Apache Camel vs. Software AG Universal Messaging

Message brokering across different systems, with transactionality and the ability to have fine tuned control over what happens using Java (or other languages), instead of a heavy, proprietary languages. One situation that it doesn't fit very well (as far as I have experienced) is when your workflow requires significant data mapping. While possible when using Java tooling, some other visual data mapping tools in other integration frameworks are easier to work with.

Incentivized

Software AG Universal Messaging is best used in conjunction with Software AG webMethods integration platform, as it works seamlessly with other components of that platform such as webMethods Integration Server and webMethods Trading Networks. It can be used with any messaging client developed in Java or .NET and supports JMS clients, however, it is best suited to being used as one component in an organization that is going to implement the entire webMethods platform to implement their Enterprise Service Bus integration solution.

Incentivized

• open source and a great set of component feature set - always latest features available for integration
• works well with spring boot
• great community and support for any kind of workflow
• based on enterprise integration patterns which helps our developers achieve integration tasks with all kinds of API services

Incentivized

• Low latency high performance messaging and event handling
• High availability
• Horizontal scalability
• Seamless integration with Software AG webMethods integration platform

Incentivized

• Some of the documentation is a little sparse. In particular, its TCP-based routes use an underlying Netty server, and the interactions between Netty's decoder capabilities and Apache Camel's routing/handler capabilities can be a little muddy at times. In general it is clear which routes and endpoints are the more frequently used and which haven't been given as much attention.

Incentivized

• Logging
• Administration
• Observability

Incentivized

Apache Camel has been the integration framework of choice, but I was not the person to make the decision to use it. Compared to other competing products like Tibco Business Works, etc., it is free and open source and its licensing policy is acceptable to the management of Cox.

Incentivized

Software AG Universal Messaging has excellent performance characteristics, a good high availability story, and works great when you are using the other products in the Software AG webMethods integration platform, as our organization is. It has relatively high licensing costs, which is a large negative when compared with open-source solutions such as Apache Kafka. However, Software AG provides good support services, and is a market leader in the integration space, giving some surety for risk-averse organizations that if something goes wrong we have a vendor we can rely on to help fix it.

Incentivized

• Very fast time to market in that so many components are available to use immediately.
• Error handling mechanisms and patterns of practice are robust and easy to use which in turn has made our application more robust from the start, so fewer bugs.
• However, testing and debugging routes is more challenging than working is standard Java so that takes more time (less time than writing the components from scratch).
• Most people don't know Camel coming in and many junior developers find it overwhelming and are not enthusiastic to learn it. So finding people that want to develop/maintain it is a challenge.

Incentivized

• Enables disparate software systems to be integrated, reducing manual data entry
• Enables high performance event handling for data lakes and analytics
• Has relatively high licensing costs

Incentivized