IBM gives CICS a boost

In a move to modernize its venerable line of mainframe-based CICS middleware, IBM on Wednesday introduced an updated version of its CICS Transaction Server that enables corporate IT administrators to extend the product to work better with SOAs (service-oriented architectures) through Web services.

With the release of CICS Transaction Server for z/OS Version 3.1, administrators can now integrate their traditional workloads to fully participate in an SOA. This capability should lay the groundwork for being able to extend older CICS applications to go after fresh business opportunities, company officials contend.

“I think the crucial thing here is we have delivered [with Version 3.1] a language-neutral solution. This works for Cobol and PL/1 applications as well as Java applications. Many of our users have their apps written in Cobol, but now those apps can play a bigger part in a Web services story going forward,” said Phillip Hanson, CICS Manager for IBM’s Application and Integration Middleware.

Another important addition to the new release, according to Hanson, is its compliance with the WS-Security and WS-Atomic Transaction Web services standards. IBM has also added support to the new release that allows it to take advantage of the company’s workload management and balancing technologies, he said.

Some observers see the added support for Web services and SOAs as an important evolution for CICS, because the latter technology is often at the center of most large IT shops’ core operations.

“[CICS[ is an important touch point for an awful lot of business processes. To bring Web services and SOA architecture into the mainframe is tantamount to interconnecting distributed servers with mainframes. It also will give a jump start for many who have been doing testing and evaluation on SOAs the last couple of years,” said Susan Eustis, president of Wintergreen Research, an industry research company.

Besides extending CICS applications to work with SOAs, the new version also features improved CICS data exchange capabilities along with the ability to exploit just one development tool, namely IBM’s own WebSphere Studio Enterprise Developer. The company also improved the product’s system management by adapting its CICSPlex System Manager Web User Interface, company officials said.

In concert with Version 3.1, IBM also rolled out its CICS Transaction Gateway Version 6.0 that also features improved systems management and security, including integrated administration interfaces, SSL support, and tightly coupled z/OS security integration.

CICS Transaction Server Version 3.1 is expected to ship in next year’s first quarter, while the Transaction Gateway Version 6.0 will be available in December 2005.

More information about the products can be seen at https://www.ibm.com/cics.