SOA filling the Gaps

In previous posts titled  Anthropic code or Hypethropic code?  and  Anthropic code: No Revenues Plan as Immaturity i ndicator  I was very  skeptical  about current Anthropic code capabilities.  This post is about the unrealistic dream of transforming Legacy Mainframe COBOL Systems to modern systems by using Claude code COBOL tool.   More than 50 years ago I was a COBOL Programmer. Afterwards I was a Systems Programmer and a CTO. I participated in Mainframe systems architecture changes, replacement  and maintenance, as well as   Mainframes migration projects and Modernization projects.  The main issues are not pure coding issues. Some of the major obstacles will be dwelled upon in the following paragraphs.  Functionality and flow of the System Usually nobody knows and understands it completely.  Claude code COBOL tool will create System which is not downward compatible. The systems were written decades ago and...

IBM's headquarter in Armonk, New York Source: Wikipedia I wrote   the first post on IBM's Survival on 2017. Issues appearing in the post were not resolved yet by IBM.  To quote my post " The problem is that IBM does not lead any significant new technologies market ." The market that IBM should be one of the Leaders is the Public Cloud market. Unfortunately for IBM, it failed to lead this market. On 2018 I wrote another post:  First Take: IBM's Red Hat Acquisition: Is it too late?   IBM's position was even worse than in 2017.  "Is it too late?" refers to the Cloud market. Like HP, few years ago , IBM plans to split its business into two companies at the end of 2021.  IBM (currently 59 billion revenues until June 30 2020) will focus on Hybrid Clouds.  "New CO" (currently 19 billion revenues) will focus on infrastructure services.  the new IBM The new IBM will focus on Public Hybrid Clouds. Mainly integrating clouds of Amazon's AWS and ...

The entrance to IBM's Headquarter in Armonk Source: Hebrew Wikipedia IBM's earnings declined every quarter in the last 20 quarters. This trend is surely a warning sign which raise the question: Will IBM survive until 2027? Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway was one of IBM's larger shareholders. Buffet sold the shares after losing in his IBM investment. He said he hopes that he will not lose in his Apple 's shares investment.   The early days According to Wikipedia, "The company was originated in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company and was renamed "International Business machine" in 1924".  The first Mainframes On April 7, 1964 IBM announced its first computer system family: the IBM System/360.  IBM System/360 was t he first IBM Mainframe. Thomas Watson Jr.  was the company's president.  He was warned that he will not be able to compete with the market leader NCR. Few years latter IBM replaced NCR as the market...

Picture Source: Wikipedia In previous posts I classified Customers, e.g.  Customers Typology: The Social .   In other posts I classified Consultants  e.g. Consultants Typology: The Consultant who Knows Everything . In this post series I will try to classify Managers. Why should I post about Captive Manager if I already wrote about   The Captive Customer  and about  The Captive Customer who Knows Everything ? There are similarities between a Captive Customer and a Captive Manager, but they are not identical.  The following real Case Study would clarify the differences.   Tale of two Managers Two Senior IT Managers were working for a large customer of mine. The first Manager was a Microsoft 's Captive Customer. Whenever he had to chose a Microsoft's  product vs. another vendor's product he automatically selected Microsoft's product.  If you read my post  The Captive Customer , you understand why this selection met...

Bob Dylan 's song  in is about The Times They Are A-Changin'. Information Technology Leading Vendors are also changing. If a company does not adapt to changes it may not Survive or it may Survive but no longer as The Market Leader.  The first three sections of the post are about Computers Industry Revolutions. The fourth is about, the current revolution. The sections following these sections, are a discussion of Microsoft's Survival probability. You can't compete with NCR Thomas Watson Jr. Source: Wikipedia When Thomas Watson Jr. replaced his father as IBM's president in 1956, he was told that he will not be able to compete with the Computers Industry Leader NCR .  In 1956 I was in a kinder garden. In the beginning of the decade starting on 1970, I was working as a junior Computers Programmer: IBM was the  Computers Industry Leader.   NCR is now a player in the Automatic Teller Machines, Retail Store Automation and Self-Service Kiosks mar...

Leonardo da Vinci (probably self-portrait). source: Hebrew Wikipedia It is time to classify Consultants after so many posts about Clients Typology (e.g. Clients Typology: The Stealth , The Captive , The Paralyzed Analyzer ).  I do not know if the terms I am using: Niche Consultant and All Around Consultant are the best terms to use.  If you think that other terms are more accurate, please comment. Anyway, I am trying to distinguish between two types of Professionals, Consultants, Scientists or Experts . Most of them could be labeled as Niche experts: They know almost everything about a relatively narrow subject matter. Leonardo da Vinchi  (1452-1519), whose portrait appears right after the heading of this post, could not be depicted as a Niche expert. he is a classic example of The All Around type. I will quote the English Wikipedia: " ... Da Vinchi was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, invento...

The Public Cloud is a promise. A promise for a new model without an Information Technology department.  Unlike the Public Cloud, the Private Cloud is nothing to write home about. Utility Computing disguised in modern and attractive name.  Reality is not as simple as described in the paragraphs above.  If you read the article Tectonic shift as Public Cloud giants acknowledge the private deployment options , you will discover that even Amazon and Google admit that Public Cloud is not a magical solution for all problems. There is a necessity for Private Clouds. There are systems for which Public Cloud is not adequate.  Private Cloud It is relatively easy to define Public Cloud. There are various different definitions of Private Cloud.  The main definitions could be categorized as follows: 1. Cloud which is located within the Enterprise boundaries.  Utility Computing may fit to this definition. If the organization provides Information Technol...