Introduction to message queuing

The WebSphere(R) MQ products enable programs to communicate with one another across a network of unlike components (processors, operating systems, subsystems, and communication protocols) using a consistent application programming interface.

Applications designed and written using this interface are known as message queuing applications, because they use the messaging and queuing style:

Messaging Programs communicate by sending each other data in messages rather than calling each other directly.
Queuing Messages are placed on queues in storage, allowing programs to run independently of each other, at different speeds and times, in different locations, and without having a logical connection between them.

This chapter introduces messaging and queuing concepts, under these headings: