Recent CICS Transaction Server enhancements include support for Web services and Enterprise Java Beans ( EJBs ), Event processing, Atom feeds, and RESTful interfaces.

CICS Transaction Server version 4. 2, which became generally available on 24 June 2011, includes support for

Recent CICS Transaction Server enhancements include support for a number of modern programming styles.

CICS Transaction Server Version 2. 1 introduced support for Enterprise Java Beans ( EJB ).

CICS Transaction Server 2. 3 added new EJB tracing capabilities, and new JCICS classes, allowing the invocation of CICS services using Java.

The Web services support in CICS Transaction Server Version 3. 1 enables a CICS program to be a Web service provider or requester.

CICS supports a number of industry standard and specifications including SOAP Version 1. 1 and Version 1. 2, Web services distributed transactions ( WS-Atomic Transaction ) and XML Encryption and Signing.

Although when CICS is mentioned, people usually mean CICS Transaction Server, the " CICS Family " refers to a portfolio of transaction servers, connectors ( called CICS Transaction Gateway ) and CICS Tools.

The z / OS implementation ( i. e., CICS Transaction Server for z / OS ) is by far the most popular and significant.

* IBM CICS Whitepaper-Why to choose CICS Transaction Server for new IT projects

* IBM System z: CICS Transaction Server, IMS, z / OS Batch, UNIX System Services, WebSphere Application Server, z / VSE, Linux

Major software subsystems that could benefit from zAAP ( i. e. that rely on Java workloads ) include WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation, WebSphere Process Server, WebSphere Message Broker, DB2, CICS Transaction Server, CICS Transaction Gateway, IMS, and ( JZOS and z / OS UNIX System Services ) Batch, among others.

Current IBM mainframes run all the major enterprise transaction processing environments and databases, including CICS, IMS, WebSphere Application Server, DB2, and Oracle.

In January 1973, TCAM continued to be supported by CICS / OS-Standard Version 2. 3.

CICS TCAM ACB support was discontinued as of the CICS / ESA Version 3 product in 1990.

Also introduced with CICS TS 2. 1 was the capability for CICS transactions to be invoked via an HTTP request.

CICS is also available on other operating systems, notably IBM i and OS / 2.

In this way, the CPU is not interrupted at every keystroke, a scheme that allowed an early 3033 mainframe with only 16 MB to support up to 17, 500 3270 terminals under CICS.

You could even drive the 3270 from a DOS partition running under VM, which was the normal CICS / 3270 driver mechanism.

While there are other industrial-strength transaction processing systems, notably IBM's own CICS and IMS, TPF's raison d ' être is extreme volume, large numbers of concurrent users and very fast response times, for example VISA credit card transaction processing during the peak holiday shopping season.

CICS, one of the most popular enterprise transaction processing systems, is extremely popular among z / VSE users and now supports recent innovations such as Web services.

z / OS supports stable mainframe systems and standards such as CICS, IMS, DB2, RACF, SNA, WebSphere MQ, record-oriented data access methods, REXX, CLIST, SMP / E, JCL, TSO / E, and ISPF, among others.

Terminal emulators that simulate the 3270 protocol are available for most operating systems, for use both by those administering systems such as the z9, as well as those using the corresponding applications such as CICS.

They were supported by IBM 3704 / 3705 communication controllers and their Network Control Program, and by System / 370 and their VTAM and other software such as CICS and IMS.

As a result running a large number of terminals required a lot more communications lines than the number required today, especially if different types of terminals needed to be supported, or the users wanted to use different types of applications (. e. g. under CICS or TSO ) from the same location.

A terminal user would log-in via VTAM to a specific application or application environment ( e. g. CICS or TSO ).

A gulf developed between the 3270 world, focused on page-oriented mainframe transaction processing ( especially via CICS ), and the asynch terminal world, focused on character-oriented minicomputers and dial-up timesharing.

The difference is apparent when comparing the atomic transaction approach of dominant CICS with the interactive, stream-oriented style of UNIX.

CMS has a command-driven, stateful, interactive environment, rather than adopting the CICS approach of a stateless transaction-oriented interface.

TDS and its TP8 successor were commercially successful, and TDS predated IBM CICS, which had a very similar architecture.

However, proprietary transaction-processing environments such as IBM's CICS are still very popular, although CICS has evolved to include open industry standards as well.

For example, LSR access is easy to achieve from CICS while NSR access has historically been easier to use than LSR for batch programs.

Logging and commit processing remain the responsibility of CICS which means that sharing of VSAM data outside a CICS environment is severely restricted.

Sharing between CICS regions and batch jobs requires Transactional VSAM, DFSMStvs.

The database component of IMS can be purchased standalone, without the transaction manager component, and used by systems such as CICS.

IMS is also a robust transaction manager ( IMS TM, also known as IMS DC ) — one of the " big three " classic transaction managers along with CICS and BEA ( now Oracle ) Tuxedo.

CICS originally only supported a few IBM-brand devices like the 1965 IBM 2741 Selectric ( golf ball ) typewriter based terminal.

When CICS was first released, it only supported application transaction programs written in IBM 360 Assembler.

During the 1980s, IBM at Hursley produced a " half-way house " version of CICS that supported what became known as " Command-level CICS.

It initially supported a CICS / COBOL / DB2 target environment.

It was, however, possible to execute old Macro-level programs using conversion software such as " Command CICS " produced by APT International, a former CICS Software Specialist company that had earlier produced OLIVER, described above.

For example, Ivory Server for z / OS and Ivory Server for CICS from GT Software, Inc. provide zAAP support for XML parsing using the optional IBM z / OS XML Services feature.