IBM just announced WebSphere MQ V7 for z/OS. There are a lot of enhancements, but some of the major ones include new integrated publish/subscribe support, improved performance (especially for JMS), new MQI calls and behaviors for easier programming, MQ client performance and availability enhancements, and Web 2.0 support. The announcement letter is available here:
http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/7/897/ENUS208-067/ENUS208067.PDF WebSphere MQ is the ubiquitous standard for reliable messaging and an extremely important foundation for service-oriented architectures (SOA). WMQ helps developers avoid costly and time-consuming communications-related programming to assure "one and only once" delivery of messages between applications, application services, and platforms. WMQ is available on more platforms than perhaps any other middleware. On z/OS there are unique capabilities, such as exploitation of the Coupling Facility for shared queue support to provide the highest levels of availability. (Note: While you need a Coupling Facility and DB2 to use shared queues, you do not need either to use other features in WMQ.) WebSphere MQ V7 for z/OS should be generally available at the end of June, 2008. The WebSphere MQ homepage has been updated with a lot more information about Version 7, such as details about other MQ platforms including Linux on System z. Check here: http://www.ibm.com/software/integration/wmq Over the next few days there will be some more WMQ V7 information appearing, so please check back often. ABOUT LICENSING: WebSphere MQ for z/OS is a Monthly License Charge (MLC) software product for z/OS. WMQ for z/OS is available for sub-capacity Variable Workload License Charge (VWLC) licensing, and it produces its own SMF records for individual charging. That means, with VWLC, you only pay for MQ according to the MQ MSUs you use, and only for the LPARs where MQ is installed. You can license as few as 3 MSUs. If you wish to attach MQ clients to a WMQ for z/OS queue manager, you should also license the Client Attachment Feature (CAF). However, if you use either the MQ Explorer (to manage z/OS parts of your MQ network) or the WebSphere Message Broker Configuration Manger (to manage and configure WebSphere Message Broker for z/OS), you can use up to five of those client connections (using specific channel names) without buying the CAF. - - - - - Timothy Sipples IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect Specializing in Software Architectures Related to System z Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan and IBM Asia-Pacific E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html