IBM MQ (Message queues) is a messaging middleware that connects applications and systems in hybrid and multicloud environments. It offers resilience and security for assured message delivery of mission-critical business data. IBM MQ is widely adopted by businesses across various industries for its reliability.
IBM continuously releases new features and enhancements through Continuous Delivery releases. These releases provide early access to new features before they are included in major releases with Long Term Support (LTS). LTS releases offer five years of standard support and up to four years of extended support.
IBM MQ Console
The IBM MQ Console is a user interface that allows you to visualize and manage MQ objects, such as queue managers and queues. In v9.3.3, the console introduces automatic relationship mapping, which helps users understand the relationships between MQ resources. This feature enables users to quickly identify and resolve issues by visualizing connections between applications, queues, channels, and connections.
IBM MQ Apache Kafka Connectors
The v9.3.3 release includes fully supported IBM MQ Sink and Source connectors for Apache Kafka. This allows businesses to capture events from enterprise data in IBM MQ and seamlessly deliver them to an Apache Kafka event-streaming platform. By unlocking mission-critical data, businesses can improve performance and act on events in real-time.
IBM MQ RESTful Messaging API
IBM MQ provides APIs for users to interact with MQ objects. The REST Messaging API has been updated in v9.3.3 to simplify messaging development for REST-based applications. This update includes a preconfigured messaging REST API, which offers flexibility, availability, and scalability for MQ infrastructure.
IBM MQ Appliance
The IBM MQ Appliance simplifies the maintenance of MQ estates and reduces costs. The latest model, M2003, can handle high-volume workloads. In v9.3.3, the MQ Appliance introduces hardened security with industry best practice SSH certificate authentication. This strengthens security and ensures consistency across a hybrid MQ estate.
New ordering options
IBM has introduced new ordering options for non-production environments in IBM MQ software for hybrid cloud. These options help clients optimize costs by reducing license expenses in non-production environments. They also provide better visibility into the size and deployment of license distribution across the estate.
Please note that the features mentioned above are specific to the v9.3.3 Continuous Delivery release of IBM MQ. Additionally, IBM plans to release v9.3.3 for IBM MQ for z/OS, and details about the new features for z/OS will be announced separately.
