API Connect is mainly used as a gateway solution to expose, secure, and manage APIs.
Associate Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Robust product that lets you easily create and manage your API
Pros and Cons
- "Using API Connect allows us to quickly create proxy APIs and saves time on end-to-end testing, which lets us deliver quickly to clients."
- "The developer portal could be easier to customize."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Using API Connect allows us to quickly create proxy APIs and saves time on end-to-end testing, which lets us deliver quickly to clients.
What is most valuable?
API Connect's most valuable features are API management and creation.
What needs improvement?
The developer portal could be easier to customize - as it's Drupal-based, I have to hire a Drupal developer to do it for me. I feel there should be a drag-and-drop or UI-based configuration to customize the developer portal. In the next release, I would like some support for file uploads and MQ integration.
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IBM API Connect
January 2025
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For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using API Connect for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The newer versions, from 2018 forwards, are quite stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
API Connect is scalable because it's completely containerized.
How are customer service and support?
IBM's technical support is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward, and deployment took two days.
What about the implementation team?
I did the implementation myself.
What other advice do I have?
I would say that if you want stability and security, you should go for API Connect. It's a very robust product that lets you easily create and manage your API. I would rate API Connect as nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Consulting architect at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Stable and easy to set up but might be too costly for small businesses
Pros and Cons
- "API Connect's most valuable feature is its ability to act as a gateway. It's very easy to configure security and everything else in it. You don't have to kill yourself implementing custom configurations."
- "One thing about API Connect that could be improved is the security schemes. There are so many security schemes, and from a product perspective, IBM could improve the user experience of the configuration security scheme."
What is our primary use case?
My clients mainly use API Connect as an API gateway. A lot of the backend services need to be exposed to other parties, mobile devices, interfaces, etc.
What is most valuable?
API Connect's most valuable feature is its ability to act as a gateway. It's very easy to configure security and everything else in it. You don't have to kill yourself implementing custom configurations. Sometimes the customer wants to incorporate their identity provider, and API Connect handles that without any problems.
What needs improvement?
One thing about API Connect that could be improved is the security schemes. There are so many security schemes, and from a product perspective, IBM could improve the user experience of the configuration security scheme. It does what it is supposed to do, but it could be easier to configure. The junior developers sometimes find it a bit confusing to configure even though they understand the concept.
And another thing is that I don't know the security policies that we have. For instance, we have a service account, which is needed to connect to some other services. So in those cases, I find it a bit hard to tweak things in the API gateway. And one could argue that it is not the right thing to do with the API gateway. It has a different place to be, which could be why they haven't put it there. But sometimes, you have to tweak around that, and I find it a little bit hard to do that. So if they could accommodate that in there, it would be better for some people.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using it for the last four years on and off. The last time I deployed it was a few months ago.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
API Connect is reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
API Connect is scalable, but I've found that everything is more stable if you reset the server every 40 or 45 days. Once, we had an incident in which we were unsure about what happened, but it crashed after 60 days. We didn't know the reason. It could've been a mistake in the product implementation. We don't know what happened, but this particular incident occurred two times. After that, we began restarting it every 45 days. So that's the resilience part, but the scalability part works without a problem.
Another thing is that we don't know all of the use cases that we have worked on before, so we didn't go for automatic scaling of the API gateway. That's done in the backend services. So I'll be honest to say that we haven't explored the auto-scalability of API Connect much. Instead, we put that on full throttle. This can cause a bottleneck if we play around with it, so we didn't take many risks. We put that on full throttle and did the tweaking in the backend services. That's how we did it in the past.
How are customer service and support?
I've interacted with IBM support many times. They're good. They get back to you within 12 or 14 hours after you initiate a ticket. IBM support will get on a call with you if needed and guide you. It's no problem. They provide the same level of support to everyone.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up API Connect is a straightforward process. Maybe it seems more manageable because I've been taking baby steps rolling it out for the last few years. So when we talk about the latest version, it's not a headache if you follow the documentation. Even for an operations person, it's a piece of cake.
It takes a minimal amount of time to deploy as a product. Including the processes for the organization, installing the product could take half a day. And when we ask the Ops team to do it, it usually takes half a day for them to do it. They have to document the IP and keep a log of what they're doing.
