IBM DataPower Gateway vs Microsoft System Center comparison

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft System Center

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

IBM DataPower Gateway

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

6th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (4th), SOA Application Gateways (1st), API Management (7th)

Microsoft System Center

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

13th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Monitoring Software (24th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 4.6%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft System Center is 1.0%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

Mehdi El Filahi

Co-Founder at tenekit

Security features meets compliance needs and offers MPGW (Multi-Protocol Gateway) that simplifies integration efforts

While I like IBM products, I'm not an evangelist. I work with Java, Microsoft ASP.NET, and various technologies. I'm not tied to any specific vendor. However, I do find IBM to be a bit greedy. It's a large, profit-driven company. The support team is mostly based in India, and they follow a very structured process and protocol. Sometimes, it feels like playing ping pong with them – lots of back and forth before the problem gets escalated. You might even have to get your sales rep involved to push things along. For me, the support it could be better. Indian support teams aren't inherently bad, but with IBM, it feels impersonal. They respond, sure. But if it's a complex technical issue, they might ask you a lot of questions that just seem designed to waste your time. Sometimes it feels like they hope you'll get frustrated and solve the problem yourself.

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Ajinkya Mohod

System Security Engineer at Punch Powertrain nv

Makes user management and application management easy for users

Speaking about the impact of the automation feature that impacted our company's operational efficiency, I can say that the complete tool works on automation. You just have to configure it, and it works, especially in areas like auto-patching updates. I suggest that others can definitely go ahead with Microsoft System Center, especially beginners who choose it, can get hands-on experience with it, and acquire a good understanding of how things work. In terms of the value and benefits derived from the use of the solution, I can say that my company's operations have been made simpler because of the product, especially in areas like user management and application management where we have been benefited a lot. I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I like that it is very stable, and we never experience any downtime."

"The scalability of the solution is good."

"What I like most is the stability."

"The performance is good. It's been very stable."

"I like the tool's security. Also, all functionalities are integrated within on platform."

"I like the API Gateway feature."

"I like all of the features in this product and it does what it's supposed to do."

"The solution is straightforward and for large organizations, it functions well."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pros

"System Center helps to create the basis for ITIL alignment."

"Good for managing and administering the infrastructure."

"The installation process is easy."

"The tool has many valuable features, including license tracking, software deployment, and installation deployment. However, we primarily use it for Windows updates and deployment for Windows servers and desktops. It's a complex product but very well-managed. If you use all the features, they will be valuable to your organization. It allows you to deploy desktops, manage patches, and track various features."

"I like the automated features of it that let you schedule those updates and the ability of the product to focus on the specific updates, specific platforms, and products that we're interested in keeping up to date."

"It can generate KPIs and management reports with monthly presentations on activities and updating the environment (success and failure)."

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it helps us manage our company's application pool, license pool, application update pool, and OS updates."

"Many processes could be implemented out-of-the-box, and this helped to adopt processes in areas which we lacked."

More Microsoft System Center pros

Cons

"The solution requires a lot of training manuals in order to get to know it better and to be able to use it effectively."

"Making it more user-friendly would be an improvement."

"They should add features to manage API integrations."

"The components that they include in the product that are, in fact, a WTX, really need to be removed from the product because they tend to fail."

"It is a costly product."

"The initial setup isn't so easy, you need who has experience working with the solution to help."

"The product's cost for data appliances or hardware is quite high. It needs improvement."

"I would like the tool to improve its training."

More IBM DataPower Gateway cons

"The platform performance and responsiveness need improvement. It still demands high computing resources."

"The solution's dashboard needs improvement."

"They should have some customized solutions or internal development, then maybe it could be easier to use different solutions or some self-developed solution."

"Something super important that we need is this integration via Intune Configuration Manager."

"For me, the tool's UI seems to be too old."

"In Microsoft System Center, it is difficult to follow the steps to create dataflows at times."

"Most of the documentation is online, however, there are some gaps there. The product documentation still refers back to the 2012 Server. We're pretty much in 2022. There's a ten-year gap there."

"We have some bugs but it's stable. It doesn't break every day. It works. Like other applications, it has a lot of bugs but they're manageable."

More Microsoft System Center cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is very high and requires all five components in the API management solution."

"The total cost of IBM DataPower Gateway would depend on the configuration, but in my experience, it can amount to 60,000 Euros per box, even for the virtual version. Usually, customers need high availability and a non-production environment, so the total price for IBM DataPower Gateway can be quite a lot. It can be 200,000 Euros or a similar figure."

"The solution is expensive in comparison to other products."

"Most customers' use case budgets are not inlined with the price of IBM DataPower Gateway. It is too expensive."

"The appliance is a bit on the expensive side for the workloads that are not too high."

"This product is a bit expensive as IBM products are costly assets. However, for enterprise customers it is a worthwhile investment."

"The tool's initial costing is expensive for small banks and financial institutions."

"The product is expensive."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pricing and cost advice

"I know that sometimes there is some reduction in the prices of Microsoft System Center because of the costs of Microsoft SQL Server, which can be advantageous."

"I rate the product price as five to six on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is cheap and ten means it is expensive."

"It's rolled into our enterprise subscription. The entire subscription is around $25,000 a year, however, that covers all the products that we use."

"Microsoft System Center's licensing is costly."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."

"Microsoft System Center is quite expensive."

"We maximized our license investment."

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849,963 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

30%

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM DataPower Gateway?

The MPGW (Multi-Protocol Gateway) is great because it allows you to easily expose services using various protocols – web services, REST (JSON), and others. This flexibility simplifies things.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM DataPower Gateway?

I would rate the pricing a two out of ten, with one being high price, and ten being low price. It's high-priced for smaller companies. But it is okay for enterprises. So, the price could be more fl...

What needs improvement with IBM DataPower Gateway?

The DCDR process should be less complex. AI should improve developer efficiency and effort. Whenever I am writing code, it should give recommendations automatically by incorporating AI so I can wri...

What do you like most about Microsoft System Center?

The product's initial setup phase was easy.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft System Center?

Microsoft System Center's licensing is costly.

What needs improvement with Microsoft System Center?

Microsoft System Center should be easier to manage. However, it is complex to deploy, so people hesitate to use it. Though it has many features, such as licensing, asset tracking, and software depl...

IBM API Connect vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Comparisons

Compared 34% of the time

Apigee vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 8% of the time

Kong Gateway Enterprise vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 6% of the time

Amazon API Gateway vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM DataPower Gateway Competitors

Veeam Data Platform vs Microsoft System Center

Compared 52% of the time

IBM BPM vs Microsoft System Center

Compared 48% of the time

More Microsoft System Center Competitors

Product Reports

IBM DataPower Gateway

Download IBM DataPower Gateway product report

Microsoft System Center

Download Microsoft System Center product report

Also Known As

WebSphere DataPower, IBM DataPower, IBM WebSphere DataPower

MS System Center

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

System Center helps customers realize the benefits of the Microsoft Cloud Platform by delivering unified management. Experience fast time-to-value with out-of-the-box monitoring, provisioning, configuration, automation, protection and self-service.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

RBL Bank, Availity

Kassen_rztliche Vereinigung Nordrhein, Magyar Telekom Nyrt., Adeka, QualCare, Aeriandi, UniCredit Bank d.d., Mostar, Allianz Australia Ltd., Grupo Familia

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft System Center