The latest CICS for z/OS release from IBM, CICS TS V3.2, has been installed at CNS. This CICS migration is an upgrade from CICS TS 3.1, which we have been running since the middle of 2006. CICS TS 3.2 went GA (General Availability) on Friday, June 29, 2007. As of August 2, 2007, 10 of our 12 CICS regions have been migrated to CICS TS 3.2, with the last 2 regions scheduled to be migrated on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2007.
Plans are to exploit some of the latest CICS enhancements after our migration is complete in September. Note that we've enjoyed 100% scheduled availability with this latest IBM CICS for z/OS release.
The Customer Information Control System (CICS) is an interactive transaction processing system from IBM, which has been used at CNS (formerly NERDC) since the early 1970's. The CICSplex at CNS provides critical transaction processing services to certain universities and state agencies in Florida, including the University of North Florida, the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), the Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA), and many departments at the University of Florida (e.g. Registrar, Student Financial Affairs, Administrative Affairs, Academic Affairs, UF Foundation, Sponsored Research and Graduate Education, College of Medicine, and others). These services provide online access to the critical data infrastructure required to keep these universities and agencies running.
Do you ever pick "ADMIN" from the CNS Interactive Services Menu? Use the UF Menu System? ISIS? GATA? LUIS? FACTS? Do you register for classes at UF using a web browser?
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you are a CICS user at CNS!
IBM highlights the following in their overview of CICS TS 3.2:
- Provides open standards-based connectivity, enabling CICS applications to be integrated within a service-oriented architecture (SOA), while preserving the long-established CICS qualities of security, reliability, data integrity, and optimal application responsiveness.
- Enhances CICS application connectivity with new Web services capabilities including support for recent standards, interoperability profiles, and the ability to send large amounts of binary data efficiently.
- Reuse applications and deploy web services into CICS using a wider range of programming languages and XML data types and attributes, with improvements to performance and diagnostics.
- Improves CICS service management using the CICSPlex SM Web User Interface with new help and map capabilities and usability enhancements
- Utilizes 64-bit storage for data held in containers, providing for improved scalability and performance.