IBM App Connect Reviews

IBM App Connect serves as our integration platform, allowing us to connect application systems and data without heavy load or heavy coding. In my current organization, we use the AWS cloud, and IBM App Connect enables us to easily integrate with that AWS cloud. We also have Salesforce and Slack alerts, so we can handle Slack channels, pop-ups, and file uploads using the platform.

Everything is on the cloud right now, so we need cloud-to-cloud support. IBM App Connect makes it very easy to integrate from cloud to cloud. The platform also supports cloud, on-premises, and hybrid integration. We are using the cloud integration for all our requirements.

Since everything is on the cloud, we have to integrate everything on the cloud for whatever we require. We use IBM App Connect for anything we need to build, any Slack-related work, and ServiceNow automation. We have ServiceNow trigger new incidents, and we have to alert those things via mail and Teams. This kind of automation is easily handled through the platform.

With minimal code, we can easily integrate with other systems. IBM App Connect offers a low-code, no-code approach. Sometimes we don't need any code, and sometimes we need a little bit of code. There are hundreds of connectors available, which reduces custom API work. The data mapping UI provides visual mapping, auto-suggest, and field mapping. Transmission between JSON, XML, and CSV formats is also possible. IBM App Connect provides hybrid integration support, which I really appreciate. Built-in error handling and security features are included, such as OAuth 2.0, TLS, secret management, and role-based access. One main feature is that IBM App Connect is Kubernetes-friendly, running well on the OpenShift container in my runtime environment.

The low-code approach significantly reduces the time of our resources. We can even reduce the number of resources because the integration doesn't require heavy coding. This saves both time and money.

I don't have an exact number, but for traditional coding that would take one day, IBM App Connect can finish the work in about four hours. Authorization and authentication API setup, which would typically require one to two days, can be finished within one to two hours maximum. Data mapping that would take around six to eight hours can be done within one hour using IBM App Connect. The same applies to error handling, testing, and fixing. Overall, 50 to 60% of the time is saved when using IBM App Connect.

IBM App Connect definitely saves a lot of time, approximately 50 to 60%. Based on the time savings, we can reduce the number of employees needed. For resource utilization, we can use fewer resources. With the time saved, we need fewer employees, and based on that, we save money on reduced resources.

IBM App Connect provides many features, but there are several areas for improvement. Better debugging and observability would help us track any single transaction end-to-end across steps and connectors. Features such as a step-by-step line view and one-click download for flow execution would be beneficial. Improved CI/CD pipeline and GitOps experience would be valuable. The team wants flows as code and predictable promotion across development, test, and production environments. Stronger native Git integration, export-import functionalities, and first-class pipeline templates like Jenkins, GitHub, and Azure DevOps would be beneficial. More cloud-native, lightweight runtime options would be very helpful. Connector reliability and consistency need improvement because some connectors feel more mature than others, and version changes can break mapping. Pricing and licensing clarity is important because the licensing is complex and can slow down adoption and planning.

Some improvement areas include handling very complex structures that the platform currently does not support. Improvements on the DevOps side, particularly providing templates, would be beneficial. The platform is somewhat expensive and hard to predict in terms of cost. Debugging features need to be provided. For CI/CD, the flows are not truly accurate and need improvement.

I have used IBM App Connect since 2021, when I was at my previous company.

IBM App Connect is stable.

IBM App Connect is very scalable and a flexible tool. We can easily scale between any connector or anything.

The customer support is available 24/7. Anytime we need any help, support is accessible.

Negative

Before IBM App Connect, I used a few solutions, including custom point-to-point integration. There were problems with tight coupling, central bottlenecks everywhere, and long release cycles. IBM App Connect overcomes these issues.

The pricing is somewhat high. The setup looks very simple, but the licensing takes more time to obtain.

IBM App Connect's low-code approach allows us to reduce the time required from our resources. We can even reduce the number of resources because integration doesn't require heavy coding, saving both time and money.

IBM App Connect definitely saves significant time, approximately 50 to 60%. Based on the time savings, we can reduce the number of employees needed. For resource utilization, we can use fewer resources. With the time saved, we need fewer employees, and based on that, we save money on reduced resources.

We are using the private cloud deployment on AWS. My company purchased IBM App Connect through the AWS Marketplace. IBM App Connect is a very user-friendly tool, and we can very easily integrate with other applications. I would definitely recommend it. The overall review rating for IBM App Connect is 7.5 out of 10.

I am a developer specializing in IBM App Connect. We have a customer interested in comparing ESB tools, such as webMethods, which was previously owned by Software AG company before IBM acquired the product.

We work with the on-premises version because in Turkiye, our customers cannot use cloud platforms due to data privacy policies. They must use on-premises solutions.

We primarily work with banking and insurance company solutions. At the bank where I work, our company provides support to other companies. Their developers are not highly experienced, so they contact our company for assistance. We help with direct connection to their services and solve problems when IBM App Connect encounters issues.

The transformation capabilities in IBM App Connect are particularly beneficial. When consuming SAP data, converting data fields is straightforward. File operations are simple to execute, and converting between XML to JSON formats is effortless with IBM App Connect.

The mapping node functionality for data transformation enhances the integration workflow significantly. Users can utilize mapping nodes or SQL, though the mapping node provides a more streamlined approach for transformations. Additionally, containerizing applications is very straightforward with this solution.

The transition between version 12 and version 13 presents some challenges. While version 12 had approximately 10 features, version 13 includes around 200 features with cloud platform compatibility. The learning curve for developers moving from version 12 to 13 could be smoother.

When using new components, better context explanations would be beneficial. In version 13, accessing new features requires connecting through a web browser, which can be challenging to understand. The explanation of new features could be more user-friendly.

I have been using IBM App Connect for nearly five years.

The deployment process is straightforward, but there is one significant challenge: the license cost is very expensive compared to other tools.

Configuration time varies depending on the implementation. For insurance companies requiring JDBC connections, the setup is relatively simple when deploying bar files to the server. However, some companies require multiple configurations, including ODBC connections, JDBC connections, different BI databases, main databases, and replication servers. IBM App Connect occasionally crashes for various reasons, requiring problem-solving intervention.

IBM App Connect demonstrates good scalability. With version 11, services can be developed and prepared as Docker zip files for use with Kubernetes platform. The product, formerly known as Integration bus, evolved through versions 10, 11, 12, and 13 to become IBM App Connect Enterprise.

Global IBM support is excellent. When we encounter problems in Turkiye with banking customers, the local IBM partner sometimes struggles to resolve issues. However, when opening a ticket with the global team, problems are resolved promptly and effectively.

The official IBM support in Turkiye, while functional, is not as experienced as the global team in problem-solving capabilities.

Positive

I have compared IBM App Connect to webMethods. The system occasionally crashes for various reasons, requiring resolution.

The basic installation process takes approximately 5 minutes, involving a download and setup wizard. However, additional configuration time is required for implementing IBM MQ, ODBC, JDBC, and other tools. The complete setup process, including all configurations, typically takes around two weeks.

We provide integration services to other companies, particularly in the banking and insurance sectors. These companies often require assistance with deploying and configuring IBM App Connect due to their lack of expertise. We support them by addressing issues and facilitating direct connections to their services.

Moreover, in cases involving IBM App Connect crashes or technical challenges, I liaise with the global IBM support for effective solutions, as local support in Turkiye occasionally lacks the necessary experience. Our team serves as a reliable resource, sharing expertise to enhance their capabilities and ensure smooth operations with IBM App Connect.

The system has demonstrated its value by efficiently handling the transfer of services to ESB IBM App Connect, managing large service volumes effectively.

Configuration time varies by implementation. For insurance companies with simple JDBC connections, the process is straightforward. However, companies requiring multiple configurations for ODBC, JDBC connections, BI databases, main databases, and replication servers require more extensive setup time. The exact duration depends on specific requirements and cannot be precisely specified.

As an IBM App Connect developer, we have customers interested in comparing other ESB tools, particularly webMethods, which was previously owned by Software AG company before IBM acquired the product.

The global technical support rates a nine out of ten, while the Turkiye support receives a seven out of ten. The product itself is good, rating an eight out of ten for pricing, though this is influenced by country-specific exchange rates. Overall, I would rate IBM App Connect as nine out of ten.

I have been using IBM App Connect for application integration.

The features I find most valuable are message routing, message transformation, and protocol translation. IBM App Connect is a market leader and has been migrated to the cloud, allowing it to run efficiently in that environment.

I don't see any necessary improvements as IBM App Connect has been a market leader for many years. I find it particularly good for on-premises and now cloud use. Any major improvements have been addressed with App Connect Enterprise. Perhaps more tutorials for the training of new people who want to learn IBM App Connect would be beneficial.

I have been working with IBM App Connect for eleven years.

I would rate the stability of IBM App Connect as nine out of ten.

