Disadvantages of EBCDIC
- Lack of Modern Hardware Compatibility: The biggest disadvantage of EBCDIC is modern computing technologies containing no native decoding capabilities for the standard given ASCII’s dominance. This requires addition of special costly middleware or components for integrating and translating anything meant for contemporary software stacks.
- Additional Translation Overhead: The lack of direct decoding means expending resources on continuously mapping between EBCDIC and ASCII when external interfaces or data inputs are needed from modern systems. This translation overhead causes lag while also risking introduction of errors.
- Scarcity of Knowledgeable Talent: Given its aging status and extremely narrow application scope on IBM mainframes only, workers familiar with intricacies of EBCDIC are nearing retirement age. This makes hiring replacements challenging when leveraging legacy capabilities remains essential until migrations complete.
- Security and Support Concerns: Maintaining aging technologies like EBCDIC in client-server era also raises platform support and security risks without vendors actively issuing updates and patches. As components fail, risk exposure increases over time.
- Migration Complexity: Finally, the biggest long-term concern involves vast complexities and potential business disruption when migrating away from EBCDIC to modern standards. Meticulous planning over years is required to ensure continuity of operations.
What is Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC)?
As we know computers and devices store data in a numbers form. But for humans to easily understand it needs to be encoded to actual data or textual form we use encoders. Encoding schemes are essential in computing and telecommunication to store, process, and transmit textual information and data efficiently.