EAM is a very capable application without necessarily making it a complex tool to use. The nice thing with EAM is that, thanks to its configuration capabilities, it can be implemented in a multi-stage manner where users can start simple and then later (and over time) expand the usage as they learn or better understand its full potential.
If you are truly using IBM API Management for an API gateway, you will be ok. if you start trying to build custom scripts to transform messages complex in nature, it will soon become unmanageable.
Import APIs - We have an existing inventory of APIs and services, so having an easy import process was required. IBM provides the ability to import Swagger so the process was quick and easy.
Service Offerings - Can create plans to control various model offerings for varying clients depending on the need. You are not locked into a tier structure and can customize if a need arises.
API Usage - visibility into the use of an API with a wealth of reporting information allows you to support an API from a production use to trending and forecasting any future growth.
Troubleshooting deployment pipeline - identifying issues with your api based on restrictions through a deployment pipeline is difficult. If a quality assurance environment is less stringent than a production environment, making sure your api is accessible and configured appropriately is tough.
Code level scripting is limited to javascript and xslt. so if any complex fanning needs to occur, you are limited in tooling.
Administration is more cumbersome than it needs to be. There are roles/profiles that are defined, but to use a group email for the approval or use of an api needs to managed better. A more thorough thought process needs to be defined - which I think IBM is tackling as an improvement.
EAM is overall simple to use, especially since the UI and individual forms can be configured per user group with simple clicks by a system administrator.
The user support is better than average when comparing it to other software vendors we use. Normally they reply very quickly, but there is also a tendency to even reply too fast without fully analyzing or understanding the whole underlying problem. However, when we ask support to escalate something to the development team, this is done quickly as well.
HxGN EAM is relatively comparable. Much of the software solutions for large enterprise businesses offer relatively comparable features and functionality. For example, integration with our organization's asset management strategy. The set-up of the asset management is organization-specific depending on the type of assets. At our organization, it was primarily equipment and buildings. HxGN EAM stacked up well against the other major solutions such as SAP EAM, IBM Maximo, etc. It may be best to include it as part of the options assessed for a solution to consider.
There are a lot of similarities between Apigee Edge and IBM API Management. Some of the differences at the time of this posting is... 1) IBM APIM/C integrates better with other products. Dynatrace is used to track API and service specifics with the ability to offload those statistics for operational reporting. 2) If you are evolving from DataPower, IBM API Management is a logical choice to support additional REST APIs. 3) Generating keys is simple. Integration of those keys with a secure data vault is easy as well for your consumer.
Infor EAM works as well as the data contained. Management has to be dedicated to a change in culture and everyone must buy into this.
Infor EAM is very useful in exposing shoddy maintenance practices, or poor reaction to required maintenance. A company cannot be afraid to let the system work for them, and take the necessary actions to improve maintenance practices to prolong the life of their investments.
The only negative, is as mentioned above, Infor has the capabilities with KPIs and custom reports to easily identify unacceptable maintenance practices.
Centralizing on an API management platform was imperative. Being able to support SOAP UIs as well as REST APIs was required. Because of the tooling, service inventory and provisioning can be managed - regardless of the pricing and cost structures are used.
Constructing plans that provide tiering options based on rate limits help in onboarding new consumers. The lesser cost in onboarding through an API gateway outweighs the cost of modifying/configuring an API to handle multiple clients.
Defining guidance and onboarding practices while rolling out the product also helps in the adoption, reference architecture, and governance that can save your company money.
