webMethods.io Reviews

The webMethods API Gateway is utilized to assist our banking clients in integrating with the bank via the API.

The solution has helped improve our organization by recommending APIs and providing easy-to-use security controls. Additionally, it identifies similarities between multiple cases, thereby avoiding redundant code and implementation.

The developer portal is a valuable feature.

The gateway server itself can improve the message queue implementation by considering the top ten web security controls.

I would like to request the integration of response caching into the memory database, which would eliminate the need to construct logic within the API itself, and instead implement it directly in the gateway.

The price has room for improvement.

I have been using webMethods API Gateway for a couple of years.

I give webMethods API Gateway a ten out of ten for stability.

I give webMethods API Gateway a seven out of ten for scalability. We can scale the solution, but it is a bit complicated since it is not saved in a Microsoft architecture, which would make scaling much simpler.

We previously used Open API and Google Apigee but our organization technically and commercially preferred to go with webMethods API Gateway.

I give the initial setup a seven out of ten. The deployment took a couple of weeks. The deployment required one solution architect and two technical consultants.

The implementation was completed by Software AG.

The price is high and I give it a five out of ten.

I give webMethods API Gateway a seven out of ten.

We currently have 40 people and four developers using webMethods API Gateway.

We plan to increase our usage tenfold within the next few years.

I would advise a POC to see if there is a business case. I suggest starting small and scaling out as required.

One of our clients is a chain management company. They have many APIs which do a lot of integrations, including B2B integrations. For that particular client, our APIs are on APIs check and handing the deals and restock. Everything is hosted on our API gateway. They can use a scan and access those APIs and do operations for sales orders and invoices.

The most valuable aspect of this solution for me has been the configuration-based UI. Once you get the hang of it, it enables you to easily develop an API. In addition, it has many in-built policies that are quite handy. We are also able to write our custom policies. I also like the daily logging option. Another handy feature is Kibana with the dashboard, which outlines the day-to-day operations in great detail.

There are things that could be improved with the webMethods API gateway. One thing is that it's too attached to the integration service and we'd like it to be a little bit more independent. We would like for them to separate operations so that it doesn't rely on the bulky integration server and so that it can be used everywhere. I would like for this to be included in the features since the client I work with always tends to avoid the solution. And if the client does not have existing interfaces with it, they choose not to proceed. 

I have been using this solution for more than 30 years.

I would rate the stability of this solution a 10, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

My impression is that this solution is scalable. I wouldn't say auto-scalable because of the on-premises part.

I would rate their technical support a seven, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. The reason for this rating is that they are good, but they could still be improved. There is no premium support, and the regular support responds within a day or so.

Neutral

I would rate the initial setup process a six, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. I would say it's not too easy, but also not too difficult. It can be complex if you don't have experience with it and, in that case, you will not find the setup easy. 

For us, the deployment was fast; it took maybe a couple of minutes. One person can do the deployment on their own. The maintenance is done I think quarterly or every six months through patching.

Our model of deployment is on-premises.

I would rate the pricing plan of this solution a seven, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. The licensing is on a yearly basis.

This solution is a good fit for small, medium, and larger enterprise companies.

I would advise other people looking into this solution to get it because it adds an additional feature to the capabilities of your web method templates. Also, it uses existing web flow services to enable you to leverage your existing services that are already paired on your on-premises system or into the traditional system of your work method.

Overall, I would rate this solution an eight, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

I'm using the product every day, and I'm working on many different projects. Most use cases are for using webMethods Integration Server as a middleware software or a middleware platform that is connecting to at least two different endpoints. It can be from one side, for example, database, web service, SAP, or any kind of connection, including Salesforce, and the other side can be the same. We are just establishing connections between these systems and doing some transformations and modifications of data in the Integration Server so it can be sent from one side to another.

Clients are mostly using it in order to connect some of their internal systems or to connect to some external systems and some other partner companies. Its benefit is that it's really useful for monitoring and tracking all the activities. And it's important, due to all the flows, all the data, go through this ESB, Enterprise Service Bus. 

