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reviewer1037130 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Talent Acquisition Specialist at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Simple to deploy, low maintenance, and technical support is always reachable
Pros and Cons
  • "This initial setup is not complex at all. Deploying it was very easy."
  • "The user interface should be enhanced to include more monitoring features and other metrics. The metrics should include not only those from the IBM MQ point of view but also CPU and memory utilization."

What is our primary use case?

Our use cases for IBM MQ involve share markets.

In this organization, we are not using many of the features because we have a very small infrastructure. In my previous organizations, I used many of the components including AMS. However, here, we are just using it as a messaging solution and not any of the other components.

What is most valuable?

The MQ appliance has very good performance.

What needs improvement?

The user interface should be easier to use.

The user interface should be enhanced to include more monitoring features and other metrics. The metrics should include not only those from the IBM MQ point of view but also CPU and memory utilization. These kinds of features would be really helpful when we have a large infrastructure. Right now, this limits us from using the product.

In general, the user interface should be more catchy, to entice users.

IBM should promote the use of the MQ appliance because the speed and performance are superior when compared to traditional ways of using the product.

If IBM were to release as least some limited features for MQ as open-source, then it would be great because people will migrate to this solution instead of choosing open-source products like Apache Kafka or RabbitMQ.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with IBM MQ for almost 13 years across different organizations. I began working with version 5.3 and am currently using version 9.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is absolutely perfect when it is running on AIX. However, I have experienced some issues with certain Linux distributions. With AIX, I have not had any problems with IBM MQ. With other flavors of Linux, there is some instability whereby the MQ configuration parameters are not giving the proper information. From this, I have concluded that the stability of MQ depends on the Linux distribution that it is running on.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The number of users in my current organization is six or seven. This is the number of applications that we have. This is not an extensive use of the product but we do plan to increase usage in the future.

In my previous organization, our use was more extensive. We had between 700 and 710 users.

This product scales and the number of users depends on the industry, as well as the financial strengths that the organization has.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support from IBM is always reachable.

Internally, we provide technical support to our users. This is possible because our team is only six or seven users.

How was the initial setup?

This initial setup is not complex at all. Deploying it was very easy.

What about the implementation team?

Limited staff is required to maintain this solution because of its stability.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing fees are paid quarterly and they are expensive. This is something that I have heard from all of the organizations that I have worked with.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have evaluated Apache Kafka and RabbitMQ because of the open-source features and benefits. The open-source aspect is an advantage. I have found that not many users choose IBM MQ, even though it is stable, because of financial constraints.

If IBM were to release MQ or at least some limited version as open-source, it would become more popular. People would choose it instead of implementing other products, or other streaming solutions. This is what people are trying to do with DevOps.

IBM MQ is much more stable than these other products, although the rest of them work well with cloud providers such as AWS.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, this is a good product. The only thing that I found complex was to build the user interface with the latest versions of IBM MQ. It was a little bit tricky to do.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1644639 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Specialist at a maritime company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Offers very good performance as well as scalability and stability
Pros and Cons
  • "Offers good performance as well as scalability and stability."
  • "Should have more integration in the monitoring tools."

What is our primary use case?

I'm a technical specialist and we are customers of IBM. 

What is most valuable?

This solution offers good performance as well as scalability and stability. It offers a template that's beneficial for any company.

What needs improvement?

I'd very much like to see more integration in the monitoring tools.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for nine years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution offers very good scalability. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. It's all about planning because we have multiple application teams involved. Deployment takes somewhere between half an hour to an hour, but for the coordination to check and perform from the application side, takes almost a full day because we have critical, multiple applications. It needs to be coordinated and we need to be sure they are able to connect perfectly with our environment or with the MQ.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We pay an annual license fee. 

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this product and rate it a nine out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
IBM MQ
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about IBM MQ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Database Administration Team Leader at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Good usability with very good publish and subscribe features
Pros and Cons
  • "The usability of the solution is very good."
  • "We need to have a better administration console and better monitoring features. Right now, they are not good and could be a lot better."

What is most valuable?

The subscribe and publish features are excellent. We use them a lot.

The usability of the solution is very good.

What needs improvement?

There isn't that much happening with the installation consoles and monitoring consoles. This could be improved.

We need to have a better administration console and better monitoring features. Right now, they are not good and could be a lot better.

The pricing could be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for ten years. It's been a decade so far, therefore, it's been a rather long time overall.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support has been pretty good. Every time I've used it, they were pretty good and I found them to be knowledgeable and responsive. I'm quite happy with their level of service.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing could be lower. It's not the cheapest option out there. However, I don't have comparison prices with other solutions at this time. We're working on comparison pricing currently.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We are currently evaluating other options. We are starting the comparison now and we are starting on the technical scope, not on the budget. However, we will also consider pricing as we evaluate other potential options for our company.

What other advice do I have?

We're just a customer. We don't have any business affiliation with the organization.

On a scale from one to ten, I'd rate this solution at a nine.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Lead Architect at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Reduced various footprints of the database but it is expensive
Pros and Cons
  • "IBM MQ deals mainly with the queuing mechanism. It passes the data and it publishes it. These two abilities are the most valuable features."
  • "It is expensive. The cost is high. There should be more improvement in the new age of technologies."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case for pushing data as a queuing mechanism for all the applications to send out messages. We use it as a pipeline. We also use it to publish data and for the application to extract it all.

How has it helped my organization?

In terms of runtime, we just push data. We have reduced the various footprints of the database and for transmitting the data from one location to another. MQ is reliable and more structured and it's helped us a lot in pushing the data. The data can be pushed and it will be persistent. It helps us and the connectivity between the data as two separate applications and our middleware interactions are much faster and more reliable.

