> http://www.share.org/ <http://www.share.org/> > > Thought Leadership: Ivan Gelb Shares What It's Like to Be a CICS Mercenary > > Ivan Gelb is known as a frequent presenter at SHARE, Computer Measurement > Group (CMG) and most of the major IBM technical conferences. He is the > president of Gelb Information Systems Corp. (GIS), a New Jersey-based > consulting firm that provides management and technical services across the > United States and abroad. But there's one title he'd much rather be known by. > "I'm a consultant, but I prefer to call myself a mercenary," he says. "Tell > me what your problem is, and I will solve it for you. All you have to do is > pay us!" > > During his more than three decades of experience, he has become an expert > when it comes to Customer Information Control System (CICS), a family of > mixed language application servers that provide online transaction management > and connectivity for applications on IBM mainframe systems under z/OS and > z/VSE. In his view, what makes CICS special compared to the other online > environments on and off the mainframe? > > "CICS is obviously something that runs on the mainframe and benefits from the > superior reliability that the mainframe environment can produce compared to > any other environment," he says. "What makes CICS unique is that it has this > long list of available applications that are rock-solid because they've been > around and they have a rich inventory of new applications as well. CICS is > also capable of serving whatever rapid application development technique you > wish to employ. It's more open to various types of solutions than anything > else, at a better cost than anything else once you reach a certain size. For > very small systems of less than 100 interactive customers, CICS may not be > the most price-competitive. But once you go to larger systems, including > transaction rates in the thousands and tens of thousands per second and you > wish for the highest qualities of service, no platform beats CICS. The CICS, > DB/2, Websphere and MQ Series products provide industry leading solutions for > any application requirement." > > CICS is indeed designed to support rapid, high-volume online transaction > processing (OLTP). But as with any popular technology, there are > misperceptions and misinformation associated with it. Gelb states, "The most > damning and unjustified misinformation is that the mainframe environment is > more expensive than similar solutions on the competing architectures like > AIX, Linux, UNIX and Windows. It's the biggest and longest lasting piece of > misconception that personally makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck > and serves as a justification for the most misdirected decisions. In an > apple-to-apple comparison with competing solutions, CICS is typically the > lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) solution. Unless you compare similar > attributes of service, similar scalability, similar reliability, your > comparison is not valid. And it comes up everywhere. Wherever it comes up, > the high cost of CICS solutions finding is never objective and defensible." > He continues, "The source is typically someone who wants to sell you > something other than CICS and IBM mainframes. During a sales pitch, it is > unlikely that we’ll ever be getting the objective, exact facts. These pitches > begin with something like, 'To the best of my knowledge...' How many > technical decisions do you want to base upon such a foundation? The bottom > line is always the bottom line. It's just coming up with a solution at > optimum cost." > > Another Gelb hot button: The effectiveness of CICS systems today often > suffers because many customers do not realize that their CICS design is still > based on architectural limitations of past software and hardware releases > that were eliminated many years ago. The most notorious CICS applications > limitation was the single Task Control Block (TCB), and therefore a single > processor limit, known as the Quasi-reentrant TCB. > > Because Gelb has been in the game for so long — since 1976, he has also been > a CICS projects officer for SHARE — he has certainly seen some unique CICS > applications. "Oh yes!" he exclaims. "I've seen some really, really strange > ones that I cannot discuss because of non-disclosure agreements. I can tell > you about some major ones that people would not expect to be CICS. > Essentially, if you look at any one of the major telecoms, whether cellular > or traditional, they are all major CICS users. I also had the pleasure of > working on the design and the development of a major family of applications > at the New York City Department of Education that supports over a million > students. While there is a front-end running on Windows, a lot of the backend > is still served with a CICS, VSAM and DB2 combination. Another interesting > application is at one of the major fried chicken vendors that wanted to keep > their recipe a secret. The way they did it is with a CICS application that > randomizes the mixing of the secret recipe’s ingredients so industry spies > cannot recreate it. Wal-Mart also has a very large installation dependent on > CICS. Their back-end technology efforts are really exemplary. For example, > they can create a complete test CICS environment for a developer faster than > it takes to complete the request for it. They demonstrated this capability at > a past SHARE session." > > And even though Gelb's career has been long and exemplary, he hasn't lost any > of his passion for the work. His IT background includes everything from data > communications systems, applications design and implementation, performance > management and capacity planning, determining optimum hardware and software > requirements for mainframe and today’s dominant architecture of ever-present, > multi-tiered systems with extremely high scalability, transaction rates, and > availability requirements. > > "I love solving problems and making customers proud and happy with the > solutions," he comments. "My goal is always to come up with the best possible > business solution for a particular customer. I have been in business for just > over 30 years. The good news is that because I am a mercenary, I can > eliminate what could be the least favorite parts of my job. How's that for an > added value? If there is a job we don't like, we don't have to accept it." > Gelb adds, "I’m humbled by the positive feedback we receive. It's a good > feeling to be able to create a solution that helps people when they are in > trouble. That's when we get called." > > He concludes, "The trend of the last few major CICS releases has been to make > CICS more open, easier to manage, more flexible in getting work in and out, > more scalable, while also keeping an eye on internal effectiveness. With > CICS, there is now less work and less 'care and feeding' to get it out of the > box and installed to the point where it actually does something productive > for a customer. These days, you can accomplish that in under an hour, which > is something that, years ago, would take weeks and multiple systems > programmers. Today, it's down to less than an hour. The tactical and > strategic CICS plans of IBM will keep this product as the best of the bunch." > > Ivan Gelb is experienced in all the major IT architectures: IBM mainframes, > Linux, Unix and Windows. He consulted at over 100 organizations, and is a > career long supporter of SHARE, IDUG and Computer Measurement group, and a > “decorated” presenter of numerous technical and management seminars. > > — Information Inc.
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