A set of links discussing the continued relevance and contributions that CoBOL can make to IT today, as well as some of the shortcomings of Java.

Some links who know the difference between talking the talk vs. walking the walk. Real advice about real situations that separate the wheat from the chaff.

Links promoting good software development practices, lest we waste our time arguing about what are best practices.

Opening up the mainframe with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is not the only possible approach. Here are some links on other strategies for migration and/or modernization of Legacy Systems.

Object Oriented analysis and design along with the Agile approach is compared and contrasted to Classical Methods, such as Structured Analysis, Structured Design, Data Flow Analysis, and Entity Relalionship database modeling.

Articles on using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as a modernization approach for Legacy Systems. Technical documentation from IBM in the form of comprehensive Redbooks, and also White Papers and Presentations about SOA, using CICS as services, and web-enablement.

A set of links that buld the case for the mainframe today. An important distinction is to understand the difference between "cost per MIPS" and "total cost of ownership - TCO", or "total cost per user - TCU".  Vendors favoring an installation approach of large numbers of Intel and Unix/Linux servers emphasize the "cost per MIPS", ignoring the fact that for much of the 24 hour day those machines are sitting mostly idle, and wasting their CPU cycles. A more appropriate measure is TCO or TCU, where machine utlization is so much more efficient on a mainframe, with load factors approaching 50-60% throughout the 24 hour day. The inevitable conclusion: sharing a mainframe is STILL the most cost-effective way for a large community of users to share computing resources.

Articles and commentary to refute the misguided notion that Legacy Systems are somehow bad. Survival and continual enhancement for ten years, twenty years, thirty years, or even more is evidence of a resilience and robust nature, not evidence that the systems are too difficult to change. In fact, the phrase Legacy Systems could almost be used interchangeably with Mission Critical Systems.