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Software Services & Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
MSP
Extremely stable solution for communication between systems
Pros and Cons
  • "I consider the solution to be one of the most stable in the market."
  • "We have come across many customer complaints about the excessive time it takes for IBM to provide customer and technical support."
  • "I don't mind the pricing."

What is our primary use case?

We are, of course, using the latest version. 

We use the solution for bridging the gap between different legacy systems. Re-usability is another function of the solution. So too, we use it to limit the challenges faced between different systems that are unable to communicate at the same speed and rate, or that need to talk among different systems, to utilize a channel which is bigger and better, to make use of the back-end or in respect of some other point-to-point integration need. As such, our uses for the solution vary depending on the customer. An example would be that which relates to a banking industry, for which there would be a core banking system, the need for card systems, ATM transactions, et cetera. Middleware plays a key role in the usability of these services. The goal is to avoid point-to-point integration between the channels and the back-end systems making use of the solution.

What needs improvement?

We have come across many customer complaints about the excessive time it takes for IBM to provide customer and technical support. 

For how long have I used the solution?

Our organization has been using IBM Integration Bus in various branches, spanning a host of  locations, since before I joined 14 years ago. It has been doing so for the past 15 to 20 years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?


I consider the solution to be one of the most stable in the market, in comparison with others such as Oracle and this assessment I maintain on an ongoing basis. I have received much feedback from customers about the solution's stability. 

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IBM Integration Bus
February 2025
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable, but we have yet to receive the full review and feedback. This is because we have been informed that the latest systems have only recently been produced. So, I cannot give you complete feedback about the scalability of the solution at the moment. The latest deployment is on a container platform.

How are customer service and support?

We have received many complaints from customers that the customer and technical support should be faster. 

How was the initial setup?

I believe the initial setup was easy, but this is a question best taken up with the technical team. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I use the traditional licensing model, which I believe to not be on a monthly basis, as the solution is not cloud-based. 

I don't mind the pricing.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?



What other advice do I have?

90 percent of days the solution is on the client enrollment. We are hoping to encounter good business cases, involving integration planning, as the trend is for people to gradually transition to the cloud, the government initiative being that involving Azure. 

As we are a service provider, I cannot give you exact figures about the number of users in our organization who are making use of the solution. As mentioned, this depends on the customer, with each one involving its own user type. 

I would, of course, recommend this solution to others.

I rate IBM Integration Bus as an eight out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1538316 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Excellent adapters, highly scalable, but needs modern debugging and tracing
Pros and Cons
  • "I have found the inbound and outbound adapter confirmations valuable."
  • "The tracing and debugging features are not up to date with more modern technology available."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for data integration. We have different kinds of information such as file feeds, messages, and inbound software that need to be confirmed and delivered to the platform of our clients as a message.

How has it helped my organization?

We have benefited by using this solution from the IAB, we have been able to use different delivery types.

What is most valuable?

I have found the inbound and outbound adapter confirmations valuable.

What needs improvement?

The tracing and debugging features are not up to date with more modern technology available.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for 15 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution has been stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability has been excellent.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We did the implementation through our in-house team and it took approximately one day to complete.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of the license could be cheaper.

What other advice do I have?

I rate IBM Integration Bus a seven out of ten.

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.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
IBM Integration Bus
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about IBM Integration Bus. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Operations Officer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A user-friendly solution that's easy to manage
Pros and Cons
  • "It's easy to develop things, and it's easy to handle."
  • "I think security should be more simplified."

What is our primary use case?

We are working on MQ, soap and rest based services. Some clients are accessing our services and vice versa.

How has it helped my organization?

Yes IIB help us to shape up our organization in service oriented architecture. Usability has increased and integration has become easier.

What is most valuable?

Multiple protocols support,  development environment is user friendly.

What needs improvement?

Documentation is not easy to understand.

There should be inclusion of more and more adapters that make this product more usable.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using IBM Integration Bus for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

IBM Integration Bus is a stable solution. As far as the technical side is concerned, we don't have an issue. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

IBM Integration Bus is easy to scale.

How are customer service and technical support?

IBM technical support is fine, and we have a good relationship with them.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is very simple. I've been working with the Oracle platform as well, and the Oracle platform installation is quite difficult compared to IBM Integration Bus.

What about the implementation team?

We are working in the bank, and we implement everything internally ourselves. We are maintaining it, and we don't have to do too much. We have a separate team for maintenance. We have administrators as well on the operations side. They are looking after it.

What other advice do I have?