The most important thing when using it is that there is a really good community from the producers, Software AG, and the Empower platform, where you can find almost every kind of error or problem that you face. You can find a solution right there in the community.

There is also typical support where you can create a ticket if you are not able to find the issue on your own. If it's something new, then they will approach you and help you in resolving it. 

The best features are these adapters. Software AG developed many different adapters for the usual databases, et cetera. I was not using Salesforce much. However, it's really handy that you have an adapter for these popular platforms. It's just plug-and-play.

When it comes to the user interface, I'm already really used to it. I cannot say anything against it. For me, it's easy to use.

When there is some issue or bug, they work on the development of that. And then, in the next release, they just fix it. I had a few situations when I faced some issues, and then I had to report them. Within the next three weeks, typically, it just gets fixed.

For code version control, you need to use some external software. It would be good to have it just built into the product so that you don't have to use anything external.

The interface could be modernized. 

I've been using the solution for about five years. 

If it's set up properly and if you do it in a good way in large-scale organizations, you need to have a maintenance team that is doing the maintenance and support. If it's working properly and updated properly with the latest versions of updates, then there should be no issues with using it. It is reliable. One of the main benefits of Integration Server is that it is reliable.

Our entire company uses the solution. There might be 100 people using it on a daily basis. 

Scalability is one of the main purposes of the product - scalability meaning that it can adapt to small customers, clients, and even to bigger systems and clients with a lot of data going through the Integration Server. 

Technical support is really good. They are replying really quickly. In a day or two, you can get a response for your issue, or probably even quicker if you mark it as urgent. 

For me, it's fine. I had some contact with Software AG support. They wrote really helpful. And a few times we even had some meetings with screen-sharing sessions so they could help and see the issue. It was really nice. 

I know there are a few really great options on the market; however, I do not have experience with them. 

When it comes to deploying the Integration Server, you just need to follow the documentation, which is really good. The documentation created by Software AG for using and working with each of the products is really nice, and I'm satisfied with that. For the first time you use it, you need to install the Integration Server on Windows or Linux machine or whatever, and if you follow the steps via the documentation, it should not create any issues.

The deployment can be done by one person. It might take an hour or two.

If you are installing many Integration Servers in a cluster, then these things take time to configure the clusters and all other setups related to the network. That said, for the basic product, if you want to use it just for your own purposes, if it's just one instance, it does not take much of your time to get it up and running.

There isn't much maintenance needed after the solution is live. 

The solution was deployed in-house. It's not rocket science. It's easy, and you can do it just by following the instructions. It's a really user-friendly installation.

I'm working in the development part of the company. I'm not aware of the prices.

I would say it's an affordable product. When it comes to big organizations, it's for sure affordable.

We are a Software AG partner.

I'm mostly using the latest version. I was using version 9.9 when I started. Then I was going through all the versions, including 10.1, 10.3, 10.5, and 10.7. Now, 10.11 is the latest one. However, I'm not sure that I started working on that one in any of my projects. 

We are a partner company of Software AG, the producer of webMethods.

New users should look for a list of references and companies that are using this product. 

For a large-scale organization, this is a must-have product. When it comes to Integration Server and the Enterprise Service Bus as the product which needs to be implemented in an organization, it has many benefits like properly monitoring, tracking, and controlling all the flows in the company and outside the company. It's a great product to have.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We don't use webMethods Integration Server directly, but we use another offering from one of our vendors. They have built a layer on top of the webMethods Integration Server and that's a solution we have been using.

webMethods Integration Server is the underlying component, but our software vendor, has made some enhancements to the webMethods Integration Server and they offered it to us. That's what we are currently using along with some of the other solutions in the supply chain space.

Their offering is more of an integration framework across all their systems and this is how we have been using the system. webMethods Integration Server is our primary integration tool across all the solutions that we have in our supply chain.

