IBM CICS Transaction Server vs. Microsoft Application Server (deprecated)

The strengths of CICS are certainly the scalability. The multilevel architecture of the CICS regions, security, and performance, manages to manage large volumes of transactions with efficient performances.

Incentivized

Regardless of the environment, Microsoft Application Server is used to manage internal applications. Installing legacy software on the computers of end-users is a cinch with this solution. It provides a central location for updating and managing legacy applications. It is less valuable if you're using only web-based and cloud-based apps.

• De facto standard in the legacy enterprise
• Multiplatform connection
• Native connection with DB2

Incentivized

• Microsoft Application Server has been very stable. We have had very few issues with downtime except for updates.
• We now have a central location to manage and update our legacy apps without the need to install each app on each user's system.
• Application performance is surprisingly very good and responsive even in bandwidth restricted environments.

Incentivized

• Would like to see the transaction response matrix on the average transaction response among all requests.
• Would like to see GUI tool to be able to see currently running transactions
• Would like to be able to get the details of where the cics transaction was triggered from

Incentivized

• Wished Microsoft would offer better support options that are cheaper.
• Updates sometimes require restarts which cause downtime.
• More support for 3rd part software vendors.

Incentivized

I have found Microsoft Application Server to be incredibly easy to use. I have used dozens of similar programs and have always struggled to navigate through all the functions. So far I have been able to adapt and learn this software with ease. I rarely run into a problem that I wasn’t easily able to move forward on with a few tips.

MS Application Server has been great for our company it has enabled us to free up IT staff and lowered the maintenance costs of our internal application maintenance.

Incentivized

IBM CICS Transaction Server product works well in conjunction with IBM Db2 and they go together very well. Both are equally scalable and reliable products to use. They both can handle very large numbers of transactions and have been around for decades and stood for times and have great experience by those who have used it.

Incentivized

Microsoft Application Server has stood out to me because it has been so easy to use and utilize for our organization. I was not involved in the integration but being a user I can say that it has made a huge impact to how we access and utilize our databases. I have found that using Microsoft Application Server has increased my productivity. I spend less time navigating and waiting for things to load.

• It has allowed us to use our decades old code and still continue to support the business
• Allows us to have faster time to market and modernize our systems
• We can still continue to use our legacy resources for modern systems

Incentivized

• MS Application Server has been great for our ROI since it has reduced dedicating IT resources to maintaining legacy applications on end-users systems.
• We have been able to have a central location for all our legacy and on-prem applications.
• Our IT operations have been able to greatly improve efficiencies.

Incentivized