API Connect itself does not require any maintenance. But when our teams write the business logic into it, that usually requires some support and maintenance. So a team of two people looks after the whole setup. And they work in shifts. Usually, it works on an onshore-offshore model. So one person from the onshore team will be supporting it for some time, and when he goes off, the other person comes up.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
API Connect's license cost could be a little lower. But, unfortunately, there aren't many open-source API gateways. Ideally, some new developers could come up with a minimum-functionality open-source solution. When I look for open-source resources that work with API C or Apigee, I find very few that can do that. It's not available or very popular in the open-source community. I've only worked with large companies that are capable of affording these licenses. A better option for smaller companies might be to have two or three developers build a custom API gateway. That might be more affordable for them.
What other advice do I have?
I rate API Connect seven out of 10. I would recommend it to customers if they have the money to pay for it, but it depends on the ecosystem. So, as a consultant, I would recommend API Connect if the customer already has an IBM license. Big companies generally have IBM middleware running somewhere, so they might have a license for these things. In cases like this, we would usually recommend API Connect for their purposes rather than spending more money on a different product. And if a client is building something entirely new and has to get a new license, we'll compare the options, including Apigee, MuleSoft, API C, or a custom solution.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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IBM API Connect
January 2025
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Principal Information System Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Since it runs on top of Datapower, all Datapower based custom policies can be utilized and exported to API connect but its not straightforward/simple process.
Pros and Cons
- "Since it runs on top of Datapower, all Datapower based custom policies can be utilized and exported to API connect but its not straightforward/simple process."
- "IBM info-center help documentation also needs improvement. Competitive product like Apigee provide out of the box policies to run Javascript, JAVA and better/flexible logging policies."
What is most valuable?
For on Premise Solutions:
Out of the box policies for Gatewayscript, JWT generate and validate. Oauth support .
Since it runs on top of Datapower, all Datapower based custom policies can be utilized and exported to API connect but its not straightforward/simple process.
Export of Analytics data in CSV format.
API connect is far better, faster and sleek as compared to IBM API management.
API connect support better error handling scenario with additional policies and catch node.
How has it helped my organization?
We utilize API connect to proxy to backed micro services or Datapower. We also do JSON to SOAP mapping / rest to soap apis, which is a very common pattern. We use it for any lightweight rest/soap message processing , analytic gathering and API usage policy enforcement.
What needs improvement?
IBM has improved this product significantly in last 2 years but it is still not stable and require further improvements. There are several issues administering the product. Features like , taking manual back up is still not available through GUI. The API manager cmdline is only accessible using one Admin account.
IBM recently added a feature to do autoback up in recent API connect firmware releases but its not very user friendly.Also the exported backup can not be unzipped and is not readable.
IBM info-center help documentation also needs improvement. Competitive product like Apigee provide out of the box policies to run Javascript, JAVA and better/flexible logging policies.
Apigee cloud provides various test tools where APIs performance can be tested from different regions in the world. As of now, as per my understanding IBM doesn't have similar test assist tools in Bluemix cloud .
Troubleshooting any issue is very difficult as it runs on Datapower so Datapower know how is required. Also you need to log on to multiple VMs/devices including Datapower to troubleshoot if errors are not properly handled.
IBM definitely needs to improve their customer support process for their new products as it demands more attention from customers because of large number of defects, long learning curve and lack of documentation.
For how long have I used the solution?
1.5 year
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
We lost the old configuration during firmware upgrade of API connect.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
IBM API management did have several stability issues, where working in different tabs in browser cause issues saving the configuration changes.
Also IBM API management is very slow and its inbuilt test tool is crappy as it takes around 1.5-2 mins to test any API after configuration changes.
IBM API connect is far better but we still haven't stress/load tested apis,so wouldn't comment on it.
One example of instability, We lost the old configuration during firmware upgrade of API connect.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
For IBM API managment , some times config replication in Management cluster might take as long as 2 minutes so change in one API manager might not be reflected quickly in another API manager. Also API management GUI need to refreshed in browser to see latest state.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
6
Technical Support:4
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used APIGEE in a different project.
How was the initial setup?
IBM infocenter for IBM API management and Connect is still not very helpful.It takes lots of reading and terminology know how to correctly configure it.
What about the implementation team?
Initial set up was done by IBM but new VMs are configured by us.
What was our ROI?
Not sure.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Not sure.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
No.
What other advice do I have?
