IBM BPM and Apache Airflow compete in the business process management and data engineering workflow spaces. IBM BPM seems to have the upper hand with its comprehensive suite for process execution and robust enterprise features, while Apache Airflow appeals to cost-sensitive organizations due to its open-source nature and flexibility.
Features: IBM BPM offers features such as process orchestration, integration services, and a centralized business rule engine. Its WebSphere infrastructure supports extensive technological integration. IBM BPM allows for effective process execution and resource management. Apache Airflow's notable features include its Python-centric framework, task scheduling capabilities, and easy integration with data engineering workflows. It provides a lightweight solution for managing workflows with a focus on simplicity and flexibility.
Room for Improvement: IBM BPM could enhance its user interface and support for modern development environments. Users suggest improvements for better performance and ease in customization. Apache Airflow requires more comprehensive task coverage and better support for complex workflows due to its DAG structure. Enhancements in pipeline management and a feature-rich UI are also needed.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM BPM supports diverse deployment options, known for their flexibility in on-premises and hybrid environments. It offers commendable technical support, though some experience response delays. Apache Airflow typically sees deployment in cloud and hybrid setups, benefiting from an active open-source community. However, limited commercial support options affect enterprise support.
Pricing and ROI: IBM BPM targets large enterprises with a higher price point, offering substantial ROI via process efficiencies. Its cost is a barrier for smaller companies. Apache Airflow, as an open-source tool, presents minimal initial costs, making it attractive for organizations seeking scalable and cost-effective data pipeline orchestration, with a promising ROI for those equipped to manage its setup.
There is enough documentation available, and the community support is good.
Forums and community resources like Stack Overflow are helpful.
The customer service is outstanding.
On a scale from 1 to 10, support deserves a rating of 7 to 8.
We had a contract that provided on-site support, which was very satisfactory.
The solution is very scalable.
Apache Airflow scales well, especially when deployed in Kubernetes environments.
The solution has scalability issues; on a scale, I would rate it at eight out of ten.
The architecture of the solution offers scalability; we can scale both vertically and horizontally.
I found IBM BPM to be scalable to a certain level but it struggled with large volumes of concurrent transactions.
Apache Airflow is stable and I have not experienced significant issues.
I would rate the stability of the solution as ten out of ten.
I would rate its stability at nine out of ten.
It is not suitable for real-time ETL tasks.
There is no dashboard for us to check all the Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs); a dashboard would help us analyze the work better.
If we desire to add custom messengers or a rest API, those options are unavailable.
IBM BPM also lacks smaller solutions, so I must purchase multiple solutions to start with workflows and applications.
Although IBM BPM is a substantial product, adopting and integrating new technologies quickly is not easy due to the migration and upgrade paths involved.
There are negative aspects, such as IBM BPM being quite heavy and not lightweight, and the licensing cost is higher, which has caused some companies to shift away.
I prefer using the open-source version rather than the enterprise version, which helps manage costs.
It is a sub-feature and not an individual purchase.
Apache Airflow is a community-based platform and is not a licensed product.
SAP is more expensive, but IBM BPM is very expensive.
Apache Airflow is an open-source platform that allows easy integration with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
Reliability is good, and when integrated with Kubernetes, it performs better compared to on-premises environments.
We can create notifications for successful or failed tasks, providing a practical way to monitor our workflows.
From IBM BPM, you can track your processes, automate your workflows, and that is what we use it for.
The integration capabilities of IBM BPM are excellent.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Apache Airflow | 3.5% |
| IBM BPM | 4.1% |
| Other | 92.4% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 13 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 3 |
| Large Enterprise | 24 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 30 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 19 |
| Large Enterprise | 72 |
Apache Airflow is an open-source workflow management system (WMS) that is primarily used to programmatically author, orchestrate, schedule, and monitor data pipelines as well as workflows. The solution makes it possible for you to manage your data pipelines by authoring workflows as directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) of tasks. By using Apache Airflow, you can orchestrate data pipelines over object stores and data warehouses, run workflows that are not data-related, and can also create and manage scripted data pipelines as code (Python).
Apache Airflow Features
Apache Airflow has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:
Apache Airflow Benefits
There are many benefits to implementing Apache Airflow. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:
Reviews from Real Users
Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the Apache Airflow solution.
A Senior Solutions Architect/Software Architect says, “The product integrates well with other pipelines and solutions. The ease of building different processes is very valuable to us. The difference between Kafka and Airflow, is that it's better for dealing with the specific flows that we want to do some transformation. It's very easy to create flows.”
An Assistant Manager at a comms service provider mentions, “The best part of Airflow is its direct support for Python, especially because Python is so important for data science, engineering, and design. This makes the programmatic aspect of our work easy for us, and it means we can automate a lot.”
A Senior Software Engineer at a pharma/biotech company comments that he likes Apache Airflow because it is “Feature rich, open-source, and good for building data pipelines.”
IBM BPM is a business process management tool that provides a robust set of tools to author, test, and deploy business processes, as well as full visibility and insight to managing those business processes. The solution provides tooling and run time for process design, execution, monitoring, and optimization, along with basic system integration support. To support various levels of complexity and involvement with business process management, there are two different editions of the product: IBM BPM and IBM BPM Express.
IBM BPM Features
IBM BPM has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:
IBM BPM Benefits
There are many benefits to implementing IBM BPM. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:
Reviews from Real Users
IBM BPM is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it’s good for developing complex apps, is robust, and has helpful team management and process performance features.
Zoran C., Owner/CEO at IT SPHERE, says, “It is perfect if you have to develop complex apps without much coding (only java script). It is also good if you don't have much IT resources in your company and would like to involve business analysts in the process of developing apps. My opinion is that it can do about 50% of all developers' work.”
Suhas V., BPM Architect at GBM, mentions, “Overall the solution is robust and has the ability to integrate with any product for complex workflows."
A BPM Consultant at a financial services firm comments, "Some of the features that I like the most are team management and process performance. They are both very useful and very powerful with regard to the workflow."
A Digital Banking & Innovation Director at a financial services firm expresses, “The processing functionality makes it easy to change processes and workflows easily.”
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