A new generation of message-oriented middleware products are pushing MQ Series, by offering more sophisticated publish and subscribe models, and integrating other types of Middleware.
These products are discussed in the section on enterprise application integration (EAI).
MQSeries has responded to some degree, for now it also supports:
Workflow services
Messaging formatting services (e.g. converting file structures into messages)
Message repositories
Several other vendors offer MOM products including:
Vendor
Product Name(s) (if applicable)
BEA Systems
MessageQ
IBM
MQSeries
Level8
Falcon MQ, Eventworks
Microsoft
MSMQ
NEON
Century Analysis Impact!
Progress
SonicMQ
TIBCO
Rendevous
History of WebSphere MQ
Figure 4-5 shows a time line of WebSphere MQ versions and some highlights of the features
and products that have been made available.
WebSphere MQ V7.0, in 2008, was a major release with significantly enhanced application programming interfaces (APIs) and a fully integrated publish/subscribe component. These enhancements made that messaging pattern a first-class way of working. WebSphere MQ
V7.0.1, in 2009, was primarily an update to improve availability and performance.
Even though there was nearly a 2 ½ year gap before V7.1 in 2011, there were still incremental improvements. The improvements were to both the core WebSphere MQ product and new products.
WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition is a solution for the integration of applications that are file-based, making it possible to reliably transfer files between systems. WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition provides management, monitoring, and security of those transfers.
WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition uses existing skills and infrastructure as it uses WebSphere MQ as its backbone transfer medium.
Advanced Message Security (AMS) is a solution to the problem of securing message contents, even when those messages are at rest in queues or logs. Several regulatory frameworks require data to be protected from viewing, changing, or being stored on disks in
the clear even during processing. One example of these regulations is the Payment Card Industry (PCI) for dealing with credit card data. There are other regulatory bodies for other
types of data, for example, healthcare, that have similar requirements.
Both WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition and WebSphere MQ Advanced Message Security have been integrated into the WebSphere MQ V7.5 package. WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition has been renamed to Managed File Transfer. There are two variations of V7.5 that are
functionally identical but that have different licensing terms. The WebSphere MQ Advanced offering can be ordered under a single part number and price and it includes licenses to use the Managed File Transfer and AMS features. The original V7.5 offering has these features as
separately orderable and priced components.