IBM DataPower Gateway vs IBM WebSphere Application Server comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM DataPower Gateway and IBM WebSphere Application Server based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Application Infrastructure solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed IBM DataPower Gateway vs. IBM WebSphere Application Server Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Saleem Shar
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 very easy to work with.""I like that it is very stable, and we never experience any downtime.""I like all of the features in this product and it does what it's supposed to do.""My company has a good impression of IBM DataPower Gateway. What I like about it is that because it's an appliance, it's a turnkey solution that's very fast and out of the box. Compared to other gateways, I also like that IBM DataPower Gateway is function-rich. For example, for one of the projects, there was a need for specific transformation and security features available in IBM DataPower Gateway out of the box, so my team just needed to configure the appliance. There was no need for separate development, and I found it quite neat. Another valuable feature of IBM DataPower Gateway is that it's easy to integrate with other products.""The product is stable...The product is scalable.""The API Connect gateway service and the SQL injection feature is good.""The performance is good. It's been very stable.""The solution is robust."

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"IBM WebSphere Application Server is the best in terms of scalability and performance, as well as the support for managing distributed transactions.""Ease of administration: It has an Integrated Solutions Console, what we call the administrative console, with very detailed configurations and Help pages for each configurable item.""The VPN service is quite useful.""WebSphere Application Server's best features include the data subscription and connection viewer.""Starting with version 8, WAS provides a special folder called monitor deployment. Once you put the .war or .ear file in there, it is deployed automatically without human intervention. This greatly helps us in our continuous integration server. Once the deployment binary is ready, we write a script to copy it to that folder and then, voila! The application is up and running and accessible from its context root.""The solution is robust. The connection management and the scalability, which IBM provides to the Stack, are also valuable.""It does integrate well with the Tivoli Federated Identity Management system.""It has good stability of the application server in the long term compared to other solutions."

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Cons
"Its support services could be better.""The initial setup isn't so easy, you need who has experience working with the solution to help.""The solution requires a lot of training manuals in order to get to know it better and to be able to use it effectively.""It is a costly product.""Additional documentation needs to be provided for complex automations.""The IBM community does not have much engagement from the IT community in Saudi Arabia and developers for this solution are difficult to find.""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.""The product's cost for data appliances or hardware is quite high. It needs improvement."

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"IBM needs to pay attention to market changes more quickly. We now have Java 9 and very soon Java EE8. We do not want to wait for two or three years after their release until they are supported by the new version.""Initial setup is very simple. Just use the IBM Installation Manager and add the packages. The install wizard takes care of the rest. The only thing that can be difficult is to find the right packages on the IBM website, because of all the changes that IBM does on its website(s).""The licensing could be improved, and I would like it to give the longevity of the lifespan of the visions. In the next release, I would like to be able to download and extract the files so that I can just use my application server.""What could be improved in IBM WebSphere Application Server is its interconnection with other products, for example, Kafka. What I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is a better graphical user interface.""The footprint could be reduced so that we can use a smaller virtual machine to run the application. We could also use more scripts. I would like this solution to be more script oriented, rather than GUI oriented.""The business logic side of it is sort of missing in the sense that if I want to track and measure velocity, it is not really available. You have to buy another application and embark on a separate implementation. Instead of having different licensing, IBM DataPower should be integrated with WebSphere. It will allow us to build the business layer and rules a lot more efficiently, rather than developing rules within the application. It would be good if we can set up the business layer through parametrization rather than development. IBM DataPower has the business rule and the controls, and if it can be integrated, it would be fantastic. It will help the application in working better in terms of security features and business logic. If you're going to use it for open banking, you will be able to monitor velocity on the total pricing.""In the next release of this solution, I would like to see support for the Arabic language.""The availability of the solution needs improvement."

