These topics provide an introduction to IMS™. The purpose of this information is twofold:

• To introduce IMS to new users and provide basic education about this cornerstone product
• To re-introduce IMS to the Computer Science field in general

These topics are the first five chapters of a retail publication that was written by members of the team responsible for the development and deployment of IMS: An Introduction to IMS: Your Complete Guide to IBM's Information Management System, by Dean H. Meltz, Rick Long, Mark Harrington, Robert Hain, and Geoff Nicholls (Pearson Publishing, ISBN 0-13-185671-5).

The full publication features overview information about the major components of IMS, system definition, security, Message Format Service (MFS), system recovery, Java™ programming, and more.

An Introduction to IMS is based on IMS Version 9, but largely applicable to later versions of IMS as well. A second edition is available through Amazon.com, and will be added to this information center in the future.

For detailed information about all versions of IMS that are currently supported, see the Information Management for z/OS Solutions Information Center