IBM InfoSphere Information Server vs. Layer2 Cloud Connector vs. SAP Integration Suite

Information Server is extremely useful to replace manual developments that require a lot of coding effort. It significantly increases the productivity of the initial development and the future maintenance of the processes since it has a visual development environment with self-documentation.

We had a scenario where our clients have thousands of external party vendors/committees who regularly sync SharePoint data. Managing thousands of external parties can never be possible without using a Layer2 cloud connector. We managed the local network sharing and SharePoint integration by using the Layer2 connector. Layer2 is convenient with a large amount of data as the per-user license is high.

Good at: 1. Integrations with in SAP applications, especially with event based triggers 2. Can be integrated very well with other BTP services to attain Batch processing and store credentials 3. Supports many authentication models Improvements: 1. No version history available compared to as it is available in S4HANA 2. Need a lot of improvement in git hub connections

Incentivized

• IIS best for ETL ,not ELT , and many and diffrent source systems.
• It also can process big data , unstuctured data
• It is not only DWH , you can use infosphere for analys and see the bigger architecture of your OLTP systems

Incentivized

• Layer2 provides best connectivity with SharePoint
• It syncs local network shared files to the SharePoint
• Provides details file history

• The extensive catalog of pre package integrations that have in the discovery center. That allows developers to find solutions that can fit the needs.
• Monitor of the integrations and api deployed.
• API management has been for us a very usefull tool inside integration suite, to be able to have the API Hub with the documentation of our apis.

Incentivized

• I would be nice to have a new web development environment for DataStage.
• Connectivity Packs such as Pack for SAP Application are a little pricey.
• It is confusing for new developers the possibility of developing jobs using different execution engines such as Parallel or Server.

Incentivized

• Per User cost is expensive
• A lot of pre-requisites
• UI needs to be more user-friendly

• Provide more pre-built integrations to use within SuccessFactors or other modules instead of everything having to be custom built
• Support is unable to provide advice on custom builds so you often have to engage a 3rd party partner
• Works best when you have the functional and technical teams working together. Otherwise, the system is too technical for a functional user to create integration and a technical user not always understand the functional perspective

Incentivized

• Scale of implementation
• IBM techsupport

Incentivized

It is in place, our system integrators are familiar with it, and it fits into the ecosystem. A better user interface, flow build and debugging experience would see it grow, many technical staff do not enjoy using it for this reason, however it is quite capable and powerful behind this one shortcoming.

Incentivized

The user interface is messy and not intuitive. It has a steep learning curve, and flows developed around are easy to make a mess with layout and can be difficult to follow. The debugging is also quite difficult, it takes some time to figure out how to follow the flow and examine data. Error handling is also difficult and not intuitive, it is better to let some errors leak and monitor through ALM.

Incentivized

The support for SAP Integration Suite is satisfactory. We leverage SAP support through our manage services partner. So far, we have not had many major issues. One concern, to make our rating a ten, would be turnaround time on high priority incidents. SAP Integration Suite drives our key business functions forward. Without a reasonable service level agreement on turnaround, we sometimes find us running into issues running pay, etc.

Incentivized

Work with an SAP implementation partner, if possible.

Incentivized

DataStage is more robust and stable than ODI The ability to perform complex transformations or implement business rules is much more developed in DS

We had also used Microsoft One Drive as a syncing tool but it requires Office365 for managing and syncing data across thousands of vendors which was not practically possible to manage users on Office 365. Layer2 resolved this issue by having 3 user licenses and they are enough to periodically sync all external parties' data with our SharePoint online.

Before deploying SAP Integration Suite, we assessed Oracle Financial Services Analytics and IBM Risk Analytics. While Oracle had proved its mettle in the exceptional database support and IBM in presenting risk model tools, SAP Integration Suite overwhelmed others by being effortlessly integrated with our existing banking framework.

• Productivity of the development of integration processes.
• Better documentation and governance.
• Reduce training costs of various technologies.

• Layer2 resolves the time management issue
• Resolved data syncing issues across different external vendors
• LOE optimisation with using Layer2 connector.

• Positive impact would be availability of pre-defined integration content via templates.
• One can re-use a template as a starting point to modify and adopt to client-specific integration flow.
• Availability of adaptors and connectors, making it easier to piece together the integration flow.

Incentivized