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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."
  • "It's expensive when you compare it with others."
  • "The licensing cost is very expensive."
  • "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."
  • "IBM DataPower Gateway is quite expensive to get resources to work on this product. If the price could be cheaper, I think that will make it a little bit better and easily accessible to smaller clients. Then it could compete with other solutions that are available in the market. There's a whole lot of other solutions available that work well and are cheaper than IBM's products."
  • "The appliance is a bit on the expensive side for the workloads that are not too high."
  • "Most customers' use case budgets are not inlined with the price of IBM DataPower Gateway. It is too expensive."
  • "This product is a bit expensive as IBM products are costly assets. However, for enterprise customers it is a worthwhile investment."
  • More IBM DataPower Gateway Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "IBM WAS base is part of the deal when you purchase IBM FileNet P8 Content Engine."
  • "Room for improvement would only be in the licensing. As with all IBM products the licensing can be complex and expensive. Bargain well and try to get as much discount as possible. Discounts of 85% are possible. Without the discount, I think the product is overrated."
  • "There is an Eclipse Plugin provided by IBM, so no need to buy IBM Rational Application Developer or Rational Software Architect tools."
  • "If your application is just a web app that does not need to scale big, you can obtain a single core license of WAS Express edition, which has almost the same features with limited processing cores. If you manage a very big application farm (i.e. need to run 10 or more WAS servers) it is better to get IBM WAS Hypervisor Edition."
  • "I don't remember the price, but there are no additional costs."
  • "We pay around $200,000 annually."
  • "The price of this product is higher than that of competitors."
  • "We used to pay about $100,000-$120,000 US or somewhere around there. That was a bit cost-prohibitive for us to continue."
  • More IBM WebSphere Application Server Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:It is very easy to set up and configure, even for users with no prior experience.
    Top Answer:I would say the pricing is normal. It is not the cheapest, but it is not the most expensive either.
    Top Answer:One area that could be improved is the integration with Postgres and SQL databases. Currently, IBM DataPower Gateway only integrates with Oracle databases. So it doesn't integrate with Postgres.
    Top Answer:The pricing is a little expensive. I would rate the pricing a four out of ten.
    Top Answer:Sometimes, I feel WebSphere runs a bit slow. It might be loading unnecessary libraries, impacting its performance compared to other application servers. So, better performance is my main request.
    Ranking
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    1,300
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    959
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    12
    Average Words per Review
    354
    Rating
    8.8
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    4,386
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    3,060
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    8
    Average Words per Review
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    Rating
    7.6
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower
    WebSphere Application Server
    Learn More
    Overview

    IBM DataPower Gateway is a robust, secure next-generation enterprise-grade single multichannel API gateway that supplies dynamic access, integration, control, and outstanding security. The solution is available in a broad range of workload capabilities, including application programming interface (API), service oriented architecture (SOA), B2B, cloud, web, and mobile. These dynamic capabilities ensure users are able to quickly increase the reach of an organization's critical IT resources to new channels, which will provide shareholders, team members, and clients with safe, secure access at all times.

    DataPower Gateway is very flexible and is widely available in virtual, cloud, traditional, physical, Docker, and Linux form factors.

    IBM DataPower Gateway Features

    IBM DataPower Gateway has many value-added features. Some of these features are included below:

    • Control: The solution provides decision point authorization and authentication for all standards, including Lightweight Direct Access Protocol (LDAP) and Open Authorization (OAuth), which allow for better access control across an organization’s entire network.
    • DataPower dashboard: The dashboard is specifically designed to enhance performance and determine problematic processes. The solution provides intuitive real-time performance transparency to diagnose operational and performance anomalies and offer repair and restoration recommendations.
    • Enhanced messaging: Users are able to easily mediate messaging and protocols by incorporating the best of today’s traditional and modern application standards.
    • Integration: IBM DataPower Gateway offers super fast mainframe connectivity, database connectivity, transport protocol bridging, content-based routing, and any-to-any message transformation, ensuring secure and immediate connect service.

    IBM DataPower Gateway Benefits

    IBM DataPower Gateway provides many benefits. Some of those benefits include:

    • Flexibility: The solution is easy to use and configure and provides for a pleasant, intuitive overall user experience. The solution can immediately be used out of the box, which makes overall process management simple.
    • Protection: The solution provides sturdy continuous service protection and application performance using robust powerful routing and traffic control.
    • Security: The solution’s enterprise-grade De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) ready gateway enables users to enforce the desired runtime application security across all messaging protocols.
    • Profitability: The solution’s design ensures significant reduction of development costs in addition to the streamlining of overall operations. Users are able to achieve reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and experience a near-immediate ROI.

    Reviews from Real Users

    “My company has a good impression of IBM DataPower Gateway. What I like about it is that because it's an appliance, it's a turnkey solution that's very fast and out of the box. Another valuable feature of IBM DataPower Gateway is that it's easy to integrate with other products.”- Bálint T., Solution Manager at Intalion

    “You don't have to have a separate DMC proxy because DataPower Gateway is an appliance and will take care of a lot of security features. These include data validations, encryption, as well as XML or any type of scripting or security threats that are present. From a security point of view, being an appliance in the DMC zone, IBM DataPower Gateway will take care of the entire security angle for the infrastructure.” - Sathyan K., Founder/Director at perfTech Solutions Pvt Ltd

    IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS) is a middleware platform developed by IBM. It provides a range of services and tools to help organizations develop, deploy, and manage Java-based applications. WAS is part of IBM's WebSphere product family and provides a secure, scalable, and highly available platform for developing and running web-based applications. WAS provides a secure, scalable, and highly available platform, making it an attractive solution for organizations looking to develop and deploy enterprise-grade applications.