When I compare it to other products that are available in the marketplace, I rate it better than others because it's easy to develop things, and it's easy to handle. I also use Oracle, and I prefer IBM Integration Bus to Oracle.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give IBM Integration Bus an eight.

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
PeerSpot user
IntegLead9887 - PeerSpot reviewer
Integration Team Leader /Integration Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Great for productivity ,and Run-time performance , easy to learn and use.
Pros and Cons
  • "IBM Integration Bus has a complete set of tools that are implemented between rules when it comes to run time, but it's not easy to understand."
  • "I would like to see more metered rest and API support. IBM is already working on it on Version 11, but it still needs improvement."

What is our primary use case?

The IBM Integration Bus platform is Advanced Enterprise service bus , Typically used in SOA Environments . with newer version it can work it container based platforms and can be used to implement Micro services.

We have implemented IIB/WMB Based Solution in multiple organizations helping them to adopt Service oriented architecture , and eliminating point to point integrations.

How has it helped my organization?

IIB helped our clients having clean Overall solution , doing decoupling between different systems , eliminating duplicate point to point integration points . replacing legacy integration products ,and having high performing stable trouble free Enterprise service bus

What is most valuable?

IIB is feature rich product it is hard to point to a single feature , but most important is IIB supports most communication protocols out the box (SOAP/REST/HTTP/MQ/JMS/TCP/Files) 

Native support of Asynchronous calls .  support of multiple message formats (XML/JSON/ CWF/CSF/SWIFT/HL7....)

Global Transaction Co-ordination

Horizontal and Vertical Scalability .

What needs improvement?

It would be better with more API management features. 

More Micro-service and container based support. IBM is already working on it on Version 11, but it still needs improvement. 

Also IIB have cloud version ,it is doesn't have all features of the On premise version , and needs more improvement . 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using IBM Integration Bus since 2007.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

IBM Integration Bus is almost perfect in terms of stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We can easily do the required scalability with IBM Integration Bus. We have never faced an issue. Plus, it is very straightforward.

How are customer service and technical support?

I didn't need to contact IBM technical support very much.

How was the initial setup?

In older versions, the setup was very complex. In recent releases, it's been very straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

 I am working in a consultancy company. We install this for most of our clients. We develop services for them using it.

What other advice do I have?

IIB very flexible.nearly limitless , You can easily overload it with duties that it's not meant to hold. Organizations needs to have strong their architecture team and SOA governance during and After implementation .to avoid overloading the ESB Layer.

I would give IBM Integration Bus an 11 out of 10. I have tried solutions from competitors Brands. There is no comparison.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1948521 - PeerSpot reviewer
Técnico sênior at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Facilitates communication but could have better integration with other solutions
Pros and Cons
  • "Facilitates communication between parties and legacy systems."
  • "The version of the technology and current knowledge is a bit outdated."

What is our primary use case?

Our organization is a bank, so we use IBM Integration Bus for integration with core services and test applications.

How has it helped my organization?

IBM Integration Bus facilitates communication between parties and legacy systems. For example, the banking industry has a lot of legacy systems, so IBM Integration allows for communication between the legacy systems and new ones and allows us to develop solutions that can respond to the new ones.

What is most valuable?

We currently use version 10 of IBM Integration Bus. The most beneficial feature is the integration we have with legacy services. We can do the integration to expose other technology to stop, rest and manipulate the output of many legacy services.

What needs improvement?

We would like to separate the services into different containers, and we don't have this ability right now on IBM Integration Bus. We are currently doing this as an organization, and IBM is setting up the OpenShift.

The version of the technology and current knowledge is a bit outdated. There is also no DevOps, and the process of deploying that is the downside. Regarding additional features, we would like better integration with external solutions like Apache Kafka.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution. The downside is that sometimes it is easier to use another post, like a language outside of IBM Integration Bus, but overall it's a good solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is not scalable.

How are customer service and support?

We do not communicate much with IBM, only for initial setup and completing bootstrapping technology. However, we have IBM partners that work with us. I rate the technical support a four out of ten because they are sometimes a bit selective with the partners they pay attention to.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Our company has been using IBM technology from the beginning.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is difficult to configure and set up the first time. I rate the setup a four out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1721373 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of IT Development at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Allows for omni-channel integration, but the setup is complex, technical support is subpar and there is a need for greater resources
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution addresses all of our middleware needs in respect of transformation, parsing, security and stability; everything really."
  • "The solution is complex and there is a need for more resources and greatly improved quality."

What is our primary use case?

