IBM MQ 9.4.4 strengthens hybrid resilience and federal compliance

This fourth Continuous Delivery (CD) release in the MQ 9.4 stream extends high availability and disaster recovery beyond containers to native Linux, virtual machine and bare-metal environments, introduces security enhancements for regulated workloads and simplifies administration for distributed, MQ Appliance and z/OS platforms. 

Officially announced on 2 Oct 2025, and generally available from 16 Oct 2025, this release packs in a range of enhancements and new features, enabling clients to: 

• Built on the Native HA and CRR capabilities introduced in MQ 9.4.3, this release brings those same features to Linux VMs and bare metal environments in addition to their original containers-based implementation. You can now deploy Native HA and CRR without any dependencies, since the replication is entirely performed by IBM MQ itself. Previous solutions for high availability and disaster recovery on Linux VMs (multi-instance, RDQM) had shared storage or operating system additions.
• Facilitates federal compliance with enhancements that help clients address US federal standard more easily. Protect sensitive data, help meet audit requirements and deploy confidently in regulated environments.
• Helps reduce operational overhead with automated channel recovery on MQ for z/OS and targeted object filtering making MQ easier to manage at scale.

This release introduces a broad set of technical enhancements across resilience, compliance and administration, helping organizations strengthen their messaging backbone while reducing complexity.

1. Native HA and CRR on Linux VMs and bare metal: Enable high availability and disaster recovery free from dependencies on storage or operating system specifics, using MQ native capabilities previously only available on containers. 
2. FIPS mode for AMS: Advanced Message Security now runs in full FIPS mode across distributed components, enabling deployment in AWS GovCloud and supporting FedRamp workloads. 
3. RDQM replication traffic encrypted in transit: Adds default encryption to RDQM replication, meeting federal compliance requirements and reducing risk of data exposure.
4. Global Security Kit (GSKit) v9: Enhances TLS protocol and cipher support across specified Linux distributions, improving cryptographic performance and aligning with evolving security  
5. Self-healing channels on z/OS: Automatically recover from sequence mismatches, reducing manual resets and accelerating recovery. 
6. MQ Console filters: Allow administrators to focus on relevant objects with customizable, reusable filters—saving time in complex environments. 
7. Java Semeru 21 support: All non-z/OS components now run on IBM’s latest Java runtime, improving performance, compatibility and security posture. 
8. .NET6 enhancements: Support for custom certificate paths improves flexibility for Windows-based deployments. 

While not part of the 9.4.4 release, IBM is introducing a preview of the IBM MQ Agent, an AI-powered assistant that helps administrators troubleshoot issues using natural language. The agent connects to any queue manager across the MQ network and provides root cause analysis in seconds— designed to help reduce recovery time significantly. 

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IBM MQ 9.4.4 reinforces MQ’s role as a security-rich, resilient and modern messaging platform for hybrid cloud environments. By extending enterprise-grade HA and DR to traditional deployments, enhancing compliance features, and simplifying operations.  

Contact your IBM representative  to learn how the latest CD release can help your business stay secure, agile and built for change 

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