If it's for a large-scale API ecosystem, IBM API Connect is a good choice. It's manageable, reliable, and offers extensive features. 

Mainly understanding API gateway principles. If they grasp those, they can use this product. So, some background knowledge is advisable.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

I'd rate it a six out of ten.

We started with DataPower ten years ago. Most of our APIs are SOAP APIs. When we started using RESTful APIs, we started using IBM API Connect. It took us a while to adopt API services. I will recommend the solution to people who need to manage their APIs. It's pretty good. It serves our purpose. Overall, I rate the product an eight or nine out of ten.

Overall, I would rate it ten out of ten.

The solution is a very, very powerful tool. It has many, many capabilities, apart from it having many, many adapters and integration with the backend to provide you with a comprehensive portal development portal application. This comprehensive portal application can be used by the developers of API since API is a fast and powerful tool. In addition, the analytic part of the tool provides you with full analytics and defines SLA for the APIs, and you can generate the analytics to get statistics about the utilization of API, which most people use. This tool is very, very comprehensive and very, very beautiful. It's very easy to use. And in addition to that, it is an API management tool deployed on an OpenShift platform to give you the capability of containerization for sustainability and agility. So, it's part of the tool.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

I would suggest that if you're looking for stability and excellent performance for your API gateway, you should definitely choose IBM API Connect.

Overall, I would rate it as a ten.

The solution does not need a lot of maintenance, it is similar to any other verification tool.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate IBM API Connect an eight out of ten.

There are some performance issues and issues related to asynchronous APIs. So, now we are investigating these issues since they are critical ones. Owing to the aforementioned reasons, I rate the overall product an eight out of ten.

I'm still working with IBM API Connect.

I'm an implementer, system integrator, and reseller of the solution.

Mostly I have mid-size and enterprise customers for IBM API Connect, though I also have small-sized customers. My customers use the solution.

Most of the customers here in Jordan prefer an on-premise deployment for IBM API Connect, but my company also has cloud implementation, one public and one private, then the rest is on-premises.

My advice to people who want to start implementing IBM API Connect is to always start small. You need to understand the value you want to gain from implementing the solution, focus on business values and achieve those, then start to grow bigger later. Don't start with a big environment when implementing IBM API Connect that wouldn't result in any business value. Starting small with real business values that will touch on business needs is good advice for anyone who wants to implement IBM API Connect.

My rating for IBM API Connect is nine out of ten because it's a good IBM product. It's one of the products you can easily sell.

I do integration and I do API management. I do a lot of other things. I don't just use one product. I use various products depending on what the client asks.

For API management, I've used X-Ray, WSO2, Software AG, Oracle, DataPower, and Apigee. It all depends on what the customer has. I also have a personal experience with IBM API Connect.

How this solution is deployed depends on you. What matters the most are the gateways and the portals. The portals are mainly for onboarding. Whether you'll deploy it on-premises or on cloud is up to you. You can also do hybrid deployment in some instances, because there are people who do hybrid deployment, but the key component for aligning a deployment is mainly the portal and the gateway, because the gateway is the policy enforcement, while the portal is mainly for presentation and onboarding purposes.

Other people are running IBM API Connect, but others are not. They just prefer using their hybrid appliances, e.g. the DataPower, so it also depends. There are cases where you can just simply deploy this solution, but it still depends on the policies that you need to enforce. That's why I was saying the key components are the portals and the gateways, because the gateways are doing most of the work. The gateway handles the transactions. It does all the heavy lifting. The portal is mainly for presentation purposes.

I've used WSO2 and Software AG, and when you compare them with IBM API Connect, the principles are more or less the same. It's more on how you want to deliver the solution and what the true need of the customer is. You get people who are using it proactively, and that puts the products on the market and drives innovation, but you also get people who are really less integrated people and just build APIs on the portal. It all depends on the use cases and what the customers are offering.

The products are all different in a way, e.g. comparable to cars. A Mercedes Benz is really not that different from a BMW. It's just more of the driving dynamics, the comfort levels, and what the brands represent. A BMW will always be sportier than a Mercedes Benz, while an Audi will always be sportier than a Mercedes Benz. This is unless you're going for the real topnotch specs: the AMGs, then it becomes a different conversation. At the end of the day, it depends on the appetite and what their initial use cases are.

The number of users of IBM API Connect all depends on the deployment plan of the customer. You get fintechs, e.g. these are mainly coalitions with banks and financial institutions where they try and drive innovation through these tech companies. By giving them access to their assets through portals and APIs, they get to see most of their IPEs realized and used by other parties. These are the people that they couldn't even reach initially. It all depends on the specs and on the range.

