z/VSE 6.1, CICS Transaction Server for z/VSE V2.1 and upcoming Live Virtual Class

During my absence z/VSE V 6.1 (ZP15-0281) and CICS Transaction Server for z/VSE V2.1 (ZP15-0494) were announced. In the meantime these products are already available since last week, but I still wanted to mention them because there's a Live Virtual Class tomorrow December1, 2015 at 17PM Brussels Time.

The content of this Live Virtual Class

This LVC session gives some information about the z/VSE 6.1 release content. z/VSE 6.1 comes with a new CICS TS version, the first new version since 16 years. The new CICS functions will be discussed. z/VSE 6.1 focuses also on security, networking, hardware exploitation and connectivity to Linux on z Systems and other platforms. Both TCP/IP stacks come with a new version or release. Their functionality is addressed, too.

You can find all the necessary information about it and the link to register over here.

Nevertheless let me also give you the highlights of these two products. Apparently it's a big year for z/VSE. z/VSE celebrated its 50th anniversary (that's actually 1965-2015) and there's a new CICS version for z/VSE for the first time in 16 years (that means since last century in 1999) !

IBM® z/VSE® V6.1 is designed to:

Exploit innovative IBM z13™ technology

• Configurable Crypto Express5S for data encryption and SSL acceleration.
• FICON® Express16S supporting a link rate of 16 Gbps.

Support enhanced IBM System Storage® options

• IBM System Storage TS7700 Virtualization Engine Release 3.3.
• IBM System Storage DS8870 Release 7.5 (ECKD™ and FCP-attached SCSI disks).
• IBM FlashSystem® V9000 for use with FCP-attached SCSI disks.

Introduce an architectural level set of IBM System z10®, or later

Deliver CICS® TS for z/VSE V2.1. CICS TS for z/VSE V2.1 can only be used with z/VSE V6.1, and replaces CICS TS for VSE/ESA V1.1.1. New functionality includes:

• Update and control capabilities to CICS resources for the CICS Explorer® system management tool.
• A new API to enable the transfer of large amounts of structured data between CICS applications to meet the needs of growing workloads.

Deliver IBM TCP/IP for z/VSE V2.1

• This new version replaces IBM TCP/IP for VSE/ESA V1.5F, and includes firewall functionality and other enhancements.

Deliver IBM IPv6/VSE V1.2

• This new release of IPv6/VSE provides firewall functionality, increased network availability, and other enhancements.

Add trigger functionality for the WebSphere® MQ Client for VSE

• The MQ Client Trigger Monitor adds trigger functionality for the WebSphere MQ Client for VSE to ease asynchronous message processing.

Some more useful information.
Those who are really into z/VSE know of course that I'm only their secondary blog source of information about z/VSE. For those who don't know it yet, I'll mention it again : Ingolf Salm does a far more extensive (ànd better) job at blogging about z/VSE than I do. So, go and have a look over there if you're into z/VSE.