Director and Principal Architect at Sammons Financial Group, who shared an inside look at their modernization journey. Brad discussed what prompted their transformation, how they evaluated rewriting versus modernization, and what it took to re‑architect a mission‑critical COBOL application.
By adopting .NET, APIs, and container technologies, Brad and his team were able to break a large monolithic system into smaller, more manageable services, improving scalability, flexibility, and long‑term maintainability.
Leveraging the .NET framework also enabled seamless integration between COBOL and C#, streamlining development workflows and unlocking new opportunities for business innovation.
Watch the full conversation with Brad here: webinar recording (15:51-45:34)
Webinar Quiz Winners
Thank you to everyone who joined last week’s webinar and took part in the quiz. We appreciate the enthusiasm and thoughtful participation.
Stay tuned and don’t forget to turn on Rocket Forum notifications so you never miss an upcoming event.
Congratulations to our quiz winners:
- Jim L.
- Amy M.
- Alexa S.
- Paul R.
- Arno F.
We'll share the gift details with everyone later this week.
If you have any questions or suggestions for future Rocket COBOL Fuel issues, let us know in the comments.
