Layer7 API Management Reviews

Positive

I work as a PG developer, primarily dealing with Layer7 API Management and MuleSoft API management. My focus is mainly on VM management platforms such as Layer7 and Apigee.

Layer7 API Management is most valued for its drag-and-drop functionalities, the available policy options, and the excellent security features. I appreciate the ease of syncing the developer portal with Layer7 and the ability to publish DEP.

Layer7 API Management could be improved in its logging and alert mechanisms. Furthermore, although cloud deployment has been introduced, I am not familiar with all recent updates. In previous versions, cloud deployment was not available.

I have been using Layer7 API Management for about three to four years.

Layer7 API Management is a well-stable product, with a rating of ten for stability.

Layer7 API Management is quite effective in managing multiple API gateways. As it is now available on cloud, its scalability has improved, allowing it to be more adaptable compared to previous purely on-prem solutions.

Technical support is excellent. If a request is made, they promptly respond and resolve issues efficiently.

Positive

I have used Apigee and MuleSoft, which both have their advantages and disadvantages. Layer7 tends to require more coding compared to its competitors.

The initial setup was straightforward. It required an assessment to configure correctly for the anticipated scale, as scalability isn't automatic.

One person is enough to manage the deployment efficiently, although top IT developers are the key users.

The pricing is expensive compared to other products.

I also have experience with Apigee and MuleSoft.

I would recommend Layer7 to others, especially with its recent updates and multiple deployment capabilities.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. 

I use the solution since I work for many different kinds of domains and different kinds of organizations, including the banking and financial sectors.

The solution's most valuable feature stems from its providing a developer portal to its users. OTK configuration is available with Layer7 API Management, which helps deal with security. The main important aspect of the tool is related to the area called Layer7 API Gateway.

I recently got to know through some of my sources that there is a lack of support for customers from Broadcom's end. Broadcom's technical support team needs improvement. Broadcom's technical support team needs to be improved to achieve an increase in business in India.

I have been using Layer7 API Management for eight years.

It is a scalable solution. Some of the leading banks in India have been using Layer7 API Management for a long time. Migration from Layer7 API Management to other tools that work around the area of API management happens because of the lack of support that Broadcom offers to its users.

I got to know from some of my sources that there are a few resources working as technical support, but when the support is required during an emergency, customers face delays in getting help from the support team. Broadcom has a very good technical team, but providing support on time is an area where they lack.

I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

Layer7 API Management is the first solution that I worked with, after which I moved to AWS API Management, in which I don't have much experience presently. Many of the features are not there in the AWS API Management compared to Layer7 API Management. Currently, I work with AWS API Management as per the client's requirements. I migrated from Layer7 API Management to AWS API Management.

The product's initial setup phase was pretty straightforward, especially compared to other API management tools. Layer7 API Management is one of the best solutions because it is available on the on-premises version as well.

The solution is deployed on the on-premises model and on the cloud.

It doesn't take much time to deploy the solution. To deploy the solution, users just need to get the instances ready, and once we get the application files or installation files from Broadcom, it doesn't take much time. The deployment can be done within one to two days.

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Layer7 API Management's availability on an on-premises deployment model, actually decreases the production time if its users have any issues at the server level. Other API management tools are available on the cloud infrastructure, so if anything happens with the server, then users have to connect with the different teams to resolve the issue. When it comes to Layer7 API Management, if a user has an on-premises setup, then such a user can work with the server issues, which will help the user to resolve the issue within the time instead of having to connect with customer care for support. If users have a good technical team, then you can directly work with the tool at the server level.

I rate the overall tool a nine out of ten.

We had all those three layers from API: the gateway, mediation, and monitoring. We had implemented that on CentOS operating system. 

After that, we deployed some test APIs for patient-related activities in healthcare. We were querying the patient appointments from the patient database and then passing it on to a mobile app. That was the small experience I had. 

We had this API M dashboard on which and the APM gateway server on which we deployed all these APIs, a couple of APIs only, not much. I just initiated that project, implemented them, the UAT, and the protection domain, and then deployed a couple of sample APIs. After that, I left the role. I don't have any detailed experience, because we were not able to implement many APIs because the site was just starting up.

This product improved our time to market. Because we are a government healthcare organization, we are supposed to expose our patient data to the national command center and other mobile apps. We were able to expose our data securely. That was an advantage of Layer7 API.

The most valuable feature was the gateway because it has a good dashboard which shows all the hits, misses, and issues, how often you are viewing, what was the response time, etc. The gateway was very easy to deploy.

The dashboard was pretty simple. It had all the features, but the usage load was less initially. Now, the use cases slowly increase. 

Layer7 API Management should have more stability towards the operating system. I think we were planning to go to version 11, and then Layer7 API Management said you need to move from CentOS to some other operating system. This sort of stability needs to be there. They can't keep forcing the customer to completely change the OS. They should have some stability on the platform in terms of the roadmap. Layer7 API Management should give a clear roadmap of the product and where it is going, and they should not change the underlying layers.

Layer7 API Management should also have an online, direct support mechanism wherein we can directly raise a ticket in the global center, and then somebody should come online to provide support if necessary.

I used it for three years. I used version 10.x. 

The product was stable overall. 

It was scalable because we had a clustered server on a free load balancer. Whenever there was a load, we could add one more node horizontally and put it under the load balancer. So the load will get distributed.

It was scalable for our use case. It supported us very well. It was for patient appointments, and it really helped.

There were around six end users. Two of them were administrators, two were developers, and two were integration engineers.

The customer service and support were good but not excellent. They have some issues in terms of manpower, and they have support from Dubai. They do multiple projects, and that's why sometimes it's a bit difficult, but it's fine.

Neutral

We didn't work on anything instead of Layer7.

It was pretty easy because we were supported by Layer7 team, and we were able to deploy it very easily.

Deployment time: One week for UAT and another week for the production.

We already have a middleware known as Rhapsody. We were able to easily integrate Layer7 with Rhapsody. 

I would definitely recommend it. Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. It was good for the healthcare industry. 

I used the solution in my company since I was involved in the designing of the network and security. Right now, I am designing all the solutions in our company's environment.

My company faced a ransomware attack in 2022, after which we installed a honeypot to deal with DDoS attacks. Layer7 API Management was implemented to deal with ransomware attacks since they compromise our company's security.

Layer7 API Management protects your company's whole environment, especially if you operate at a global level or in an area where a lot of people are involved in accessing your applications. Layer7 API Management serves as the best solution in any environment because if you see a honeypot, it is used to create a dummy network in an environment, meaning it creates a puzzle kind of environment for attackers.

The product's initial setup phase is not very straightforward, making it an area where improvements are required.

I have been using Layer7 API Management for two to three years.

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

The product may seem scalable today, but it may not be scalable tomorrow, so it is important to understand how technology is getting upgraded and that there can be a lot of changes in the future. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

The number of users using the product changes according to the environment in which it is used.

The solution's technical support is good. The support you receive depends on the account that you have opted for, meaning the support received depends on whether you have a diamond account, platinum account, or gold account.

The product's initial setup phase is not that much straightforward. You need to initially install a tool to prevent DDoS attacks and ensure that the honeypot is there. You should also ensure that your internal and external firewall tools are in place to be able to take care of the setup phase smoothly. If I make any mistakes during setup of the tool for my devices and set i up in a wrong way, it will create a blunder in my network.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

Licenses are required to operate the product, but I don't know much about the validity periods attached to it.

I suggest Fortinet FortiAnalyzer, and for proxy solutions, I recommend Blue Coat and Symantec DLP.

To secure APIs, there are a lot of solutions available in the market, and you can get a lot of different software development licenses, which can be helpful during migration processes.

Lots of APIs are on Kubernetes and Docker. Docker is one of the containers which is considered to be safe from a security perspective. I cannot give much in details since our company provides solutions depending on the requirements of the users.

Speaking about how the tool improves lifecycle management, I would say that there are lots of users on the internet who use your company's applications from the outside, and if someone compromises your network, it cannot be traced from your firewall because it is a part where you need to inspect it by yourself. If you have a proxy and it is not in forward proxy mode, then it cannot have the details of the certificate or give details about what has been accessed by external users. If one of my organization's internal users accesses some malicious activity at a time when I have provided them with all the accesses in our company, if my proxy or DLP is not able to trace it, it could be very dangerous for me.

In terms of security features, they all have the ability to deal with the attacks classified under OWASP Top 10. Every security tool tries to deal with the attacks classified under OWASP Top 10 by incorporating a risk management framework.

I have around 20 staff members to look at areas like network, firewall and everything else attached to it. I have recommended to my organization's operation team that I still need three or four members added to my team.

I recommend that others should consider having Layer7 API Management in their network since it can provide them with a more robust, scalable, and confident environment.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

Layer 7 API management is my go-to solution for handling the entire API lifecycle. From governance and management to developer onboarding, monitoring, and analytics, it simplifies and secures the process.

I appreciate Layer 7 API management for its comprehensive approach to the entire API lifecycle, including governance, management, and analytics.

There is room for improvement in terms of innovation and investment, especially when compared to other leading products in the market.

I have been working with Layer7 API Management for about six months.

The stability of Layer 7 API management is generally good, with occasional instability after changes requiring restarts. In a production environment, once things are set up, stability is solid, and I would rate it around an eight out of ten.

Scalability with Layer 7 API management depends on your server capability or, if on AKS, the AKS capacity. However, the user experience feels scattered and less developer-friendly. Different functionalities like the developer portal and policy management are in separate places, and CICD implementation involves exporting and importing code, making it less seamless. I would rate the scalability at no more than a four out of ten.

Our experience with Layer 7 Broadcom technical support was not good. The support was not helpful, lacked knowledge, and overall, the experience was subpar. I would rate it a three out of ten.

Negative

Installing Layer 7 API management is not a quick process. It typically takes a couple of hours, but due to potential configuration challenges, it might extend to a few days to ensure it works as intended. The complexity lies in the installation and configuration steps, requiring attention to detail.

The deployment process for Layer 7 API management depends on your familiarity with the product. If you are new and following documentation, there is a risk of missing details. Generally, one person can handle the deployment, but in a production environment, involving someone with Unix expertise might be necessary.

The pricing for Layer 7 varies, and there is no standard rate. It depends on negotiation skills and factors like the number of users and devices. In our case, the initial offer was good, but as we added capacity, it became costly. It is not very cheap, but with the right offer, it can be affordable.

Compared to leading products like Azure API Management, Google Apigee, and MuleSoft, it seems that Layer7 API Management has fallen behind due to a lack of recent innovation and investment.

Overall, I would rate Layer7 API Management as a five out of ten.

We have one Global customer using Layer7 API Management for their entire API management. They have exposed APIs to their external partners and vendors through a marketplace. However, Layer7 API Management is primarily used as a gateway solution, and its management capabilities are not as strong as those of other solutions available. As a result, the customer also uses Apigee for API management tasks. Apigee has been used throughout the customer's API program, including building the marketplace, monetizing APIs, and developing a developer portal.

In 2017, when we started working on Layer7, Apigee was the only competitor, which is still emerging as one of the great solutions for repair management. Layer7 was working out well for our needs. You can do many transformations. There's a lot of scripting admin layer gateway layer. It needs to be treated more as an anti-pattern because you don't do much scripting as the gateway layer. We use Layer7 extensively because of old legacy services and to recreate new modern services. Our customers are moving away from Layer7 because its management piece is not great. The monitoring and monetization parts are not coming out sooner. Other players like Mule or Apigee are coming up.

Building the marketplace on layer7 is not so easy. It's not so easy to do some onboarding workflows.

I have been using Layer7 since 2017.

The solution is very stable.

Since the tool is on-premise, it was not scalable.

I have used Mule and Apigee before.

The initial setup is easy compared to Apigee.

We have about 30-40 engineers to deploy the solution.

The product has a yearly license, which is not so pricey.

The solution is difficult to maintain because we have to do many scripting in layer7. A lot of Java code was written, and transformations were done.

When selecting an API management solution, we carefully consider various parameters, including the specific needs of our customers. For instance, if a customer requires a comprehensive API management solution with advanced features, Layer7 API Management is an excellent choice. However, if a customer needs a basic gateway solution with limited reporting capabilities, we can accommodate their needs on their preferred cloud platform, AWS. Moreover, we have extensive experience implementing enterprise solutions with the necessary investment capacity and specific requirements. Additionally, we prioritize solutions that enable seamless integration within hybrid architectures. To ensure we make informed recommendations, we conduct thorough comparisons based on over 45 parameters, drawing insights from our current implementations and customer feedback. Our approach is adaptable and may evolve based on evolving requirements.

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

The solution secures your API/Service/Application in a matter of minutes. It also provides the capability for translating services from one format to another (SOAP to REST, REST to SOAP, GraphQL - API, and vice versa). Broadcom API Gateway would provide you 1000+ out-of-the-box assertions and certain custom assertions to meet your development and integration requirements. Rather than building an application in hours through coding the Drag and Drop capability, allows you to create APIs in minutes. The runtime setup allows coding and testing at a faster pace without the need to deploy and redeploy applications for every version build published. Failure if any the code could be rolled back in a matter of seconds and activated. So it provides a good framework that is tried and tested over the years and provided a Robust OOB Security and Implementation interfaces.

I have mainly implemented using Layer 7 API Management. Some of the major challenges we were able to meet with a quick release to market methodology.

Some of the tasks which we achieved for our customers were:

1. Translation service from SOAP to REST and vice versa.

2. API service to DB (Oracle, MySQL, MSSQL, Snowflake, SAP HANA) -- Created Swagger APIs that were able to perform CRUD operation to the backend API mentioned above and provided routes to query and get data.

3. Integration with Payment gateway service providers to perform (transaction on behalf of the customer with third-party payment gateway service providers white labeled with our APIs ) -- Followed TMF standards for payment gateway integration with the Telcom world.

4. Orchestration of the API. Build multiple microservers and provided orchestration based on route, path, and data in the request and perform actions that would be communicated with multiple APIs and provide a single consolidated response.

5. Provided API-driven security (Oauth 2.0, JWT, SAML, Basic, and a variety of means) to access the API giving the developer the freedom to concentrate only on application/service/microservice and let the gateway handle the threat.

6. Seamless Mutual Authentication allowed good segregation between APIs in the DMZ and internal network.

This product has great drag-and-drop features and it requires minimal coding. 

The thick client interface is one thing that needs to move on. The as well should provide a better Web Based UI for policy management.

I would also like to see more streamlining between Gateway and integration with the Portal for Collaboration.

I've been using this solution for eight years. 

I have worked with these tools for eight years there has never been an issue that has brought the system down and unrecoverable. Patch release is every quarter which include OS, applicate patches for form factor appliances and test builds for containers [Containers have now been in the build form the last three years releases i.e from version 9.x to the latest].

Adding a cluster is as simple as adding a form factor of the gateway to the existing node.

Form factors could be Appliance, Docker container, or Kube Pod.

The former would take five to ten min to be part of the cluster while the latter would take one to two min to be part of the cluster.

Because of the drive to move containerization, it makes it easy to upscale or downscale the gateway based on your requirements.

The catch with containers is one license of the appliance and is equivalent to three containers which means with one license I could have 3three gateways of form factor containers giving our clients more value for their purchases and moving from a container to an appliance and vice versa could be done with either (DB backup - configuration backup or via migration utility tools - GMU, Graphman, Restman) allowing the capability to script your entire process including DR.

We provide tech support in South Africa. But globally, there is the tech support that follows the sun. We usually use tech support when we have to deal with upgrades and we get Hot Standby Privileges.

Positive

Options available:

1. Scripted

2. via Migration Utility

3. Headless deployment

All of the above are easy to configure and deploy.

It is an enterprise solution so it is expensive with licensing costs but the goodies in the new SKUs compensate for the high cost.

Goodies include:

1. APM Precision Monitoring

2. API Developer Portal

3. Integration with Mobile (MAG, MQTT, Mobile SDK, and Mobile Application Service)

4. Support (International and local support)

5. Capability to Burst on High load requirement

6. Options in form factors (Appliance, Docker, OpenShift Kubernetes)

Broadcom API Gateway has always been a stable product for Security, Development, and Integration services.

With the help of assertion, you can build a service that could communicate with backends - DB, GraphQL Server, Rest Server, Soap Server, and a variety of backend applications.

It provides a tool for the consolidation and orchestration of your API and APPLICATION.

It provides means to access the API with key and secret providing an interface for Developer and API Owner to Collaborate and Share knowledge in the wide community.

With top-down rule-driven policies, it becomes easy to write business logic to meet your Application data extraction and deployment needs.

There are many places where API Gateway will be a good/excellent fit for your requirement and some places where it may not be a right fit.

A dispersed environment needs consolidation. This gateway is your solution but APIs that will have a high query (database activity, extensive translation, and more logic) are possible to achieve but may require planning (e.g. splitting the task between gateways for high processing vs high-security requirements). These activities should also be clustered to get the best performance of the application so this consideration would need to be made when building Complex API with API Gateway.

The idea here or approach would be to think big but also ensure it can be sustained with your resources.

API Gateway with minimum configuration OOB could provide an awesome TPS for your API and transaction needs, which is one of the reasons why banks, Retailers and other customers prefer this tool over the others.

The primary use case for Layer7 API Management is patient services, such as patient care and health care services, where patients would like to check appointment details and reports on mobile applications.

Another use case for the product is sharing the data with external organizations related to healthcare.

What I found most valuable in Layer7 API Management is that you can launch the API from the gateway quickly and securely, making it less complicated to deploy APIs.

I also like that Layer7 API Management has a good portal and dashboards and that the dashboards show you statistics regarding how many people used the API, etc.

Layer7 API Management could have a live API creator feature, so my team can easily create APIs. Right now, the product doesn't have that feature.

I've been working with Layer7 API Management for six months.

Regarding stability, Layer7 API Management is an eight out of ten.

Layer7 API Management is highly scalable. The product is easy to scale horizontally and vertically. It has good scalability, so it's an eight out of ten.

The technical support team of Layer7 API Management is an eight out of ten.

Positive

I'm rating the initial setup for Layer7 API Management as eight out of ten because it was easy to do.

Deploying the product took two months.

Before deploying Layer7 API Management, my company studied the existing landscape through the customer guide and did a feasibility study on the requirements, such as the APIs, volume of transactions, etc. The company then planned the transaction methodically and then secured the license. Upon installation, my team used it, got the certification, and implemented Layer7 API Management in a highly available environment. Next, my company deployed the product in a production environment, did the configurations, created the documentation, did an overall training, and then pushed the product to live status.

It's too early to compute for Layer7 API Management ROI. I need a few more months before calculating the ROI.

Pricing for Layer7 API Management is excellent, so it's an eight out of ten. The product is less expensive than other solutions. Layer7 API Management charges you based on the number of transactions, so the enterprise-level pricing my company got was excellent.

My company pays for Layer7 API Management yearly. It only pays for the standard licensing fees.

My company provides Layer7 API Management to customers.

I'm working on the latest version of the product.

Six to eight team members handled the Layer7 API Management deployment. Some worked on the data, while some worked on the network, hardware, and software configurations.

Approximately two hundred to three hundred people use Layer7 API Management, particularly clinicians, nurses, and patients.

Layer7 API Management only requires a little maintenance. It only has one upgrade every six months, and my company has an affiliate that handles the maintenance, especially severity three issues. My company will address any level one or two issues.

My rating for Layer7 API Management is eight out of ten.

My company is a partner and reseller of Layer7 API Management.

Layer7 API Management can be deployed on the cloud and on-premise.

We are using Layer7 API Management to expose APIs and to do security checks, which is similar to a reverse proxy.

The most important features of Layer7 API Management are the basic security functionality and validation checks. Additionally, it integrates well.

Layer7 API Management could improve by assing more portal-based capabilities.

I have been using Layer7 API Management for approximately two years.

Layer7 API Management is stable.

We have four people using this solution in my company.

The solution is scalable.

The support from Layer7 API Management is proactive.

I prefer Layer7 API Management over Apigee. Apigee has a portal-based capability which is better than Layer7 API Management.

The initial setup of Layer7 API Management is not complex. The process took approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

The price of Layer7 API Management is reasonable compared to Apigee.

This is a good solution. However, it would be ideal if they had a technical team because there is a need for some basic coding knowledge. It requires comprehensive Java knowledge.

I rate Layer7 API Management an eight out of ten.