Share your experience using Software AG Natural API Management

The common elements of the use case are a medium to a high volume of API calls, generally in a Microsoft-based environment, and occasionally Amazon. Implemented on the public cloud primarily for financial institutions.

Serving retail clients with a reasonably complicated system architecture involving legacy technology and a variety of more modern administration services and systems. Then, the full customer service frontend, where we've got the design interface plugged into the customer journey flows, makes those somewhat dynamic with a standard render forward from the CNA.

Of the non-Microsoft solutions, Tyk is probably the fastest to get up and running. It has fewer idiosyncrasies than many of its competitors.

The cost curve is far smoother, both in terms of volume and the number of calls it's running on, compared to most competitors. So it's a tad more expensive at the very low end, but the curve is nothing like Apigee or some of the others.

In terms of our usage, the main area of concern is that they tend to build enhancements slightly ahead of the considerations for what those enhancements and extensions are. So it could be slightly better communication with the customer base that would be my main issue with them. But as a product, it's very difficult to find any major faults.

I have been using Tyk for two and a half years. I've worked for organizations where we've basically consumed them, acquired the product, or used it as part of our overall delivery solution.

The stability is very good. 

The scalability is very good. That was a key factor in the selection, like how it could be pushed to high volume and scalability, which seemed to be very good. We haven't as yet had a need to push it to that extent.

Our clients are mostly medium and enterprise businesses for this solution. 

There's always things where we need to go back to. Their support provision is very good, and they do provide routes to make inquiries, self-learn, etcetera. 

But, I've never come across anything I would regard as ten, which is almost like I don't need to go to support. 

There are things to go to support. That's usually about how to exploit it better rather than anything else.

Positive

I have worked with Axway and Microsoft.

I would rate my experience with the initial setup an eight out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

The deployment incorporates all elements, not just Tyk. So, the deployment time also depends on the configuration. 

The actual setup can be done within a day. Like Docker and containerized... So the prep's quick, but it's a lot more than Tyk. So, deployment is not a material issue. 

We were the third party. We helped the clients with the deployment process. 

It's hard to put a mark because the overall solution involves more than just Tyk. Tyk is just one component, so the ROI the customers see is on the entire system, not individual parts.

The pricing is actually quite competitive. In Azure environments, it gets beaten by Microsoft API Gateway, but on the other hand, it offers some features that Microsoft lacks. So it really comes down to cost-benefit in the end.

I would rate the pricing a three out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive. 

Understand the projected or expected growth rate, the nature of your API usage, and any industry-specific support available from Tyk or its competitors. Some tools are better suited for certain market sectors. 

Most importantly, focus on the total cost, including anticipated server growth, not just call volume growth.

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

TIBCO Cloud API Management is used for various purposes, such as in the case of the Apple Watch.

When a subscriber comes for the first time to activate the Apple Watch, it connects through the web sheet, SMDP, which is a system deployed in the cloud. It talks to the local system to provision the same, download profile, and complete all those processes. These processes go through Apigee, and Apigee communicates with internal other systems. Apigee functions as a public gateway where users can interact, and there are profiles that have complete authentication authorization. Internally, it operates as private integration, point-to-point, after the firewall.

TIBCO Cloud API Management offers API management plus the ability to orchestrate all inbound and outbound API calls. When an API is exposed to the external system, it functions as a single integration. Behind the scenes, you can perform extensive API modeling, aggregation, and downstream systems can have more than one API and give the response back to a single API call. It has many features such as orchestration rule engine, which makes it quite good.

TIBCO Cloud API Management has brought numerous benefits for our organization, especially in product maturity and support. Sales and support are strong areas, and I think it is very good. If they do not get the right support, then they should consider other options. The sales and support also provides cost optimization.

There are some areas for improvement in TIBCO Cloud API Management, especially regarding network protocols such as SMPP, SMTP, GVI, SVI, and Diameter which could show performance issues in terms of handling and connection management pooling efficiency. If you want to override something, particularly your own configurations, then it works, but if you have very low traffic, then you can sense it. For heavy load users, especially concerning the network protocol, we are facing performance issues.

I have been using TIBCO Cloud API Management for quite long as I joined this organization three years ago, and the company was using it before that. The capabilities and services they have launched for the end customer demonstrate that Apigee is needed here because it is exposed to the public. All the local integration, authentication, and authorization with the public network has been present for quite a long time.

There were no challenges in how TIBCO Cloud API Management integrates with our existing cloud services and third-party tools. The integration process is very easy and straightforward.

TIBCO Cloud API Management is very stable. In terms of all integration, especially the IT system integration, whether it is a customer app, dealer app, or courier app front end, we have around 1,000 plus stores connected through Apigee and TIBCO, which act as the backbone of the entire organization. Approximately 2,000 plus different APIs are exposed over TIBCO, in terms of simple, medium, large, super large, and complex implementations.

TIBCO Cloud API Management is very scalable, and we can easily scale it. It is just a matter of having automation here with dynamic pod and everything. It is very easy in terms of scalability, especially during the Apple launch. The team is already prepared in advance to meet the required load, the number of transactions, and to support everything.

I get involved at a later stage when the TIBCO team is not able to solve the problem or when we face challenges. If something escalates to level three, then I interact with them, trying to explain the problem statement. I find they are good at their work and very professional.

I would rate TIBCO's technical support around an 8.

Positive

I do not have any background or comparative study between different middleware product providers, so I cannot comment on those aspects.

I am on the solution side. We have an implementation team managed by Accenture. The entire TIBCO implementation is managed by Accenture, and they handle the delivery.

We are an end user and we have no partnership with TIBCO. All these solutions are managed by partners. We have outsourced to Accenture, Netcracker, Atos, and Ericsson. They are managing our solution, and they directly manage the licensing requirements. It is a long-term deal with five-year or ten-year contracts.

We use a local cloud with a Kubernetes solution integrated with the public cloud.

We have used the Lifecycle feature in TIBCO Cloud API Management, along with versioning of the APIs. We are looking at backward compatibility, and we are using other features such as throttling because we are allocating the required number of sessions to the user, limiting how they can use it.

We have a compliance team monitoring everything, including implementations, roles, and access provisions. They are monitoring the entire solution very closely.

Our partners might use the developer portals feature within TIBCO Cloud API Management. There should definitely be one portal, as it is necessary for developing the whole orchestration rules and everything. They are using several components of TIBCO including TIBCO BusinessWorks.

TIBCO Cloud API Management's versatility in deployment options is very important for our organization because they have been using it since the beginning of this organization, for about 20 years. They trust this product heavily, which is why they continue using it. Currently, they are also doing transformation while still using TIBCO with many adaptors.

I rate TIBCO Cloud API Management a 9 out of 10.