IBM DataPower Gateway vs Layer7 API Management comparison

IBM and Broadcom are both solutions in the API Management category. IBM is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.6, while Broadcom is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.6. IBM holds a 3.8% mindshare in APIM, compared to Broadcom’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

IBM DataPower Gateway

Read 28 IBM DataPower Gateway reviews

6,288 Views
4,711 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Layer7 API Management

Read 111 Layer7 API Management reviews

5,269 Views
3,910 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

IBM DataPower Gateway

Layer7 API Management

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

IBM DataPower Gateway and Layer7 API Management are competitors in the API management space. Layer7 API Management appears to have the upper hand due to its versatile feature set and ease of use.

Features: IBM DataPower Gateway offers extensive encryption and threat protection features, scalability for large IT infrastructures, and seamless integrations. Layer7 API Management provides API customization flexibility, strong analytics tools for better decision-making, and adaptability to enterprise needs.

Room for Improvement: IBM DataPower Gateway could improve in terms of ease of deployment and reducing complexity in integration. Enhanced user interface and simplified configuration options would also be beneficial. Layer7 API Management may benefit from enhanced monitoring capabilities, a more robust management interface, and faster release of new features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM DataPower Gateway's advanced security measures make its deployment more complex, but it offers dedicated customer support. Layer7 API Management allows for quicker setup and integration, offering strong support that caters to agile business operations.

Pricing and ROI: IBM DataPower Gateway has a higher initial setup cost justified by its security and scalability features. Layer7 API Management offers better long-term ROI due to lower initial investment and a comprehensive feature set, providing significant value over time.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Layer7 API Management Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Layer7 API Management

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

IBM DataPower Gateway

Ranking in API Management

11th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (6th), Application Infrastructure (9th), SOA Application Gateways (3rd)

Layer7 API Management

Ranking in API Management

10th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

111

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the API Management category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 3.8%, up from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Layer7 API Management is 3.1%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

API Management

Featured Reviews

Mehdi El Filahi

Co-Founder at tenekit

Security features meets compliance needs and offers MPGW (Multi-Protocol Gateway) that simplifies integration efforts

While I like IBM products, I'm not an evangelist. I work with Java, Microsoft ASP.NET, and various technologies. I'm not tied to any specific vendor. However, I do find IBM to be a bit greedy. It's a large, profit-driven company. The support team is mostly based in India, and they follow a very structured process and protocol. Sometimes, it feels like playing ping pong with them – lots of back and forth before the problem gets escalated. You might even have to get your sales rep involved to push things along. For me, the support it could be better. Indian support teams aren't inherently bad, but with IBM, it feels impersonal. They respond, sure. But if it's a complex technical issue, they might ask you a lot of questions that just seem designed to waste your time. Sometimes it feels like they hope you'll get frustrated and solve the problem yourself.

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Ronald D'Souza

Presales Consultant for CA Southern Africa at Hyperion Holding Pty Ltd

Has great drag-and-drop features and it requires minimal coding

I have mainly implemented using Layer 7 API Management. Some of the major challenges we were able to meet with a quick release to market methodology. Some of the tasks which we achieved for our customers were: 1. Translation service from SOAP to REST and vice versa. 2. API service to DB (Oracle, MySQL, MSSQL, Snowflake, SAP HANA) -- Created Swagger APIs that were able to perform CRUD operation to the backend API mentioned above and provided routes to query and get data. 3. Integration with Payment gateway service providers to perform (transaction on behalf of the customer with third-party payment gateway service providers white labeled with our APIs ) -- Followed TMF standards for payment gateway integration with the Telcom world. 4. Orchestration of the API. Build multiple microservers and provided orchestration based on route, path, and data in the request and perform actions that would be communicated with multiple APIs and provide a single consolidated response. 5. Provided API-driven security (Oauth 2.0, JWT, SAML, Basic, and a variety of means) to access the API giving the developer the freedom to concentrate only on application/service/microservice and let the gateway handle the threat. 6. Seamless Mutual Authentication allowed good segregation between APIs in the DMZ and internal network.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I like all of the features in this product and it does what it's supposed to do."

"The product is stable...The product is scalable."

"If you have an API application in your organization that you want to make safe and secure, in addition to your existing WAF or load balancer, this product comes with all those capabilities:"

"The solution is stable."

"You don't have to have a separate DMC proxy because DataPower Gateway is an appliance and will take care of a lot of security features. These include data validations, encryption, as well as XML or any type of scripting or security threats that are present."

"The API Connect gateway service and the SQL injection feature is good."

"It's high-speed and it can be remotely administered via an API."

"Support for PCA and non-PCA services is valuable."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pros

"We can get more visibility into our data."

