How does IBM WebSphere MQ help developers implement business integration?
McIrvine: There are a few things developers need to know about WebSphere MQ. First, it holds 81 percent share according to the May 2003 numbers from Gartner Dataquest. This means that your WebSphere MQ skills become increasingly more marketable. WebSphere MQ also supports more than 37 platforms, such as Microsoft Windows, AIX, and Linux. Most of our competitors only support a handful of operating systems. This becomes an important element when you’re trying to connect a variety of applications across a large IT infrastructure that may run a number of operating systems. With WebSphere MQ, it’s a safe bet that you can easily work on the platforms they need to integrate. A couple of other items worth mentioning are the simple APIs and easy installation associated with WebSphere MQ, which make your life a little easier. Using IBM’s robust messaging transport, you can build applications that assure message delivery when network outages occur. Messages are automatically queued and sent when