Introduction to IBM MQ
IBM® MQ is an enterprise grade messaging middleware service that gives independent and potentially non-concurrent applications secure messaging capabilities, such as point-to-point and publish/subscribe models.
IBM MQ has been proving itself as an effective messaging solution for more than 25 years. IBM MQ as a Service enables you to use IBM MQ as a managed offering. IBM handles upgrades, patches, and also many of the operational management tasks, allowing you to focus on the integration of IBM MQ with your applications.
In addition to the cloud service, IBM MQ is available in a wide range of customer-managed deployment form factors such as software for many operating systems including Linux® and Windows. It is available as a containerized application and within a Kubernetes cluster, it is also available as the IBM MQ appliance, which is dedicated hardware for running IBM MQ. It is also available on the IBM z/OS mainframe.
The managed service, which is available in both IBM Cloud and Amazon Web Services (AWS) removes much of the responsibility of running and maintaining an MQ environment. These responsibilities include:
- Operating System Patching
- IBM MQ patching
- IBM MQ upgrades
- Availability
- Failover
Why would I use IBM MQ
When you build a network to process thousands of transactions every minute, you need to ensure that not even a single transaction is lost. If the servers are unable to process the number of transactions fast enough it is likely that transactions might be lost. IBM MQ works by storing the transactions to be processed on a message queue and then processing them one at a time. This allows transactions to be processed at a flat rate meaning that extra CPU during high demand times is not required. It also means that, if the system were to suddenly break down, the messages that are being processed are safely stored on the message queue and are not lost.
IBM MQ integrates with many different operating systems and languages such as Java, Node.js, and Golang, and includes REST API capabilities that can be called from any programming or scripting language. IBM MQ carries out all necessary data transformations for you. When IBM MQ is integrated on your system you no longer need worry about the complexities of securely transforming and sending a message as IBM MQ carries out all of this for you, including encryption and decryption.
Learn how IBM MQ is different to other messaging solutions and other frequently asked questions here
Learn IBM MQ
IBM MQ is the most powerful messaging solution available on the market, it enables applications to communicate and share data with one another, it is highly scaleable and can be applied to a wide range of business needs. Learn how IBM MQ can benefit your application scenario here
You can try IBM MQ for free and without the need for any expensive infrastructure costs by creating a lite queue manager in IBM Cloud. IBM MQ as a Service has been developed with ease of use in mind and requires no specialist knowledge to use. You can find instructions on how to deploy a queue manager in IBM Cloud® here
Interested in proving your knowledge? Become an IBM MQ expert and prove your knowledge with the official IBM MQ developer badge, you can work your way through some tutorials and learn all IBM MQ fundamentals as well as gain some more in-depth knowledge of creating applications that can use IBM MQ to communicate.
Administering an IBM MQ as a Service queue manager
IBM MQ as a Service enables you to use all of the traditional IBM MQ administration tools, including a web-based version of the IBM MQ Console. You can find instructions on how to use the console in Administering a queue manager using IBM MQ Console.
IBM MQ as a Service can be administered by using locally installed tools too. IBM MQ Explorer is a locally installed Eclipse-based tool for administering IBM MQ that you can install on a machine of your choosing, it connects to IBM MQ as a Service using a client connection and is supported on both Windows and Linux based environments.
You can also use the runmqsc Command Line Interface to administer IBM MQ as a Service queue managers. The CLI gives the ability to create scripts containing groups of IBM MQ commands so that many different tasks can be carried out at the same time. It can be installed as part of the IBM MQ clients bundle and is available on Windows and Linux. You can learn more about using IBM MQ Explorer or the CLI to administer your queue manager in Administering a queue manager using IBM MQ Explorer and the runmqsc command line.