[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin_tablet=”” custom_margin_phone=”” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|phone” custom_padding=”||17px|||” custom_padding_tablet=”” custom_padding_phone=”0px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”||13px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.1″ _dynamic_attributes=”content” text_font=”Trebuchet||||||||” text_text_color=”#11A7D9″ text_font_size=”20px” header_text_color=”#00081A” header_line_height=”1.2em” max_width=”80%” max_width_tablet=”” max_width_phone=”100%” max_width_last_edited=”on|phone” module_alignment=”center” custom_margin=”||2px||false|false” custom_padding=”||4px||false|false” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF9kYXRlIiwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsiYmVmb3JlIjoiU3RvY2tob2xtLCBTd2VkZW4gIiwiYWZ0ZXIiOiIiLCJkYXRlX2Zvcm1hdCI6ImRlZmF1bHQiLCJjdXN0b21fZGF0ZV9mb3JtYXQiOiIifX0=@[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.1″ header_text_color=”#00081A” header_font_size=”32px” header_line_height=”1.25em” max_width=”80%” max_width_tablet=”” max_width_phone=”100%” max_width_last_edited=”on|phone” module_alignment=”center” header_font_size_tablet=”” header_font_size_phone=”34px” header_font_size_last_edited=”on|phone” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.1″ text_font_size=”16px” header_text_color=”#00081A” header_font_size=”42px” max_width=”80%” max_width_tablet=”” max_width_phone=”100%” max_width_last_edited=”on|phone” module_alignment=”center” header_font_size_tablet=”” header_font_size_phone=”34px” header_font_size_last_edited=”on|phone” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
From COBOL to Pascal and SQL, legacy tech skills are in demand \u2013 experienced leaders need to do all they can to help incoming talent adopt these skills<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”|auto|17px|auto||” custom_padding=”0px||6px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.1″ link_font=”||||||||” link_text_color=”#11a7d9″ max_width=”80%” max_width_tablet=”” max_width_phone=”100%” max_width_last_edited=”on|phone” module_alignment=”center” custom_margin=”||30px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]Legacy tech skills have to be handed down as crafts have throughout history, with each generation passing on vital knowledge to ensure the working world can continue without disruption.<\/p>\n Those with so-called legacy tech skills are seen as increasingly valuable to the workforce, especially when it comes to understanding older programming languages or now defunct and legacy tech such as servers and computers.<\/p>\n Right now the tech sector is suffering from a cyber security skills shortage and AI skills gap, but these could soon be joined by a serious lack of workers equipped with the legacy tech skills needed to keep the lights on. <\/p>\n Petra Tesch has 30 years of experience in IT, the last 10 spent as a chief information officer (CIO) at several firms. Now CIO at storytelling company Vizrt, she concedes certain tech skills are now \u201cobsolete\u201d or were \u201cawarded a best before date due to technology advances\u201d. The task of transferring these to Millennials and Generation Z should not be underestimated, she says. [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.1″ link_font=”||||||||” link_text_color=”#11a7d9″ max_width=”80%” max_width_tablet=”” max_width_phone=”100%” max_width_last_edited=”on|phone” module_alignment=”center” custom_margin=”||30px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]\u201cEnabling the next generation to be part of \u2013 and have a relevant influence on \u2013 an organization\u2019s work and requirements will ensure a much more natural and seamless understanding of the knowledge needed to ensure continued supply of the technical skills for the years to come,\u201d Tesch explains.<\/p>\n This can be achieved, Tesch says, to a certain extent through passing on \u201cabilities, approaches, and strategies\u201d, given they are technology agnostic. But amid an \u201cevolving landscape\u201d, Tesch also acknowledges that certain skills that must be handed over.<\/p>\n \u201cCOBOL programmers are a good example of in-demand skilled individuals, yet there is a growing skills gap,\u201d she adds. \u201cThis is a big problem for organizations like banks and insurance companies that are essentially stuck with huge, complex COBOL-based systems.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of these businesses have so far failed to find solutions to replace these systems without major disruption to the company\u2019s day-to-day operations.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.1″ link_font=”||||||||” link_text_color=”#11a7d9″ max_width=”80%” max_width_tablet=”” max_width_phone=”100%” max_width_last_edited=”on|phone” module_alignment=”center” custom_margin=”||30px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Michael Smets, professor of management at the University of Oxford\u2019s Said Business School, says transferring expertise in a multi-generational workforce should be a critical focus for leaders.<\/p>\n \u201cThey must make sure younger generations of workers have access to legacy skills. If they fail to do so, they risk severe interoperability issues, security risks, and challenges to their strategic resilience,\u201d he warns.<\/p>\n Smets also believes organizations and their seasoned tech staff must cut through current hype around \u2018unprecedentedness\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a temptation and risk that current and future generations think everything they do is novel, that no one has experienced anything comparable before,\u201d he explains. \u201cThey must understand there are lessons to be learned and relevant skills to be maintained from the past. They should not be required to learn those skills but understand their relevance and how to access them.