As for technical people, I've seen that they don't have a preference in terms of tools, but it's a matter of where the product goes that gives them an inclination to stay with those, because that stack gives that effect. It's also a matter of how they can easily integrate with other components, e.g. how they can be incorporated in your two clouds, or your other CMS, to in-house. The user experience is the same as others.

The number of users of IBM API Connect can be increased. I've seen a portal that has 4,000 to 5,000 users, and these users are people who create products, e.g. applications. A lot of those apps utilize existing portals and their APIs. What's common on my standard is more payment gateways. Every institution will offer their own payment gateway, and offer a specific sense of liability they are comfortable with.

I'm not really recommending IBM API Connect to others. It depends on the investment. For people who are heavily invested in IBM, IBM API Connect is an easy solution, because you already have the underlying infrastructure, e.g. DataPower, which is the most important or expensive component of this solution. For other people, if they don't have it at all, it makes no sense to go the IBM API Connect route if they're using a different stack. As long as the product is working, and it's compliant to specific patterns, it doesn't really matter what you use. What really matters is your budget, what do you have in your storage, and use case levels.

If people just want to have something that they can try quickly and dirt cheap, anything else will do, but then, a lot of people are also struggling with adversity, because they feel like the universities or employers are not that heavily invested, and this means they're failing the present capabilities. You just need to show them how the platform works, so it still varies from customer to customer. It's also budget based.

From a ranking of one to ten in terms of features, I can rank IBM API Connect as number six. WSO2 is a five. I'd give X-Ray a four. Software AG is a number two. Apigee ranks number one for me.

In terms of flexibility, all these platforms are the same. They are the same, but they can be different in terms of target limits.

I'm rating IBM API Connect a seven out of ten. I can't give them a ten out of ten, because I feel that they have lost their touch with it.

I would recommend the product to others, considering that IBM API Connect is one of the leading products in the market, but the concern is that it should reach the level of other products in the market, like Apigee and MuleSoft. The competition of IBM API Connect is with the leaders in the market, and to compete with them, API Connect should be a hybrid cloud-enabled product, and it has to offer a single pack to its users. If I talk about IBM API Connect, I should not be forced to purchase IBM App Connect or the other suites offered by IBM. I should be able to purchase the API Connect license easily.

I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.

IBM API Connect is a really good API management solution that offers a variety of benefits and advantages such as rapid development tools and enhanced productivity. I would rate it nine out of ten.

I rate IBM API Connect a seven out of ten.

The product is easy to use, but the installation is not easy. We have a team of three architects who maintain the product. I would rate this solution as an eight out of ten. 

I rate the overall tool a seven out of ten.

We are a direct customer and end-user. We aren't a partner of IBM.

We're not using the latest version of the solution right now. We have in production the original version - which I believe is Version 5.0. It was the original version. We worked all those years since 2018 and we're having some challenges to go to Version 10 which is the latest version.

Overall, I would rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

I think if you're working with IBM and you're looking at possibly using Bluemix now or in the future, the other thing is, if you're using IIB or you're looking at Salesforce, there are a lot of synergies related to these platforms and this tool set, so it sort of makes sense to head down this road.

Personally, if you're a small startup, you might need to evaluate the entire landscape a little bit differently, but if you're a large enterprise and you already have a pretty big relationship with IBM, I think that it makes a lot of sense.

My rating reflects the fact that it's not operationalized at this point, and that's not entirely the product’s fault. I see a lot of potential, but there are still some things that need to be there.

I would say that if you want stability and security, you should go for API Connect. It's a very robust product that lets you easily create and manage your API. I would rate API Connect as nine out of ten.

I'd recommend the solution to other users and organizations due to the fact that it is very, very easy to use. The product is good, however, that said, they need to pay more attention to their documentation and support. 

Overall, I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten. We have largely been satisfied with the solution and its capabilities.

We are IBM partners.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten. 

I rate API Connect a seven out of ten. This solution is stable, but maybe not the most modern product on the market. 

I would urge others to use both design time and runtime and not just use it as a repository. I would suggest that they utilize the runtime features, which are pretty strong. First, they can secure your API ecosystem.

Second, they have very good monetizing capabilities, which allow you to design products and see who accesses those products. Usage-based and storage-based restriction capabilities are present, which are probably some of the best on the market today. So, I would really urge people to just go beyond the design time and also utilize API Connect in runtime as well.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate  IBM API Connect at seven because it is a little bit weak on design time.

We use the platform’s analytics feature for extracting reporting for billing purposes. It is a good feature. It offers a sandbox environment where users, such as developers or testers, can interact with and test various APIs.

