IBM API Connect Reviews

The API manager of the enterprise exposes common functionalities to the front-end applications, beginning with the frontend of the executives who access clients' information.  The exposition of the functionalities of transferring funds and AFP which need to transfer the money from your account to a client's AFP.  The exposition of the core functionalities to the module of the sale of a product installed on the cloud of AWS, to create an onboarding platform for the client's prospect of the enterprise.

The product has a little use at the enterprise because the APIs have functionality with low use. The next steps are to enforce and grow the use of APIs through the creation of a governance department that aligns the construction's standards and defines the classifications of APIs. 

This is the main goal, to finally integrate the applications that will deploy on the cloud consuming the backends on-premise through IBM API Connect. Having the centralized management of APIs.

The most valuable features are:

1. The centralized management: this provides a management module that can deploy and apply security policies to all APIs, including all the gateways that are deployed on-premises and on any cloud because the gateway component can run at a VMware or in a Kubernetes cluster.

2. The analytics module: this provides a variety of visualizations of the APIs, products, subscriptions, and applications that can be defined for a second, a day, a week, a month. This module is deployed beside the gateway and collect all the traffic.

The product can be improved in the following  areas:

1.  The monetization because it doesn't include an online method to pay through a web system or with a credit card, where the analytics can be calculated.

2.  The integration of an API gateway that implements the sidecar pattern, which can be deployed in cloud applications, and expose the microservices directly in each pod, this  can be more decentralized components.

All of these areas can be improved. 

We have been using IBM API Connect for six months.

It's very stable.

The solution offers horizontal scalability. The power of the product is the high performance in security tasks done with dedicated hardware.

We implemented it with the official vendor of the product.

Another team selected the product.

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.

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. 

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. 

We use IBM API Connect before API publishing for enterprises. If we have a big enterprise and they want to publish their data for the public, we use API connect.

IBM API Connect is a good product, and their technical support is excellent.

The initial setup and installation could be easier. The price could also be better. I would like to see monetization of support, a monetization billing engine, and monetization within the product in the next release.

I've been using IBM API Connect for two years.

IBM API Connect is stable.

IBM API Connect is scalable.

Technical support is excellent.

The initial setup and installation aren't easy. It's complex.

One member of our team implements this solution.

IBM API Connect could be cheaper. We pay for the license yearly.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give IBM API Connect a ten.

We are using this solution to handle our open API Connection.

Our company mainly has cooperation with institutions, and we are hoping that with this product, in the future we can create easy connections to other institutions who also implement open API.

The most valuable features are stability and security.

The developmental process is not quite user-friendly.

IBM should improve the customization of the API Connect.

The price could be reduced, it's expensive.

I have been using IBM API Connect since August. It is not in production, we are still in the developmental stages.

We have just finished the procurement process.

IBM API Connect is a stable solution.

It's a scalable solution.

The number of users is not relevant. It is based on the number of transactions, not users.

We plan to continue using this product in the future.

IBM technical support is good.

Previously, we didn't use another solution. This is the first API management product that we have used. 

The initial setup is straightforward, and the installation is easy.

We have a team of ten technicians to deploy and maintain this solution.

It's an expensive product.

I would rate IBM API Connect an eight out of ten.

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 use this solution for managing APIs.

The most valuable feature is the interface.

The capabilities are very good.

It would be helpful to have access monitoring.

The initial setup is complex.

We have used IBM API Connect in several projects over the past couple of years.

IBM API Connect is very scalable. Our integrations are typically with enterprise-level organizations or SaaS providers.

We normally rely on our internal team for support.

Most of the time, the initial setup is complex. Implementation will take from a few hours up to days.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.