\u201d<\/p>\n Another way to bridge the gap according to Smets is for older tech workers who give up their full-time roles \u2013 only when they\u2019re ready \u2013 to remain loosely connected to their organization as freelancers.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.1″ link_font=”||||||||” link_text_color=”#11a7d9″ max_width=”80%” max_width_tablet=”” max_width_phone=”100%” max_width_last_edited=”on|phone” module_alignment=”center” custom_margin=”||30px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Michael Smets, professor of management at the University of Oxford\u2019s Said Business School, says transferring expertise in a multi-generational workforce should be a critical focus for leaders.<\/p>\n \u201cThey must make sure younger generations of workers have access to legacy skills. If they fail to do so, they risk severe interoperability issues, security risks, and challenges to their strategic resilience,\u201d he warns.<\/p>\n Smets also believes organizations and their seasoned tech staff must cut through current hype around \u2018unprecedentedness\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a temptation and risk that current and future generations think everything they do is novel, that no one has experienced anything comparable before,\u201d he explains. \u201cThey must understand there are lessons to be learned and relevant skills to be maintained from the past. They should not be required to learn those skills but understand their relevance and how to access them.\u201d<\/p>\n Another way to bridge the gap according to Smets is for older tech workers who give up their full-time roles \u2013 only when they\u2019re ready \u2013 to remain loosely connected to their organization as freelancers.<\/p>\n Michael Cantor, CIO of Park Place Technologies, adds the likes of C++, Visual Basic, and older versions of Java as other skills joining COBOL on an in-demand list. Others often cited by experts also include knowledge of the object oriented programming language Pascal, as well as FORTRAN older and fragile mainframe systems \u2013 common in government \u2013 or massively parallel computers, plus cabling or power management in traditional data centers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe advent of software as a service (SaaS) and forced upgrades is removing another area of skills that are in-demand and hard to find: packaged software,\u201d Cantor says. \u201cCompanies on older perpetually licensed packages may find difficulty in finding skills to handle those packages.\u201d<\/p>\n Cantor warns companies to be vigilant about the need for application migration, while noting that there are always options for keeping legacy applications running in their current state. \u201cGenerally if there\u2019s any market at all, someone is serving it. While it may become more expensive, I have not found something I couldn\u2019t mitigate the risks of continued operation with.\u201d<\/p>\n Cyber security and internal vulnerabilities are other key areas where legacy skills might be desperately needed at short notice, fixing up chaos after an attack.<\/p>\n Charlie Cox, commercial director at SThree, a FTSE 250 STEM specialist, sees lifelong learning and mentorship as valuable here. \u201cPairing experienced professionals with newer counterparts creates dynamic partnerships that benefit from diverse perspectives, enhancing problem-solving and creativity,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cFailure to pass on legacy skills can lead to system shutdowns and security risks. Businesses must identify critical legacy systems, document architectures, establish redundancies, and invest in training to prevent catastrophic failures.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.1″ link_font=”||||||||” link_text_color=”#11a7d9″ max_width=”80%” max_width_tablet=”” max_width_phone=”100%” max_width_last_edited=”on|phone” module_alignment=”center” custom_margin=”||30px|||” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Apratim Purakayastha, chief product officer and chief technology officer at Skillsoft, highlights how traditional industries like financial services, transportation, and manufacturing can use corporate e-learning providers because they still provide training in certain legacy areas.<\/p>\n \u201cBusinesses can prevent skill silos by fostering cross-training programs, standardized documentation, regular skills assessments, and succession planning,\u201d says Purakayastha.<\/p>\n \u201cBy implementing these, organizations can mitigate risks associated with locking skills away in little pockets of their workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n For Demed L\u2019Her, chief technology officer (CTO) at DigitalRoute, skills such as the half-century-old SQL might not appeal to younger computer science students learning today. But he warns: \u201cSQL databases still power many cloud systems. In fact, SQL appears to be making a resurgence. Some of the fastest growing new technologies make extensive use of it.\u201d \u201cDespite the pace of new technology, it is a fact many organizations around the world are reliant on technologies of yesteryear that still form a critical part of their computing estate,\u201d Reilly explains.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cAlthough cloud computing theoretically makes applications and infrastructure simpler to develop and deploy, traditional skills like enterprise architecture and systems integration actually become more important as the size of the applications shrink, but multiply.\u201d<\/p>\n Reilly cites the concept of \u2018people, process, and technology\u2019, which has been used as a cornerstone of enterprise computing for decades, as a concept that is still evolving. Reilly notes that the next generation will be different at all three points of the triangle and urges companies not to \u201cunderestimate the long tail of legacy\u201d to ensure operational risk is reduced.