IBM API Connect Reviews

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 moved from another manager to this one and latency has improved a lot. It has improved the latency response by maybe 20-25%.

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.

In regards to the stability, we are new to it, so it is OK right now. We haven't put much into it yet.

The scalability we have not tested yet; we are testing it now as we speak.

We do use technical support and are in constant contact with them. They are very good.

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.

I was involved in the installation process to some extent. I am from architecture, so usually the infrastructure team would be involved.

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.

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.

We are using IBM API Connect to integrate bank applications. We are linking frontend services with the backend to prevent unwanted penetration.

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.

I have been using IBM API Connect for approximately two years.

The solution has a modern cloud and it has been stable and reliable. We have not had any breaches of security.

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.

The support we have received from IBM has been great, they have been very responsive.

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.

The installation was difficult with the IBM toolkit.

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.

The price of the solution is very expensive, it can turn many customers away.

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.

The most valuable features of this solution are:

• Integration with multiple services,
• Providing security,
• Being able to monitor, and
• Enabling customers using the secure gateway.

We belong to the healthcare industry, so it is beneficial to implement the API Connect solution to provide APIs that can integrate outside and inside our organization. It also provides overall solutions, i.e., API-based solutions to all the customers that we have.

I would like to see more caching and monitoring features implemented in future releases. It also needs to be a more customizable and flexible product.

In terms of stability, we are still prototyping the product. We have the older version, which is now stable, but the current version or the new version, that we are still prototyping, is still not 100% stable.

The scalability is pretty good.

We have used technical support. I would probably give them a 7/10 rating.

I was involved a little bit with the installation process. I found it complex, as there were lots of configurations involved in setting up the infrastructure and that everyone didn't have experience with.

We looked at several other solutions, i.e., both IBM and non-IBM products. However, since we had already used IBM DataPower, we thought we could reuse the same infrastructure. API Connect has DataPower built-in to it, thus we tried to reuse some of the existing functionalities.

The most important criteria while selecting a vendor are the product's support and operations.

Our company is an early adopter of this product so I would advise, at this point, to wait and then implement the solution.

We've yet to realize real value in the solution. The goals that we were trying to achieve from it were to implement microservices and a lot of the features and functionality that were part of the documentation, but we haven't achieved success with it yet.

The benefits would be that we'd have a great platform for our microservices and API management. But since we haven't had a lot of success with it yet, it's been frustrating.

I would like greater stability and greater ability to actually administer the product without needing to go to technical support. It's very proprietary and support has secret passwords that they use to get into certain functions.

IBM has limited the capability for executing typical admin commands and only provide a small list of proprietary commands. Without a secret command line password, clients are limited to what they can view and administer – even in a read-only mode.

Stability is not good.

Scalability is good.

I would rate technical support fair, at best.

We weren't using a different solution. This is a new approach. We do have alternatives that we are using, including other IBM products. But we did this one more from a sales relationship, technical sales team pitch.

When selecting a vendor, reliability and experience are most important; the fact that we had experience with them. We have a lot of IBM products and we had a lot of good relationships.

I was involved in the initial setup and it was somewhat complex; medium complexity.

We didn’t look at other vendors.

Certainly look at other options that are out there and absolutely go with the latest and greatest version of the product, because there have been a lot of issues and it's going through growing pains. It's not completely mature.

We help systems integrators and vendors in choosing different types of platforms for building an open API gateway for banks. We evaluate and test different types of API gateways. We follow our internal testing scenarios to make sure that the product meets requirements. This is all we do.

API Connect is a very good platform for the development of APIs.

They seem to have left out a feature for microservices and also a certification module for OIDC. So it would be a good idea for the authentication module to have OIDC certification.

I have been working with IBM API Connect for about half a year. 

As far as I know, there haven't been any issues with the stability of the solution.

There are also no issues with the scalability.

We don't have any connection with IBM.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

I am also familiar with Xware and WSO2 API Manager. They have a different type of development cycle and features compared to API Connect. It's on the development side that they're different. It depends on the type of application.

