This tool was implemented to integrate several applications that business operates on different frameworks and technologies. The hability to connect easily distinct DB motors and includes the business logic in a mainframe was the key to select this software.
The information travels safe and keep its integrity, and with the correct analysis for the flows, is a great tool to provide fully and integrated connectivity
Pros
Securely expose APIs to Intranet
Connection with different DB
Easy to verify the logic of the flows
Cons
Documentation is not easy to find
Complexity of the product which causes a learning curve
Sometimes the system behaves unusually
Likelihood to Recommend
- great for specific transactions process with minimal variation of data 'size'
- less appropriate for high volume data processing
VU
Verified User
Manager in Information Technology (5001-10,000 employees)
We have hundreds of applications that need to exchange data with each other. It has to be safe (no message lost, no message duplicated) and secure. it has to be transactional. We need to be able to investigate later what was the initial message received, how was the mapping done, and what was the end message sent to the destination. We need also a robust error handling framework, capable of storing the error for long-term storage and retrieval and for immediate triggering of necessary alerts. We need also a robust routing capability so that a specific message received from one application could be easily routed to one or many other applications. We realize this via MQ PubSub and Publication node in AppConnect.
Pros
Mapping through different formats
Lots of different connectors available
Flexible, allows you to be creative
Cons
Documentation - Documentation for older versions of the product was more detailed, with more examples.
Sometimes not very intuitive, you need a certain learning curve.
Some concepts are difficult to grasp or explain, due to "legacy" reasons (e.g. when to use DFDL vs MRM?)
Likelihood to Recommend
- great when you need to integrate applications without any message lost or duplicated and when transnationality is important - if you need the highest throughput possible and not much (or not at all) mapping is required, a system like Kafka is more appropriate
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (5001-10,000 employees)
At my previous organization working for a web startup company, we had an application designed that consumed lots of web traffic and displayed extracted data in a meaningful manner. We decided to go with IBM App Connect to help aggregate data from our various apps into a single data store.
Pros
Just the ability to display and consume data through a single dashboard makes this a great application for our business purposes.
With the ability to consume their exposed API, data validation and manipulation becomes a breeze.
Cons
Due to the inherent complexity of the product, the learning curve for a beginner can be fairly steep.
Since it's an enterprise scale offering, the pricing is towards the higher side.
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM App Connect is ideal for consolidating data from a wide array of sources. It supports multiple file and data formats and handles interconversions seamlessly. Reporting atop this application is also a very straightforward process.
We use it to build the orchestrations in the App Connect studio to load the data, implement the logic and functions. It has many options to connect to different platforms compared to other tools. It's easy to set, user friendly and easy to understand as all the tabs and fields under them are descriptive and very detailed.
Pros
Easy to connect to databases. Ex: DB2,Salesforce
Easy to build the activity flow
Easy to validate and verify the logic
Cons
Cannot open multiple orchestrations in the same studio
Need to install another studio if we need to refer to other orchestrations
Sometimes the system behaves unusually
Likelihood to Recommend
It is well suited to building orchestrations, and using different activities. All the activities have their own features allowing users to select the appropriate activity like (insert,Update,Get,Delete). We can monitor activities in the web console (WMC) and will have the systems log where we can debug things. I feel this is a very easy and intuitive tool.
IBM App Connect is used for exposing business APIs to external consumers and other partner applications in a secure manner. It provides an integrated platform for running, creating and managing APIs. It is also integrated with IBM App Connect Professional (f.k.a IBM Cast Iron). The APIs developer in Cast Iron can be exposed securely through API connect.
Pros
Securely expose APIs to Intranet/Internet
The pn-premise set up of API Connect is fairly easier compared to Apigee.
The development of API proxy is fairly easy.
Cons
The development and the transformation capability is not so great. I believe IBM is looking to incorporate some of features of IBM APP Connect into API Connect.
The authentications features are no way close to CA API Management (f.k.a Laye r7).
The development experience is not as good as Apigee's.
The GUI should be improved. Maybe the product team should see the other API management tools in their offering.
Likelihood to Recommend
They are one of the market leaders in the Gartner's report. Since it uses Datapower as the gateway, an organization which uses DP as a gateway can easily integrate IBM API Connect to their ecosystem.
From my research, the cheapest version of a cloud subscription is more [expensive] than Apigee. I think Apigee's cheapest is around ~300-400 USD/ month.
It is being used to develop enterprise wide integrations. You can quickly develop integrations between systems that are done in other software would take much longer and difficult to achieve.
Pros
Integrations with systems.
Data transformation.
Batch processing.
Cons
Documentation and support are not the best.
Likelihood to Recommend
WebSphere Cast Iron is not the best for reporting solutions, but excels in data transformation and system integrations.
Cast Iron was one of many iPaaS solutions that we chose to evaluate to solve several integration problems we had across the business. This product was evaluated by myself and several of my colleagues but never brought into a production environment. The primary reason for us never bringing into production is the numerous issues we had just during the evaluation as well as the non-intuitive interfaces.
Pros
During our evaluation the support was fairly good as they were willing to spend literally hours on the phone trying to work through some of our issues. Unfortunately, they were unable to resolve them all.
Cons
The UI crashed constantly while trying to develop integrations.
