IBM MQ offers a robust and secure messaging solution through its extensive feature set and flexibility. Available in various forms, including IBM MQ software, appliance, containers, z/OS, and IBM MQ as a service, IBM MQ enables businesses to build scalable and flexible message- and event-driven applications.
Gartner predicts that by 2029, 35% of all enterprise applications will run in containers – which means that a lot more enterprises are considering moving a significant portion of their workloads into containers. Because messaging connects these applications across hybrid clouds, IBM MQ must also fit seamlessly with the larger strategy of the enterprises. Some of the key benefits of running in containers is explained in the blog.
IBM clients have been running MQ in Containers for close to a decade now and as such, it has been continuously evolving to meet the needs of their businesses.
Key highlights:
1. Rapidly deploy IBM MQ with a pre-built image for cri-o, containerd, Docker, and Podman: Several reports suggest that Kubernetes is seeing one of the fastest adoptions of any container technology and currently holds a market share of 24.4%1, second only to Docker. And adoption is expected to increase further with the Kubernetes market anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 23.4% by 20312. About 73% of Kubernetes clusters in Cloud are built on top of managed distributions3 and so it is important that IBM MQ can be deployed quickly to run on any of the container environments without the hassle of building a custom image. IBM MQ has offered a pre-built container image and Operator for a number of years for OpenShift users.
From 9.4.1 (released October 2024), the IBM provided pre-built container image can be used on any container runtime environments provided by cri-o, containerd, Docker, or Podman, making the deployment experience quicker and simpler. The image will be available in the IBM Container Registry and requires IBM MQ Advanced or Cloud Pak for Integration entitlement.
2. State-of-the-art reliability and resiliency: Built-in Native High Availability is available on any Kubernetes platform and can be set up in seconds. Native HA ensures data is available and replicated across three availability zones offering fast failover, high performance and availability. This results in improved application resilience and reduced downtime, contributing to overall business continuity.
3. Administration and management simplified: IBM MQ offers an Operator for Red Hat OpenShift to streamline deployment and management. Additionally, IBM provides resources and guidance for self-building images and deployment code customization to tailor environments to specific needs. This approach enables businesses to efficiently manage and maintain their IBM MQ instances, ensuring smooth operation and minimal disruption.
4. Secure: Containers offer increased isolation and other IBM MQ security features like image vulnerability scanning, password less based authentication using tokens, protect data at-rest with end-to-end encryption and digital signing. These capabilities help protect sensitive information and maintain the integrity of messaging systems, ensuring secure and reliable communication between applications and services.
5. Flexible licensing: IBM’s container licensing allows licensing only the available capacity rather than license the entire cluster where your containers may be operating. Additionally, container licensing offers the ability to count fractional cores across the entire cluster rather than forcing each worker node or pod to be counted up to the next full integer.
Find out more about IBM MQ in Containers.
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References:
1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1256245/containerization-technologies-software-market-share/
2. https://edgedelta.com/company/blog/kubernetes-adoption-statistics#:~:text=The%20Kubernetes%20market%20is%20anticipated,USD%201%2C195.10%20million%20in%202022.
3. https://www.dynatrace.com/news/blog/kubernetes-in-the-wild-2023/