AN INTRODUCTION TO MESSAGING TECHNOLOGY MARK E HR POLARSOFT LIMITED 2465 CENTRAL AVENUE S UITE 205 BOULDER, COLORADO 80301 [email protected] ABSTRACT The world of messaging technology can be a complex and confusing one. Many people travel a difficult road in trying to understand just what messaging is, how (and if) it should be applied to a given business need, and which messaging vendor to choose. This white paper provides a technical introduction to messaging technologies, describes major messaging products, and defines advantages and disadvantages of messaging technology. AN INTRODUCTION TO MESSAGING TECHNOLOGY Table of Contents SECTION 1. A HISTORY OF MESSAGING.................................................................................................1 EARLY MESSAGING SYSTEMS.................................................................................................................................... 1 Characteristics of an E-mail System......................................................................................................................... 1 Late 1980’s to Mid 1990’s: The Client/Server Revolution ................................................................................... 3 Mid to Late 1990’s: Web/Internet, Thin Clients and “Rarely Connected” Users............................................... 4 Late 1990’s and Early 2000’s: Application Servers, Corporate Web Portals, and Business-To-Business Applications ............................................................................................................................................................... 7 Messaging helps solve many of these problems! .......................................................................................................... 8 SECTION 2. MESSAGING CONCEPTS .........................................................................................................9 BASE MESSAGING ARCHITECTURAL COMPONENTS............................................................................................... 9 Messages ..................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Queues ......................................................................................................................................................................11 Queue managers.......................................................................................................................................................11 Nodes .......................................................................................................................................................................12 OTHER MESSAGING CONCEPTS................................................................................................................................. 12 Asynchronous messaging ..........................................................................................................................................12 Synchronous Messaging ............................................................................................................................................12 “Push” vs. “Pull” technologies.................................................................................................................................12 Publish/subscribe technologies .................................................................................................................................12 Guaranteed “once-only” delivery..............................................................................................................................13 Transactional integrity / guaranteed units of work................................................................................................13 Message Brokers and Message Hubs......................................................................................................................13 Messaging application programming interfaces........................................................................................................13 SECTION 3. MESSAGING ARCHITECTURES .........................................................................................15 APPLICATION TO APPLICATION ARCHITECTURES................................................................................................... 15 One-to-one ................................................................................................................................................................15 One-to-many.............................................................................................................................................................15 Many-to-one .............................................................................................................................................................16 Many-to-many..........................................................................................................................................................16 SECTION 4. MESSAGING VENDORS..........................................................................................................19 IBM MQSERIES ......................................................................................................................................................... 19 MQSeries Integrator ................................................................................................................................................19 MQSeries Workflow...............................................................................................................................................20 MQSeries Bridges....................................................................................................................................................22 MQSeries Adaptors................................................................................................................................................23 MQSeries Everyplace ..............................................................................................................................................23 TIBCO......................................................................................................................................................................... 23 TIB/Rendezvous .....................................................................................................................................................24 TIB/ETX ..............................................................................................................................................................24 TIB/ObjectBus .......................................................................................................................................................24 TIB/InConcert........................................................................................................................................................24 TIB/IntegrationManager........................................................................................................................................24 TIB/MessageBroker ...............................................................................................................................................25 TIB/Adapters.........................................................................................................................................................25 - ii – COPYRIGHT 2000 POLARSOFT L IMITED. ALL R IGHTS RE SERVED. WWW.POLARSOFT.COM AN INTRODUCTION TO MESSAGING TECHNOLOGY TIB/Adapter ..........................................................................................................................................................25 TIB/Hawk.............................................................................................................................................................25 TIB/BusinessConnect .............................................................................................................................................25 MICROSOFT MQ......................................................................................................................................................... 26 MSMQ APIs.........................................................................................................................................................27 MSMQ Connectors.................................................................................................................................................27 MSMQ Market Penetration ..................................................................................................................................27 BEA SYSTEMS MESSAGEQ ...................................................................................................................................... 27 SECTION 5. ADD-ON MESSAGING PRODUCTS ....................................................................................29 MESSAGE BROKERS................................................................................................................................................... 29 TRANSACTION SERVERS............................................................................................................................................ 29 MESSAGING BRIDGES...............................................................................................................................................