Florida 2018 - 23^rd to 26^th April, 2018

While much of the computer industry is marred by a bias against older developers, our segment has the inverse problem - a majority of our developers are approaching retirement, and there are too few younger developers learning from them - who will take over the technical leadership roles and day-to-day work our current staff will be gradually leaving? How do we attract, motivate, and retain people in their 20's to 40's so we don't hit a brick wall - or rather a gaping chasm - within the next 3 to 10 years?

The obvious answer might appear to be that we need to move to the "cool" technologies that attract younger developers, but our multi-value database systems have a distinct business proposition we should be loath to abandon - it's wildly efficient to staff them. Switching to more "cool" technologies could easily result in tripling your staffing costs!

What steps do you need to take to continue getting the solid cost / benefit ratio your current multi-value shop provides? Come for a discussion of this important topic.