I would rate the scalability of IBM App Connect as nine out of ten. It has options to scale up integrations as required, especially when the traffic to the application is higher.

The technical support from IBM is good. I have worked with the IBM team on several products, and overall, it is satisfactory.

Positive

The initial setup of IBM App Connect is not tough. It's relatively easy and just requires installing the software.

Competitors to IBM App Connect include MuleSoft. However, I have never worked on Mule ESB, so I can't offer a comparison.

I recommend IBM App Connect Enterprise to everyone. It is suitable for all company sizes, from small domestic banks to large corporations in various industries such as banking, insurance, and airlines. I would rate the overall solution as eight or nine.

Our company has a big project for delivery and e-commerce sites. We use IBM App Connect to deliver information to our end users after they buy our products. We get information from many places, such as enterprise solutions and other applications. We send information and gather information from them to use in our web applications. We give our end users updates on the status of the products they bought from us.

The solution is very fast-paced when it comes to making things right. We can quickly download what we need if we need any app migrations for our software business. We can download it plenty of times when we need to use it. It gives us very high speed for delivering any development. 

The tool's automation capabilities have given us great automation abilities, especially on the factory side. We have many integrations, creating value by using this capability. We're canceling many manual processes and migrating them to IBM App Connect automation. This is improving and helping our way of working and developing many integrations.

We can handle many complex integrations that were difficult with other solutions. In other tools, we often needed to do a lot of coding and write many things from scratch. But with the solution, many things are already ready in the platform. This gives us high confidence and saves time, especially for complex integrations.

For simple tasks, the difference between products might not be obvious. However, IBM App Connect makes it easy in complex environments where we take data from many different applications, send it to another app, and apply algorithms. It's useful for these more complicated integrations. The solution is also more mature than other products. 

Finding developers for the product is difficult since it is a niche solution. I know the OpenShift environment is running well for the microservice environment. We had some issues with the other environment we tried to implement. It can be easily implemented internally, but we have some problems in practice.

I have been working with the product for three years. 

The solution is generally stable from an application perspective. If regular maintenance, such as patching and upgrading to the latest enterprise versions, is done on time, you should be on the safe side with minimal issues. However, neglecting updates on the web server could lead to problems.

The tool is scalable. However, there are considerations regarding tool licensing and costs. Companies worldwide are focusing on cost reductions, which can impact scalability. While the current licensing might be sufficient for existing applications and APIs, adding new APIs and developments could increase usage statistics, necessitating additional licenses. This would mean extra costs, which might bring about different considerations from management. My company has 100 users. 

If you have experience with other similar systems, the tool's deployment is straightforward; I can say that. But if you're new to it, it can be difficult to understand which menu you must download, what kind of files you need, and many other things. It's not easy to understand at first. However, after one or two installations, it becomes very straightforward to do further implementations and installations.

Our deployment strategy for IBM App Connect is part of our larger plan to move all applications to the cloud. However, we face some challenges, especially in Europe due to GDPR and in Turkey due to local laws like KVKK. These regulations make moving to global cloud providers like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud difficult.

Deploying to some local providers isn't easy, and this is a major consideration in our strategy for installing IBM App Connect or any other applications in the cloud. We must consider this and arrange all other steps for solutions accordingly.

Deployment is usually easier with global cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure because their service management works well with App Connect. As I mentioned before, App Connect Enterprise supports OpenShift very well, which is powerful.

However, in some cases, we need to expand the environment for our applications. This is another point to consider when planning our cloud deployment strategies. The deployment process can be completed in two weeks, depending on the environment we're working with. If we're working with a local cloud provider, it can get more complex. This is because local cloud providers often don't have experts familiar with OpenShift, so we need more parties involved in installing IBM App Connect in the cloud.

However, if we work with a global cloud provider like AWS, we can install with a smaller team. Maintaining the tool isn't difficult if it runs on a stable infrastructure. The maintenance process is straightforward in a secure and stable environment. However, maintenance becomes more complex if the infrastructure is unstable or insecure.

It's worth to work with the product in the long term. 

IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products. 

If you're not missing any business opportunities, IBM App Connect is a great tool to work with as an enterprise service for managing many tasks. It is excellent for developing APIs, integrating various services, and simplifying development processes. It offers easy development and integration capabilities, making it a highly recommended tool. I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten. 

We use it to transform data, route data, and validate data. So, App Connect is an enterprise service bus (ESB), like Mule, Fuse, or Appian. This means it's really an enterprise service bus, and we use it for integration. We interconnect applications and protocols with App Connect.

I like the adapters. The adapters help us achieve scalability. If you want to connect to SAP, there's an adapter. Salesforce? There's an adapter. You want to connect to another system? There's likely an adapter for that. 

You want to connect to various services like Gmail, email, FTP, SFTP, MQ, JMS – anything you want, it's likely included in App Connect through the adapters.

The main advantage is that it's a central point. If we compare it to a country, it's the post office.

There is room for improvement in the logging messages. Sometimes, if you put someone new into App Connect, they can abandon it the same day. The logging is really painful. 

However,  IBM has made efforts to integrate with Elasticsearch for logging, so that's an improvement. Overall, the logging can be difficult at times.

One more important point is that if IBM improves its CI/CD capabilities, it will make a big difference. Right now, I have to create my own CI/CD setup from scratch for every client, which is inefficient.

Back in 2013, I worked with Sonic ESB, and even then, it had CI/CD with Maven. With App Connect, you need to build everything yourself when using tools like Jenkins, Bamboo, or CircleCI. IBM really needs to provide official support for this.

I have been using it for nine years. 

I've had stability problems in the past, but the issues were usually due to configuration errors.

When we're able to prove that the problem is with the tool itself, IBM sends what it calls a 'fix pack' to address the specific issue. 

We never had scalability issues. We always install it in cluster mode, and it's been very reliable. I've never had a problem scaling it up.

I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. 

It's the typical IBM support experience. Sometimes, you send a message, and you can tell it'll be handled in India or some other company. 

You get the feeling that some support staff are just waiting to go home, but sometimes you get a really good person who follows through. It's inconsistent.

Support is definitely a weak point.

Neutral

Every company I've been to, I had to redo everything. I connect to their Linux system – just dev, not even quality, UAT, or production. They give me dev access, I connect, and I test things.

it's not that the setup is difficult, but there are many factors. 

I send an email explaining the issues I find. Twice in my life, this email went all the way to the board with the CIO and others. They questioned my findings, and after I provided detailed explanations, they asked me to fix the problems.

There are two main things. First, App Connect is very strict software. You need to read every line of the documentation. If the documentation says 'don't do this', then don't do it. People sometimes don't have time and skip around in the documentation.

Then, I come in and find issues. Like, I've been to a company – a big insurance company managing millions – where there were no passwords or restrictions on their production App Connect and MQ systems. I asked what was going on!

This is just one example. I went to another company where they changed the file access rights ('chmod' in Linux) on MQ, even though the MQ documentation specifically says not to touch them or that it will break. It's written in the PDF, and someone changed it anyway to make their life easier. But those changes create problems because you're paid to manage complexity, not avoid it.

So, installation is not easy, and there are many options. Also, you need to understand the contract you signed with IBM. If you signed up for active-active clusters, don't set it up as active-passive. IBM can take legal action if you violate the contract terms. And so on.

It's the same for MQ because MQ is strongly linked with App Connect. They can be installed independently now (that wasn't possible in old versions like IIB), but many clients only wanted the ESB. So, IBM separated them. There's a strong relationship between MQ and App Connect, and some App Connect features require MQ.

There are two different versions of App Connect Cloud – Smart Connect and one that's similar to the on-premises version. So, it can be confusing for someone new to it.

For a good ROI, you need to find someone who works well. If the person isn't skilled, your ROI will suffer. The problem is there aren't many of us with this expertise.

If a company has a good individual or, better yet, a good team, then App Connect works well. But many young people don't want to put in the effort. It requires a wide knowledge base - Salesforce, SAP, SFTP, HTTP, security, and more. They'd rather specialize in Java or .NET.

With any ESB (not just App Connect), you need patience and a willingness to learn. It's a common problem with other ESBs like Fuse and Mule, too.

App Connect is not cheap. But there might be other products like Cisco that are even more expensive.

My recommendation depends on lots of factors. Things like architecture, design, existing IBM products, and budget all play a role in the decision. For a small company, I might suggest something cheaper.

But App Connect is a very good tool. 

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

I'm part of a significant communication company in Europe, and we primarily use IBM App Connect to integrate our CRM system.

One of the most beneficial features is the ability to handle multiple communication technologies, like integrating Kafka flows, which is helpful as other teams heavily use it. Regarding error handling, I initially wrote most of the handling myself. While built-in features for error handling are built-in, it largely depends on the developer. We use a custom solution that catches all exceptions, logs them in a database, and replays them as needed. It has been effective for us for over twenty years.

I've been using IBM App Connect for about twenty-five years, and while I like it, there are some areas for improvement. The trace policy is ridiculous, and the biggest issue is the cost—it's expensive. People would use it much more if the price point weren't so high.

I've used IBM App Connect since around 1999 or 2000 when the solution was called MQSI. I've been using it for approximately twenty-five years now.

App Connect has been incredibly stable over the twenty-five years we've used it. Any incidents were usually related to other components like databases rather than the App Connect broker.

I haven't explored scalability much as we operate on a stable platform and haven't delved into containers or cloud setups yet.

I found IBM's tech support surprisingly good. They responded promptly and delivered a patch within a week for the most recent issue we faced.

Positive

Regarding similar products, occasionally, we've had proposals for other products, but I find IBM App Connect to be the most compatible and reliable for our needs. When comparing it to Kafka, for example, I prefer IBM App Connect because of its ease of deployment, control, and stability.

For IBM App Connect, deployment and installation are straightforward for us. We use Jenkins scripts for automated functionality, making the process easy. It typically takes around forty-five minutes to complete all the steps, including dropping the existing broker version, installing the code, setting up links, restarting with new code, creating a new broker, and deploying.

One engineer is enough to handle the deployment process, as it's automated with Jenkins. Maintenance is minimal, and upgrades are usually straightforward. We encountered a bug with the MQTT model in version twelve, but IBM provided a patch and a script to test it, and the team completed the upgrade in fifteen minutes. Overall, maintenance and upgrades are relatively easy with App Connect.

As for new features, I haven't explored all of them yet, but I appreciate the plug-and-play nature of App Connect with different interfaces.

Overall, I would rate IBM App Connect as nine out of ten, but with the disclaimer that I haven't tested all features extensively. The usual explanation for any drawbacks relates to the pricing and justification for the cost.

IBM App Connect is a mature product because it's been there since the mainframe time, and it's evolving.

We use IBM App Connect for the integration between the applications. You can unify the integration layer into one layer, where you manage the whole integration process. You can simplify the management, operation, and maintenance of the integration layer.

If you want to fix any of your APIs or integration connections, you don't need to do it on all tenants. You need to do it only once in one place, and it will reflect on only one channel. It works with multiple languages and protocols. So, you need to create it once and use it on any different applications that you have.

IBM needs to enhance and have a stronger offering for the event streaming part because this is the future needed for the containerization and the new integration requirement.

I have been using IBM App Connect since 2012.

The overall competence of the solution's first-tier support should be improved since the second and third-tiers are good. The solution also needs to enhance remote support, including opening remote sessions with customers and not depending only on collecting logs. They need to go to layers two and three to connect with you on your system. Having it in earlier stages can speed up solving the problems quickly.

Positive

I previously used IBM Integration Bus.

The solution's pricing isn't cheap, but you can get good discounts based on your competitive deal.

IBM has a complete bundle offering, which is very good because it gives the customer agility and flexibility in using the software. Earlier, if I bought one license, I needed to trade it or remove it to buy new software. Now, I have one license that I can exchange as per my usage, which is good.

As a new offering, they have the Red Hat OpenShift as a containerization platform. They have it embedded with the license; you get it for free. If you want to go into containerization with other products, like MuleSoft or TIBCO, you need to pay for the Red Hat OpenShift, which is an expensive platform.

IBM bundled all the integration software into one bundle, called the cloud platform integration, where with one license, you can have multiple products and pay as per your consumption. You have Cloud Platform Integration, and you can use it for multiple products like App Connect, API Connect, and MQ.

Overall, I rate IBM App Connect a nine out of ten.

Currently, we are using the product as our central middleware. We are using it to eliminate all point connections and expose data centralized service hub for consumers.

It has optimized the service consumption of the consumers and improved the performance since it has a limited point-to-point connection between systems.

The most valuable feature is the user-friendliness of the application. It doesn't require deep technical expertise to consume the features.

The product should improve its support. Unlike other products like Microsoft, IBM does not have a community. The solution needs to work on community building.

The product serves its purpose and our future requirements. However, the product can provide additional connectors and database tables without impacting performance.

We have been using this solution since 2020. So, it's almost three and a half years.

It would rate the stability a ten out of ten. Once we configure the tool, it works by automation.

The solution is very scalable. I rate the scalability a ten out of ten. Around 10 to 15 people use the product in our organization. We use the product daily. The number of users depends on the volume of the services. When the business grows, the consumption volume will also grow.

I rate the ease of initial setup an eight out of ten. The initial setup is complex if you are not familiar with it. Still, it is straightforward if you study the product and have proper training and knowledge of the development and features.

We use an IBM-authorized partner to do the implementation. It took us around one month to deploy the solution. We don't need more than two people for deployment. It's a long and technical process that the supporting vendors do.

I'm not a technical person who works on the ground level. So I do not have the knowledge to explain the deployment process. We have an agreement with the support partner. They handle the maintenance.

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

Our primary use cases mostly revolve around orchestrating information between different data stores and I would say different applications as well. So we would be storing it in the operational data stores or we will be sending the information as files in one of the nodes or we will be sending it for monitoring. So basically it is just moving information from one place to another or doing some validations on the information and then putting them into a database.

I would say that we have a lot of modules in our applications. IBM App Connect has made it easier for us to segment the modules and deploy them separately on the integration server so that we can individually access them. At the same time, we also had a common module where we had a common function. We can utilize that for all the operations. So it gave us that independent isolation as well as the benefits of a shared common platform as well.

I would say that the most valuable feature is the array of connectors and integration tools. It is almost easy to connect to any data store or any other external application. I would say there's a good level of documentation on how to do the same as well as virtual. So I think that is one of the major strengths of IBM App Connect.

The user interface of IBM App Connect can be a little bit more user-friendly, I would say because the first-time developer is onboarded while using IBM App Connect, he or she may get a little intimidated or daunted looking at all the options available or the pipelines, et cetera. So a little bit on the user interfaces or how it looks like and how it can be perceived by a developer. Right now I believe that the command line integration tool is a separate tool for IBM App Connect. If I want to access items and work through the command line interface, I have to open up a separate one, I forgot the tool, and command line interface's name, but I need to open a separate tool and use that. But probably a native command line integration in IBM App Connect, which can help us validate our POCs or our code. That would be an interesting feature to have within the IBM App Connect product.

I have been using IBM App Connect for the past two years.

There is good stability.

Some of it was pretty straightforward. Some aspects of it were challenging. I am not exactly sure what the aspects were, but that is the feedback I heard. And sometimes when moving through versions, some forms of code might not work, but some code might work. So that is also another aspect they mentioned.

We did the deployment in-house. There were around four to five people on the team, but I believe only one to two people are working exclusively on the IBM App Connect infrastructure.

I think they are seeing a return on investment otherwise they would have moved to another solution. There is a lot of value and benefits being generated.

I would advise that make sure that the use case for which they are trying to implement is strong enough because IBM App Connect is a pretty heavy software because the programming language is not a traditional programming language on which you have to code, and they need to train employees also for the same and how to get everybody on board. You really need to evaluate the use case and identify whether IBM App Connect is the right technology platform for the particular use case and then go for it. I would rate IBM App Connect a nine out of ten.

App Connect works as a middleware tool. It connects the front and the back ends. I've used it for creating a service for generating net banking OTPs. We are partners with IBM and I'm a senior software engineer.

This latest version is very scalable, flexible and user-friendly. Another advantage of this version is that there's no dependency on the queue manager. I've seen this solution change over many years, and it's now compatible with many different kinds of software, different depositories, and many different testing tools. It's great in that it can be embedded with other kinds of technologies.

Plugins for the repositories are a little difficult to find. It requires some information in the toolkit and if there were some links, options, or search buttons that would simplify things. I would like to have some predefined plugins built-in to App Connect with a list to choose from because some people use SVN, some use GitHub, and others use Bitbucket.

The solution has a DFU mode which IBM states can easily be seen in the variables. It's not that easy to see and is lacking definition. When you're testing the code, you test it with the tool, but you also test the flow that you've created in the tool kit and see the values and what has been created in between the flows. I would want to see it presented in a more defined manner so that it's easy to view while you are debugging. I'd like to have more visibility when testing and debugging the code.

I've been using this tool for almost eight years. 

The product is quite stable. If there are any issues, they're generally resolved very quickly. We had issues using some shared or static library. If you changed a particular element, it had to be redeployed.

The cloud option is much more scalable because it's easier to make changes and remove some code. 

I don't work directly with tech support but I know they are very quick in dealing with fixes. Some can be dealt with on the spot but if it requires rolling out a fix, they create a ticket and are very responsive. 

The initial setup is relatively straightforward. You get an installer, and click on it and it asks where to create the workspace. That's all it takes. 

I rate this product eight out of 10.