IBM Sterling File Gateway Reviews

We use this solution for financial management. For example, transactions between the bank and credit card and cheque printing that need to be given to the printing service industries for transfer. There are APIs that are exposed for the corporate customers for their salary posting and other transaction settlements.

I have found almost all the features valuable. 

IBM is advising not to use the IT translate anymore but this is going to be an extra cost to the customer to use the alternative. 

Additionally, the solution can improve the REST API protocols. If you look at the REST API client services available, you can do an API call to any other API exposed, but the way the API comes it is not treated right.

I have been using this solution for approximately 15 years.

The solution is stable and reliable.

The solution does not have any issue with scalability.

The technical support is very responsive and as soon as you raise a ticket you are connected to someone that is able to help you at all levels, whether it is at the product level or any technical level.

The initial setup is straightforward.

There are two types of customer licenses, an annual preview license, and an ELA-based license. I have found the solution is priced well. However, they need to review the pricing model because if you look at any other competitors, such as GlobalSCAPE, they do pricing based on the components and what you select. With this solution you have a monolithic application which you need to buy, there is no component level price discount.

I have evaluated GlobalSCAPE.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate IBM Sterling File Gateway a nine out of ten.

I work as a consultant to one of our clients who use SFG.

The functionality of this solution is very high and it has many features. The one feature, which is good is that you are able to plug in your own code. For example, if you want to process files, you can write your own code to parse the file the way you like. You can interpret it, so feature wise, it is rich.

One of the issues with this solution is that it has so many features which is in itself the problem. It should be just a simple file transfer solution. It's very frustrating  because it's a very rich tool but it has so many problems. The UI is essentially not good, the interaction with the control center and report runs are not good. The usability, performance, and reliability, are absolutely no good. There is a newer version, perhaps it's better. 

I've been using this solution for six months. 

This solution is not at all scalable. 

I know there are some pretty good people who know how to deal with the tool and fix problems. We had to engage with the support a lot of times which indirectly means that the product is not good. Again, I hear the latest version is an improved product. 

The initial setup is fairly easy, it's not that tough.

There are solutions like GoAnywhere or Axway where the usability and flexibility is so easy. SFG has a legacy we have to deal with. I know they have pretty big clients and are one of the prime vendors. I'm not talking about the latest version of SFG, I haven't had a chance to look at it. If what they promise is correct, it might be a big improvement. 

I would rate this product a two out of 10.