"Every API that we get from external or from internal goes through this layer first, and it should not be a bottleneck. That was the problem we had before. Now it's no longer a bottleneck. It's more like a throughput, this process is less than 10 milliseconds for any particular API."

"The product documentation helps the client and/or user to evolve quickly while using the tool."

"They have got a very compelling platform that enables organizations to easily develop and roll out mobile applications."

"API Management makes dealing with APIs easier. It'll help you to move ahead on your API application journey. The solution allows developers to create more advanced security policies"

"There are many security policies within this solution that help to prevent attacks. We are also able to implement TLS to allow us to look at the application from the backend. There are workflows inside of the gate that help us a lot to implement customers and improve user experience. Our customers are also able to move from a customized creative view to taking advantage of AI bot solutions."

"The most valuable feature of Layer7 API Management is that their policy is really easy to develop and it is flexible."

"The Gateway can front our APIs very easily."

More Layer7 API Management pros

Cons

"Traceability could be improved, especially for business operations. The traceability of the transactions could be an improvement point for DataPower to work on. It would be better if they provided JSON support. JSON protocol data has changed format. It started performing internal transformation to JSONx. This might be an additional complexity."

"We are always looking for more features wherein it could be easily integrated with cloud applications. We are looking for either a cloud solution or a cloud integration option."

"Small and medium-sized companies might look for cloud-hosted applications due to the cost."

"Scripting needs improvement. It's hard for our customers."

"DataPower isn't the most user-friendly tool. It is not an easy tool to use. Some things could use better wizards to guide you through processes."

"IBM DataPower Gateway is quite big for smaller organizations, looking at different types of clients who are virtually assisted in this, I would say it's not really a good product for smaller firms."

"The solution requires a lot of training manuals in order to get to know it better and to be able to use it effectively."

"I would like the tool to improve its training."

More IBM DataPower Gateway cons

"The architecture of the solution does not allow for flexibility in using different components for the gateway architecture."

"One specific feature that we need is the ability to authenticate directly to the server with API data. It's not complex nowadays. This is a feature that we need and CA doesn't have it."

"They should incorporate deeper monitoring features into the solution to make the offering more complete. Doing so would help to showcase traffic patterns and usage to better engage customers and partners proactively. It would also help with API management and capacity planning."

"The entire lifecycle management approach needs improvement: from the API management, development, deployment, some of the settings around the quotas, and some security policy applications, etc. for the APIs. We found the Apigee platform a lot more robust in that area."

"Layer7 API Management could have a live API creator feature, so my team can easily create APIs. Right now, the product doesn't have that feature."

"We have experienced technical difficulties with the product in the past."

"Some users say that the API lacks some features and is lagging behind the competition although that has not been my personal experience."

"There are old algorithms that the tool does not support - and it shouldn't, in my opinion. But sometimes customers need old algorithms, from old use cases and old applications, migrated to the platform. At those times, there are hiccups that happen."

More Layer7 API Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The appliance is a bit on the expensive side for the workloads that are not too high."

"The licensing cost is very expensive."

"This product is a bit expensive as IBM products are costly assets. However, for enterprise customers it is a worthwhile investment."

"Most customers' use case budgets are not inlined with the price of IBM DataPower Gateway. It is too expensive."

"The cost of this product varies from customer to customer and the relationship with IBM, including how many offerings from IBM are already being used."

"As far as I know, they have a perpetual license for this product. They are paying perpetual fees rather than an annual subscription or annual pricing."

"It's expensive when you compare it with others."

"It is an expensive solution."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pricing and cost advice

"Keep in mind the non-product licensing, e.g., if you opt not to use the embedded SQL."

"Pricing for Layer7 API Management is excellent, so it's an eight out of ten. The product is less expensive than other solutions. Layer7 API Management charges you based on the number of transactions, so the enterprise-level pricing my company got was excellent."

"Licenses are required to operate the product, but I don't know much about the validity periods attached to it."

"If the CA pricing for API management would be a little lower, they would be able to cover a broader market."

"APIs can be developed to provide security. We can show them in one single pane of glass, such as the CA API Management API Developer Portal. It is there that we can provide the monetization for their APIs and what is happening on third-party applications, like Paytm or BookMyShow."

"Our customers found the product’s cost a little higher. They are looking for open-source solutions."

"CA has great pricing for gateways, so negotiate with your sales team."

"There is an annual license for the use of this solution. I think we are paying for some support maintenance fees, included in that license. I don't know how it works. They should provide more information."

More Layer7 API Management pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

31%

Computer Software Company

Insurance Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM DataPower Gateway?

The MPGW (Multi-Protocol Gateway) is great because it allows you to easily expose services using various protocols – web services, REST (JSON), and others. This flexibility simplifies things.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM DataPower Gateway?

I would rate the pricing a two out of ten, with one being high price, and ten being low price. It's high-priced for smaller companies. But it is okay for enterprises. So, the price could be more fl...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM DataPower Gateway?

