A IBM MQ client is part of the product that can be installed on its own, on a separate machine from the base product and server. You can run an IBM MQ application on an IBM MQ client and it can interact, by means of a communications protocol, with one or more IBM MQ servers and connect to their queue managers. The servers to which the client connects might be part of a cluster. IBM MQ Family Platforms provides a list of which platforms are supported as IBM MQ Clients and/or Servers.