CICS Training in New York
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CICS Training in New York |
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CICS, Rational Developer for System Z, WebSphere, VSAM, and z/OS are registered trademarks of IBM Corporation. |
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CICS Transaction Server in Transition: VSAM to Rational Developer for System z
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CICS Transaction Server: Evolving Strategic Role Since its introduction in the 1970’s, CICS has evolved from macro level coding with legacy Assembler, COBOL, PL/1, Fortran, and RPG programming languages to command level programming, web enablement, application development with Java, and repurposing to an SOA: Service Oriented Architecture. IBM’s initial CICS Internet connection option was provided in in CICS/ESA 3.3, with support for the CICS socket interface option of TCP/IP for MVS. With subsequent new releases, the featureset has been expanded: 3270 Bridge, CICS Web Support, CICS Socket Interface, and CICS Web Services. There are hundreds of million of lines of CICS code which have to be maintained and transitioned to meet the requirements of organizational enterprise. CICS Transaction Server Improvements CICS applications can utilize thread-safe file and journal commands to take advantage of the OTE: Open Transaction Environment. With thread-safe programming a single region can do more things at once; this can lead to improved throughput, more efficient CPU utilization, and workload consolidation. Changes have been made to CICS which support open standards. CICS Transaction Server supports WSDL: Web Services Description Language and integrates SOA tools and environments. CICS web services support the SOAP MTOM: Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism and XML XOP: Optimized Packaging. These services streamline web message processing by including large binary objects as attachments, instead of being embedded in the stream itself. CICS and VSAM VSAM: Virtual Storage Access Method is an access method used to process data on DASD devices in IBM z/OS and z/VSE mainframe operating systems. VSAM is used in a CICS Transaction Server online environment to provide recoverability, data locking, integrity and data source. It is an important component of real time transaction processing system. Sharing of VSAM data between CICS regions is done with VSAM RLS: Record-Level Sharing. This adds record caching and record locking. Logging and commit processing remain the responsibility of CICS; sharing of VSAM data outside a CICS environment is severely restricted. Advanced Catalog Management provides backup and recovery capability for VSAM files and integration with other System z storage products. This will be useful as IBM continues to position System z as a platform for data serving.
Rational Developer for System z is being used in composite development environments to create and manage web services and XML for viewing, editing, and validating WSDL, DTD: document-type definitions, and XML schemas and transforming XML documents into text, HTML, or other XML document types. COBOL or PL/1 adapters and CICS TS V3 WSBind can be generated for converting between Web Service Description Language, XML and CICS program data in a web services environment. SYS-ED's hands-on CICS Transaction Server training provides the framework for learning how to code, debug, and web enable CICS programs. When information technology professionals complete a SYS-ED CICS course, they have the documentation, training aids, skeleton programs, and supervised hands-on experience to code and debug CICS programs. Case and point, if your organization outsourced its CICS coding and program maintenance to consulting companies in the 1980’s, it more than likely was SYS-ED which trained many of the consultants who did the actual design and coding!Our CICS trainers include a unique collection of mainframe technologists and text book authors: Victoria Albanese, Linda Bliden, Robert Blumfeld, Jonathan Clarke, Michael Haupt, Pacifico Lim, Karen Schwartz, and David Silverberg. Their application design, sample programs, and exercises served as a foundation for quality CICS training. SYS-ED's CICS lesson plans, courseware, and training aids are highly respected in increasingly hybrid and interrelated information technology. They reflect the insights and guidance created by experienced systems consultants with a mastery of the CICS architecture and cross system expertise with IBM z/OS, z/VSE, z/VM, and open source UNIX, Linux, and Solaris operating systems. There are few software or consulting companies, which know CICS and teach CICS courses better than SYS-ED. Our collective expertise in CICS application design, coding, debugging, and systems programming spans the onset of the modern era of data processing and provides the been there done that experience to teach the IBM mainframe systems software skillset to a new generation of IT personnel. We worked on several sizable first generation CICS projects, when the source code and program logic was available; it no longer is. This knowledge provides us with a unique insight to explain and draw diagrams which teach why the software works or in some case doesn’t work as it should. That is why IBM, Fortune 1000 / multinational companies, government municipalities, and healthcare providers have used SYS-ED instructors to teach their current generation of software developers.