The price could be more flexible for different clients.

See all answers

What do you like most about Layer7 API Management?

The solution's technical support is good.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Layer7 API Management?

The pricing is expensive compared to other products.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Layer7 API Management?

Layer7 API Management could be improved in its logging and alert mechanisms. Furthermore, although cloud deployment has been introduced, I am not familiar with all recent updates. In previous versi...

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM API Connect vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 33% of the time

Apigee vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 9% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle Service Bus vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 2% of the time

More IBM DataPower Gateway Competitors

Apigee vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 33% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 16% of the time

MuleSoft API Manager vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 16% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 11% of the time

IBM API Connect vs Layer7 API Management

Compared 3% of the time

More Layer7 API Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway

December 2024

Download IBM DataPower Gateway product report

Buyer's Guide

Layer7 API Management

December 2024

Download Layer7 API Management product report

Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower

CA API Management, CA Live API Creator, Espresso Logic, CA API Gateway

Learn More

IBM

Broadcom

Overview

IBM DataPower Gateway is a robust, secure next-generation enterprise-grade single multichannel API gateway that supplies dynamic access, integration, control, and outstanding security. The solution is available in a broad range of workload capabilities, including application programming interface (API), service oriented architecture (SOA), B2B, cloud, web, and mobile. These dynamic capabilities ensure users are able to quickly increase the reach of an organization's critical IT resources to new channels, which will provide shareholders, team members, and clients with safe, secure access at all times.

DataPower Gateway is very flexible and is widely available in virtual, cloud, traditional, physical, Docker, and Linux form factors.

IBM DataPower Gateway Features

IBM DataPower Gateway has many value-added features. Some of these features are included below:

Control: The solution provides decision point authorization and authentication for all standards, including Lightweight Direct Access Protocol (LDAP) and Open Authorization (OAuth), which allow for better access control across an organization’s entire network.
DataPower dashboard: The dashboard is specifically designed to enhance performance and determine problematic processes. The solution provides intuitive real-time performance transparency to diagnose operational and performance anomalies and offer repair and restoration recommendations.
Enhanced messaging: Users are able to easily mediate messaging and protocols by incorporating the best of today’s traditional and modern application standards.
Integration: IBM DataPower Gateway offers super fast mainframe connectivity, database connectivity, transport protocol bridging, content-based routing, and any-to-any message transformation, ensuring secure and immediate connect service.

IBM DataPower Gateway Benefits

IBM DataPower Gateway provides many benefits. Some of those benefits include:

Flexibility: The solution is easy to use and configure and provides for a pleasant, intuitive overall user experience. The solution can immediately be used out of the box, which makes overall process management simple.
Protection: The solution provides sturdy continuous service protection and application performance using robust powerful routing and traffic control.
Security: The solution’s enterprise-grade De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) ready gateway enables users to enforce the desired runtime application security across all messaging protocols.
Profitability: The solution’s design ensures significant reduction of development costs in addition to the streamlining of overall operations. Users are able to achieve reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and experience a near-immediate ROI.

Reviews from Real Users

“My company has a good impression of IBM DataPower Gateway. What I like about it is that because it's an appliance, it's a turnkey solution that's very fast and out of the box. Another valuable feature of IBM DataPower Gateway is that it's easy to integrate with other products.”- Bálint T., Solution Manager at Intalion

“You don't have to have a separate DMC proxy because DataPower Gateway is an appliance and will take care of a lot of security features. These include data validations, encryption, as well as XML or any type of scripting or security threats that are present. From a security point of view, being an appliance in the DMC zone, IBM DataPower Gateway will take care of the entire security angle for the infrastructure.” - Sathyan K., Founder/Director at perfTech Solutions Pvt Ltd

Layer7 API Management is a comprehensive solution that enables organizations to securely expose, manage, and monetize their APIs.

It provides features such as API gateway, developer portal, analytics, and security to ensure seamless integration and control over API traffic.

With Layer7 API Management, businesses can streamline their API operations and drive innovation.

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity

1. IBM 2. Microsoft 3. Oracle 4. Salesforce 5. SAP 6. Cisco 7. Dell 8. HP 9. Adobe 10. VMware 11. Accenture 12. Capgemini 13. Deloitte 14. PwC 15. Ernst & Young 16. Infosys 17. TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) 18. Wipro 19. Cognizant 20. HCL Technologies 21. Tech Mahindra 22. Fujitsu 23. Hitachi 24. NEC 25. NTT Data 26. Ericsson 27. Nokia 28. Siemens 29. AT&T 30. Verizon 31. Vodafone 32. Orange

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Layer7 API Management

December 2024

Free Report: IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Layer7 API Management

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Layer7 API Management and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

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