CICS

CICS  (Customer Information Control System)

Introduction:-

                           CICS is a transaction management system that can be used on a variety of operating systems not only OS/390, but MVS. VSE, UNIX Windows and others too. CICS can be classed as middleware, or acting as an “application server” to user applications. Providing the customer services to help them implement online business applications. It is a data (base) communications system that provides the user access to online business systems and data with security.

                          CICS can be classed as middleware, or acting as an “application server” to user applications. Providing the customer services to help them implement online business applications. It is a data (base) communications system that provides the user access to online business systems and data with security.

History:-

                           CICS stands for Customer Information Control System. CICS was developed in 1968 by IBM in United States. CICS allow users to develop and execute online application in an MVS environment. CICS has become the most commonly used server for Internet applications.

• CICS was first released to the world as a gram Product in 1969 when:We had S/360, 64K storage and Rolling Stones were touring CICS OS V1 released 8th July 1969, 100 KLOC and cost $600/Mth .Early 3270, virtual storage systems, database and recovery/restart support in the 1970s 
• Client/Server support
• Support on multiple platforms z/OS (OS/390), VSE, AIX, AS/400, OS/2, NT
• Exploiting latest mainframe features – high scalability, availability, managability, parallel systems etc.
• Support of the Internet and new web browsers
• Ability for composite CICS and WebSphere transactions
• Support of the Java and EJBs
• Interoperability with WebSphere
• Foundation of today’s enterprise-wide on Demand applications

                          CICS is a transaction processing system which is also called as Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) Software. CICS is a data communication system that can support a network of many hundreds of terminals. Customer Information Control System (CICS) is one of the most popular Database/Data communications (DB/DC) control system.

Functions:-

•  CICS manages requests from concurrent users in an application.
•  Although, multiple users are working on CICS system but it gives a feel to user that he is the single user only.
•  CICS gives the access to data files for reading or updating them in an application. 

Features:-

 The features of CICS are as follows:

 • CICS is an operating system in itself, as it manages its own processor storage, has its own task manager which handles execution of multiple programs, and provides its own file management functions.

 • CICS provides online environment in batch operating system. Jobs submitted are executed immediately.

• CICS is a generalized transaction processing interface. It is possible to have two or more CICS regions at the same time, as CICS runs as a batch job in the operating system at the back-end.