Kafka Connect scenarios

With IBM® MQ and Apache Kafka specializing in different aspects of the messaging spectrum, one on connectivity and the other on data, solutions often require data to flow between the two. You can achieve this using Kafka Connect.

Kafka Connect provides a framework for moving data from an external system into a Kafka cluster, or from a Kafka cluster into an external system. This is achieved by connectors.

There are connectors available for many different external systems, and IBM provides connectors for use with IBM MQ. There are two different types of connector:

Source connectors transfer data from an external system into Kafka.
The IBM MQ source connector consumes messages from an IBM MQ queue and publishes them as events into a Kafka topic.
Sink connectors transfer data into an external system from Kafka.
The IBM MQ sink connector consumes events from a Kafka topic and sends them as messages to an IBM MQ queue.

For more information, see Kafka Connect and connectors.

Kafka Connect scenarios might include:

A core banking system with IBM MQ used as the connectivity backbone. You want to take a copy of messages moving through IBM MQ and push them into Kafka for analytics
You want to extend your core banking system to emit data into Kafka, but only want data to enter Kafka when the banking transaction completes successfully, so use IBM MQ as a transactional bridge
You need to get data into z/OS® from Multiplatforms. Multiplatform development team has experience with Kafka, z/OS team want to exploit IBM MQ integration with CICS® / IMS

From IBM MQ 9.4.0, if your enterprise has entitlement to IBM MQ Advanced for z/OS, IBM MQ Advanced for z/OS VUE, IBM MQ Advanced for Multiplatforms, or IBM MQ Appliance you get access to IBM provided, and supported source and sink connectors. Support for the IBM MQ Kafka connectors includes support for the Kafka Connect XML Converter (https://github.com/ibm-messaging/kafka-connect-xml-converter), provided that the converter is deployed in a Kafka Connect pipeline in conjunction with the IBM MQ source or sink connector, for communication with IBM MQ.

[MQ 9.4.2 Feb 2025] The Kafka Connect XML Converter is included alongside the sink and source connectors from IBM MQ 9.4.2 onwards.

[MQ 9.4.3 Jun 2025] From IBM MQ 9.4.3, support for the IBM MQ Kafka Connectors includes support for Kafka Connect for the sole purpose of running the IBM MQ source and sink connectors.

Notes:

These approaches can be used with any variant of Kafka, for example, Apache Kafka and IBM Event Streams.
Support is provided only for the two IBM connectors and the XML converter, not the Kafka Connect framework itself unless the Kafka Connect framework is obtained from the Kafka Connect shipped from IBM MQ 9.4.3.
The connectors, converters and Kafka Connect framework shipped with IBM MQ can be used with earlier supported versions of IBM MQ.
The connectors, converter, and Kafka Connect framework, are only supported when connecting to queue managers running with IBM MQ Advanced for z/OS, IBM MQ Advanced for z/OS Value Unit Edition, IBM MQ Advanced for Multiplatforms, or IBM MQ Appliance entitlement.