If you use or maintain applications that made their initial debut back when we were all clamoring to get a terminal on our desk, then this blog is for you. If you’re even remotely interested in topics and discussions related to these proven yet undervalued systems, then this blog is for you too.

As the main contributor and moderator of Modern(ized) Insights, I think you should know a bit about me – Sandra Wade.  I’m the Senior Director of Product Marketing for Software AG’s Enterprise Transaction Systems business line and am responsible for, among other things, the positioning of our webMethods Application Modernization Suite in the market. I haven’t always been involved on the mainframe side of things.  No, like many others that graduated with a degree in Computer Science back in the early 1980’s, I set my sights on all the hot, new technology.  I focused on distributed operating systems, client/server architectures, C++ programming (oooh), and extended relational and object-oriented databases.  I was even my company’s representative on the Object Management Group and Object Database Management Group.

BTW - check out patent number 5826268 granted October 20, 1998 if you want to see how I spent nights and weekends back in the day; I was co-author on the patent covering Secure Multilevel Object-oriented Database Management System. Funny thing is that after spending 13 years becoming an expert on all the “fun” stuff, I ended up with the responsibility of defining, developing, and launching INTERSOLV’s Year 2000 solution suite to market. Needless to say, I had a lot to learn - about mainframes, COBOL and other “legacy” programming languages, Y2K remediation techniques, etc.  That’s when I got the huge wakeup call that all those systems I dodged when I graduated from college were actually THE systems running the bulk of transactions supporting major financial, government, insurance, manufacturing, telecommunications, and yes - even higher education industries.

You’d think that 20 years later all the systems that need to be modernized would have been modernized by now - right?  So, why haven’t they? Are these projects viewed as too costly?  Too risky?  Are people of the opinion that the systems should be replaced with off-the-shelf package applications or re-written from the ground up?  Are the systems “good enough” and therefore not worthy of  modernization?  Do organizations lack the skills to move systems forward? I’d like to hear your thoughts on all of these topics. So get involved and share some of your own Moder(nized) Insights!