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But we are super proud of coining Industrie 4.0, so, that's something. It would be wonderful to see more free and open innovation and investment in a couple of

But we are super proud of coining Industrie 4.0, so, that's something. It would be wonderful to see more free and open innovation and investment in a couple of bleeding-edge tech centers in Germany. A lot of the big internationals are in Munich and Berlin is slowly growing steam for startups, but it's a disappointment to me that there's so many Germans with so much wealth prime for investment and creating a culture of exploration, but instead it sits in real estate or something.

woodpanel 6y ago
"But we are super proud of coining Industrie 4.0, so, that's something." Regarding Industrie 4.0: Currently at a client of mine, a "hidden champion" i.e. world market leader in industry XYZ (1.6B in revenue), I'm struggling to have them migrate from Cobol to Java. They are using their versioning system as a backup for their data, not for versioning the code. Deployments are done via dragging a zip file somewhere. Every new version means the whole system (handling invoices e.g.) is out of service for 10-14 days.
- pmontra 6y ago
  I understand why everything else is suboptimal but why do you want them to migrate from Cobol to Java? What problem is that going to solve for them?
  - woodpanel 6y ago
    It's about human capital. Not that I favor Java, or even that I dislike Cobol. It is rather their existing human capital that makes anything more fancy than Java even harder to migrate to. At the same time, job postings looking for Cobol-Devs in 2020 are useless and even if they manage to find people capable and willing to work with Cobol per se, their existing code-base is an additional deterrant. This further fossilizes what ever ounce of agility their dev teams might have had.
    - zoomablemind 6y ago
      Isn't it the 'legacy' systems are supposed to be left operating as-is, almost like black boxes with defined properties? Some kind of a known seam in the process. Meanwhile, all extensions to process are to be handled by other means. Given the current capacities, there could be additional layers added to filter or enhance whatever comes out of the legacy processes. Sure, there needs to be a "keeper" for those legacy systems, but migrating off them may be asking for too much of a manager's beef to get an approval to accomplish.
- mattlutze 6y ago
  There are many billions of Euro worth of renovation, modernization and simplification in the Mittlestand.
  - hef19898 6y ago
    There are, the moment the famous Mittelstand realizes the need for that. Until that happens, it is an uphill struggle.
    - raverbashing 6y ago
      Are they rummaging through old computer parts to fix their old machines like Japan does?
- dunefox 6y ago
  Well, I mean you are trying to get them from Cobol 1.0 to Cobol 2.0. I'd be hesitant as well.

woodpanel 6y ago

"But we are super proud of coining Industrie 4.0, so, that's something." Regarding Industrie 4.0: Currently at a client of mine, a "hidden champion" i.e. world market leader in industry XYZ (1.6B in revenue), I'm struggling to have them migrate from Cobol to Java. They are using their versioning system as a backup for their data, not for versioning the code. Deployments are done via dragging a zip file somewhere. Every new version means the whole system (handling invoices e.g.) is out of service for 10-14 days.

pmontra 6y ago
I understand why everything else is suboptimal but why do you want them to migrate from Cobol to Java? What problem is that going to solve for them?
- woodpanel 6y ago
  It's about human capital. Not that I favor Java, or even that I dislike Cobol. It is rather their existing human capital that makes anything more fancy than Java even harder to migrate to. At the same time, job postings looking for Cobol-Devs in 2020 are useless and even if they manage to find people capable and willing to work with Cobol per se, their existing code-base is an additional deterrant. This further fossilizes what ever ounce of agility their dev teams might have had.
  - zoomablemind 6y ago
    Isn't it the 'legacy' systems are supposed to be left operating as-is, almost like black boxes with defined properties? Some kind of a known seam in the process. Meanwhile, all extensions to process are to be handled by other means. Given the current capacities, there could be additional layers added to filter or enhance whatever comes out of the legacy processes. Sure, there needs to be a "keeper" for those legacy systems, but migrating off them may be asking for too much of a manager's beef to get an approval to accomplish.
mattlutze 6y ago
There are many billions of Euro worth of renovation, modernization and simplification in the Mittlestand.
- hef19898 6y ago
  There are, the moment the famous Mittelstand realizes the need for that. Until that happens, it is an uphill struggle.
  - raverbashing 6y ago
    Are they rummaging through old computer parts to fix their old machines like Japan does?
dunefox 6y ago
Well, I mean you are trying to get them from Cobol 1.0 to Cobol 2.0. I'd be hesitant as well.