IBM API Connect Reviews

Our primary use case of this solution is as an API gateway. We are customers of IBM and I'm a  technology consultant.

This solution is very easy to use. 

Debugging could be improved, the solution doesn't really give a lot of debugging, and I'd also like to see an improvement in the analysis. 

I've been using this solution for four years. 

In general, stability is good, although there are very frequent patches that are required, and that is annoying.

The scalability of this product is good. 

The technical support is very good. 

The initial setup was straightforward.

Licensing is expensive but it's a good product. 

I rate this product an eight out of 10. 

Our primary use case for this product was doing a  project for the banking industry. We had to use it to help comply with PSD2 (Payment Services Directive) regulations.  

It is a complete API solution for everything having to do with application development. It is an automated and all-in-one solution. It helps provide the API, expose the API, manage their exposure, and affect monetization. I have the operator portal, management portal, and analytics. This is the product I wanted, because I can do everything that I needed to with this one solution.  

One place that I think the product could improve is that it could be lighter on computing resources and cheaper. We did not expect to have to add additional services for data processing.  

We have been using IBM API Connect for about one year.  

We had one problem with the security and data resources early on when beginning to use the product. The problem was mostly due to the fact that when we started using the product, we did not have any knowledge of its requirements or experience using it.  

We are mostly satisfied with the Technical support that we received. We did not have to interact with them a lot. 

I do not deal directly with the area of budgeting. We are partners with IBM, so maybe we get different pricing. I do not know about standard prices other than that this product can be expensive. We did not need to pay them anything extra for support or add-ons. It may not be the same for clients who are not partners.  

Initially, we did not do any exhaustive research on competing products. We are looking at the market more in-depth now. I think that API Connect is too expensive for us. For some companies that have a higher demand for using this type of product, this may be a good solution. We do not have a lot of projects of this type, so we are looking for some other solution that is cheaper for the long-term. It has to be good enough and have the proper security constraints to meet client needs. Our research into other products has not really narrowed the field yet.   

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate IBM API Connect as an eight-out-of-ten comparing what I know to other products.  

We have done many implementations using API Connect. We work with some of the largest financial institutions in India, including life insurance companies and some of the banks. 

We have done most of them on-premise. The customers, because they are financial institutions and insurance companies, prefer to have this on their own premises and their own data centers.

It allows enterprises to expose some of their tech to outside stakeholders.

We have been implementing solutions with IBM API Connect for five to six years.

I would like to see automation of the installation. If there could be a single-click function where you could automate everything, that would be helpful. There should also be tools to automate the migratation from the older versions to the newer version. That would be another point that would bring my rating of it closer to 10 out of 10.

IBM sets the pricing, but it would be a good idea to bring down the pricing by at least 20 to 30 percent.

I would certainly recommend IBM API Connect for clients who are going with an enterprise version of implementation and when they have enough budget. Of course, if they have budget limitations, they can consider open-source solutions.

As implementers, we have a big resource pool here in India. All our associates have expertise with API Connect as well as IBM App Connect.

As of now, it is serving the needs of our customers. It is quite a proficient tool. It satisfies all of our requirements.

We are a financial services provider. We have services that we expose for things like investments, policy management, and so on. We have put this on an API Gateway to be able to aggregate all the things that we do for different types of clients with whom we engage.

The exception and error management have been the most valuable feature.  

We take steps for how many transactions we can create. It has a dashboard that allows us to see where transactions are coming from, which clients use it more, etc. This makes it very endearing for us.

I would like to see support for non-Java based services. We struggle a bit to be able to deploy and connect our .NET services because of things like data types. We had to map a couple of things. For one solution provider, we had to move them to .NET Core before we could use it properly. I would like to see more agnostic tool service platforms rather than moving it more towards Java or open source.

Two years.

It is quite stable. We've not had any problem. It has made for a good buy because we are finding that other companies that have similar set ups go down maybe once a month.

Our transactions has been escalating. We're doing an average of about 1.2 million transactions every week now, and it's stable.

We have not tried to scale it. If we go beyond two million transactions a week, we may find more reasons to start exploring scalability.

Right now, we have three clients. The intention is to be able to go to the big investment managers and insurance managers in our sector in South Africa to be able to onboard them. If we have our way, we should have 30 clients, not three.

We don't have a dedicated support with them. However, whenever we send an email, we always get a response back, sometime immediately but maximum 48 hours. They have been very quick.

Previously what we used to do is deploy different endpoints for different clients that we have onboard. In the last two years, what we've been doing is using API Gateway Manager so we have only one endpoint with different uses.

The setup could be made more simpler. We have had to deploy in three instances. The first one had a huge learning curve, though the second one was easier. We find that if we move environments, it takes time to set up. This should be made simpler. We need to do move our BI environment and we have not done that yet because of the setup time. 

The first deployment took almost five days. Right now, we are averaging around a day or two, then we are up and running.

We've played around with other API managers, like Tyk, and the setup is much simpler. 

The reason why we took IBM was because of its resilience and name brand. Our clients trust the fact that we are not just going for an open source or free solution.

One of the key selling points is the easy analytics to be able to analyze what we are getting. We played around with Tyk, but we didn't see any analytics with them. E.g., we tried to connect Tyk to our Microsoft Power BI so we could use that. This feature comes standard with IBM, that's why we're sticking to it.

We have not done extensive checks on Azure because our first client that we onboarded was Google. So, we never really explored Azure that much. In the next six months, we may be exploring Azure so we can have everything in the same space.

