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  • 1.  What are the various options/offerings available in the integration space from IBM?

    Posted Mon August 20, 2018 05:45 PM
    What are the various options/offerings available in the integration space from IBM? How is IIB/App connect placed in the overall IBM's middleware offerings?

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    Rajesh Kumar
    Associate general Manager
    HCL technologies
    Noida
    9958002927
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  • 2.  RE: What are the various options/offerings available in the integration space from IBM?

    Posted Tue August 21, 2018 01:21 AM
    There is App Connect professional, App Connect Enterprise aka ACE. And there is API Connect for APIs. Then you have DataPower that is part of API connect but also works standalone. IBM MQ is also available and in my opinion an integration strategy at some point will require queuing. If you are connecting things, you might need IBM Messagesight or even better Watson IoT platform (aka wiotp).

    Some people use WAS for integration, I am not a fan or an expert on that approach.

    Which one to use, depends on the projects.

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    Thor Inghama
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: What are the various options/offerings available in the integration space from IBM?

    Posted Tue August 21, 2018 04:46 AM

    A big question :-) Although not definitive  (IBM has tons of offerings in the integration space). The key components are mainly the ones Thor mentions:

    MQ: Messaging. The best in the business. Supports JMS; it's own MQ protocol and AMQP. Has a file transfer capability as well. 

    IIB/APP Connect Enterprise. IBM's Main ESB (there are many other IBM ESB but this is the main one in most people's eyes). Does everything you want an ESB to do. Currently trying to fit into a microservices architecture e.g. you can host APIs on to your back-end services. IBM has brought out APP Connect designer which uses the same underlying IIB engine but has a simpler interface. For more info on that please see (my) blog post: IIB Becomes App Connect Enterprise: More Than Just a Name Change ). One idea is that APPConnect Designer does the cloud integrations and IIB focusses on the On-premise - but we'll all have to see what they eventually turn into !

    DataPower: The best in the business for Security appliances (virtual and physical). Has had a few make-overs recently but still looks big and mean. This appliance also acts as the IBM API manager security gateway (API-Connect).

    API-Connect: Used to consist of Datapower gateway and an acquisition called strongloop as a "micro" gateway. They are concentrating on datapower gateway only nowadays. Yes, exactly the same datapower as their security gateway; so, you're getting all that world-class security stuff under-the-hood.

    Those are the core offerings from websphere integration. IBM Sterling also has its version of IIB (B2Bi) for EDI business. There are also lots of cloud offerings as well but most people don't know about e.g.
    Node Red (an easy to use IIB aiming itself at IoT).
    MQ in the cloud. Messaging in IBM's cloud based on opensource (Kafka). No where near the capabilities of IBM MQ.


    And many, many more.

    hope that helps !!
    Feel free to reach out for more if you need it.



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    John Hawkins
    CTO
    Lightwell
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: What are the various options/offerings available in the integration space from IBM?

    Posted Wed August 22, 2018 05:22 AM

    The IBM Cloud Integration platform covers any pattern of integration from IT teams relying on batch data transfer to connect enterprise applications, including data scientists pulling in new digital assets, marketing teams depending on real-time events for new insights and mobile teams developing APIs to reach new channels. As previous posters have said, there are a number of different offerings - the Cloud Integration platform provides a modular, yet cohesive set of offerings to address the broad connectivity of an organization, regardless of its size, or its users' objectives or skill levels. 


    API management and lifecycle - the primary offering in this space is IBM API Connect. It enables users to design and manage successful APIs (including securing, hosting, monitoring, monetizing, socialising etc). For more information about API Connect, see: www.ibm.com/cloud/api-connect


    Application integration - The primary offering in this space is IBM App Connect. App Connect enables users to connect data and applications on cloud and on-premise. There are a couple of flavours availble depending on business objectives, user skills, and deployment preference - Professional and Enterprise. For more information about App Connect, see: www.ibm.com/cloud/app-connect


    Enterprise Messaging - the primary offering in this space is IBM MQ. It enables usrs to achieve rapid and reliable exchange of data ('guarenteed once, and only once') from many disparate applications, across both cloud and on premises. It has many different deployment options depending on the requirements of the business. For more information about MQ, see: www.ibm.com/products/mq


    Security - the primary offering in this space is IBM Data Power. It is a purpose-built security platform for mobile, web, API, SOA, B2B, and cloud workloads. A security gateway is an essential component to securing inbound and outbound traffic. For more information about DataPower, see: www.ibm.com/products/datapower-gateway


    Data integration - the primary offering in this space is IBM InfoSphere Information Server for Data Integration. It extracts and transforms data in any style and loads it to any system through built-in transformation functions and a common metadata framework. There are multiple options for delivering data - bulk extract, transform, load (ETL), virtual (federated), and incremental (data replication). For more information about Information Server, see: www.ibm.com/analytics/information-server

    High-speed transfer - the primary offering in this space is IBM Aspera. Aspera is a hosted service that reliably and quickly moves data and files, regardless of size or type across a hybrid cloud enviornment - up to hundreds of times faster than FTP and HTTP. For more information about Aspera, see: https://www.ibm.com/cloud/aspera

    You can find out more about IBM's Cloud integration offerings here: https://www.ibm.com/cloud/integration



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    Amy McCormick
    Offering Manager
    Application Integation | IBM Cloud
    IBM App Connect Enterprise, IBM App Connect service (Enterprise plans)
    IBM Integration Bus (IIB), IBM Integration Bus on Cloud, IIB industry packs
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: What are the various options/offerings available in the integration space from IBM?

    Posted Thu August 23, 2018 06:02 AM

    Hmm, Aspera is a hosted solution ?

    Aspera is a file transfer wire protocol that certainly has a managed service/hosted manifestation. However, there are various adapters out there e.g. Connect Direct can use it, I believe, as can MQ ?




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    John Hawkins
    CTO
    Lightwell
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    Original Message