The most valuable feature of webMethods Integration Server is all the capabilities it provides. We leverage most of the features, that they have offered to us. Our vendor has made some additional features on top of the webMethods Integration Server and we use all the features together.

webMethods Integration Server could improve on the version control. I'm not sure if Web Method has some kind of inbuilt integration with Bitbucket or GitHub or some kind of version control system. However, that's one area where they can improve. 

The migration of the code between environments could be better. If they come up with some kind of a continuous integration process to promote the code from one life cycle to the other, that may ease the day-to-day activity for us.

I have used webMethods Integration Server for approximately seven years.

webMethods Integration Server is a stable solution for our usage.

The scalability of the webMethods Integration Server is good.

Our IT team is using the solution in my organization.

We plan to increase our usage in the future.

I have not needed to use webMethods Integration Server support.

We used other solutions before using webMethods Integration Server.

The maintenance team needed for webMethods Integration Server is minimal.

We have seen a return on investing using webMethods Integration Server.

I rate our return on investment for webMethods Integration Server a four out of five.

The solution has been doing the job for us, at least with respect to the landscape and the integrations we have in place. However, it is on a case-by-case basis.

I rate webMethods Integration Server an eight out of ten.

We have a lot of use cases for this product. Initially, when we bought this product from Software AG, it was only for a specific project. But, we did watch for other opportunities where it could be used for integration and that's what happened.

Our business model has many verticals, so it's used across the enterprise. The main function is to provide application integration within the company. We have more than 60 applications and at the moment, it's talking to more than 30 applications and integrating them. In this context, it is used by our sales team and in a lot of automations.

Our second use case is to provide Write as a Service. We write any custom service using webMethods and then expose it to others as a REST service.

Another thing that we use this solution for is managed file transfers.

We have this solution deployed in a hybrid environment. It is available in our private cloud, where it is installed in AWS, and we also have it in our data center.

This solution has improved our productivity and efficiency in pretty much all of our applications. There are some currently-running automation projects where we are going to have to transform data and at the moment, it is being done manually. This is another case where we will implement webMethods to improve productivity.

We automate our sales cycle using API orchestrations. When sales come through, for example, we register them and enroll them in the policy. All of this is done within webMethods and it works well.

With respect to the comprehensiveness and depth of connectors that are available, they have a lot of traditional ones available. They are constantly adding new ones, which is good to see. However, what we found is that we can develop them very easily. Nowadays, pretty much everything is REST so it is easy to develop your own. We do not have a license for many of the connectors. One of them that we have is Salesforce, which was what we had originally envisioned.

Then, what happened when we needed another connector is that we reasoned that rather than buying additional ones, we would instead create our own. Ultimately, we found that it was quite easy to do and in my experience, it is always better to use your own because the out-of-the-box connections have limitations. This is what we found with the connector for SuccessFactors; we were better off building our own because there are no constraints when we do it that way.

This solution encompasses a range of features, which is important to us. We use it heavily for application integration and APIs, somewhat less for data integration, business to business communication, and we are trialing microservices. Although we do not yet heavily use the microservices feature, we do like that it provides it.

We plan to expand our usage of microservices because, in the AWS world, we want to make things auto-scalable. This is what we are playing around with and although we do not yet have it in production, the plan is to use it more.

Modifying and redeploying integrations is easy to do. This has made us more agile and the fact that we can churn things quicker has helped the business.

There are a few things about this product that we definitely like. It is very robust. If you build it nicely, you can't go wrong with it. It's rock solid.

The development is very fast. If you know what you're doing, you can develop something very easily and very fast.

For the latest services, the product is lacking in terms of connectors. For example, there are a lot of SaaS providers and if you look for the connectors out-of-the-box, they are definitely not going to be there. They have a lot of traditional options but they are basic. If you have an advanced use case then you are better to build your own.

