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Legacy IT Challenges: The SSA’s COBOL Conundrum

The Social Security Administration (SSA) grapples with a significant technological hurdle: a reliance on COBOL, a classic programming language developed in part by influential computer scientist Grace Hopper during the 1950s. Following its inception, the Defense Department heavily encouraged the private sector to adopt COBOL, leading to its broad usage in mainframes, which are robust computer systems designed to handle vast amounts of data efficiently. By the 1970s, COBOL had emerged as one of the predominant programming languages in the field.

As of 2016, the SSA’s technological backbone included an astonishing 60 million lines of COBOL code, supplemented by additional legacy programming languages, as highlighted in an Office of the Inspector General report. Alarmingly, many of the SSA’s foundational systems have remained largely untouched since the 1980s. During that era, the agency innovated its own database system, known as MADAM (Master Data Access Method), primarily developed using COBOL and Assembler, as outlined in SSA’s 2017 modernization plan.

COBOL is embedded in the SSA’s underlying logic, which is responsible for critical functions such as issuing social security numbers, managing disbursements, and calculating benefits. A former senior technologist from the SSA emphasized the fragility of this system, where even minor alterations could trigger significant disruptions across programs.

Dan Hon, a principal at Very Little Gravitas, a consultancy specializing in technology modernization for government, remarked on the gravity of the situation. He noted that any significant migration to newer systems carries risks, particularly the potential for many beneficiaries to experience delays or inaccuracies in their benefits, making the urgency for modernization more apparent.

Despite the pressing need for an overhaul, SSA’s immediate priorities, as outlined in recent internal documents, do not include the migration away from COBOL. Instead, these documents emphasize other initiatives such as cutting “non-essential contracts” and exploring artificial intelligence to enhance administrative and technical writing processes.

The future of the SSA’s IT infrastructure remains uncertain, and the decision-making surrounding the transition from COBOL could have wide-ranging implications for the agency and its stakeholders. As technology progresses, the necessity for adaptive and robust systems will only grow in importance for effective governance and service delivery.

Source
arstechnica.com