Many databases in the 1960s and 1970sstored dates with two digits for the year to save space. Their developers reasoned that those databases would be replaced long before they had to store years beginning with “20.” That didn’t happen. A major worldwide effort was needed in the late 1990s to deal with the so-called Y2K problem. Some databases were modified, others were replaced, and others received temporary fixes to keep working until 2020 or 2030. Does this experience suggest anything about how long COBOL programs will be around?