What are the B2B communication capabilities in DataPower? Can this replace current B2B communications running through IBM B2B Sterling Integrator?

Thanks,

Christine

Hi Christine,

IBM DataPower Gateway with the B2B module (8436) or running older XB62 model (7199) provides you with most of what Sterling B2B offers from a connectivity standpoint.  This includes B2B messaging protocols such as AS1, AS2, AS3, ebMS but DataPower can also support other protocols like FTP, S/FTP, FTP/s, HTTP, HTTPs, MQ, JMS, POP3, SMTP, NFS, etc.  What DataPower does not support that Sterling B2B does is Connect:Direct (C:D).  So if you're using C:D internal or external you'd still need Sterling B2B. 

From a standpoint of B2B processing, this includes validation of EDI structure, translation of EDI to XML or other cannonical format, functional acknowledgement (997) support, EDI control number checking, creation, serializing, etc DataPower cannot do this without help from another WebSphere product, provided you want to do it all with WebSphere tools and replace Sterling B2B.  That product is IBM Integration Bus (IIB) or formerly known as WebSphere Message Broker.  If you have IIB/WMB AND you get a tool called IBM Transformation Extender Advanced (ITXA) this will provide you the B2B processing that you can accomplish in Sterling B2B.  ITXA essentially is a set of nodes that you can wire up in a flow or flows in IIB/WMB.  There are three nodes: 1) Envelope Node - for enveloping EDI data going outbound, 2) De-Envelope node - for stripping off envelopes coming inbound, and 3) Transformation node - for executing a translation map for translating EDI to some other format (Inbound) or some backend format to EDI (Outbound).  As part of ITXA you also get a Trading Partner Management layer.  Its simple, easy, and light weight for creating and maintaing trading partner information.  To create a TP profile in ITXA, its a total of 1 or 2 screens vs. Sterling B2B it amounts to somewhere in the area of 27 screens with something like 900 fields just to create a partner profile.  So overall if you need complete B2B, WebSphere can do it but it needs DP, IIB/WMB, and ITXA (nodes that run in IIB/WMB). 

If you simply just want to detach the B2B communications from Sterling B2B, for example do AS2 termination in the DMZ and let Sterling B2B do the B2B processing in the trusted zone, then DataPower can absolutely support this as well.  IBM has customers doing both approaches.  I hope I helped clarify more than confuse.

Hi - In our environment we use DataPower and WTX for B2B, we do not use IIB - WTX maps can be executed on DataPower etc..

The answer is "it depends"... I have helped several of our customers (I am a IBM Business Partner) to migrate for different B2B platforms (both IBM and non-IBM ones) with great success.

Then it depends on what you are doing in Sterling Integrator (SI) as that is more of a "B2B message-broker" while DataPower is a "B2B Gateway".

The major advantage with DataPower as a "gateway" is obviously that you can deploy it in the DMZ directly, there is no need for file shares, databases, etc. Cluster/HA control is built in and upgrades take about 5 minutes.

No need for any "secure proxy" on a separate server nor any more weeks of planning for upgrades as with any "B2B broker" software.

However, there are draw-backs to the "gateway" approach as well... You won't be able to do any long-running processes and you won't be able to store data (at least with ease...).

If you use WTX then those maps runs fine on DataPower as well as long as you don't use any external interface, eg. DBLookup.

If you are using IBM MQ then a lot of the "long-running processes" and store data can be handled on DataPower as well but it requires some bending-over-backwards mentality to come up with working solutions...

So, it all depends on what you are doing in SI... I have yet to encounter a "B2B Broker" that I haven't been able to migrate into DataPower... The last customer I had to really "bend" and make RosettaNet (RNIF 2.0) work on DataPower but we got there! :)

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Anders Wasén, Sr. Solutions Architect

IBM Champion, IBM DataPower Gateways, IBM Transformation Extender