The Visual COBOL 8.0 release includes the introduction of the Micro Focus Database File Handler (MFDBFH). MFDBFH enables you to store your data files within one of the supported relational database management systems, which can be used by your native COBOL applications.

Data files are stored in a 'datastore'. Datastores can each be housed in their own physical database, or one database can house many datastores. Using data stores gives you the performance and resilience benefits associated with a modern RDBMS. MFDBFH does not require you make any changes to your source code in order to use it.

This feature is available as a purchasable add-on.

Documentation for MFDBFH can be found here: