Apache Kafka vs IBM API Connect

• Apache Kafka is able to handle a large number of I/Os (writes) using 3-4 cheap servers.
• It scales very well over large workloads and can handle extreme-scale deployments (eg. Linkedin with 300 billion user events each day).
• The same Kafka setup can be used as a messaging bus, storage system or a log aggregator making it easy to maintain as one system feeding multiple applications.

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• The best part is that it is a one-stop solution for hosting all the APIs and keep on increasing as the new ones are added. It has been the leader in our Digital transformation and the features of security, interoperability and accommodating all types of clients based on various technologies has been the greatest asset for us.
• The creation of new API is fairly simple and doesn't require much [of a] learning curve. Once you have created the new API, you can publish it as well to the specific audience and they can try to interact with that API with the required security parameters to get to the actual service back-end.
• The installation is quite straightforward and the product is ready to go. The deployment of the artefacts from environment to the other or code promotion is relatively simple as compared to other older products.
• The Gateway used here is IBM Datapower which is one of the most secure, reliable, highly available, fast and can integrate with almost any front-end or back-end.

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• Still a bit inmature, some clients have required recoding in the last few versions
• New feaures coming very fast, several upgrades a year may be required
• Not many commercial companies provide support

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• Currently they use 2 portals one for Test and one for Prod. They should merge them now
• We wanted some relation between SSL & the application / organisation created in API connect. I believe it’s now part of API connect V6

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• Positive impact on ROI since now we can use one large deployment of Apache Kafka that can be used for multiple scenarios ( storage systems, log aggregate, messaging queue ).
• It is open-source so there are no licenses or subscription fees reducing the cost of deployment.
• Data can now be ingested and analyzed in real-time making it easy to fine-tune the customer experience and decision making for internal IT.

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• IBM API Connect has been very beneficial for our business because it has increased the productivity and collaboration to a great extent. All the team members are aware of the method they need to follow to develop new API and check internally if there is already an API existing to replicate that functionality. So, reusability has increased significantly after this and saved us a lot of effort and time.
• The work of the IT Security has lessened because now we don't need to submit IP white-listing requests to them of each new API being developed. If that client is allowed to hit 1 service, he is allowed to hit other services as well as long as he has the proper SSL certs and auth tokens or any other method of authentication used in the service.
• The code promotion and deployment of artefacts has been really smooth and without issues. So, that is a big plus if you consider production deployment going swiftly and hassle-free.

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