Wasn't this whole thread about joking that Java is the new COBOL? And a lot of enterprises use Java and that is becoming the new entrenched/old/stodgy language that the hot new kids don't want to use?
In its day, a lot of 'cool' companies used COBOL, back then. Because it was an ok solution, back then. So to say, today, Netflix is cool and uses Java, thus Java is different and still cool, is not valid. Does not invalidate the point. It is the same situation, just decades later.
Maybe shouldn't have conflated SAP, but they seem to be just all part of the same giant ecosystem of 'current/entrenched' solution that 'we use because we have to, not because it is better'. Not unlike COBOL.
I'm not saying COBOL is a bad language, far from it, which the billions of lines of code running production proably also attests to. The first COBOL program i ever edited, in 2008, was last edited in 1987. It had run flawlessly every day for 20 years. COBOL when invented was invented to allow business people to express business logic programatically, which is also why it has such a large footprint in finance, insurance, etc.
I'm not saying Java is a bad language either. Java is great, much like COBOL was, and like COBOL, Java still evolves today. It has flaws, but so does every other language, and most of the flaws in Java are understood. There is literally also nothing you can't do in Java that you can do in <insert fashionable language of the year>.
We probably shouldn't write web frontends in Java, and most people figured that out a decade or more ago, including the financial institutions.
The typical flow in a financial institution is something like "Angular (in some form) => Java Backend => COBOL on mainframe => DB2", where "=>" can be anything from REST to message queues (i was tempted to write MQ, as most will likely be IBM MQ, but others exist and are used).
Most companies migrating away from mainframe (and thereby often COBOL), have also started implementing microservices instead of giant monoliths, which is what has kept the mainframes of the world running for so long. Most companies i've worked with, have had 45,000 - 90,000 COBOL programs running every night, with almost as many running on demand, and each and every one depends heavily on the output of the previous part of the chain.
Thost giant chunks are now being migrated to microservices with well defined couplings, meaning that when it eventually becomes time to migrate away from Java, it will be somewhat easier as you can eat the elephant one mouthful at a time, and not have to reimplement 50+ years of legacy code and conventions in one go.
I've said it before, and will gladly say it again, if you choose a COBOL career today, you will most likely never be unemployed for long until you retire.
In its day, a lot of 'cool' companies used COBOL, back then. Because it was an ok solution, back then. So to say, today, Netflix is cool and uses Java, thus Java is different and still cool, is not valid. Does not invalidate the point. It is the same situation, just decades later.
Maybe shouldn't have conflated SAP, but they seem to be just all part of the same giant ecosystem of 'current/entrenched' solution that 'we use because we have to, not because it is better'. Not unlike COBOL.