In the subscription process, EVOFRO (Evaluate, Offer, Verify, Fulfill, Render, Operate) is involved, specifically during the consumer's subscription attempt. It triggers a flow that includes reviewing and approving the subscription. It helps us achieve 80% compliance with regulations for our company.

I advise customers to identify the use cases before purchasing the product. I rate it an eight out of ten.

The solution is very good and might not be suited for everyone's use case. Organizations might not need such a robust solution that is priced as high as it is. The demographics can play a role in if this solution is suitable, it depends on what others are using to make it competitive. For example, in Africa, the use of this solution is very low, they are not thinking too much about security. However, if your organization wants to take its operations to the next level then this solution might be the right choice.

I rate IBM API Connect an eight out of ten.

Go for it.

We are using the IBM WSRR solution for service-oriented active services. The API Connect is for lightweight services and obviously for customization purposes. We work with IBM a lot, so they recommended to us to go with the IBM API Connect solution because it is the future. That is why we have chosen the API Connect.

The main criteria while selecting a vendor is support, i.e., after we go live and not just from the product. A stable support customer trust factor is also a very important factor and that is why we have a lot of IBM products.

I would definitely recommend trying this product. From a cloud perspective it's there, and from a management of API perspective, all that authentication authorization is quite strong. It's a complete product that you can implement and get a centralized repo of the APIs that you can use enterprise wide. If any other enterprise project comes up, it's worth checking what exists rather than automatically developing from scratch. 

The solution is very easy to use. It's not really complicated, at least for those who are already familiar with some IBM products. We didn't have a problem getting it up and running. 

I would rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

The product itself delivers on what is documented and we don't need any additional features. Currently, there are some features that are not working because of known errors. I would like to see an improvement in the stability, however. Once we've got it stable, we can push the limits. We can see what works and what doesn't work, and then we can comment on what is required for the future. I will, therefore, rate this a seven out of ten.

It's good. They have really good use cases. So, it's worth investing time in these products, and if it suits your needs, then you can really go for it. It does support a wide variety of use cases.

I rate IBM API Connect an eight out of ten.

It's helpful to have a suitable in-house team and to work hand-in-hand with the system integrator. You also need powerful infrastructure and hardware. If you're exposed externally, you have to apply security standards either on the Gateway or F5, or the Load Balancer. It requires the capabilities for good enterprise or solution architecture and sufficient experience on the integration side in order to have the right solution design and system architecture.

I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

I think IBM is very innovative and maybe that will give them an edge into their industry.

I would rate this solution a nine out ten. 

People should also consider support. We had several times to contact the support, and quite often we got a response after some days of the kind "please send this or that additional information". This does not help to solve quickly.

Go for it!

Getting a perfect rating depends on the product and how they give us support or not. We haven't gutted it, thoroughly. It is in production, but it's not perfected. Maybe in six months or more, we'll know more about it.

I rate API Connect seven out of 10. I would recommend it to customers if they have the money to pay for it, but it depends on the ecosystem. So, as a consultant, I would recommend API Connect if the customer already has an IBM license. Big companies generally have IBM middleware running somewhere, so they might have a license for these things. In cases like this, we would usually recommend API Connect for their purposes rather than spending more money on a different product. And if a client is building something entirely new and has to get a new license, we'll compare the options, including Apigee, MuleSoft, API C, or a custom solution. 

I would rate IBM API Connect a seven out of ten.

Our company is an early adopter of this product so I would advise, at this point, to wait and then implement the solution.

Certainly look at other options that are out there and absolutely go with the latest and greatest version of the product, because there have been a lot of issues and it's going through growing pains. It's not completely mature.

I'm considering migrating API Connect to Azure.

I'm still doing the assessment for this product. That is due to the fact that the move to the cloud is just not only for this product. We have a lot of products in terms of the customer's applications. I need to assess everything together and then propose to my end customer.

I'm a vendor. I do assessments for my customer.

I wouldn't recommend this solution to other organizations at this time. It's on-premises and everyone is moving to the cloud. It makes more sense to seek out a cloud solution.

Overall, I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

I would recommend API Connect to a vendor or financial institutions that are looking at using it. It's a nine out of 10. It's missing the authentication module so programming and customizing that takes a lot of time.

Advice depends; if you have a preferred technology and IBM has a solution for that technology, then I'd definitely advise you to use more microservices with the API Connect and the DevOps, to provide quick returns for your business. It will be more valuable to you.

In the 2018 version, the setup is less complicated, but it takes longer.

I would rate this solution eight out of ten.

