Y2K COBOL remediation (1999–2000)
Insurers and banks running core operations on COBOL mainframes spent billions patching two-digit year handling for the millennium rather than modernizing. Most of those systems are still running today.
Y2K passed with few failures, validating the patch-and-keep approach.
The episode cemented a pattern: when replacement is too costly, industries invest in workarounds that keep legacy cores alive.
Insurance's core systems remain the same untouchable legacy layer; browser automation is the latest workaround letting modern software operate on top.
