Here is an interesting comment from Cobol Report:

Cobol programming in a Java world

This article discusses terminal emulation, code conversion, and other "possible solutions" for Cobol programmers to consider in building and extending applications. The article is generally fair in his treatment of both Cobol programmers and Cobol's abilities.

One aspect that is never touched upon in this article or others is what happens when Java can't handle the load and the system is rewritten in Cobol. This happens more frequently than one would be led to believe by the media. Java is in some ways like a garbage disposal. Garbage disposals at first seemed like the be-all and end-all solution. No more heavy-lifting required. Then the plumber after changing out the unit and retrieving your fingers advises you not to put bones, large quantities of vegetables, or non-food items in the disposal * it just wasn't built for that.

http://www.sunworld.com/swol-04-1998/swol-04-cobolconversion.html