To cut down on your implementation time, read the documentation. It's long but explanatory.

I would rate this solution as an eight (out of 10).

We primarily use this solution for the regulation of open banking.

It still does not support open API 3. Another problem is the designer. I want the whole solution to be on the cloud. For the installation, I have to install locally. There are many improvements it needs if I want to implement a MockServer or sandbox. In the future, I hope it will be more intuitive for building a MockServer.

In the next version, I don't know if they've already been included it or not, but the designer and all the tools should be on the cloud. I don't want any external installation or local installation. The old designer should be less complex and more simple or intuitive for you to search as well.

I found the solution to be stable.

The solution is very scalable because it's on the cloud, adding more resources to improve redundancy or performance is simple and configurable.

I've found technical support to be very good.

The initial setup was not as straightforward. Deployment takes a few days. You don't need too many people for the deployment and maintenance of the solution. 

We were working with IBM for the implementation.

We are testing and I'm working for the Bank of Israel and we have to implement the regulation of the PSD2, the open bank, open banking, open API. We would implement it on API Connect, so it's not a production system, it's just a sandbox.

In terms of advice, I would suggest anyone to verify that the product support is the latest version and to find out the frequency of the new versions of the product itself. I think it's very important to go through a project like this before implementation.

I would rate this solution seven out of ten. I'd like it to be more cloud-based, for the open API 3 because currently all the specifications are published only on the API so you have to downgrade it and then input it into IBM.

I use IBM API Connect as a black box, I only consumed the APIs that it provides.

The services that I consume through IBM API Connect are beneficial. It can handle multiple API management.

The solution could improve security and performance.

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

I rate IBM API Connect an eight out of ten.

The seamless conversion between rest and soap and service catalog.

I am a consultant so I can explain how this product has improved my customer's organization: it has made it very simple to expose new services securely with a specific general policy in DataPower and also keeping track of their use (amount of calls, etc.).

Integration with Exchange Server. Also if it could be easier to configure or direct the DataPower policies that would help. I'd like to see a combo box to choose which processing rule to apply.

I've used it for a few months.

Only issue is with connecting it to Exchange Server.

No issues with stability.

No issues with scalability.

I did not require the customer service.

I did not require technical support.

It was an addition and not a substitution to anything.

It was straightforward.

Seems good so far, as it saves a lot of time. It used to take a long time to expose services, whereas now it's just a few clicks.

It's pretty simple, there's no need for any special advice actually.

We primarily use this platform as an edge computing device wherein we expose our internal capabilities, legacy capabilities, and cutting-edge capabilities, from a standard security point of view. From an interfacing point of view, the social aspect of API management is maintained, and we are looking forward to the proper monetization in API economy with this tool. This solution is deployed on-premises. 

One of the most valuable features is that we can seamlessly and harmoniously expose our capabilities, from a security point of view. 

IBM API Connect could be improved with better monetization and customization capabilities. I work for a Saudi Arabian client and we use Stripe as our payment gateway, but Stripe doesn't have a gateway in Saudi. This means that our monetization capabilities are limited. 

We are also not happy with the portal experience. The API developer portal isn't attractive. We want something eye-catching, but this isn't easy to do because the customization possibilities are so limited. 

Our main pain points are in these two areas: creating a better developer portal and improving stability in terms of synchronization and monetization. 

I have been using this solution since 2019, so about two years. 

IBM API Connect is based on data power and, from a security and stability point of view, it's good. However, we use a 2018 version that has a stability issue. The one problem we encounter is that the syncing between different components of API management is not happening. We had to get the administrator to do some locking, unlocking, things like that. Most of the time, I deploy it, everything is sorted, and the transactions are going through, but at times, we have issues with publishing the APIs. So I sometimes question the stability. 

This solution is scalable. We have a team of 10 developers using this platform to develop and deliver the APIs. We have about 15 different types of users. We are API-led in the architecture that we have right now and every day, we are exposing APIs for new, different types of users, so it's gradually increasing. 

IBM's technical support is good. They help and sort out any problems, so no complaints here. 

From a developer's point of view, the installation is easy. From an administrator's point of view, it's a mess, it's too much. I don't come from an administrative background, but I work as a solution architect in the API space and as a guide to the admin team. I'm not sure what the installation timeframe is, but I don't think it's too much of a hassle. It's Kubernetes-based. I think the hassle comes afterward, if you need to solve an administrative or syncing issue. We have a team of one or two admins and about ten developers. 

We implemented through an in-house team. 

This is a licensed product. If your company is looking to obtain a license, you have to work with IBM partners.

We are also evaluating Apigee. We aren't happy with the portal experience in IBM API Connect, and it looks like the theme implementation and customization in Apigee is much more attractive. This is why we are doing a comparative study of Apigee and IBM API Connect, to see if Apigee would be a better long-term API management platform. We want to see if our customization experience with IBM will be similar to Apigee or if it will be much simpler. 

I rate this solution a six out of ten. I would recommend this solution to others, but I'm not sure my recommendation would be fair since I didn't explore other platforms—I can't provide a comparative study. As a tool, I wouldn't recommend it to somebody looking for an API management platform, due to the limited API monetization capabilities. I would also not recommend it to clients who are working in Saudi Arabia, since there is no support there—they asked us to build a billing solution by ourselves, which we didn't like. I would absolutely recommend it to clients in other Gulf countries like UAE or Qatar, or maybe even clients in Europe or America. We are using version 2018, but I heard that they're coming up with a better solution in the next version. We have yet to explore it, though.