There is a question in some minds over whether the generality of Unix users really wants a transaction processing monitor – an awful lot of transaction processing is done without a monitor, and an even bigger question mark over whether CICS is the right one if a monitor is needed, but Omri Serlin suggests in his FT Systems newsletter that IBM Corp is out to establish CICS as an industry standard, positioning it to compete with Unix System Laboratories Inc’s Tuxedo, Transarc Corp’s Encina and NCR Corp’s Top One, and clearly threatening Unix Labs which is trying to win the same status for Tuxedo. Having recruited Hewlett-Packard Co to the CICS cause, Serlin bets that Digital Equipment Corp is IBM’s next logical candidate to come in for it.
