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IBM DataPower Gateway vs InterSystems Ensemble comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM DataPower Gateway
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (8th), SOA Application Gateways (1st), API Management (16th)
InterSystems Ensemble
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
22nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 3.9%, up from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of InterSystems Ensemble is 1.5%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM DataPower Gateway3.9%
InterSystems Ensemble1.5%
Other94.6%
Application Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

AkshaySawant - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at CSB Bank Ltd
Security features excel but development limitations emerge
We are using the IBM DataPower Gateway for security purposes. As per the development perspective, there are some limitations with IBM DataPower Gateway because it only supports XML and XSLT language, but it does not support the Java language. This is the only limitation of the IBM DataPower Gateway. For the authentication and authorization purpose, we can use the IBM DataPower Gateway. It's a very good product. We are mostly using the IBM DataPower Gateway for security purposes and load balancing purposes. If we are handling the load for a particular server, then we can use the IBM DataPower Gateway. The IBM DataPower Gateway is mostly used for security purposes. If we have some APIs and we are using some security for those APIs, then we can use it. It can also be used as a load balancer. It's also used for certificate management, user management purposes, authentication, and authorization. For routing, the IBM DataPower Gateway has multiple URL-based routing and content-based routing capabilities. If we have multiple URLs, then we can use an XML script. Using the XSLT language, we can configure multiple URLs and implement URL-based routing. Content-based routing means if we have multiple requests, we can route the request to a particular URL. For this, we need to use the XSLT language only. We can't use XML, Java, or other scripting languages. With IBM DataPower Gateway, we are using all the APIs. All APIs have been configured on the gateway. We have configured the particular TLS profile and some TLS client profiles as well. Using that TLS profile, we have configured the APIs and authentication. We have configured some tokens also, including JWT tokens and different types of auth tokens. There is also a rate limiting feature which we use for handling API loads.
it_user463221 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a tech vendor
We use the solution for web services.
It would be good to enhance the schedule interface. There is no indication that lets us know if a module has stopped. Shortly speaking, each business host has color in the Production page. Meanings of colors are described in a "Legend" link on the Production page. Also, each business host either has or has no private pool (processes that work with its queues). When we stop a business host by scheduling, its private processes are killed (if they exist). Such a situation is not expressed in changing business host color. The only way to check if a business host is stopped by scheduling is to check its processes presence.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution is robust, and we use the appliance version, which comes with good security features and troubleshooting tools, so we are happy with IBM DataPower."
"If you are an enterprise customer, I would definitely advise that it is better to go for IBM DataPower, because you won't need to have a proxy or any other security measures required in the DMC, and it is easy to implement and easy to maintain and scale."
"IBM is a huge organization in comparison to most of the competition, it has massive development and offers very high-quality products."
"The support for IBM DataPower Gateway has been exceptional."
"For me, its most valuable features include: the fact that it's high-speed, its ability to be remotely administered via an API, the fact that it can deal with multiple protocols, and it's very quick to make changes to the setup."
"The MPGW (Multi-Protocol Gateway) is great because it allows you to easily expose services using various protocols – web services, REST (JSON), and others. This flexibility simplifies things."
"What I like most is the stability."
"The appliance has great security and reliability."
"The InterSystems technical support (WRC) is perfect and highly qualified."
 

Cons

"It is a costly product."
"Some pre-packaged connectors for integration with various applications, such as SaaS offerings, would be a useful addition."
"The solution requires a lot of training manuals in order to get to know it better and to be able to use it effectively."
"API management launched two years back and we consider it quite unstable because we still face a lot of bugs."
"The programming language is only supported in XSLT and Gateway script."
"The user interface or the application development perspective and customization of the tool could be a little better."
"The two biggest issues of this solution are the complexity and the maintenance procedures."
"Traceability could be improved, especially for business operations."
"It would be good to enhance the schedule interface."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of this product varies from customer to customer and the relationship with IBM, including how many offerings from IBM are already being used."
"The tool's initial costing is expensive for small banks and financial institutions."
"This product is a bit expensive as IBM products are costly assets. However, for enterprise customers it is a worthwhile investment."
"The solution has a return on investment but is a little expensive."
"The total cost of IBM DataPower Gateway would depend on the configuration, but in my experience, it can amount to 60,000 Euros per box, even for the virtual version. Usually, customers need high availability and a non-production environment, so the total price for IBM DataPower Gateway can be quite a lot. It can be 200,000 Euros or a similar figure."
"The appliance is a bit on the expensive side for the workloads that are not too high."
"The cost is very high and requires all five components in the API management solution."
"It's expensive when you compare it with others."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise18
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM DataPower Gateway?
I don't know if the current licensing cost of IBM DataPower Gateway is high, but I think it's acceptable. I don't have any complaints about it.
What needs improvement with IBM DataPower Gateway?
I noticed that the Gateway Script libraries could be improved, as they are not covering everything I need.
What is your primary use case for IBM DataPower Gateway?
The primary purposes for which IBM DataPower Gateway is used include security purposes, and sometimes you need to put some configurations and mapping into the process.
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Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower
Ensemble
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity
CysNET, Pennine Acute Hospitals, Kettering Health Network, Objectway, WS trends, Ontario Systems, Assurenet, 3M, Northgate Public Services, CentraCare
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, F5, Red Hat and others in Application Infrastructure. Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.