Troubleshooting any issue can be very difficult.

You should consider how much value you can derive specifically from the solution with all the features that are available. For instance, the main value for us was in organizing the API's and splitting work among several development teams.

I wouldn't recommend choosing API Connect unless you have a big budget and need an enterprise solution. I would give API Connect a rating of seven out of ten.

I rate this solution a nine out of 10. It has all the core features that allow any small company to start with the API calls. There are Essential, Professional, and Enterprise versions. The product is in many forms, like docker, for example.

I recommend this product. Take a look at it.

If the customer is already using IBM Datapower then it is a no brainer that IBM API Management will complement their existing investment.

I would rate IBM API Connect a nine out of 10.

I rate this product an eight out of 10. 

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

Infrastructure setup was a bit painful. Knowledge up-take was not too painful if you are not doing anything complex. But when you start getting into complex APIs then maybe you need some bit of patience if you decide to use this solution.

At the end of the day, it's a great product, I can't fault it for now. We haven't extensively used it, so I really can't say how it would perform over time, or what kind of issues it would have if it was enterprise-wide. I can't find fault with it, for now, it's doing good.

I would rate the solution of seven and a half out of ten.

My point of view is a bit stiff because I'm a developer. I don't mind going through some tech rigors. But looking at it from a more general standpoint, I don't think anybody wants to go through the process of some technical learnings. In terms of the knowledge base, it's not too fun for developers. In terms of setup, it's almost definitely not fun. Usage is working well and based on the architectural principles we are already facing some bit of redundancy on that.

API Connect is an easy-to-learn, very advanced, reliable, business-to-business API management product. However, understand your requirements clearly and use expert help for the most optimized yet secure solution.

The API Connect product comes with API management, developer portal, offline API development toolkit and a node js component called Micro Gateway. Licensing can differ for these components.

From an API development features perspective, API Connect and API Management might appear significantly different. However, inherently both products exhibit a very easy, refined and mature API implementation process. I would personally recommend to everyone to use API Connect over API management.

It's a good solution with a simple user interface. It has many different possibilities as a business solution.

I rate API Connect eight out of 10. If you are using a microservice like Kubernetes, that should be tested to ensure it's working. If you are running API Connect on top of Kubernetes, you trust that you can update the Kubernetes cluster on the fly during the daytime.

In our case, every time we had to update the Kubernetes cluster that API Connect was running on, it was so much work. We could update all the other clusters with no problem. So my advice is to make sure that it is working. Otherwise, I think everything was okay. 

The client needs to understand the service to use it. They need to make sure that they have the back-end infrastructure to support API Connect.

API Connect is known for its light front-end system. Therefore, it depends on what system it connects to on the back-end. It is important to know how it connects to the back-end.

We are not using Cloud Pak, as it is still too new. We are using it in the lab.

I would rate the solution as a nine (out of 10). 

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

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Make sure to understand its purpose and what it's used for and not used for.

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. 

Setup an "always and anywhere available sandbox" for experimenting and proof of concepts, because one will need to think and experiment much to use the tool.

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.  

I would certainly recommend IBM API Connect for clients who are going with an enterprise version of implementation and when they have enough budget. Of course, if they have budget limitations, they can consider open-source solutions.

As implementers, we have a big resource pool here in India. All our associates have expertise with API Connect as well as IBM App Connect.

As of now, it is serving the needs of our customers. It is quite a proficient tool. It satisfies all of our requirements.

To cut down on your implementation time, read the documentation. It's long but explanatory.

I would rate this solution as an eight (out of 10).

We are testing and I'm working for the Bank of Israel and we have to implement the regulation of the PSD2, the open bank, open banking, open API. We would implement it on API Connect, so it's not a production system, it's just a sandbox.

In terms of advice, I would suggest anyone to verify that the product support is the latest version and to find out the frequency of the new versions of the product itself. I think it's very important to go through a project like this before implementation.

I would rate this solution seven out of ten. I'd like it to be more cloud-based, for the open API 3 because currently all the specifications are published only on the API so you have to downgrade it and then input it into IBM.

I rate IBM API Connect an eight out of ten.

It's pretty simple, there's no need for any special advice actually.

I would rate IBM API an eight out of ten. 

I would recommend it. I'd say that you need some time to negotiate the documentation and the conflicting support that's on their website. The website will day to do one thing and in another place, you do something else. You need some time to negotiate that.

I can recommend this solution and would rate it as an eight (out of 10).

When selecting a vendor, trust is important, as well as that they deliver. Just someone you can be comfortable with.

I rated it an 8/10 because it's not fully mature yet.