Someone just sent me a WSJ article with the title ‘Mainframes find new life in the AI era’

Bollocks.

Here’s my reply them:

Hmm,

This story is somewhat / very slanted.

The real reason that banks and airlines are still using mainframes is that they are terrified to try to modify the software they are running, let alone replace it. Not only has the knowledge of how these systems work been lost, but also what they do.

Specifically, this is why HSBC, Lloyds etc are having their lunch eaten by the new banks like Monzo, their time to make any kind of modification is measured in multiple years. Monzo started with a clean modern stack of infrastructure and is is a way better consumer experience.

It’s also why we see regular massive outages, such as with British Airways

I worked with the brilliant Andreas Boerner on whose systems were so old that the programmers who knew how to to fix or modify them had either died or retired. The costs were monstrous and the failed projects many, but they, like many big enterprises, cling to the fallacy of sunk costs and keep pouring the money in.

You can read the original article here

Mike