IBM App Connect Reviews

We use this solution to connect with MQ. We manage the solution and send the results.

It's stable to use, connect with the cloud, and to deploy.

The interface could be better.

It's stable.

It's scalable.

Technical support takes time to respond.

Neutral

Initial setup isn't easy. It's medium difficulty.

You need between two and five people for deployment.

I would rate this solution 8 out of 10.

We use App Connect for integration and creating APIs. 

The integration with HR systems could be better. 

I've been using IBM App Connect for three years.

App Connect is stable

App Connect is scalable 

I don't deal with IBM support, but the administrator of this operation had some issues. They reply in one or two hours at most, but they could be better. 

I rate IBM App Connect eight out of 10. It's a powerful application for collaboration. It has many features for customization and integration. 

Our company is in Saudi Arabia. We provide end to end solutions to our customers. I'm chief solutions architect.

The solution provides a lot of good features, particularly when it comes to security. It also includes everything that's required of a VBI management solution and also as an ESB. The beauty of IBM App Connect is that it provides end-to-end middleware.

Updates are constantly delayed and that is something IBM could improve. 

I've been working with this solution for close to two years. 

App Connect is built on OpenShift which is included in the solution so if we need to scale it's much easier and is a strong feature of App Connect.

IBM has a good presence here and the remote support is good. Getting on-site support is more difficult but it's the same with all the products. 

The deployment itself is somehow complicated and not as easy as Apigee or even WSO2 which are very easy to deploy. We have another issue which is that there are not many developers or engineers working with App Connect here in Saudi Arabia. We require two or three engineers to deploy but it's not easy to find certified people. 

Licensing costs are expensive, we have a contract for three years. IBM provides good quality solutions and there's a price for that. We pay 200K every year. We haven't had any issues with our customers because they are all enterprise organizations so the cost is not an issue for them. Licensing fees include technical support. 

App Connect is similar to Apigee but is less complicated. Apigee is very good when it comes to VBI management, but it's not an ESB solution. 

Overall, I rate this solution eight out of 10.

Its reliability and the large number of endpoints for connectivity are valuable features.

I would like the ability for more than one developer to work on the same project (source control/branch merge). If the project has more than one orchestration, you should be able to have different people working on each.

I have used the product for about nine years (since before Cast Iron was acquired by IBM).

We are running the HyperV version and have had no problems with stability. Though if not designed well, the projects can definitely run out of resources when processing.

It scales well. We are considering moving to the cloud version, as only one or our endpoints is local and all the others are SaaS endpoints.

They give excellent technical support.

It is easy to set up. HyperV has OVF that you deploy to a VMware ESX Server.

IBM has gone back and forth on licensing for this product. Make sure you get the licensing that lets you have unlimited endpoints; otherwise, you will need to account for each separate endpoint in your licensing costs and adding more automation has a price impact.

We evaluated MuleSoft and Dell Boomi.

Your developers should be well-versed in XML and XSLT. These are behind everything.

We originally purchased Cast Iron because of its connections to Salesforce.

Because it has a graphical developer interface, we can quickly develop solutions that are connecting to anything on the cloud, without having to build those connectors ourselves.

I'm happy to see that Swagger is introduced because we're going to combine it with IBM API Connect. I wish it could reach out to the network folders, because that's the one thing we haven't been able to do well with it and that is to get network file systems.

It's been stable. We haven't had any problems with its stability.

Because we have the Hypervisor Edition, we have run into scalability issues. Since it transforms everything in to XML, the payloads get pretty big and slow. We have to keep that in mind when we determine when to use it versus when to use something else for batch instances. But, we've found for real-time, the quick connections across it works fine.

I have used the tech support, at the very beginning when we had it. We didn't really know how to use it and they were very helpful.

We weren't using any other solution. We wanted to be able to connect to Salesforce. We have IBM InfoSphere DataStage and the connector for DataStage was a lot more expensive at the time.

The setup was a little big complicated because I hadn't done it before. But, now we've had Cast Iron for quite a while and we've just purchased IBM App Connect, a new version. We'll be standing that up and I think it'll be simple for us.

We went with IBM for Cast Iron because we had already been using IBM products. This solution fits with what we needed it to do and with the rest of our landscape, i.e., the other IBM products.

A vendor that we trust and that's been around, is the most important criteria while selecting a vendor.

It's been very good. There were issues only because of it's scalability, since we have the Hypervisor Edition, that we've run in to some of the sizing that has impacts on the performance.

Give this one a try, especially the new IBM App Connect because it fits so well with the new design and the way it fits in with the new APIs. You can build out new APIs with it. I would say to use it.

The most valuable feature for me is the availability of the adapters, which are already made out of the box. My customer then doesn't need to really spend a lot of time getting into production. You name it, SalesForce, or Ariba, whatever be the supporting products that we need to integrate to. It's just a matter of days to get it in production. That's the great part of it.

Whether it be a CRM, ERP or whatever you want to integrate with, customers get the integration projects done at least 40% ahead of time. That's a great benefit for them and for us.

There are a few adapters which our customers have been asking for. That's something that's very critical, but I think most critically our customers are asking for support. If I call within the next two hours, someone should be there at least on a call to support me. Support is the major thing.

The cloud version had me a little bit worried because we don't really know how stable it is or how it's scaling. There have been a few instances when customers have come with complaints but all around, they're still happy.

Scalability is fine. I mean, in the licensing it's not very clear but still, as a product, it scales.

Technical support has been good all around. If you look over a longer period of time, there have been certain cases where, for certain issues, we have gone back and we haven't received a response in a matter of days. That's not ideal because we are in production.

I was not involved in the initial setup.

Maybe start with a PoC. Do a proof of concept and only after that, maybe take the decision whether it meets your requirements.

With regard to my customers, when they are selecting a vendor, I guess what they're looking for is somebody who will support them. I'm looking for people who can go end-to-end. They can't just sell me the product, but they can also implement it and then they can be there whenever I need them. It's the complete sales cycle.

The product is a very simple integration tool with zero or minimal coding effort required.

Our organization deals with multiple systems and we want the data to be available 24/7 across all the systems. IBM App Connect has a robust mechanism to handle such scenarios.

The audit logging, transaction logging and other such similar features, such as the IBM App Connect cloud instance, need to be improved.

I have used this solution for nine months.

I did not encounter any stability issues.

I did not encounter any scalability issues.

I would give the technical support a 8/10 rating.

We were not using any other solution previously.

The initial setup was straightforward in regards to the installation of the product, configuration of endpoints, the documentation and available tips.

We looked at other products such as MuleSoft.

IBM App Connect provides a very easy way to integrate many systems with zero manual code. The deployment and maintenance is very simple. You can version your deployments as well. The documentation covers all the aspects of integration.