Troubleshooting any issue can be very difficult.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Architect at Ness Technologies
Internal re-usability of APIs are encouraged by cataloguing all the APIs, but the automation of deployments is needed.
What is most valuable?
V3 is way better then v2, and v4 has further improvements. We have the ability to secure, control, transform, catalogue and optimize access to our APIs for external and internal partners and developers.
How has it helped my organization?
The APIs are exposed to B2B partners in a secured, and better way. Internal re-usability of APIs are encouraged by cataloguing all the APIs.
What needs improvement?
It lacks the ability for billing and metering the API usage to invoicing in v3, however, v4 does have this. Automation of deployments is needed.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've used it over a year, v3 was purchased in Q2, 2014.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Manual steps for deployment is needed.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues encountered.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issue with scalability as the run timefor API Management is proven and time tested i.e. Datapower which all fortune 1000 companies use.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
The IBM customer rep was very helpful in the POC phase, and helped us escalate custom/new features which we requested.
Technical Support:Ir's excellent.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No other product was used, and the service was just exposed by Datapower.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup was straightforward as 50% of the solution was already in place. IBM API runs on IBM Datapower so the setup was only needed for IBM API Management itself.
What about the implementation team?
We did it in house using the same set of Datapower developers supported API Management.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We also looked at WS02 which was way too complex and needed almost 14-15 VMs to run. As we had Datapower, it was a natural choice for us.
What other advice do I have?
If the customer is already using IBM Datapower then it is a no brainer that IBM API Management will complement their existing investment.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Architect Advisor at a wellness & fitness company with 10,001+ employees
It gives a holistic environment for us to set up APIs. We have asked for improved scalability and other features related to API setup and security.
Pros and Cons
- "It gives a holistic environment for us to set up the APIs and that's the main value that it adds. It gives end to end for us."
- "We have asked IBM for scalability and for some other features that we wanted. We had a dialogue with them and in the end, they have agreed to provide us with features related to API setup and security."
What is most valuable?
It gives a holistic environment for us to set up the APIs and that's the main value that it adds. It gives end to end for us.
How has it helped my organization?
We moved from another manager to this one and latency has improved a lot. It has improved the latency response by maybe 20-25%.
What needs improvement?
In fact, we have had a discussion with IBM and it's agreed upon that they would give us the features that we have asked for, just in three months. We have asked IBM for scalability and for some other features that we wanted. We had a dialogue with them and in the end, they have agreed to provide us with features related to API setup and security. They agreed to give it to us in three months, so we are happy.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In regards to the stability, we are new to it, so it is OK right now. We haven't put much into it yet.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability we have not tested yet; we are testing it now as we speak.
How are customer service and technical support?
We do use technical support and are in constant contact with them. They are very good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we were using Layer 7. The reason as to why we decided to switch solutions was because the current environment was not working for us.
How was the initial setup?
I was involved in the installation process to some extent. I am from architecture, so usually the infrastructure team would be involved.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
There are several other solutions that we evaluated but it depends on the capability that we are looking at.
Initially, we started off with one solution and then, moved on to another, as we found out that it's not helping us.
We do several things before selecting a vendor. It's not in my purview, but we do the product evaluation as well. Obviously, IBM is a big vendor and we are a big shop of IBM.
What other advice do I have?
Go for it!
Getting a perfect rating depends on the product and how they give us support or not. We haven't gutted it, thoroughly. It is in production, but it's not perfected. Maybe in six months or more, we'll know more about it.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Integration Specialist - Solution Architect at LTIMindtree
A powerful tool that offers a range of benefits and advantages
Pros and Cons
- "It offers enhanced security features to protect APIs, enforce access control, and secure sensitive data."
- "There is room for improvement regarding the connectivity of the DevOps."
What is most valuable?
It offers enhanced security features to protect APIs, enforce access control, and secure sensitive data. It also works as a powerful integration tool for the internal and external transmission zone, allowing us to connect with different vendors easily.
What needs improvement?
There is room for improvement regarding the connectivity of the DevOps.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution provides high stability. I would rate it nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is designed to handle large-scale API operations, so it ensures high scalability. I would rate it nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
They are lacking in terms of customer service and technical support. I would rate it six out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. It is based on available courses and steps that are comprehensive and helpful.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment process is facilitated and fast. It takes about an hour for the solution to be deployed.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is significantly high. I would rate it eight out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
IBM API Connect is a really good API management solution that offers a variety of benefits and advantages such as rapid development tools and enhanced productivity. I would rate it nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
Projects Delivery Director at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Powerful with a good developmental portal, useful for external developers
Pros and Cons
- "WSRR is a powerful component for getting the endpoints."