What is most valuable?

IBM MQ deals mainly with the queuing mechanism. It passes the data and it publishes it. These two abilities are the most valuable features. 

What needs improvement?

IBM MQ has a lot of room for improvement. It's an older solution but they are improving the product. It's wider and it's a heavy application so it supports clusters also. 

It is expensive. The cost is high. There should be more improvement in the new age of technologies. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using IBM MQ for ten years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is high.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their support is very good. IBM MQ is around 20 years old. The technicians have a lot of expertise with it.

How was the initial setup?

MQ is has a straightforward implementation. There is not much configuration required. It is more complicated for a cluster implementation and the active-passive implementation. You'll need more technical knowledge 

A regular deployment will take around five to 10 minutes. If it's for a cluster implementation, it will take at least 15 to 30 minutes.

We have an internal team that does the implementation. We asked IBM to do the deployment. 

What other advice do I have?

If you use it for evaluation purposes, it's good but if you're using it for freeware, it's not so good. 

Multiple fault tolerance and partition tolerance are great. 

I would rate it a seven out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1310736 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Specialist Platform (Java) at a tech consulting company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Backup queue concept and topics are unique features, but throughput could be better
Pros and Cons
  • "It also has a backup queue concept and topics, features that I have not seen anywhere else. I like these features very much."
  • "It could provide more monitoring tools and some improvement to the UI. I would also like to see more throughput in future versions."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for data integration.

What is most valuable?

It's very stable. 

It also has a backup queue concept and topics, features that I have not seen anywhere else. I like these features very much.

What needs improvement?

It could provide more monitoring tools and some improvement to the UI. I would also like to see more throughput in future versions.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been dealing with IBM MQ for the last six months.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable. It's not for every use case, but you can scale it.

We have about 50 users of IBM MQ.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is good.

How was the initial setup?

The setup is between straightforward and complex. It's not as straightforward as Apache ActiveMQ.

What about the implementation team?

We did the setup.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I like Kafka more. MQ is number-two compared to Kafka.

What other advice do I have?

It's a good product but I think it's too costly. That's one disadvantage because there are already many open-source products, like RabbitMQ, Kafka, and ActiveMQ. If you really need a solid MQ solution then go with IBM MQ. If you don't need such a robust solution then you can go with any of the other solutions.

I would rate IBM MQ at seven out of 10. It has less throughput.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
IT Consultant at Ministry of Justice, Kuwait
Consultant
Secure, fast, and easy to work with
Pros and Cons
  • "Secure, safe, and very fast."
  • "I wanted to upgrade Windows Server. It's not that easy to move."

What is most valuable?

  • Secure
  • Safe
  • Very fast

It's a very good product. Very easy to work with.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using IBM MQ for about nine years. We have many projects with it in many places in Kuwait.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There have been no issues with the stability of the solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I haven't had any issues with the scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

I only contacted technical support when I wanted to upgrade Windows Server. It's not that easy to move. I had Windows 2008, and I wanted to go to Windows 2012 or '16. You have to reinstall, or there was a solution somebody told me about and that made life easier.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. On the AS/400, setup takes about an hour.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Whatever the price is, it's worth it.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend it to other people. When somebody wants to do colocation with us, we force them to buy IBM MQ.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Assistant Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
The architecture provides assured delivery
Pros and Cons
  • "I like the architecture it provides seamlessly for assured delivery."
  • "They have provided a Liberty Profile in the Web Console for administration, and that could be further enhanced. It is not fit for use by an enterprise. They have to get rid of their WebSphere process and develop a front-end on Node.js or the like."

What is our primary use case?

It's predominantly for message queuing, to assure delivery.

Our team manages messaging aspects with this product, among others.

What is most valuable?

I like the architecture it provides seamlessly for assured delivery.

What needs improvement?

The monitoring could be even better by building it into the product. The disaster recovery mechanism could also be built-in. 

I would like to see them not rely on third-party tools for everything.

Finally, they have provided a Liberty Profile in the Web Console for administration, and that could be further enhanced. It is not fit for use by an enterprise. They have to get rid of their WebSphere process and develop a front-end on Node.js or the like.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with IBM MQ for almost seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable, for sure.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are facing some issues with the scalability in some of the components. That can be improved.

How are customer service and technical support?

We are satisfied with the technical support.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It takes a few minutes.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We started with IBM but we have recently been looking at Kafka and Solace.

What other advice do I have?

If you have mission-critical applications that rely on an exchange of data, and the data is very valuable, then I would suggest using MQ.

We have a team of people of 50 to 60 people using it, in middleware admin.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1319070 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Team Lead at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Clustering is good, but the setup is difficult
Pros and Cons
  • "The clusterization which results in persistence is the most valuable feature."
  • "The initial setup is difficult. Creating your own cluster is difficult. Working with cluster repositories is difficult. Issue management with IBM MQ is difficult."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to send a notification to our customers.

What is most valuable?

The clusterization which results in persistence is the most valuable feature. I only use a very small number of its features.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using IBM MQ for about three years. For about one year I wrote adapters for IBM Broker and for two years or more I wrote services that used IBM MQ. This was a Java application by JMS.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is okay.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is not an issue of IBM MQ. There is no replication of messages and that is very bad for systems. Only persistence can solve this issue.

How are customer service and technical support?

IBM technical support is good.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is difficult. Creating your own cluster is difficult and working with cluster repositories is difficult. Issue management with IBM MQ is difficult.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's a very expensive product.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I like RabbitMQ more than IBM MQ.

What other advice do I have?

If you have a lot of money then I would, of course, recommend IBM MQ.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free IBM MQ Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free IBM MQ Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.