For the most part, this solution supports the latest standards and makes it possible to plug in modern tooling and third-party products for automation and innovation. However, there are some things that it doesn't support and we find ourselves having to wait for a newer version. For example, when we were using version 9.10, it did not support OAuth.

In general, I would like to see the vendor release newer features sooner. Or, it would be helpful if we can use a newer feature but don't have to upgrade the entire product.

The UI for the admin console is very old. It hasn't been updated for years and is pretty much the same one that we started with. This is something that could be refreshed and made more modern.

We have been using the webMethods Integration Server for almost six years.

I would rate the stability very high. Once it is running, it's very stable.

The webMethods Integration Server is a tier-one application and if it's down, impacts pretty much everything. When it runs, no one knows about it but if it goes down, everyone screams. It is very crucial.

With our current licensing, it's very easy for us to scale. With our older licensing model, it was very hard. This is definitely something that I would highlight. I'm very happy with our current setup because we can scale and it's more of a constraint of your commercials rather than a product constraint when it comes to scalability.

We purchased a premium support package but to this point, we have not greatly depended upon it. In our day-to-day business, we haven't had to deal with them very often, which is a good thing. We generally resolve things within our team and don't generally need to rely on others. There are only a few issues that we have contacted technical support about, such as when we were having issues with the upgrade. Also, if there is something that we can't find then we will contact them.

In general, when I compare their support with other vendors, I would not rate them high. The customer experience with support is an area that needs improvement. The reason I say this is that regardless of the issue you raise, even if it is not necessary, they ask a lot of questions.  

Prior to webMethods, we were not using an integration solution. We were a .NET shop and we were using it to accomplish the same tasks. However, it was not to the full extent that webMethods is doing because its capabilities are less.

The reason we adopted webMethods is that a new project was coming and when we estimated the cost, we found that developing everything in .NET was cumbersome. At that point, we started to look for a tool and settled on webMethods.

We chose webMethods over MuleSoft because of how quick and easy it is for developing. It is simple and easy to use. The commercials is definitely another reason that we chose it. This was the product that was recommended after the technical evaluation was complete.

We also use webMethods.io, although that does not fall under Integration Server.

The initial setup is of medium complexity, although it depends on your scenario. If you have a simple use case to just integrate, it's easy. The actual installation is very straightforward but we had some complexity because of the zones.

We had multiple DMZ zones and we have a PCI zone. This meant that there were a lot of firewall rules that needed to be created. It was a greenfield project, so we had to build everything in addition to the webMethods aspect. The project was definitely complex. However, the webMethods setup in isolation was very straightforward. If you just focused on, "Okay, this is the one that you have to install." It's straightforward. If you know what you're doing, it's easy.

Upgrading is something that we can't do in a very fast manner. It's not like we are going to upgrade every six months. We have to wait a while. On the other hand, that's where the microservices architecture is good because anytime something new is released, we can upgrade to the latest.

We completed the initial setup in-house.

We evaluated MuleSoft and webMethods. There may have been others but these were the top choices. When we asked for demonstrations, these were the products that we looked at.

This product provides us with a single hybrid-integration platform for all of our integration needs. We do have another product but it is for a very specific use case, and it is separate because of the licensing. Otherwise, webMethods is our go-to for integration.

On the topic of development time, this product can save you time but it depends on what you're comparing it to. For example, if you are comparing it to having no platform, where all of the integrations have to be developed from scratch, then this product will definitely save you a lot of time. The undertaking would be massive. If instead, you are comparing it to another product such as MultSoft, then it will be a different answer. It is tricky to estimate because it depends on the tool.

This is a product that the vendor keeps adding things to. Sometimes, we have to wait until the next version comes out before there is support for what we want to do, but there hasn't been anything major.

