CICS Portfolio e-Newsletter
January 2007
Welcome to the January issue. We hope you find this compilation of what's happening in the busy world of CICS and System z useful, informative and enjoyable.
View from Development - Dave Andrews
Firstly an important message to CICS customers: This year the Transaction & Messaging Conference is being replaced in the Americas by a brand new event called Impact 2007. The new event runs May 20-25 in Orlando, Florida. For more information about Impact 2007, email: impact@us.ibm.com or visit the Impact 2007 page at: http://www.ibm.com/events/impact2007
So what has been happening in CICS recently? Well the teams continue working towards delivery of the first major products of 2007 which are the new version of CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, and the updated CICS Tools designed to complement the new version. Without wishing to give too much away at this stage, look out for enhancements in the areas of integration, application transformation, systems management and architecture.
Additional support for the new version of CICS Transaction Server for z/OS will continue to be provided by the CICS Problem Determination Tools (Application Performance Analyzer, Debug Tool, Debug Tool Utilities and Advanced Functions, Fault Analyzer, File Manager and File Export).
The updated CICS Tools will also enable better system monitoring, and will give CICS system administrators improved understanding of CICS applications and their performance characteristics. The tools will also enable more efficient use of CICS resources, and will help deliver reduced operational costs and improved user productivity.
I hope to meet you at the Impact 2007 event in May.
Dave Andrews,
Director, CICS Development
CICS Scene - Rick Thomas
Taking a look back at 2006, there were many important highlights.
A rich set of supportPacs for CICS included CICS support for WebSphere Registry and Repository (WSRR), WS-Security, JCA 1.0 Resource Adapters, Basic Authentication Headers for HTTP Client, CICS Performance Analyzer Historic Database Reporting.
The 2006 technical podcasts hosted on developerWorks covered a broad range of CICS, System z and mainframe-related subjects, for example problem determination tools, HATS (Host Access Transformation Service), Process Server, application lifecycle, SOA basics, and System z hardware. There was also a monthly "Did you say mainframe?" segment. The series was very popular and there were many downloads.
The award-winning CICS On Demand Seminars were delivered for a large number of customers during 2006. These customized seminars on CICS Transaction Server and the CICS Tools were a great success, with a total of 104 seminars being delivered worldwide! As a result, customers are now migrating to CICS Transaction Server V3.1. Expect more version to version migrations in 2007. To request your own CICS seminar please contact your IBM representative.
The most significant happening in 2006 was probably the SOA launch in October, when IBM announced its largest ever showcase of new software and services for SOA. The launch was based on IBM's experience gained from working with 3000 customers and 2500 business partners and focussed on business process management, governance, IT infrastructure and services. During the launch, IBM announced 4 new products, 23 enhancements, and 11 new services!
Looking forward to 2007, new CICS products and tools coming up this year will provide significant benefits in a number of key areas. These include integration of CICS application development tools with the CICS runtime, and extended integration of CICS management tools with Tivoli. Also look out for enhanced CICS application transformation and CICS system management capabilities. With regard to business integration, XML interoperation standards continue to advance at a rapid pace; expect to see CICS support for additional standards such as WSDL in future.
IBM continues to enhance the CICS portfolio of products. This has helped drive the increased adoption of CICS by customers and business partners, in innovative new SOA-based solutions.
Richard Thomas,
Program Director, CICS Marketing
CICS command syntax checker tool
Command syntax checking of multiple sequences of EXEC commands is a critically important but time-consuming quality control task for CICS COBOL programmers. This article explains how the new CICS Command Syntax Checker simplifies the task. Click the link to read the article.
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Data integration and transformation with IBM DataPower products
IBM DataPower products help simplify, secure, and accelerate Service Oriented Architectures (SOA). For example the Data Integration Appliance X150 transforms data between binary, flat-text, and other non-XML message data formats, including COBOL Copybook, CORBA, ISO 8583, ASN.1, and EDI. Data transformation does not depend on the transport mechanism used. IBM DataPower products offer an innovative solution for security-rich XML enablement, enterprise message buses and mainframe connectivity.
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CICS Service Flow Feature now enhanced for WebSphere Developer for System z V7
The CICS Service Flow Feature is a no-charge enhancement for CICS Transaction Server V3.1. It comprises a tooling component and a run-time component and is a business service integration adapter for CICS applications. It enables integration developers to create CICS business services by composing sequences of CICS application interactions. These can then be integrated into an SOA infrastructure or a business process collaboration. CICS Service Flow Feature provides a graphical IDE (integrated development environment) for composing CICS application interactions, a generator tool for creating runtime applications, and a runtime component that exploits CICS interfaces to support the service flow.
CICS Service Flow Feature is enhanced for the recently-announced WebSphere Developer for System z V7 product, and was made available as a PTF (UK20322) on January 12. Click the link to read the announcement letter.
