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CICS TS 5.1 announcement letter

CICS® Transaction Server for z/OS®, Version 5 Release 1 delivers a set of new and enhanced capabilities in a way that positions CICS users for the next era in technology, moving them towards a service delivery platform for cloud computing.

These capabilities are represented in two areas: Service agility and Operational efficiency, with a number of themes in each area.

The aims of these capabilities are as follows:

Operational efficiency:
- Greater capacity, delivering significant vertical and horizontal scalability enhancements.
- Managed operations, introducing policies that deliver automated control over critical system resources.
- Increased availability, reducing the need for planned outages.
- Deeper insight, providing performance and compliance information to help tune and audit system use.
Service agility:
- First-class applications, enabling the creation of agile services from existing assets.
- First-class platforms, enabling the creation of agile service delivery runtime environments.
- Modern interfaces, enabling customers to build rich web experiences for critical applications.
- Foundational enhancements, extending the core CICS capabilities through increased support in various areas.

Additional changes to this product
CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, Version 5 Release 1 is extended by Service after its initial release. The capabilities that are introduced through service after the product was first released are listed. APARs that are provided as fixes to issues with existing function are not listed here.
Greater capacity
You can run the same workload on fewer regions than in previous releases, providing the opportunity for cost savings through consolidation.
Managed operations
You can set task thresholds for data access requests, storage use, program loops, and processor time used. You can manage policy breaches by issuing messages, abending tasks, or emitting events that can trigger further actions. You can apply policies dynamically during runtime operations.
Increased availability
You can upgrade without restarting z/OS and you can refresh SSL certificates dynamically without restarting CICS regions. A heartbeat capability keeps IPIC connections established and ready for use. This release provides greater support for IBM GDPS Continuous Availability solutions.
Deeper insight
SPI commands that alter system configurations are now logged. Identity propagation is extended, and auditing of user IDs that make requests over IP is improved. Information about use of SSL cipher suites, with information on actual and potential use of specialty processors, can help you to tune system performance.
First-class applications
You can combine and manage disparate application resources as a single entity, which can be versioned and moved rapidly through the development, test, and production lifecycle. Dependency management is handled, and you can measure entire applications for resource use and internal billing. You can also dynamically manage applications by applying policies during run time.
First-class platforms
You can group CICS regions as platforms for rapid application deployment and decouple applications from the underlying topology for increased flexibility. Applications are deployed automatically when a region within a platform is started, and platforms can be managed dynamically by applying policies during run time.
Modern interfaces
A web container is available for deployment of lightweight Java™ servlets and JavaServer Pages (JSPs). Application performance is improved through local access to CICS applications and data. OSGi packaged deployments that integrate with first-class applications and platforms enable rapid updates to interfaces. This capability is built on the IBM® WebSphere® Application Server Liberty profile.
Foundational enhancements
You can capture CICS events on operator writes and system messages, and events can be emitted on a one-to-many basis. The CICS-WebSphere MQ Dynamic Program Link (DPL) bridge now supports messages larger than 32 KB. IPIC integration and error recovery is improved. Application storage requirements are reduced, and you can back up and restore entire CICSPlex® SM systems without manual overrides. Extended support is provided for specifying SSL cipher suites.
Discontinued functions
Some functions which were supported in CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, Version 4 Release 2 have been discontinued, or reduced in scope, in Version 5 Release 1.
Changes to the CICS Explorer and CICS Explorer SDK
Since the release of CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, Version 4 Release 2, IBM has released a number of significant enhancements to the CICS Explorer and the CICS Explorer SDK.
General information
General information about this release includes system requirements, and details of the information center structure and high-level language support.

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Last updated: Thursday, 27 June 2019