IBM DataPower Gateway vs Microsoft System Center comparison

IBM and Microsoft are both solutions in the Application Infrastructure category. IBM is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.5, while Microsoft is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.8. IBM holds a 4.4% mindshare in AIS, compared to Microsoft’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

IBM DataPower Gateway

Read 29 IBM DataPower Gateway reviews

711 Views
191 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Microsoft System Center

Read 19 Microsoft System Center reviews

184 Views
55 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

IBM DataPower Gateway

Microsoft System Center

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

IBM DataPower Gateway and Microsoft System Center are major players in different categories, with IBM focusing on API management and security, whereas Microsoft excels in IT infrastructure management. IBM seems to have an upper hand in API security features, while Microsoft stands out in infrastructure management, automation, and monitoring.

Features: IBM DataPower Gateway is known for robust API security, data transformation, and scalability capabilities. Microsoft System Center is recognized for infrastructure management, automation, and monitoring, offering comprehensive IT service management.

Room for Improvement: IBM DataPower Gateway could improve its deployment process and reduce complexity for users not specialized in API management. Microsoft System Center could enhance its integration capabilities with non-Microsoft environments and offer a smoother learning curve for users new to its ecosystem.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft System Center is praised for its seamless integration into Microsoft environments and strong support infrastructure. IBM DataPower Gateway offers good support but has a more complex deployment process due to its specialized API management focus, which may require special expertise.

Pricing and ROI: IBM DataPower Gateway typically involves a higher initial investment but offers significant ROI for organizations requiring advanced API management. Microsoft System Center is often seen as offering better value, particularly for organizations invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, due to its comprehensive IT management capabilities and lower initial setup costs.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft System Center Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft System Center

June 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 857,028 peers since 2012

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

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (5th), SOA Application Gateways (1st), API Management (12th)

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 (22nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of IBM DataPower Gateway is 4.4%, up from 3.3% 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.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product is stable...The product is scalable."

"It is easy to use, easy to install, and it's resilient for high availability."

"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. Compared to other gateways, I also like that IBM DataPower Gateway is function-rich. For example, for one of the projects, there was a need for specific transformation and security features available in IBM DataPower Gateway out of the box, so my team just needed to configure the appliance. There was no need for separate development, and I found it quite neat. Another valuable feature of IBM DataPower Gateway is that it's easy to integrate with other products."

"It is very easy to set up and configure, even for users with no prior experience."

"The most valuable feature is the security appliance, it's very secure."

"The solution is scalable, our customers are mostly South African banks and they handle mostly transactions with this solution."

"The solution is very easy to work with."

"It is a scalable solution."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pros

"The detail in the alarms is great."

"The product's initial setup phase was easy."

"The features that I have found most valuable are the ease of configuration and the easy discovery of the environment."

"Managment Packs for Microsoft-specific products, help us implement the best practices for each product."

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

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

"The solution is easily available. That's its most valuable aspect."

"The deployment and asset management features are the most valuable. These are the product's main features."

More Microsoft System Center pros

Cons

"The DCDR process should be less complex."

"Its support services could be better."

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

"They should improve the solution's clustering features."

"Additional documentation needs to be provided for complex automations."

"An area for improvement in IBM DataPower Gateway is its price point because it's a relatively expensive product. Sometimes, when the customer use case is just a very small subset of what's being offered in IBM DataPower Gateway, then the product can be expensive, making my company lose some of the opportunities because of the expensive pricing. A lower price point for IBM DataPower Gateway, even if that results in a less feature-rich version, would be appreciated. In terms of additional features that I'd like to see in the next release of IBM DataPower Gateway, nothing specific comes to mind because IBM constantly improves its standards and provides quarterly updates to the product, so it's quite fine."

"We are always looking for more features wherein it could be easily integrated with cloud applications. We are looking for either a cloud solution or a cloud integration option."

"The IBM community does not have much engagement from the IT community in Saudi Arabia and developers for this solution are difficult to find."

More IBM DataPower Gateway cons

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

"Less server consumption would help, as would better, more flexible reports."

"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."

"The platform's performance could be improved. Additionally, its UI needs to be well-upgraded and work faster."

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

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."

"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."

"Implementation and integration in the case of multi-tenant environments needs improvement."

More Microsoft System Center cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive."

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

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

"It's expensive when you compare it with others."

"As far as I know, they have a perpetual license for this product. They are paying perpetual fees rather than an annual subscription or annual pricing."

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

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

"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."

More IBM DataPower Gateway pricing and cost advice

"Microsoft System Center is quite expensive."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"We maximized our license investment."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Infrastructure solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

857,028 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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft System Center?

The product's initial setup phase was easy.

See all answers

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

Microsoft System Center's licensing is costly.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM API Connect vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 34% of the time

Apigee vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Azure API Management vs IBM DataPower Gateway

Compared 7% 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 56% of the time

IBM BPM vs Microsoft System Center

Compared 44% of the time

More Microsoft System Center Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway

April 2025

Download IBM DataPower Gateway product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft System Center

May 2025

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

Buyer's Guide

IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft System Center

June 2025

Free Report: IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft System Center

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft System Center and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our IBM DataPower Gateway vs. Microsoft System Center report.

See our list of best Application Infrastructure vendors.

We monitor all Application Infrastructure reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.