    IBM WebSphere Application Server Features

    IBM WebSphere Application Server has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Application deployment: IBM WAS enables organizations to deploy and manage applications in a secure and scalable environment.
    • Clustering: The clustering feature can help organizations ensure high availability and improve application performance.
    • Load balancing: The solution Includes load balancing capabilities to distribute application workloads and improve performance.
    • Security: IBM WAS offers a range of security features, including authentication, authorization, and encryption, to help organizations secure their applications and data.
    • Monitoring and management: The solution’s range of tools for monitoring and managing applications, including the IBM WebSphere Administrative Console allows organizations to optimize application performance and resolve issues easily.
    • Integration: IBM WAS integrates with a range of IBM and third-party products, including IBM WebSphere MQ, IBM DB2, and more, to provide a comprehensive platform for developing and running web-based applications.

    IBM WebSphere Application Server Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing IBM WebSphere Application Server. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Improved application performance: The IBM WAS platform offers a scalable and secure platform for deploying and managing applications, enabling organizations to improve application performance and reduce downtime.
    • High availability: IBM WAS provides clustering and load-balancing capabilities to help organizations ensure high availability.
    • Improved security: With a large range of security features, including authentication, authorization, and encryption, the solution helps organizations secure their applications and data.
    • Simplified management: IBM WAS is designed with a set of tools for monitoring and managing applications, enabling organizations to optimize performance and resolve issues efficiently.
    • Increased flexibility: The solution integrates with a range of IBM and third-party products, providing organizations with a flexible platform for developing and running web-based applications.
    • Improved developer productivity: It supports the latest Java EE specifications, allowing developers to use the latest technologies and development methodologies when building applications.
    • Better customer experience: Organizations can deliver faster and more reliable applications, improving the overall customer experience.
    • Scalability: IBM WAS provides a scalable and secure platform for deploying and managing applications, so organizations can quickly respond to changing business requirements.

    Reviews from Real Users

    IBM WebSphere Application Server is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it is stable, supports many languages, and is resilient.

    Princewill O., Head Banking Application Customization and Reporting at a financial services firm, states, “[The solution is] very stable, supports many languages, and helpful for faster time to market.”

    "What's most valuable in IBM WebSphere Application Server is its resilience. When you use the solution, you know that after the communication has been done, there will be no doubt that the data has reached its destination,” says Nicolae C., System and Solutions Architect at Seidor.


    Another PeerSpot reviewer, an Enterprise Technical Leader at a tech services company mentions, “[It is an] enterprise-level product with extensive console capabilities, including the ability to control multiple JVM containers.”

    Sample Customers
    RBL Bank, Availity
    TalkTalk, Property management group, E.SUN Bank, Ohio National Financial Services, Aviarc, Cincom Systems, FJA-US, D+H, Staples, Michigan Municipal League
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm33%
    Computer Software Company20%
    Pharma/Biotech Company7%
    Security Firm7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm29%
    Insurance Company11%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm30%
    Computer Software Company26%
    Government13%
    Insurance Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm29%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Insurance Company7%
    Government7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise8%
    Large Enterprise56%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise76%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise9%
    Large Enterprise69%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise74%
    Buyer's Guide
    IBM DataPower Gateway vs. IBM WebSphere Application Server
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about IBM DataPower Gateway vs. IBM WebSphere Application Server and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    IBM DataPower Gateway is ranked 6th in Application Infrastructure with 26 reviews while IBM WebSphere Application Server is ranked 5th in Application Infrastructure with 25 reviews. IBM DataPower Gateway is rated 8.4, while IBM WebSphere Application Server is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of IBM DataPower Gateway writes "Easy to use, plenty of functionality, but expensive". On the other hand, the top reviewer of IBM WebSphere Application Server writes "Compatible, stable, and scalable". IBM DataPower Gateway is most compared with IBM API Connect, Apigee, Microsoft Azure API Management, Mule ESB and webMethods Integration Server, whereas IBM WebSphere Application Server is most compared with JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, JBoss, Tomcat, Oracle WebLogic Server and IIS. See our IBM DataPower Gateway vs. IBM WebSphere Application Server report.

    See our list of best Application Infrastructure vendors.

    We monitor all Application Infrastructure reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.