What is our primary use case?
I started using it as a developer. Essentially, we use it for application integration. For example, in one organization where I worked, we had an SAP ERP application, and several other applications were integrated with it. It acts as an integration layer for SAP, leveraging APIs rather than traditional methods like SAP's API for scheduled jobs. This allowed us to integrate ERP applications, document management systems, and web applications more efficiently.
How has it helped my organization?
Initially, we faced challenges managing numerous scheduled jobs and duplicate entries in our SAP system. To address this, we developed a reusable component in Mule that all applications could use to interact with SAP. This streamlined our integrations, consolidating multiple channels into one. Now, any modifications or updates to SAP only require changes to this single integration channel, reducing complexity and making upgrades smoother. This approach not only improved stability but also simplified our system architecture.
What is most valuable?
One of the most valuable aspects was its impact on reducing time and effort during upgrades. Previously, SAP upgrades required significant coordination with multiple teams. Now, thanks to our streamlined integration approach, the SAP team interacts primarily with the integration team. When changes are needed, we simply create a new version. This allows application teams to migrate gradually from the old version to the new one, without extensive involvement from the SAP team.
Moreover, our approach has improved reliability by eliminating duplicated efforts. Previously, different teams would often duplicate data sets due to inefficiencies in data naming conventions. We centralized data integration, ensuring that all applications use the same data set.
What needs improvement?
Over the years, Mule Anypoint Platform has undergone significant improvements. When I first started using it, the API gateway capabilities were fairly basic. However, they have evolved into a mature API gateway solution. In fact, they are well-regarded in Gartner's evaluations of API gateways.
While Anypoint Platform has made strides in monitoring and reporting functionalities, there is still room for improvement in this area. Enhanced reporting and more robust monitoring capabilities would further strengthen the platform's usability and appeal.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Mule Anypoint Platform for seven years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
MuleSoft is highly flexible whether you're using the on-premises or cloud version. With the on-premises edition, it's straightforward to scale up by adding clusters. Each cluster consisting of multiple nodes of MuleSoft deployment. This setup ensures a scalable environment to handle varying workloads effectively.
Another option is their 'Runtime Fabric' offering, which allows you to replicate the cloud deployment model within your own cloud or data center. This gives you the capability to manage both infrastructure and applications autonomously, similar to the capabilities offered in the cloud. It's a robust solution for maintaining control over your deployment environment while ensuring scalability.
How are customer service and support?
Support is pretty much responsive.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
It's easy to set up. You simply unzip the package and you're ready to go. I haven't encountered any issues with the setup process. The addition of their cloud offering has made deployment even simpler. You can deploy applications to the cloud without needing to manage setup. It automatically spins up containers or allocates resources as needed for the applications
We've automated our deployment process. Once developers finish their development work, we initiate testing. Our testing team conducts tests in the development environment, and upon successful testing, we move the application to the staging environment for user acceptance testing. Once approved, we promote it to production. Our deployment pipeline handles this process seamlessly, minimizing manual intervention except for approval after testing.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing of MuleSoft is on the higher side. Comparatively, it may appear more expensive than some other integration platforms. However, in the two organizations where I've used MuleSoft, the challenge was that they didn't adopt it as the sole enterprise integration platform. Instead, they had multiple integration platforms including MuleSoft. If MuleSoft had been adopted as the primary integration platform, the cost could have been spread across different business teams, leading to economies of scale.
Currently, each team often compares the cost of MuleSoft with other platforms they use. Consolidating to MuleSoft as the primary integration platform could potentially reduce overall costs and streamline integration efforts across the organization.
What other advice do I have?
For every new product, there's typically a learning curve, when you're new to the technology. MuleSoft has simplified the development process with drag-and-drop integration for most simple to medium-level tasks. This approach minimizes the need for extensive coding initially. As integrations become more complex and require detailed data transformations, you may need to familiarize yourself with MuleSoft's data transformation language, DataWeave. While learning DataWeave isn't overly complex, it does require some initial learning.
I would recommend MuleSoft based on my experience with other integration platforms, particularly Oracle, where I worked extensively for several years before transitioning to MuleSoft. One of the key advantages of MuleSoft is its lightweight nature. Setting up MuleSoft is straightforward. Simply unzip an archive and you're ready to go. In contrast, Oracle requires installation and extensive configuration, making it more complex and time-consuming to set up their integration platforms.
While platforms like Microsoft may initially appear cheaper than MuleSoft, in the long run, the total cost of ownership often balances out between them. MuleSoft allows for scalability, so you can start small and expand as your integration needs grow. This flexibility means you don't need to invest heavily upfront. While the initial cost comparison may favor other platforms, the overall cost efficiency over time can be comparable between MuleSoft and competitors.
Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
*Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