My advice for anyone who is implementing this solution is to spend some time thinking about how it will be used. I have seen instances where the product was being used and didn't work properly. If it is designed nicely then it will work wonders, so spend some time thinking about the design and how it will be used and it's never going to have any issues.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Most of our customers are real estate development companies, and they build many projects in Saudi Arabia. Most of their projects are about Smart Cities or Smart destinations. The use case was about integrating different Smart City technologies and enterprise applications. For government services, the use case was integrating webMethods.io Integration into different government systems serving residents. For example, the Ministry of Interior uses the solution for passport and ID services, so different government systems are integrated.

We used webMethods.io Integration as an integration platform. It accommodates Enterprise Service Bus, integration server and API gateway. We took the complete platform and the integration server as part of the platform to integrate or receive data from the API gateways, integrated with the Enterprise Service Bus.

The solution allowed us to integrate applications and IoT devices because it has an IoT event processing layer. It provides a flexible integration within the IoT systems because most of the applications we work with are related to the IoT and Smart City technologies. So, there's hardware, software and application integration, providing hosting flexibility.

Some platform providers host their applications in Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure, which sometimes creates challenges for data governance because of regulations.

Any solution needs continuous development in integration and processing.

We used the solution for more than a year for different projects. We used the latest version and stopped using it four months ago. It was deployed on private cloud in the customer cloud infrastructure.

The solution is stable. If there were any minor problems, we resolved them.

It can be scaled up and support multi-tenancy. However, it is difficult to maintain.

I rate the technical support a six out of ten.

The initial setup was straightforward.

They don't have a fixed price, and the pricing model is transaction-based. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with one being the worst and ten being the best.

I rate this solution a seven out of ten. I recommend it, but it depends on the use case. I do not see any gaps with the platform.

We use ActiveTransfer to call internal APIs and transfer files from a third party to the cloud for application purposes and from a third party to on-prem. We also send files to the third party sometimes. We have a payments system and transfer files across the system to make customer domains.

We have on-prem, cloud, and hybrid deployments and transfer files across all of them. We're working with webMethods cloud, AWS, and Azure. Our eight-member team is using webMethods MFT and other integrations, and we have a shared team to work on multi-technologies, like web issues, Snowflake, webMethods MFTs, etc. 

ActiveTransfer lets us maintain the file in the staging area before we transfer it. After that, we can remove the file to make sure that the reconciliation process is done. Sometimes we will zip and unzip the files, but if we have a GKB file, we often ignore it. 

Some things could be improved, especially how ActiveTransfer handles third-party file transfers. It would be nice to have a native file-watching mechanism for when you're scheduling jobs with a third-party scheduler. 

Currently, we are using an outside file watcher solution to check the files before the file transfer. It checks the location to see if the file is there. If the file is there, it will prepare it for transfer. If the file isn't available, it will send an email it can create a ticket send it now. We recommended adding this file watcher mechanism. 

Also, when we're dealing with massive files, ActiveTransfer requires huge amounts of RAM, but if would be helpful if we could customize the compression and encryption to squeeze that data and reduce the size to save on system resources.

We have been using ActiveTransfer for six or seven years.

ActiveTransfer is stable.

ActiveTransfer is easy to scale and use also, which is why we recommend it. We have a script-based file transfer, but we use it less compared to MFT.

webMethods' technical support is excellent. When we have issues with third parties, networks, corrupted files, etc. we send the logs and they take care of it.

The difference between webMethods and Control-M is that Control-M schedules automation tools and checks to see if the file is there. Our team is currently using Control-M. 

If you use MFT and you've cleared the MFT events, it has to schedule through Control-M because all the jobs running through the solution end to end. Control-M has an AMF advance remain file transfer, where you can create a source and target profile.

Setting up ActiveTransfer is straightforward. I rate it eight out of 10 for ease of setup. As for maintenance, we have a monitoring mechanism in place and an automated process for large-scale transfer. If the current available space at the target is less than 30 percent, we have an alert.

We do it all in-house based on the customer's request. We'll keep all the files in the staging for one week. If necessary, we will remove it or move it to some other location. This kind of housekeeping and maintenance we do.