- "The solution is overly complex."
What is our primary use case?
We are a regulation entity dealing with many sensitive services. We carry out supervision and regulation for FinTech companies and other financial institutions. We are partners with IBM and I'm the project delivery director.
What is most valuable?
In general, this is a powerful system. We're currently only using one or two functionalities from API Connect. One of them is consulting WSRR to get the endpoints which is a powerful component. Each API management has a Gateway located on the DMZ that can be exposed to external networks and does the authentication, authorization, some security functionality as filtering, checking the security aspects such as decrypting, encrypting or service transformation and other functions. The development portal is good and can be used by external developers who can develop it at their site.
What needs improvement?
One issue we have with this solution is its complexity. In addition, it doesn't handle large volumes of traffic very well.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for several months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is reasonable but not great.
How are customer service and support?
Customer service takes a while to respond. They also want a lot of information and this adds to the time involved in getting a response.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not easy, similar to other IBM products. It's quite complex even with a system integrator and the deployment took some time. We have around 15-20 users on the development side. We plan to increase that in the future.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
All IBM products are expensive and API Connect is no exception. The license includes everything such as a per BVU charge along with other integration components plus OpenShift for microservices and DevOps and others. You can purchase a better BVU and then you can use any features or components under this license. They have the Cloud Pak for Automation package which includes BAW Business Automation. They also have something called Aspera for file transfers.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated API Connect and Apigee. API is designed to be a comprehensive solution for building and managing API with features for designing, development, and distinct publishing APIs, as well as for managing the life cycle of API and enforcing security. Apigee on the other hand is designed primarily as an API management platform while focused on securing and scaling APIs for use by extended developers. Ultimately, the best platform will be the one suited to your specific needs and use cases.
API Connect is a standalone platform, which means it may require additional integration with other tools in order to support the range of API developments. API Connect is designed to support the management of large numbers of APIs but may struggle to handle large volumes of traffic or very complex APIs.
What other advice do I have?
It's helpful to have a suitable in-house team and to work hand-in-hand with the system integrator. You also need powerful infrastructure and hardware. If you're exposed externally, you have to apply security standards either on the Gateway or F5, or the Load Balancer. It requires the capabilities for good enterprise or solution architecture and sufficient experience on the integration side in order to have the right solution design and system architecture.
I rate this solution eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
API Engineer/IBM Datapower Specialist at Tenece Professional services
Integrates well with other vendors, highly secure, and flexible installation
Pros and Cons
- "I have found IBM API Connect to be highly secure, efficient, easy to deploy, and has a great GUI. It can operate and integrate well with other vendors, such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft."
- "The installation was difficult with the IBM toolkit."
What is our primary use case?
We are using IBM API Connect to integrate bank applications. We are linking frontend services with the backend to prevent unwanted penetration.
What is most valuable?
I have found IBM API Connect to be highly secure, efficient, easy to deploy, and has a great GUI. It can operate and integrate well with other vendors, such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using IBM API Connect for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution has a modern cloud and it has been stable and reliable. We have not had any breaches of security.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is highly scalable, you can scale up and down. It has good performance, and you are able to customize the APIs to what you want.
How are customer service and technical support?
The support we have received from IBM has been great, they have been very responsive.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have previously used Oracle API gateway. When comparing the two, they are both very reliable and have good APIs but IBM on-premise installation is more flexible.
How was the initial setup?
The installation was difficult with the IBM toolkit.
What about the implementation team?
We have an architectural roadmap to follow while doing the implementation of the solution and it took approximately three months for our teams to complete. I had some support from IBM during the process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the solution is very expensive, it can turn many customers away.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is very good and might not be suited for everyone's use case. Organizations might not need such a robust solution that is priced as high as it is. The demographics can play a role in if this solution is suitable, it depends on what others are using to make it competitive. For example, in Africa, the use of this solution is very low, they are not thinking too much about security. However, if your organization wants to take its operations to the next level then this solution might be the right choice.
I rate IBM API Connect an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Updated: January 2025
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