This IBM® Redbooks® publication gives a broad understanding of IBM IMS™ integration and connectivity solutions to access applications and data stores across your enterprise architecture. As an application developer, architect, systems integrator, or systems programmer, there is important information that is available in this book that pertains to your responsibilities to continue to include the proven performance, data integrity, and workload distribution that is available from IMS in to selected projects that are related to your entire enterprise. This book updates and adds to the information in the following IBM Redbooks publications: IMS e-business Connectors: A Guide to IMS Connectivity, SG24-6514 IMS Connectivity in an On Demand Environment: A Practical Guide to IMS Connectivity, SG24-6794 Powering SOA Solutions with IMS, SG24-7662 IBM IMS Version 12 Technical Overview, SG24-7972 IMS 12: The IMS Catalog, REDP-4812 Rethink Your Mainframe Applications: Reasons and Approaches for Extension, Transformation, and Growth, REDP-4938 Please note that the additional material referenced in the text is not available from IBM.

This IBM Redbooks publication provides an overview of the new functions and enhancements in IBM Information Management System (IMS) Version 9. IMS Version 9 contains over 50 enhancements, in all areas of the product. that address availability, scalability, capacity, usability, manageability, operations, on demand business, and application development requirements from its huge customer base. All of the enhancements in this new version resulted from specific customer requirements. The major enhancements include: Improved database availability for HALDB databases is provided by the long-awaited online reorganization (OLR) enhancement. The functionality of the IMS Connect product is included as an integrated function of IMS. DBRC provides a new API that allows assembler programs to query the RECON. IMS Java users will have new JDBC SQL calls and DLI Model Utility support for retrieving existing IMS data in XML format as well as storing, indexing, searching, and retrieving valid XML documents into new or existing IMS databases. We describe these enhancements and all other major changes in IMS Version 9. This book gives you the essential information that you need when you are migrating your IMS systems to IMS Version 9.