Check out the growing list of IBM Business partners with solutions that support the very latest CICS Transaction Server (CICS TS V4.2).
If you have a solution to add to this list, please drop an email to cicsetp@uk.ibm.com.
We are deeply saddened to inform the MasterTerminal community of the death of Grant Shayler. He died on 29th October 2011, aged 42. We have delayed this news until his loving sister and father have been able to deal with his affairs and return him to his native land of New Zealand.
Grant was a prolific contributor to this blog, both as a contributor of original articles, and as a respondent to Ask a Question
. He also actively participated in the CICS-L mailing list. His depth of knowledge of CICS was outstanding.
Grant joined IBM in 1989. He was initially a tester of the CICS Security restructure, but his security expertise was so extensive that he became an honorary member of the design team. The complex table of CICS ISC userid selection was Grant’s creation.
He temporarily moved to WebSphere MQ to perform a similar service there.
Grant returned to CICS in the CICSPlex/SM Change Team, and later became a lead architect and developer for CICSPlex/SM for many years. In the last few years he led the team that brought in the CICS Deployment Assistant.
Grant was greatly respected by his friends and colleagues in the CICS and CPSM Development and Change Teams, both for his technical knowledge and for his friendly, helpful, and approachable character. He will be deeply missed by us all.
As of late yesterday, IBM is now using a considerably more open and transparent requirements system for CICS Transaction Server enhancement requests. Everybody can now submit and track their CICS TS requirements directly thorough this new web based system. The new system is called the “Request for Enhancement” system – or RFE – and is located on the developerWorks RFE site at the following link:
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe
RFE has a lot of new capability that should benefit everybody out there working with CICS TS, as well as everybody here in Hursley who spend our days working on it. Customers can now directly create new requirements, and view, comment and vote on other requirements. That information comes through directly to us in the lab, where we can respond straight back with comments and questions about those requirements.
The first CICS TS requirement that was raised in the new system was a no-charge ‘try before you buy’ edition of the latest CICS TS releases. If you want to learn more about that idea, why not test out this new requirements tool by going to the following link and looking at the submission. If you have any comments, or would like to vote for us to deliver it, please join in!
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewChangeRequest&CR_ID=14583
Don’t worry if you currently have open requirements in our existing FITS system, or if you have perhaps submitted them via a recent survey, etc. We are continually reviewing all those requirements. However, if you would like to be a bit more more pro-active, then please feel free to go in and resubmit them (or indeed, add any new requirements) into this new RFE tool. We can’t promise to deliver everything you ask for, but we can assure you that we will respond in a timely manner, and that you will be able to interact with us and track the progress of your requirements though this new tool.
This is an exiting opportunity for all of us, and we are looking forward to using this new technology to have some interesting conversations with you all.
Cheers, Andy (CICS TS Product Manager)
It has been a bit quiet here on the posting front lately…. No excuses really, but I’ll make one anyway…. We have all been working hard on CICS TS 4.2 which was announced yesterday. You can read the announcement letter here.
If you want to have a play with CICS TS 4.2, an Open Beta program is running, for details and to sign up go here.
Any questions on CICS TS 4.2, feel free to post them as comments to this append, and we can try our best to answer them for you.
Oh, and if you want to check out the Beta CICS TS 4.2 Information Center, check it out here.
A very random collection of CICS links today.
A new tool has just been added to the CICS portfolio. The all shiny and new CICS Deployment Assistant. Congratulations to Grant and everyone else involved on releasing a great new tool!
CICS Deployment Assistant can discover, model, visualize, and deploy new and existing CICS regions, using automation and policy-driven advice built on your own and IBM’s knowledge and experience, giving you access to the latest IBM CICS technology faster and easier than ever before.
Two interesting new APAR (CICS APAR PM15583 and CICSPlex SM APAR PM15214) have also been released for CICS TS V4.1. When applied together, they provide access to the cold-start CICS SIT parameters via the CICSPlex SM API and the CICS Management Client Interface (CMCI). They will allow you to find out not only what value each regions SIT parameters were set to but also where they were set. Very handy for problem determination or just keeping track of your environment.
If you read z/Journal you may have spotted CICSPlex SM developer Dave Williams 3 excellent articles:
You might notice there are some new sharing options on the blog now as well. At the bottom of every post you should now be able to simply click a button to share the post to twitter or Facebook.
Finally, a new blog focussing on WebSphere and CICS support has also just been created over on developerWorks. I’ve also added the blog to our bookmarks below.
If you have been keeping an eye out on IBM_CICS you may have spotted a number of new SupportPacs that allow you to use various IBM PD Tools with CICS Explorer:
You will need the corresponding versions of the z/OS component to use the plugins, but if you have them and CICS Explorer, you are good to go.
Note: these plugins currently require the Windows version of CICS Explorer.
Any questions, or comments on these SupportPacs ask here, or over on Developerworks.
Posted on behalf of Nick.
Our intrepid CICS Explorers have been checking out the Super Woman’s Reception – I think Tom was expecting lycra and super powers.
While they were there they bumped in to Yvonne Perkins, VP for Enterprise Platform Systems (EPS) who wished to pass their Best of British wishes to her.
After all the socialising it was time to hit the bar and a glass of red, room temperature of course.
Many people you see here are walking around with colourful buttons adorning them (click the image for a close-up).
I must say I liked the Connectivity Cowboy one, although cannot claim any input to that particular badge, but here are the ‘sacks’ of badges waiting to be taken up.