We use IBM Integration Bus as a bank middleware solution. 

How has it helped my organization?

The solution does omnichannel integration with the core banking and other systems, including core banking, ETC, and click systems. It does so for a host of systems. 

What is most valuable?

The solution addresses all of our middleware needs in respect of transformation, parsing, security and stability; everything really. 

What needs improvement?

IBM Integration Bus could have better REST API, which could be more powerful,  and this accounts for why we are looking for alternative solutions concerning this and open banking. 

The initial setup was complex. 

Technical support is below what I would consider to be very good. It's good, but not too much or very much so.

The solution is complex and there is a need for more resources and greatly improved quality. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution addresses our stability needs. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Thus far, we have been making maximum use of the solution. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is below what I would consider to be very good. It's good, but not too much or very much so.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used a local solution and replaced this with a new enterprise solution. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex. 

Including preparation time, addressing the environment and building the POC, deployment took around one month. We are talking about active, on-premises deployment. 

What about the implementation team?

There are nearly five people required for deployment and maintenance. 

What was our ROI?

Management would be in a position to address whether we have seen a return on our investment. This said, we have witnessed some returns on our business so far. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I prefer not to address the licensing costs, or any other for that matter, as this is confidential. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did evaluate other products before going with IBM Integration Bus. 

What other advice do I have?

We are customers of the vendor.

From a development perspective, there are nearly 40 people using this solution in our organization, although we have thousands of customers who do so indirectly. 

The solution probably covers more than 95 percent of the integration requirements. 

I rate IBM Integration Bus as a seven out of ten. 

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.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1689828 - PeerSpot reviewer
CIO at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Highly stable, flexible, and exceptionally scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "One of the most valuable features is App Connect Enterprise makes it possible to deploy it in the OpenShift cluster, which is very good. Overall the solution is very flexible."
  • "I would rate the support from IBM Integration Bus a seven out of ten. They are very helpful but sometimes it takes too long for them to respond."

What is our primary use case?

We are a software development company and we use IBM Integration Bus for integrating different internal systems for the customer side and to integrate the internal systems with external systems for different kinds of flows.

How has it helped my organization?

There are three elements that make IBM Integration Bus very important for our organization's payroll systems which are the solution's high scalability, performance, and reliability.

What is most valuable?

The current version of IBM Integration Bus, now called App Connect Enterprise, provides operators for deployment in the OpenShift cluster, which makes deployment much easier and significantly increases the scalability and reliability of the integration solutions.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using IBM Integration Bus for approximately two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

IBM Integration Bus is very reliable and stable. If the right configuration is done, in operation everything is runs very well. If you have not configured everything well then you most likely will have some stability or performance issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

IBM Integration Bus is scalable. If you are using OpenShift then the solution's scalability becomes even better.

We have approximately 12 people who have the experience to use this solution.

How are customer service and support?

I would rate the support from IBM Integration Bus a seven out of ten. They are very helpful but sometimes it takes too long for them to respond.

How was the initial setup?

The implementation of the solution at the beginning phase can be complicated. The time it takes for the implementation depends on the environment a lot of other factors.

The development toolkit that is provided is very good. It helps to configure all the message flows and data transformation. They also provide Extended SQL language (ESQL) for different types of data transformation.

What about the implementation team?

The solution does not require much maintenance.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

IBM provides a quite complicated licensing model.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have evaluated other solutions and we have found that IBM solutions to be highly stable and scalable.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate IBM Integration Bus an eight out of ten.

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.
PeerSpot user
Viktor Dolyna - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at Integrity
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Flexible, easy to use, and easy to configure, but it could be cheaper
Pros and Cons
  • "IBM Integration Bus is flexible, easy to use, and easy to configure."
  • "I would like to be able to build an Integration Bus cluster that is active-active."

What is our primary use case?

We are a system integrator and this is one of the products that we propose for our clients.

Some of our clients for this product are banks.

What is most valuable?

IBM Integration Bus is flexible, easy to use, and easy to configure.

What needs improvement?

I would like to be able to build an Integration Bus cluster that is active-active.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a scalable product.

We have five or six customers who are using it.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have seen no problems with respect to technical support.

How was the initial setup?

We have experienced no trouble installing this product.

It takes a few days to deploy.

What about the implementation team?

We have a team of 10 or 11 people for deployment and maintenance.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing could be improved to make it more competitive.

What other advice do I have?

This is a product that I can recommend.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free IBM Integration Bus Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: February 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free IBM Integration Bus Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.