I'm not aware of the exact cost. That product team at my company is responsible when we need any maintenance, new products, upgrades, etc. 

I rate webMethods ActiveTransfer eight out of 10. They only need to improve a few minor things to bring it to the current market standard. My recommendation to webMethods is to add more flexibility to the file-watching mechanism to reduce the load on the RAM and CPU to a minimum, which will help when we are dealing with large numbers of massive files, especially in the retail environment.

We used to deal with millions of small files. When you are dealing with these kinds of files, you need to ensure that there is an internal reconciliation process. When you're reading and transferring thousands of files, you use a parallel instead of sequential mechanism to ensure all the files reach a target and that the reconciliation process is done automatically.

By Software AG, we are also using Integration Server, Trading Networks, Active Transfer, Optimize for Infrastructure, My webMethods, and their EDI package. As long as there is product parity between products, it makes sense to continue using multiple products from the same vendor. Obviously, you want to make sure you have a diverse portfolio. Where those products start breaking those links, you want to make sure that you are using the best product for your company in this region.

The fact that we were already using another solution from this vendor affected our decision to go with this particular product, mainly from a cost standpoint. As is any product in this region, the biggest cost is almost always the upfront cost of laying out the solution. Also, there are some costs in having that solution already available: between knowledge of the platform, having the licensing rights, and if you bring in a new solution, then you are now paying for two solutions.

The native integrations between the vendors' products are very seamless. The products interact very well. At times, it's kind of hard to tell where one product ends and the next one starts. As new products come in, the integrations probably take one or two updates before they are fully integrated. However, once products are fully integrated, it is very seamless and easy to hop between one product to another.

Using multiple products from the same vendor creates efficiencies:

1. In terms of knowledge. Obviously, there is a familiarity with the product and how you expect Software AG's products to act and respond. 
2. In terms of operational understanding between end users who are looking for specific data. They know how these products work and how to pull up these reports. 
3. In terms of having administrators overseeing these products.

There is a cost savings for using many of the same products. There are lower training costs. Also, typically, there are a lot of integrations that you ended up needing to build out, whether they be custom or out-of-the-box. Even if they are out-of-the-box, a lot of times that takes a lot of work to get those to work. However, since we are using Software AG products, it's very much like installing a plugin into an Excel program.

There was a reduction in the learning curve because we had already used the vendors' products. The products used work very similarly. In terms of verbiage, key aspects, or three-letter acronyms, you don't have to relearn any of those. There is an expectation of how these products will work. These products always work the same way when Software AG is rolling these types of products out.

We use webMethods Integration Server for two main aspects: 

1. For application-to-application integrations.
2. B2B: The transferring of on-premise data out to other business partners.

As with any integration platform, it is a single pane of glass that allows you to see and interact with transactions as they are flowing. Out-of-the-box, Software AG offers robust monitoring solutions to help you understand if a solution's up or down transactions aren't working, etc. The tool has been invaluable to our organization in terms of understanding where our data is, how it's flowing, and its current status.

Having a single hybrid-integration platform for all our needs is very important. From an IT perspective, it is a way for us to easily troubleshoot and quickly resolve issues. From a business perspective, it's very important because IT is readily available to assist with any system issues which are happening at that time. Anytime that you have applications talking to each other, it is a breeding ground for problems and issues. Having a solution like webMethods Integration Server in place can empower your IT department to be able to resolve issues and roll out solutions quickly as new applications come into your portfolio.

We have been on webMethods Integration Server for 15 years. We just got rid of our mainframe. It works wonders with our mainframe. With SaaS and cloud applications, webMethods Integration Server does not answer this need by itself. This is where you would be looking for APIs or custom plugins to work with those types of solutions. 

It is very open. It is extremely rare for us to find something that we are trying to integrate, but we can't integrate it. In the past seven years, I don't think that has ever happened. For any problem that we are looking at, the Software AG solution can solve. That has probably been the most valuable feature.

