IBM DataPower Gateway Reviews

It is used for simple integrations that require high speed, and you need to use it in a cluster if you want it to be highly available.

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
• it's very quick to make changes to the setup.

Care needs to be taken when applying firmware upgrades, as they often fail.

Also, the components that they include in the product that are, in fact, a WTX, really need to be removed from the product because they tend to fail. It's got some native capabilities and it's gotten some imported capabilities and you need to know the history of the product to understand the difference between the two. Most notable is the COBOL copybook handling, which is really straight out of WTX. It's poorly supported and often leads to failures.

I have been working with IBM WebSphere DataPower for about a decade.

Like all things, it does fail, but if it's in a cluster you can have continuous availability. If the cluster is set up properly, it has multiple network ports so you can have redundant network connections. If a component does fail — meaning one appliance can fail, and they have failed — it's unlikely that all of them will fail together. So a minimal configuration of two appliances in each of the two sites is a good idea. Or you could be using the virtual alternatives on a cloud in multiple zones or on multiple clouds.

It's horizontally scalable.

When using it as a certain kind of pass-thru, I've measured it to 6,000 transactions per second. If you're using it in a request-reply pattern, that comes down to about 600. The 6,000 was the limit on the testing equipment. It wasn't the limit on the product.

Technical support is becoming rare because it's an old product.

I've used Message Broker from IBM, Oracle Service Bus, and TIBCO.

DataPower has the advantage in that it's more limited in capabilities than the other products, so it's harder to accidentally write applications as part of your integration. If you follow strict patterns then your business logic will stay in the applications and your integration logic will only be on the DataPower. Like all devices, you can actually go to extra effort to put application logic into the DataPower, but that just ruins the device for its intended purpose.

The setup is simple; it's an appliance.

All the products I've used could be priced lower. Perhaps with the exception of something like SnapLogic, they are very expensive.

TIBCO is expensive. It is reliable but it takes longer to develop and deploy. I haven't had much experience with their new microgateways, which may, in fact, provide more value. Oracle is expensive and probably more fragile. Message Broker is quite expensive but quite reliable.

If you've got it, you should use it. If you haven't got it, you probably should be looking at newer products such as SnapLogic.

It's a high-speed device. If you need an appliance on-premise, that would be the way to go. If you need to migrate something that's on-premise to the cloud, you could go to the virtual. If you're doing something new, you probably wouldn't touch it.

We are using the solution for security purposes.

The solution's security feature is its most valuable feature.

It is a costly product. So, it is not an open-source solution, making it costly.

In the future, I would like to see an open-source version.

I have been using IBM DataPower Gateway since 2018. Also, I am using IBM DataPower Gateway Firmware V7.2. I am an end user of the solution.

The product is stable.

The product is scalable. In m company, six people are using the solution. I don't know if my company is planning to increase usage in the future.

I rate IBM's technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

I don't know. I think I'm not suitable to speak about deployment because I am using the solution that was already deployed in my company.

The installation is easy, especially on VMware.

I didn't pay for the product. I worked in a company where we were using the tool.

The product is easy to use.

I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.

The solution's most valuable features are security and consistent availability.

It is challenging to understand the solution's design and support skills. We have to keep importing skills all the time. It requires a technical person to understand multiple operating systems environments. They should make it more accessible for entry-level developers. Also, they should add features to manage API integrations.

We have been using the solution for over 15 years.

The solution is stable.

The solution is very scalable.

The solution's technical support is excellent. They have created data centers where we can raise queries. 

Positive

The solution's initial setup process is easy. It takes two weeks to build custom-specific prototypes.

The solution has a return on investment but is a little expensive. One of its licenses costs $10,000. The additional costs depend on the pricing models for technology support.

I recommend the solution to enterprise companies. It is an excellent product if you have to set it up on the cloud. Although, hosting it on the existing cloud is complicated. I rate it as an eight.

We use the solution specifically for its token validation and error-handling features.

They should improve the solution's clustering features. Also, they should include algorithms for correct load balancing. In addition, they should provide integration with MQ logs. We require proper documentation to understand the solution's parameters as well.

I have been using the solution for two years.

The solution's scalability needs improvement.

The solution's initial setup was straightforward.

It is an expensive solution.

I rate the solution as an eight. 

I mainly use DataPower Gateway for security and integration of web services.

The most valuable feature is the security appliance, it's very secure.

The admin and user interfaces could be improved.

I've been working with this solution since 2014.