Now it was time to scope out the food – so we went for a closer look.
Then it was off to play the machines.
Some people lose their shirt gambling, this chap lost his head by the look of it!
But Tom and Sue decided to see what they could get with their winnings- is Ford country some kind of music?
Obviously someone got upset because the next thing we know is Security arrived….
We just hope they let us out in time for tomorrows sessions, particularly Phil Wakelins security talk which will include the new feature recently made available for CICS TS V4.1, ID Propagation. Also, what should be an entertaining session from Will Yates – Old stager Vs Greenhorn and a look at how the CICS Explorer can help and for those of you who missed Fraser’s Dynamic Scripting session there’s a repeat!
Posted on behalf of Nick.
So after the excitement of day one and the 200+ attendees to Dave Andrews opening, our intrepid CICS Explorers get down in to the more detailed technical sessions. To back up the technical sessions, as well as the Ask z Expert sessions, there are demo’s being provided in the IBM System z Software Solutions Suite.
After a quick chat with the CICS Business Partner Supremo, Diane Johnson (@dianegjohnson), it was off to the solution center to see what freebies there were check out all the rich complementary products to the CICS family.
First stop was the Hostbridge stand (doing more with CICS) – nice comfy chair and check out that guitar behind us – looks like a ’57 Les Paul to me
Next we visited those fine people who used to be called Fair Isaac, now known as FICO.
Now with all the new stuff CICS keeps putting in to it’s products it gets increasingly hard to stay up to date with it all, so it’s important that we have companies offering education and instruction of how to take advantage.
So after a hard day around the event it was time for our Explorers to put their feet? up. The ideal solution to this was to relax in one of the bars.
We spent some time analysing what was on offer for Day 3 and saw Catherine Moxey was giving her CICS Events pitch, Fraser had a couple of sessions on CICS Web Services and Service Component Architecture as well as the exciting new announcement from CICS, a session on Dynamic Scripting, there’s an ILOG session from Matt Whitbourne (@mattwhitbourne) and Dan Donnelly as well as further education on CICS Events and implementation.However, in addition to this there is the Tom Rosamilia session at 16:30 Creating an Agile, Dynamic and Cost-Effective Business With System z. and the ‘Ask z Experts 18:00 session with Tom and Phil Weintraub. Another full day ahead – in the words of that classic Greek philosopher, or was he Roman? Actually I think it the Magic Roundabout…. Zebedee “time for bed….”
I’ve been asked to publish this by Nick, who is just too nice to say no to. No socks were harmed (so far) during the creation of this content but I can assure you they will be given a good talking to when they return from their err.. adventures.
So having shamelessly plugged Impact 2010 on YouTube promo video here we are at Impact 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Venetian Hotel is the setting for most of the sessions and two stars of the Impact promotional videos have taken some time out to give a narrative of the first days proceedings. Sue and Tom have flown over from the Hursley Lab in the UK to be present at this years event along with several others speakers and attendees from the SW Lab in England. Dave Andrews, the CICS Development Director kicked off the CICS Track with a family update, featuring two key announcements made last week. The CICS Transaction Gateway V8 and CICS Dynamic Scripting no-charge feature pack.
Sue and Tom also heard about the exciting new Redbook that is available ‘Smarter Banking with CICS Transaction Server and were seen ‘mugging’ up on the book.
Next up it was time for food.
After lunch it was time to take the Solution tour.
Where upon we came across a nice bright shiny z10 – it’s big it’s black, the mainframes back!!
After that they decided to venture off and investigate the experts.
Here we found the resident CICS Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM), Catherine Moxey.
There’s plenty going on here and for Tuesday we have Joe Winchester talking about the CICS Explorer and how it can be extended using the software development kit, Steve Zemblowski talking about upgrading your CICS TS, Catherine (when she’s not in the experts zone) talking about CICS Events, Dan Donnelly talking about ILOG Business Rules solutions and a couple of CICS Tools sessions, one featuring Jim White from Southern California Edison. So before the jet lag kicks in any further it’s off for some rest.
The industry and analyst studies are piling up and they all arrive at the same conclusion:
Aligning business and IT efforts can double the productivity gains of those efforts done individually. This alignment also enables businesses to deliver the right information in the right context, tailored to individual needs. But redesigning decades of existing code and solutions is not a viable approach to process improvement. How do you approach building a successful and scalable smarter banking initiative non-invasively?
From an organizational perspective, the enterprise needs horizontal visibility as well as appropriate skills to manage the business and IT operational environments. From a technological perspective, the enterprise needs a platform that will scale with the success of the bank, as well as continuously ensure the integrity and reliability of business processes and services. Providing end-to-end process visibility on a high-performance horizontal transaction processing platform will be a key differentiator for successful enterprises in their drive toward smarter banking.
Join us for this complimentary webcast to learn how IBM CICS® Transaction Server V4.1 can deliver the highly scalable agile infrastructure transaction processing fundamentals needed, along with advanced capabilities like business event emission, and ATOM feeds as a great starting point toward providing a solid foundation for the future.
In this session, we will discuss how CICS TS V4.1 and complementary WebSphere® solutions support smarter banking by helping you:
Register now for this webcast here.
Speakers:
Broadcast date: April 21, 2010, 11 a.m., EDT
Developed for: IT and enterprise architects, IT managers, and industry solutions analysts and managers
Technical level: Intermediate
Join us after the webcast for a live question-and-answer session. This webcast will also be available for replay after the event.
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