At the recent International Users Group (IUG) event in Munich, I had the opportunity to lead a training session focused on one of our newest innovations for Natural: Natural Messaging (NMQ). The session brought together customers looking for simpler, more efficient ways to integrate their Natural applications with IBM MQ, and the response was overwhelmingly positive.
The hands-on training session was conducted using NaturalONE, giving participants a modern and familiar development experience.
As organizations continue modernizing their mainframe environments, the ability to connect applications, systems, and services without added complexity becomes increasingly important. Natural Messaging was designed with exactly that goal in mind.
What is Natural Messaging?
Natural Messaging (NMQ) provides direct, seamless access to IBM MQ from within a Natural application, eliminating much of the complexity traditionally associated with MQ integration.
In the past, integrating Natural applications with MQ often required developers to:
- Build and maintain COBOL or Assembler interface programs
- Manually implement IBM MQ API calls
- Manage connection and session logic outside the Natural environment
These additional layers increased development effort, introduced maintenance challenges, and created dependencies on specialized skills. With Natural Messaging, those complexities are abstracted away, enabling developers to work directly within Natural while Natural Messaging manages the underlying infrastructure automatically.
Key Benefits of Natural Messaging
Accelerated development
Natural Messaging enables developers to interact directly with IBM MQ queues using familiar Natural programming constructs. By reducing the need for MQ-specific expertise, teams can become productive faster and focus on delivering business value rather than learning low-level integration mechanics.
Elimination of interface layers
One of the most significant advantages of Natural Messaging is that it removes the need for custom wrapper programs and manual API implementations. Organizations no longer need to develop and maintain COBOL or Assembler interfaces simply to exchange messages with IBM MQ.
The result is a leaner architecture, lower maintenance costs, and fewer integration touchpoints to manage over time.
Transparent runtime management
Natural Messaging handles the operational aspects of IBM MQ communication behind the scenes, including:
- Queue connections
- Session management
- Disconnect processing
- Easier error handing
From a developer’s perspective, messaging becomes a native capability of the application rather than an infrastructure challenge.
Faster time to value
By removing complexity from the integration process, teams can:
- Deliver new integrations more quickly
- Reduce development and operational errors
- Focus more attention on business logic and innovation
The outcome is faster project delivery and greater agility when responding to evolving business requirements.
The business impact
Modernization is not just about adopting new technologies. It is about reducing complexity, improving productivity, and extending the value of existing investments.
With Natural Messaging, organizations can:
- Accelerate modernization initiatives
- Reduce reliance on specialized COBOL and IBM MQ expertise
- Increase developer productivity
- Lower long-term maintenance costs
- Mitigate knowledge-transfer and generational risks associated with legacy wrapper technologies
Most importantly, Natural Messaging enables organizations to evolve their integration strategy without disrupting the core applications that run their business every day.
Looking ahead
Natural Messaging represents an important step forward in making mainframe integration simpler, more accessible, and more efficient for Natural developers. The strong engagement and positive feedback from the Munich training session reinforced what we’re hearing from customers across the market: organizations want modernization solutions that deliver tangible value without introducing unnecessary complexity.
I’m excited to continue helping customers adopt Natural Messaging and unlock new opportunities for integration and modernization across their environments.
If you’d like to learn more about Natural Messaging or explore a hands-on session for your team, I’d be happy to connect and share additional insights.
Ready to modernize your Natural applications without rewriting proven business logic?
See how Natural Messaging helps organizations expose existing Natural subprograms as REST APIs, automatically generate OpenAPI documentation, and accelerate digital transformation initiatives.
👉 Schedule a personalized demo to see Natural Messaging in action and learn how your organization can simplify integration while preserving existing investments.
