COBOL on Linux
Modernise Your COBOL Applications Without Leaving Them Behind
Many organisations still rely on COBOL applications written decades ago. These systems are often critical, managing finance, healthcare, logistics, and government services. But running them on ageing mainframes is expensive, risky, and inflexible.
At Nelop Systems, we help you move COBOL workloads onto Linux, providing a cost-effective, reliable, and future-proof alternative to the mainframe.
Why Replace Mainframes with Linux?
Lower Costs, Eliminate high licensing and hardware maintenance fees.
Flexibility, Run COBOL alongside modern applications on the same platform.
Scalability, Scale horizontally on commodity hardware or cloud infrastructure.
Security & Compliance, Keep systems patched and compliant with modern standards.
Future-Proofing, Ensure your applications can continue to evolve, without being tied to legacy hardware.
How COBOL Runs on Linux
COBOL applications can be moved from mainframes to Linux without needing to rewrite the entire system. Using modern COBOL compilers and runtime environments designed for Linux, existing programs can be recompiled or emulated so that they run naively on commodity hardware or in virtual machines. This allows IT teams to preserve the reliability of business-critical software while removing the dependency on costly and ageing mainframe hardware.
On Linux, COBOL integrates smoothly with both traditional relational databases and newer technologies such as NoSQL systems or cloud data warehouses. This creates opportunities to extend legacy applications with modern reporting, analytics, and data-driven services while keeping the original business rules intact.
Deployment is also more flexible. COBOL applications on Linux can be containerised with Docker or Kubernetes, giving IT managers tools for automated scaling, orchestration, and resource optimisation. This makes it possible to operate COBOL workloads in hybrid environments, running alongside new applications written in Java, Python, or C++, all within the same infrastructure.
By shifting COBOL workloads to Linux, organisations gain the stability of their existing systems while adopting modern infrastructure, integrations, and scalability. The result is a platform that bridges trusted legacy code with future-ready technologies.
Take the Next Step
Mainframes don’t have to define your future. With Nelop Systems, you can keep your COBOL investments safe while moving onto modern, supported hardware.
We can help:
- 25+ years in IT and systems integration
- Specialists in air-gapped & legacy environments
- UK-based, on-site only service
- Trusted by organisations where downtime is not an option
Email contact@nelop.com for assistance or information.