I would recommend API Connect to a vendor or financial institutions that are looking at using it. It's a nine out of 10. It's missing the authentication module so programming and customizing that takes a lot of time.

Most of the business value that we are getting out of this solution, is that it provides DevOps integration and a catalog for microservices. We are able to share those APIs instantly within the organization; even if we want to share it outside publicly, then we can have those capabilities.

There is a trend to move towards microservice-based solutions, where we have to decouple all our legacy SOA-based services, when sometimes it takes an iterative approach to come out with what you need. Instead of that, we have this microservices solution, where you can just enable the required part in quick delivery using DevOps. These are the main benefits of this product.

Mostly, I would like to see more tools that are DevOps-friendly. We would have more capability to interact with the catalog and inventories, so a more DevOps-friendly solution is needed.

Stability has still not matured. We are still growing with the industry. We will find out after some time how it is going. But, as of now, it's stable.

Right now, in terms of scalability, everything we have is on-premise. However, we have this Bluemix capability, with which we can scale as and when we need.

We have used IBM professional support/premium support. We use them for any of the solutions, such as if we need some guidance on the future roadmap as to how it's going, etc; we engage them. They are excellent. They are always not only there to help us resolve the problem, but also to be able to guide us as to how the trend is going and what we should start thinking in regards to those changes.

We have this monthly inter-tech meeting, where we go through as to what is going on in the market, how the industry is going, and how we can utilize that in order to start serving the business, with an expedited return on the investment. So, this API, DevOps, and microservices are the things which are happening right now.

The most important criteria while selecting a vendor are that they should be able to help us not just with solving problems, but they also need to advise us in terms of how the trends are moving and how we can be strategic partners, instead of it just being a one-time solution.

Advice depends; if you have a preferred technology and IBM has a solution for that technology, then I'd definitely advise you to use more microservices with the API Connect and the DevOps, to provide quick returns for your business. It will be more valuable to you.

My customers are using IBM API Connect for integration in the financial sector.

The most valuable feature of IBM API Connect is the security of the protocol.

IBM API Connect could improve the security of the application and the integration.

I have been using IBM API Connect for approximately five years.

We have seven users using IBM API Connect and plan to increase the usage.

The technical support from IBM API Connect is good.

I rate the support from IBM API Connect a five out of five.

Positive

We pay for the IBM API Connect monthly. We only need to pay the standard licensing fee.

I rate IBM API Connect an eight out of ten.

The solution is primarily used as the API gateway. It's for the application that performs the function as the API for the consumer.

The customer seems to really like how this particular solution works.

The solution is very stable.

The functionalities on offer are very good.

The solution would be better if it had cloud functionalities.

It would be very helpful if it supported Azure and/or AWS marketplaces. Right now, if I want to set up something in Azure, I need to set up a VM from scratch instead of just being able to have it be supported and integrated.

I've only really been assisting my customer, who uses this solution. However, it's my understanding that they have been using the product for a long time.

The stability has been very good. It doesn't crash or freeze. There are no bugs. From a performance perspective, it's reliable.

The customer has many, many users on the solution currently. I can't speak to exact numbers. I know there are a lot.

I've never dealt with IBM's technical support. I'm unsure if the client even has a contract that allows them access to IBM's support. If they do, I would definitely reach out to discuss the product and its capabilities more. I'm not sure if a technical support license is extra or just comes with the license itself or if it expires over time, et cetera. I haven't looked into it at all.

I've never handled an installation before. I wouldn't be able to speak from personal experience. I can't get into details about implementation or deployment or how long the process takes.

I proposed to the client that they use the cloud-native API gateway in Azure or in AWS, however, they wanted to go for the API Connect.

I'm considering migrating API Connect to Azure.

I'm still doing the assessment for this product. That is due to the fact that the move to the cloud is just not only for this product. We have a lot of products in terms of the customer's applications. I need to assess everything together and then propose to my end customer.

I'm a vendor. I do assessments for my customer.

I wouldn't recommend this solution to other organizations at this time. It's on-premises and everyone is moving to the cloud. It makes more sense to seek out a cloud solution.

Overall, I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten.