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CICS is an on-line transaction monitor subsystem that is widely used on various IBM platforms, and variants of CICS are also available for many other computer platforms as well.

IBM, in conjunction with a major electric utility company, developed the Customer Information Control System in the late 1960s. Originally, keeping track of the information about the utility's customers -- service and billing address, meter readings, service orders, and the like -- was the purpose of the system, and was the source of its name.

CICS was originally available for IBM System/360 computer systems running OS/360, the operating system used in the larger IBM System/360 environments. CICS' value was quickly recognized and its use quickly spread to the smaller System/360 shops running DOS/360, the Disk Operating System for System/360.

Today, CICS in its various flavors may be the most widely used data communications monitor system in the world, in terms of the number of end-users or transactions processed. CICS systems can have tens of thousands of concurrent, active users, and manage some of the most complex on-line business applications for some of the most progressive businesses in the world.

You can find more about CICS at the IBM CICS site.

If you want to know how to have a CICS subsystem in your VSE/ESA environment with fast and stable response time, using as little of your system's resources as possible to do so, you've found the right place!

• Basic CICS terminology and jargon
• Questins and Answers about CICS and its performance
• Transaction Processing overview
• File and Database support
• Other critical functions