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.1″ link_font=”||||||||” link_text_color=”#11a7d9″ max_width=”80%” max_width_tablet=”” max_width_phone=”100%” max_width_last_edited=”on|phone” module_alignment=”center” custom_margin=”||30px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Michelle Harris, senior manager, product services and development at Macro 4, a division of UNICOM Global, is an expert well-versed in that risk having 30+ years of experience within mainframe and distributed computing environments.<\/p>\n Harris says her company currently has people in mainframe roles who have chosen to stay working well into their 70s.<\/p>\n But she says: \u201cIt\u2019s not because they feel they have to. With IBM Z, you can go deeply technical meaning highly experienced technicians find they are still learning and being challenged.\u201d<\/p>\n Harris advises those looking to achieve a successful legacy transition to reconsider their team structures: \u201cIf you want to ensure important mainframe skills aren\u2019t locked away in pockets, ensure you break down departmental barriers. Set up your IT organization so more people get exposure to the mainframe \u2013 don\u2019t run it in a silo.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile Assembler and COBOL are not for everyone, there will be some who really enjoy the challenge. If you never let them near the mainframe, you\u2019ll never know who in your team has a natural affinity with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking forward, leaders may turn to new technologies to help address this generational gap. The relatively recent development of generative AI, particularly tools for AI code generation, could greatly help leaders in the push to ensure legacy tech skills aren\u2019t entirely lost.<\/p>\n For example, Google\u2019s Gemini Code Assist has specifically targeted code translation, with its ability to process entire codebases in one go. At Google Cloud Next 2024 Nenshad Bardoliwalla, director of product management for Vertex AI at Google Cloud, told ITPro that the tool could be a helping hand in addressing the problem of those with proficiency in COBOL or other legacy tech skills \u201cpassing away\u201d.<\/p>\n But even with AI assistance, workers will need to use a combination of software and collaboration to ensure legacy tech skills don\u2019t die out altogether. As generative AI can be excellent for summarizing complex instructions and data, this could go both ways: models could be used as tutors that teach human programmers the ins and outs of old languages or skills, to ensure this information outlives its originators.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][dssb_sharing_buttons icon_placement=”icon” _builder_version=”4.18.1″ _module_preset=”default” max_width=”320px” module_alignment=”center” custom_margin=”||52px|||” custom_padding=”||23px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][dssb_sharing_button social_network=”linkedin” _builder_version=”4.18.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/dssb_sharing_button][dssb_sharing_button social_network=”twitter” _builder_version=”4.18.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/dssb_sharing_button][dssb_sharing_button social_network=”email” _builder_version=”4.18.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/dssb_sharing_button][dssb_sharing_button _builder_version=”4.18.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/dssb_sharing_button][\/dssb_sharing_buttons][et_pb_divider color=”#0a0000″ _builder_version=”4.18.1″ _module_preset=”default” max_width=”80%” module_alignment=”center” custom_margin=”38px||38px||true|” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.1″ _module_preset=”default” max_width=”80%” module_alignment=”center” custom_margin=”||49px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]Originally published on ITPro: From COBOL to Pascal and SQL, legacy tech skills are in demand \u2013 experienced leaders need to do all they can to help incoming talent adopt these skills<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"industry":[],"topics":[],"class_list":["post-39981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalroute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalroute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalroute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalroute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalroute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalroute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalroute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalroute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39981"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalroute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=39981"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitalroute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=39981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Legacy tech skills: Key areas of focus for leaders<\/h3>\n
Legacy tech skills: Key areas of focus for leaders<\/h3>\n
Legacy tech skills: SQL is seeing a resurgence<\/h3>\n
\nWith this in mind, SQL courses could be a quick route for keeping legacy tech skills fresh in the mind of their workforce. Christian Reilly, CTO at HashiCorp, says that across the financial sector the 60-year-old language COBOL still powers 70% to 80% of the world\u2019s business transactions.<\/strong><\/p>\nLegacy tech skills: Departmental barriers<\/h3>\n
\nhttps:\/\/www.itpro.com\/business\/careers-and-training\/why-legacy-tech-skills-are-a-point-of-concern-and-how-leaders-can-keep-them-alive<\/a>[\/et_pb_text][dssb_sharing_buttons _builder_version=”4.18.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/dssb_sharing_buttons][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"