Fergie's Tech Blog

8 July 1969: Happy Birthday, CICS

CICS® (Customer Information Control System) is a transaction server that runs primarily on IBM mainframe systems under z/OS or z/VSE. CICS is available for other operating systems, notably i5/OS, OS/2, and as the closely related IBM TXSeries software on AIX, Windows, and Linux, among others. The z/OS implementation is by far the most popular and significant.

CICS is a transaction processing system (like TCAM) designed for both online and batch activity. On large IBM zSeries and System z9 servers, CICS easily supports thousands of transactions per second, making it a mainstay of enterprise computing. CICS applications can be written in numerous programming languages, including COBOL, PL/I, C, C++, Assembler, REXX, and Java.

CICS is one of the world's most durable software products thanks to its ever-expanding capabilities, continuous and aggressive vendor support, large installed base, exceptional reliability, high performance, and huge variety of applications and tools. It is also a very secure system and functions at a high speed. (Many of these attributes depend on the zSeries platform.) CICS is used in bank teller applications, airline reservation systems, ATM systems etc. CICS first went on sale on July 8, 1969, not long after IMS. It was originally developed in the United States at IBM's Palo Alto lab. In 1974, CICS development shifted to IBM's programming labs in Hursley, United Kingdom, where work continues today.

posted by Fergie @ 7/07/2006 10:01:00 PM