SYS-ED will not accept a CICS Transaction Server training assignment without a consultation with the prospective client organization. We review the background of the employees to be trained, operating environment, documented standards, and project specifications and use that information to select the code snippets, examples, skeleton programs, and hands-on exercises. We then prepare a training strategy: lesson plan, modular courseware, training aids, and validation assessment. The pre course consultation allow us to identify and differentiate between teaching an industry standard course as compared to the client’s true need for educational consultancy: 1- application maintenance 2- evaluation for migration to IBM or third party SOA: Service Oriented Architecture standards 3- application repurposing with Rational Developer for System z 4- WINTEL or UNIX platform migration based upon the Oracle Roadmap standards to WebLogic Server and Tuxedo or 5- application migration. And when are not confident that we can provide a superior training outcome, will politely turn down an assignment. The CICS courseware and training aids provided in SYS-ED instructor-led and distance-learning training services are highly respected. The sample programs and exercises were developed, updated, and tailored to teach CICS in evolutionary z/OS, z/VSE, z/VM operating systems and both IBM Rational and third party development platforms. The content and diagrams reflect a purposeful examination of program logic, access methods services, and sample programs which have been validated on consulting projects. SYS-ED's CICS Transaction Server courseware is updated with information from technology updates, CETi knowledge base, and FAQ's frequently asked questions. With the scarcity of up to date industry standard mainframe textbooks, courseware is an important component in SYS-ED's CICS Transaction Server training: student hand-out, presentation slides, reference guide, training aids, and a library of exercises. The principles of adult learning and the standards of the New York State Department of Education have been applied to the subject matter: interpreting and translating content into performance objectives, narrative descriptions, and diagrams which explain. The full complement of training medium is used to help business and information technology professionals learn. As part of presenting an instructor-led CICS Transaction Server course at the client location, courseware is evaluated and organized for subsequent use in a web-based infrastructure and delivery medium. This service is provided free of charge. |
Information Technology in Transition
Longstanding Consultancy Experience
Technology Updates
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The Computer Education Techniques courseware used in SYS-ED courses consists of student hand-outs, training aids, and industry-specific examples and exercises. The CETi knowledge base aggregates and analyzes information in the public domain. It also is a service for reviewing and answering questions. Content is selectively added to courseware. Our long-term strategy is to have our courseware recognized as a NRV: Nationally Recognized Vendor.
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Grow Your Own CICS Programmers Over the past year, we have had a number of inquiries regarding whether SYS-ED still offered CICS courses for information technology professionals. The typical comments
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In response to these questions:
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Industry Standard CICS Transaction Server Courses |
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| SYS-ED’s CICS courses and mainframe training programs have been developed based upon the application
of adult learning theory and the standards of the New York State Department of Education. SYS-ED's training extends the IBM source documentation and provides value added information in the form of:
SYS-ED is source software company independent. If we can not warranty a superior training outcome, we will politely turn down an assignment. |
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| CICS Transaction Server - Core Curriculum | |||||||
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| CICS TS: Application Design | CICS TS: Web Enablement | CICS TS: Performance and Tuning |
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Caveat Emptor Prior to scheduling a CICS course, compare the quality of the training service that SYS-ED offers with the alternatives:
SYS-ED has been conducting courses in the public domain since 1980; however, there have been changes in the laws and regulations governing computer training in the state of New York. The schedule on our websites reflects a projected time frame for licensure with the New York State Department of Education - Bureau of Proprietary School Supervision and submission and approval of curriculum. It will be updated quarterly. |
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| Why SYS-ED for CICS Training | ||||||||||||||||||||
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CICS Transaction Server Training Program - News for Immediate Release Industry leading software and consulting companies utilize SYS-ED in conjunction with distance-learning for specialized z/OS mainframe training requirements - CICS, programming languages, utilities and development tools, and web enablement training. Indications are that application server space is not going to be exclusively J2EE or .NET. CICS Transaction Server will account for a substantial share of overall application server market share. This CICS Transaction Server training program will highlight the new features of CICS Transaction Server.
IT personnel will need to learn new skills for the IBM mainframe environment in order to implement the next generation of system software; CICS Transaction Server in conjunction with IBM WebSphere MQ middleware, WebSphere Application Server, Rational technology and other proprietary software - Oracle WebLogic, and Microsoft .NET. In general, these skills will be both a new and better way of doing something that they knew how to do before. Training will cut across generations. Some very experienced people will be learning CICS and web enablement technologies; while the next generation of IT staff may well be using ISPF, JCL, and “tried and tested” mainframe programming languages, such as COBOL for the first time. Training plans based upon the utilization of different training techniques have been chosen for suitability to the subject matter and audience as well as scheduling and class size requirements. The following methods will be used for introductory material for IT personnel, most operator training, and programmer training on selected topics.
The plan is to have the entire IT staff, webmasters, operations, and programmers, attend the distance-learning and then have the project development teams take SYS-ED’s hands-on instructor-led courses. The WebSphere MQ courses and system programmer training will be attended by the project leaders and personnel who will required for managing these areas. The exact schedule will depend on the other workloads of staff members. Evolving IT: Interrelated Technologies It is clear that IBM is developing CICS in order for the mainframe to be the "SOA hub" in data centers for new and larger workloads. SYS-ED system consultants and CETi Technology Partners are experienced with the implementation of SOA and the expedient management of components in memory. As mainframe shops expand their channel capability, there clearly will be a greater incentive to develop and utilize SOA. |
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SYS-ED’s core CICS curriculum have been submitted to the New York State Department of Education - Bureau of Proprietary School Supervision for technical review and licensing. |
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