The scalability is good, though I haven't needed to scale up much. 

The initial setup isn't so easy, you need who has experience working with the solution to help.

We use a professional service to implement this solution.

DataPower Gateway is a perfect product, and I would recommend using it because it provides a lot of benefits. I'd rate this solution as nine out of ten.

The most valuable features for our business include the ability to monitor and log data transactions and handle multiple request at an enterprise level. We also receive good support from IBM.

The IBM community does not have much engagement from the IT community in Saudi Arabia and developers for this solution are difficult to find. 

They have to enable the location subscribe using Message Queue which could be improved.

I have been using this solution for two years. 

This is a very stable solution. 

This solution is not scalable for our environment.

Technical support from IBM is good. 

Neutral

IBM have their own model and professional services. If we pay for IBM DataPower, we have to pay additional fees for the professional services from the IBM team.

We are planning to move away from IBM to use a different system for a number of reasons including security concerns, authorization, authentication and to save costs for the organization.

I would recommend those considering using this solution to get a partnership with IBM rather than being a regular customer. It is also important to build the required skill sets for employees within an organization.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten. 

DataPower is normally used as an ESB. It's mainly used to act as a mediator or act as a middleware for developing systems to send messages for ESB. We are just using DataPower as an ESB. 

I like the fact that it remains on a USB.

The performance is good. It's been very stable. 

The product is easy to integrate.

We are always looking for more features wherein it could be easily integrated with cloud applications. We are looking for either a cloud solution or a cloud integration option.

We use it from a maintenance point of view and therefore do not necessarily need extra features. 

The solution could be more user-friendly.

While it's been used in our organization for somewhere around ten years, I've personally used it here for three or four years or so. 

The solution is very stable. The company has used it for a number of years now without any issue. It's quite reliable. 

I'm not sure if the solution is scalable. I've never tried to scale the solution.

I'm not aware of any plans at this time that would include increasing usage. 

I haven't heard of any issues with technical support. They are okay. We are largely satisfied with their level of service. 

Previously, we were using the webMethods server.

I wasn't a part of the installation process. I can't speak to how easy or difficult the process was. 

We do have one or two members on the team who actually work in both DevOps and development. If needed, they can do the deployment as well. They are engineers. 

It is a licensed product. We pay for it on a yearly basis.

We'd like a solution that can integrate better with the could. However, right now we don't want to invest in that effort to evaluate certain products.

While I don't have the specific version number on hand, I know that we are using one of the latest releases. 

We hardly work with the DataPower part. It's only whenever we use it as an ESB; it supports the design features of an ESB. 

I'm pretty neutral on the product. I would not discourage or encourage others from using it. I don't use it too much myself. 

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten. 

We are using it for ITM API for one of our customers.

I like that it is very stable, and we never experience any downtime. 

Traceability could be improved, especially for business operations. The traceability of the transactions could be an improvement point for DataPower to work on.

It would be better if they provided JSON support. JSON protocol data has changed format. It started performing internal transformation to JSONx. This might be an additional complexity. 

I have been using IBM DataPower Gateway for more than three years. 

We do not have any stability issues around the power source. We experienced that as a physical appliance, and then we also changed it to a virtual appliance in both setups. We are very happy, especially about the stability of the product. We did not experience any downtime, even if the number of transactions increased heavily. That is the best thing.

We are not using the cloud-native version of this program. I know that IBM API connects with some other deployment patterns, but I did not experience them. The physical appliance is like a physical machine, so it is hard to scale. 

You have more flexibility with the virtual version of the appliance. For instance, compared to WSO2's API manager, and according to my experience, it is not as easy to scale physical or virtual appliances.

They have a very wide range of support globally. We are working in Turkey, and we have IBM people locally. It is easy to get support, but since the product's stability is really good, we do not need much support from the vendor.

I did not install it myself, but since it is not installed on the cloud-native environment, like OpenShift or Kubernetes, it is not a containerized version. It was harder for the third-party providers who installed the product. We have roughly six people on the maintenance and operation side of the fleet.

A third-party service provider installed this product. It requires experience, and it is not very easy for your teams to learn how to install it. You need consulting services to set up such a product in your environment.

As far as I know, they have a perpetual license for this product. They are paying perpetual fees rather than an annual subscription or annual pricing. 

I would recommend this solution to other companies, especially large enterprises. I would not recommend it to customers in the SME segment or startups or scale-ups.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give IBM DataPower Gateway an eight.