MQ allows independent and potentially non-concurrent applications on a distributed system to securely communicate with each other, using messages.
MQ is available on a large number of platforms (both IBM and non-IBM), including z/OS (mainframe), IBM i, Transaction Processing Facility, UNIX (AIX, HP-UX, Solaris), HP NonStop, OpenVMS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows.
Asynchronous messaging: MQ provides application designers with a mechanism to achieve non-time-dependent architecture.
Exits are compiled applications that run on the queue manager host, and are executed by the IBM MQ software at the time data transformation is needed.
Message-driven architecture framework: IBM MQ allows receipt of messages to "trigger" other applications to run.
Clustering: Multiple MQ implementations share the processing of messages, providing load balancing.
In the event of a communications failure, MQ can automatically re-establish a connection when the problem is resolved.
IBM MQ offers a variety of solutions to cater for availability: Replicated Data Queue Manager (RDQM / 'Easy HA'- MQ Advanced on distributed only): Synchronous replication between three servers that all share a floating IP address.
Within IBM, CICS and IMS were chosen as strategic products to address the need for transaction management.
[citation needed] CICS established itself as a popular transaction management system in the 1968-1971 timeframe.
For interested customers, this enabled them to use TCAM for its message handling strengths and also have TCAM-connected terminals or computers interface with CICS online applications.
However, TCAM support was omitted from the initial release of CICS/VS, announced in February 1973 and delivered in June 1974.
With considerable pressure from CICS-TCAM customers, the CICS support of TCAM was reinstated in the CICS/VS 1.1 product, as of September 1974.
MQ has an architecture that enables heterogeneous systems to communicate with each other (e.g. IBM, HP, Sun, Tandem, etc.).
IBM MQ now supports 80 different environments and has become the leading message assured delivery switching/routing product in the industry.
Several additional product options exist to help convert legacy programs into functioning web services through the use of MQ.
Larger, heterogeneous enterprises often appear as a federation of somewhat autonomous domains based on lines of business, functional or governance areas.
IBM MQ provides the means by which communication exists between lines-of-business or otherwise separate business domains.
Using IBM Integration Bus, users can implement a WebServices front-end, complete with WSDL file support that can interact with any queue-based application.