Application integrations are offered out-of-the-box, and that is extremely important to us. This is one of the main use cases that we have for it. It is about 60 to 70 percent of the workload in our application today.

Integration platform as a service (iPaaS) is probably the future and direction that many companies and organizations are looking at. Software AG is also rolling out robust solutions for this. So, if I was a brand new customer, that is where I would be looking. This is also the direction that I think Software AG is moving into along with almost every vendor in the industry. However, the integration platform, as it currently sits, runs really well. It's very robust and does what you would expect it to do.

My organization moved onto the webMethods platform 15 years ago. I have been using it for the past seven years.

Software AG is a partner who has been around for many years. The company is not going anywhere. Regarding the solution, you can get the capabilities that you need out of it.  It is a known solution that works really well and does exactly what you would expect it to do.

Software AG's full support for the solution’s adapters and connectors brings long-term stability to our services and integrations. Software AG has many SMEs in each region, both globally and in each product type. Being able to have access to a subject-matter expert in the specific tool or region that I'm looking for is invaluable. I feel like I am talking to someone who has hands-on experience in either developing the solution or has many years of experience with the product or similar customers. They also have people who just work in specific business groups. For example, if I'm looking for a knowledge worker to do something with IoT, then they have people ready who can answer specific questions about products that we might be looking to integrate with.

The solution is very scalable. If you want more webMethod Integration Servers, it is very easy to spin them up. It's very easy to apply packages to each one of those solutions. Or, if you want to just have one large webMethods Integration Server, it is easy to create the configuration settings to allow that JVM to have more memory.

There are less than 20 users. A solution like this is normally a back-end solution. Obviously, we have administrators who are overseeing the product to make sure it's up, patched, available, and secure. Developers who are rolling out new solutions and debugging any issues going on in production or lower environments. Then, the third group is probably the business users. That is a very small hand full of users at our company. Those users are typically looking just to make sure that the data is flowing as they would expect. For example, I expect a certain file to go out to this customer every day. That business user has access to log into the application and pull that file.

The product is used extensively at my organization. Out of all our integrations, it probably counts for 60 to 70 percent. Every minute of every day, it's being used. I think the usage that we have in place today is correct. If we were to expand any further, we would probably be looking at iPaaS solutions.

Their technical support is very good. I have never had any issues with the support or getting the resources that I need.

Two months ago, Software AG did have a data breach, so their support desk got shut down. It has been down since then, and that has not been a pleasant experience. Prior to that, it was a pleasant experience. I think Software AG has been reeling from that, but there are ways to get a hold of their support desk. This ensures that their customers still have access to support, which has been available and out there. However, they did have a public exposure, which has ended up causing some loopholes for their customers.

Upgrades are complex. They typically take about five months from start to finish. There are many packages that plug into webMethods Integration Server, which is the central point for a vast majority of the transactions at my organization. Anytime we are upgrading that, there are complexities within each component that we must understand. That makes any upgrade very cumbersome and complicated. That has been my experience at this company. Because there are many different business units that we are touching, there are so many different components that we are touching. The amount of READMEs that you have to go through takes some time.

This is where we would need to look at an iPaaS solution or moving to work with microservices solutions. Obviously, the smaller you make the solution, the more you're able to in an agile fashion.

From a high-level implementation strategy, we do a waterfall approach. That is the approach that we have ended up following for upgrading this solution.

Deploying solutions is very easy. The biggest thing that any company has to look at, because we have had a couple of pitfalls in this, is you have to look at how you're rolling your solution out. So, if you end up stacking or creating common services in the solution, those solutions become very tricky as they start to age, as any development cycle would end up having. The smaller you create the solution, the easier it is to keep rolling out those solutions, and staying away from common services really allows you to continue to roll out with ease.

As new solutions roll out or there is a different way for these apps to integrate, it has been fairly easy for developers to make the modified changes needed. The biggest thing is always knowledge because there have been some integrations that haven't been touched for 15 years. Then, if someone needs to touch one of those integrations, there is a learning curve in understanding how that integration works and what they are looking at.

