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IBM MQ vs Software AG Apama comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 MQ
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
173
Ranking in other categories
Business Activity Monitoring (1st), Message Queue (MQ) Software (1st), Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) (1st)
Software AG Apama
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
CEP (1st), Streaming Analytics (23rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

IBM MQ and Software AG Apama aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. IBM MQ is designed for Message Queue (MQ) Software and holds a mindshare of 24.7%, up 22.4% compared to last year.
Software AG Apama, on the other hand, focuses on CEP, holds 23.1% mindshare, down 27.9% since last year.
Message Queue (MQ) Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM MQ24.7%
ActiveMQ24.2%
Red Hat AMQ9.6%
Other41.5%
Message Queue (MQ) Software
CEP Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Software AG Apama23.1%
TIBCO Streaming20.9%
IBM Operational Decision Manager11.2%
Other44.8%
CEP
 

Featured Reviews

David Pizinger - PeerSpot reviewer
Has faced unexpected VM restarts but continues to deliver messages reliably
I'm not sure if we've utilized IBM MQ's high availability. Our MQ VMs are set up in clusters, and I think our queue managers are set up in pairs. However, I don't know if we actually use any specific high availability features of IBM MQ that are out of the box. We have it architected with high availability because we use F5 load balancers, and everything about our architecture is highly available. I haven't personally used the management tools with IBM MQ, but we do have them, and our middleware folks leverage them. I can't really comment on them because I don't use them myself. I don't think the management tools help optimize message flows, and I'm not really aware of how they help in this. I'm not familiar with dynamic routing for IBM MQ.
SP
A tool to send out promotional notifications that need to improve areas, like deployment and maintenance
Software AG Apama should support offline scenarios as it may not always be possible to stay connected with the cloud. The solution should be deployed on an on-premises model, and it should be able to handle offline scenarios. If certain rules are set in Software AG Apama, then it should be able to execute them without being connected to an open internet source. With Software AG Apama, one may face challenges since it is difficult to find people with the right skill set to operate it. The solution also makes use of a proprietary programming language that is hard to trace in the market. It is better to go with the new options available in the market since Software AG Apama has become an old product. The ease of development and maintenance should be enhanced, but it is difficult due to the use of the proprietary programming language in the product.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The high availability and session recovery are the most valuable features because we need the solution live all day."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The usability of the solution is very good."
"I like the MQ's simplicity and rock-solid stability. I've never experienced a failure in two decades caused by the product itself. It has only failed due to human error."
"I would rate the solution ten out of ten because I have been working on it for the past fifteen years."
"We have implemented business to business transactions over MQ messaging. The guaranteed and once only delivery ensures business integrity."
"It is easy to create a new queue, and the queue manager connecting to the remote queue works smoothly once the IP and port are included."
"I haven't seen any issues with respect to the message loss."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the ability that it provides its users to handle different kinds of rules."
 

Cons

"They could integrate monitoring into the solution, a bit more than they do now. Currently, they have opened the REST API so you can get statistic and accounting information and details from MQ and build your own monitoring, if you want. IBM can improve the solution in this direction."
"Better error handling, such as a default dead message queue for errors, would be beneficial."
"At a recent conference, I went to a presentation that had the latest version and it has amazing stuff that's coming out. So, I am excited to use those, specifically surrounding the web console and the fact that it's API integrated."
"I couldn't find a lot of information on the system API side."
"Scaling is difficult with IBM MQ."
"We have had scalability issues with some projects in the past."
"They need to add the ability to send full messages (header + payload) from the MQ Explorer program, not just the payload."
"Customer support response times could be improved."
"The ease of development and maintenance should be enhanced, but it is difficult due to the use of the proprietary programming language in the product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Small-scale companies may not want to buy IBM MQ because of its high cost."
"The license for IBM MQ is commercial and not cheap. You get a multi-platform solution, which is important because it lets you connect systems on mainframes, personal solutions, Unix, Linux, etc."
"I rate the product price a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"I think IBM needs to look at its pricing. The prices of IBM products should be simple. The old way of pricing should now be moving on to the cloud to be pay as you go, a plan-based kind of pricing."
"The price is high."
"The pricing needs improvement."
"IBM's licensing model seems more reasonable than some competitors. They charge based on usage, which is good."
"The pricing seems good according to the functionality that the solution provides."
"A commercial license is required to operate Software AG Apama."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
35%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Healthcare Company
4%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise146
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is MQ software?
Hi As someone with 45+ years of experience in the Transaction and Message Processing world, I have seen many "MQ" solutions that have come into the market place. From my perspective, while each pro...
What are the differences between Apache Kafka and IBM MQ?
Apache Kafka is open source and can be used for free. It has very good log management and has a way to store the data used for analytics. Apache Kafka is very good if you have a high number of user...
How does IBM MQ compare with VMware RabbitMQ?
IBM MQ has a great reputation behind it, and this solution is very robust with great stability. It is easy to use, simple to configure and integrates well with our enterprise ecosystem and protocol...
What do you like most about Software AG Apama?
The most valuable feature of the solution is the ability that it provides its users to handle different kinds of rules.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Software AG Apama?
A commercial license is required to operate Software AG Apama.
What needs improvement with Software AG Apama?
Software AG Apama should support offline scenarios as it may not always be possible to stay connected with the cloud. The solution should be deployed on an on-premises model, and it should be able ...
 

Also Known As

WebSphere MQ
Progress Apama
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Deutsche Bahn, Bon-Ton, WestJet, ARBURG, Northern Territory Government, Tata Steel Europe, Sharp Corporation
Okasan Online Securities
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