The UI was not nearly as intuitive as many of its competitors in the iPaaS space, which lead to a much larger learning curve.
Likelihood to Recommend
It simply didn't work in our environment and compared to the other iPaaS solutions on the market it falls really, really, short. It is almost like IBM bought Cast Iron and never really put any effort into making it better.
We are an IBM reseller and consulting partner. In my role leading our Salesforce practice, my main area of interaction with IBM is WebSphere Cast Iron as an integration middleware for integrations with Salesforce.
Pros
WebSphere Cast Iron allows us to integrate Salesforce with other cloud and on-premise systems quickly and efficiently.
Templated Integrations and connectors for Salesforce and other systems allow us to integrate with confidence and speed.
The variety of form factors allows us to right-size our solutions for customers and the complexity of initial integrations vs the roadmap a customer has for future integrations.
Cons
WebSphere Cast Iron is not aligned with the Salesforce product roadmap in the way that other ETL competitors are. When I speak with Salesforce reps and other partners they see Cast Iron as lagging significantly behind in that ecosystem.
Likelihood to Recommend
If an integration is highly complex, it requires extreme throughput or high levels of transformation in the middle tier, and WebSphere Cast Iron is a better candidate than other ETL providers in the Salesforce space.
VU
Verified User
Director in Professional Services (201-500 employees)
We use IBM App Connect Enterprise as a robust on-premises integration platform to build highly reliable and performant integration flows. The product addresses the need to enhance business process agility and drive innovation. The scope of use involves connecting various enterprise systems, leveraging the platform’s scalability and flexibility to support both low-code flows and the integration of complex, custom logic.
Pros
Provides high reliability and performance, serving as a complete and robust platform for high-volume integration.
Successfully balances an efficient low-code approach with the flexibility to integrate complex, custom Java logic when needed.
Offers a wide catalog of connectors for different platforms, which simplifies the integration of various enterprise systems.
Cons
The server-level installation and configuration process is overly complex and heavily dependent on non-developer infrastructure teams.
Detailed traceability and flow monitoring are difficult to manage directly within ACE, requiring more seamless integration with external tracing tools.
Implementing security policies at the development level is complicated, requiring simpler options that don't solely rely on external gateways.
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM App Connect Enterprise is well-suited for high-volume enterprise systems that demand robust scalability and high reliability. It excels at hybrid connectivity by easily integrating various on-premises systems using its extensive catalog of connectors. It is also ideal for workflows that require a balance between efficient low-code and the incorporation of complex, custom Java logic.
On the other hand, the platform is less appropriate in scenarios requiring high development autonomy, as installation and configuration at the server level is excessively complex, creating a strong dependency on other infrastructure teams. It is also not ideal if detailed traceability and monitoring of workflows must be seamlessly managed within the tool itself, as this is difficult to manage directly in ACE.
IBM App Connect Enterprise está bien adaptado para sistemas empresariales de alto volumen que exigen una escalabilidad robusta y alta confiabilidad. Sobresale en la conectividad híbrida al integrar fácilmente diversos sistemas locales (on-premises) utilizando su amplio catálogo de conectores. Además, es ideal para flujos que requieren un equilibrio entre el low-code eficiente y la incorporación de lógica Java compleja y personalizada.
Por otro lado, la plataforma es menos apropiada en escenarios donde se requiere una alta autonomía de desarrollo, debido a que la instalación y configuración a nivel de servidor es excesivamente compleja , lo cual crea una fuerte dependencia de otros equipos de infraestructura. Tampoco es ideal si la trazabilidad detallada y el monitoreo de los flujos deben gestionarse sin problemas dentro de la propia herramienta, ya que esto resulta difícil de manejar directamente en ACE.
<i>Parts of this review were originally written in Spanish and have been translated into English using a third-party translation tool. While we strive for accuracy, some nuances or meanings may not be perfectly captured.</i>
Verified User
Employee in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)
In our organization, IBM App Connect plays a central role in streamlining and modernizing enterprise integrations. While we’ve applied the platform across various use cases such as service orchestration and data transformation, the most impactful has been legacy system modernization. We leveraged IBM App Connect to transform a suite of monolithic, legacy systems into agile, API-driven services by exposing legacy service as secure REST APIs. Its wide support for integration patterns, protocols, and enterprise connectors made this transition seamless and highly efficient. The product helped us overcome key business challenges including legacy bottlenecks, integration complexity, and lengthy time-to-market for new digital services. IBM App Connect serves as the backbone of our middleware and integration strategy, supporting critical operations across banking, payments, ERP integration, and more, with real-time, event-driven, and synchronous integration across both on-premises and hybrid cloud environments.
Pros
Complex Data Mapping and Transformation
Connecting and orchestrating Enterprise Services
Easy Deployment and Scalability
Cons
modernization made easy, when a modernized project is created by importing a java code.
more pre-built connectors
watsonx code assistance for ESQL capability.
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM App Connect is well-suited to serve as a central integration hub, particularly for scenarios involving data transformation, complex routing logic, and dynamic backend routing. It excels at enabling legacy system modernization and supports real-time, event-driven architectures effectively. However, it is less appropriate for simple point-to-point integrations or for use cases requiring workflow process management and human task orchestration, where BPM or lightweight automation tools may be more suitable.