Having a product like this is invaluable to any company in terms of the amount of time that IT gets to save in terms of integrating different products as well as having an open way to ensure that these applications are working. If you were to do this out of the box for each one of those solutions, while the upfront costs would be cheaper, the long-term stability of your applications would definitely degrade. As you are rolling this out for products that probably run your business, that's probably not a direction that any long-term company would want to go. I know my organization has seen time savings from not going with in-house built integrations from app to app.

For the B2B, we are probably saving somewhere between five to 10 full-time resources who would be working on this manually. For application-to-application, it probably has cut down 50 percent of our downtimes at a minimum. When you're talking about application-to-application integration, that is the thing that you would probably end up using as a key metric. For the amount of downtime that we have, I would double the amount or length of downtime that we would have if we didn't have this solution.

Currently, the licensing solution for this product is pretty straightforward. The way that Software AG has moved in their licensing agreements is very understandable. It is very easy for you to see where things land. Like most vendors today, they are transaction based. Therefore, just having a good understanding of how many transactions that you are doing a year would be very wise. Luckily, there are opportunities to work with the vendor to get a good understanding of how many transactions you have and what is the right limit for you to fall under.

With any solution like this, on day one you have a project that you're trying to work on, but just understand where you are trying to go with the solution. Some plugins are cheaper than others, and others are more expensive than others. Just make sure that you understand the full scope of what you might end up using the product for, so you can understand the all-in costs.

The tool works extremely well. Software AG offers packaged solutions for many packaged apps. Oracle SQL Server or Salesforce are add-ons that you can purchase and install easily for plug and play with packaged solutions. When you start moving into custom applications, there are no packaged solutions. The good news is that typically custom apps are built in some type of known technology, and that technology can easily be integrated into webMethods Integration Servers.

Business-to-business communications is an add-on that needs to be purchased. While super important to my organization, it is an add-on outside of the standard webMethods Integration Server. I would strongly recommend the business-to-business add-ons, especially if you're looking to use webMethods Integration Server in that capacity. It just makes the development cycles a lot shorter as well as making it much easier to manage your business profiles.

We routinely evaluate other options. I wasn't here when we made the decision to move onto this solution, but we periodically reassessed the platform to see if we are still sitting on the best solution that is matched to our corporation.

Today, there are many newer solutions out in the marketplace, and Software AG does offer those solutions. That is a great start. If I was starting over, I might look at those alternative solutions. However, if you are an alternative solution to webMethods Integration Server (not Software AG), then I would probably be looking a lot more into the cloud. webMethods Integration Server is used in a very legacy way. For example, we are on premise with data centers, which are legacy ways to solve a problem. If my solutions were in the cloud, then I would probably be looking at webMethods Integration Cloud as Software AG offers it, or any of the other vendors, like MuleSoft. So, you have to look at:

• What am I trying to integrate today? 
• Where are those solutions sitting? 
• If everything is on-prem and you are a 110-year-old company with 50 plants across the place, then probably having an on-prem is the right solution.
• If you are an eCommerce shop, then you are probably looking more in the cloud and for a cloud solution.

The solution pays for itself, but it is complicated as it stands today. Make sure that you are using it for exactly what you have architected it for. Don't try to fit a square peg into a round hole.

We have been moving away from data integration for webMethods Integration Server. So, it's becoming less of a priority for us.

Software AG has been moving in the direction of trying to make their tool as modern as possible. It has plugins for Docker today as well as ways to integrate into webMethods Integration Cloud. While these integrations are available, we don't use them.

I would rate webMethods Integration Server as a seven (out of 10). For what the solution can do, it does it extremely well. The upgrades are very cumbersome; they are very long and disruptive. You have to do them at least every three years. It's not a fun time for any company. If upgrades were a 100 times easier, it would get a much higher score.