There are several use cases because IBM B2B Integrator is an integrator that allows our customers to process files. I have use cases depending on the industry. For example, in logistics and retail, it's been used above all for EDI file transfer to connect our customers with their third party in order to interchange purchase orders, file advisements, and so on. In IBM B2B Integrator, it's normalized to standard EDI messages.
In banks, IBM B2B Integrator has had a new mapper added in the platform for the last six or seven years, which is IBM Transformation Extender. For example, in the financial environment, it supports SWIFT messages. It's used with the B2B communication layer. It's possible to interchange files with several different communication protocols, with security, and so on. With the translator, it's possible to adapt the format incoming from the third party, the external third party, to SWIFT messages. Financial customers typically work with mainframes, and in mainframes, they use flat files. The new standards that are on XML must be normalized to this flat file, and we accomplish this with IBM B2B Integrator.
The main feature of IBM B2B Integrator is that it's the most complete integrator on the market. You can integrate every type of protocol, every type of custom layer, and every type of security level. You can integrate or interchange with external third parties using different layers of security. It's the most secure product in the market.
The platform is comprehensive but tends to be the most expensive on the market. It can do whatever is needed with every type of file, but it has been expensive for small-medium customers. It's focused primarily on medium enterprise and large enterprise customers. The new versions are very REST-API-oriented, making it very easy to integrate with external applications to expose processes. The hybrid version is quite powerful because the use of containers is very dynamic.
The support for various communication protocols and data formats in IBM B2B Integrator is the power of the platform. It can expose every type of protocol. The platform out-of-the-box supports more than 40 protocols. Additionally, customization is possible. For example, one of the proprietary protocols in the market is XCOM. While XCOM is not supported out-of-the-box, we can create a custom layer to support it using external scripts or Java classes and integrate this other protocol in IBM B2B Integrator.
We've never had much luck with upgrades. We just do a clean install every time on new servers and import all the BPs, maps, envelopes, certs, and custom properties files, etc. Once everything is running fine with no issues, we then decommission the old servers.