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WebSphere Developer for System z V7 and CICS Service Flow Feature special promotions!
A free copy of the recently-announced WebSphere Developer for System z V7 is being shipped with CICS Transaction Server V3.1 from January 12, 2007 as a marketing promotion. Please be aware however that this copy is unsupported.
The CICS Service Flow Feature now includes a free 10-user license for the following WebSphere Developer for System z features:
- Service Flow Modeler
- XML Services for the Enterprise (XSE) and XML tools
- Web Services Test Environment
- Web Services Test Client
- Web Services Explorer
- IBM Support Assistant
- WebSphere Developer for System z V7 Help facility
Please be aware that the free 10-user license does not permit use of any other WebSphere Developer for System z V7 features. Users of these WebSphere Developer for System z features are subject to the terms and conditions of the license agreement that accompanies WebSphere Developer for System z V7.
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Invoking WebSphere Application Server Web services from CICS
Dan Millwood software engineer and CICS Family Integration Test team leader at IBM Software Group in Hursley explains how a Web service requester application deployed in CICS can send Web service requests to a Web service deployed in IBM WebSphere Application Server. In this scenario, the application sends requests over a messaging bus that consists of a WebSphere MQ queue manager and a WebSphere Application Server messaging engine.
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Impact 2007 (formerly the CICS T&M Conference), May 20-25, 2007
The CICS Transaction and Messaging Conference (T&M) just got bigger and better and is now incorporated into a brand new event called 'Impact 2007'.
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Other events worldwide in 2007
- February 11-16, SHARE User Group Event, Tampa, US
More... - April 15-18, IBM Technical Leadership Exchange, Anaheim, Califo rnia US
- April 23-27, WebSphere Services Technical Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada, US
- May 20-25, IBM Impact 2007, Orlando, Florida, US
More... - May 21-23, GSE Nordics User Group Event, Helsinki, Finland
- May 21-24, IBM Technical Leadership Exchange, Marne la Vallee, Paris, France
- August 12-17, SHARE User Group Events, San Diego, California, US
- October, TPF Users Group, Washington, US
- October, zSeries Expo, Orlando, Florida, US
- October, IBM Academy Annual Meeting, Austin, Texas, US
- November, Japan TPF Users Group, Tokyo, Japan
Read upcoming issues of this newsletter, and follow the link below to the CICS Events page for more information as it becomes available.
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Webcasts
- January 31: 'Make your enterprise portal successful with IBM WebSphere Portal Enable for z/OS Version 6.0'
More... - February 21: 'Unleash the power of your existing mainframe assets into the SOA world'
More... - The Webcasts on IBM developerWorks also give you access to a wide range of information about CICS, System z and SOA.
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Teleconferences
- 'Webify your mainframe applications with WebSphere Host Access Transformation Services V7.0'
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Podcasts
- The podcasts on developerWorks cover a wide range of CICS, mainframe, System z and other subjects and have been a great success. You don't need an iPod to listen to them - simply download to your computer and play on your default media player. You can also subscribe and receive the podcasts as RSS feeds.
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Redbooks
- 'Architecting Access to CICS within an SOA'
Download... - 'Application Development for CICS Web Services'
Download... - 'CICS Transaction Server V3R1 Channels and Containers Revealed'
Download... - 'Implementing CICS Web Services'
Download...
Other publications
In the recently published book 'Secrets of SOA: an enterprise view on service oriented architecture deployment revealed' (Larstan Publishing, ISBN 0977689573), find out the value to IT in making enterprise-level SOA infrastructure investments. Steve Wood widely experienced CICS developer and product manager for CICS Transaction Server contributed to this book.
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Workshops
- CICS and Web Services workshops. Through a combination of lectures and labs, learn how to use the Web services support provided in CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V3.1 to expose CICS application programs as Web services and to invoke other Web services.
More... - IBM business partner workshops: 'Process Integration for Service Oriented Architecture': Learn how to jumpstart your software development of open standards and cross platform applications using IBM business process integration middleware and tools.
More... - Training: Application Development for e-business. Gain the skills you need to build e-business applications. Take on board the core technologies, processes and tools skills that you need to improve your productivity.
More... - Training: CICS Skills workshops. Work alongside CICS Redbook authors to develop useful new CICS skills. These courses are delivered in partnership with IBM IT Education Services.
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IBM training News brings you the latest information on technical training. Get late-breaking news on technical training offerings tailored to the interest areas you select in the subscription form.
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CCR2 is for the IBM System z and software community and is the leading source of information on best practices, tips for exploiting features in the latest IBM releases and trends.
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Mainstream is for the IBM System z and S390 software community. Read the latest System z and S390 news, events, success stories and related information.
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SOA Newsletter brings you the latest news on the exciting world of SOA.
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