CICS

CICS

Customer Information Control System (CICS) is a transaction server that runs primarily on IBM mainframe systems under z/OS and z/VSE.

CICS is a transaction manager designed for rapid, high-volume online processing. This processing is mostly interactive (screen-oriented), but background transactions are possible. Applications are written in a variety of languages and use CICS-supplied language extensions to interact with CICS resources such as files, database connections or to invoke functions such as web services. CICS manages the entire transaction such that if for any reason a part of the transaction fails all recoverable changes can be backed out.

While CICS has its highest profile among financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies, over 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies are reported to run CICS, along with many government entities. CICS is used in bank-teller applications, ATM systems, industrial production control systems, insurance applications, and many other types of interactive applications.

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 system events, 64-bit Java, transaction tracking, and password phrases.