IBM Message Queue USE CASE

What is IBM MQ?

IBM MQ (formerly known as WebSphere MQ and MQSeries) is robust messaging middleware that simplifies and accelerates the integration of different applications and business data across multiple platforms on-premise and in the cloud. It supports a wide range of APIs and programming languages. IBM MQ facilitates the assured, secure and reliable exchange of information between applications, systems, services and file by sending and receiving message data via messaging queues, thereby simplifying the creation and maintenance of business applications. It delivers Universal Messaging with a broad set of offerings to meet enterprise-wide messaging needs, as well as providing connectivity for mobile devices MQTT and the ever-growing use case of IoT – Internet of Things computing.

IBM MQ Is Stable, So Why Do I Need to Monitor It?

In the image above, if a customer suffers a delay or a failure in trying to place this order they’ll see an error message on the screen or the session will time out. At this stage, there’s a 40 percent chance of the customer retrying the request. If the request fails again, you have a 12 percent chance that the customer will make a third request. Putting it another way, that’s an 88 percent chance that you’ll lose this business to a competitor.

Normally, IBM MQ looks after itself and guarantees data delivery via an embedded asynchronous approach to data transfer. This approach means that it doesn’t matter if the target platform is unavailable at the time the source system attempts to send the data. The data will simply be queued and sent when the target system is back online.

Where is MQ Used?

Its highly likely that you have touched and used messaging in a number of everyday personal and business situations. These range from:  

• requesting a balance or withdrawing money at a Cash Point/ ATM
• using an E-commerce site to order your groceries, cinema tickets, or buy the latest gadget
• the tracking of goods in Logistics that are being delivered
• where an Insurance Quote is being requested either on-line, over the phone or in a branch
• meter readings for Utility Supplies such as Water, Gas, and Electric that are automated and provide more accurate bills and feedback to the customer on consumption
• Stock Market trades and share price updates that operate at a high velocity and volume
• Travel availability and reservation for hotels, flights and trains.

IBM MQ Capabilities

• IBM MQ simplifies connectivity by removing the requirement for application changes to help ensure security and once only delivery of transaction-based messages.
• Once and once only delivery: With IBM MQ, data arrives once, unlike other solutions that can duplicate or lose messages because they have a different quality of service
• Transactional: IBM MQ handles all messages using a transaction, so you can be assured of predictable behavior even in failure situations
• Asynchronous: If the network or an application becomes unavailable, synchronous solutions will fail. Asynchronous solutions, such as IBM MQ, protect that data and resume its transport when the system becomes available again
• Message encryption: Various solutions offer protection for data at rest. Some only protect the disk, but whereas IBM MQ Advanced protects the message data itself. If the disk is hacked and only the disk is encrypted, everything on that disk is vulnerable. Protection of the messages themselves gives extra peace of mind
• IBM MQ is a universal messaging solution. You can run it on premises using software, on an optimised appliance, on a mainframe, or in one cloud or a multi-cloud environment.