IBM WebSphere Application Server Reviews

It's a web server

Pros:

It is expensive tool so most of the clients are big companies or banks

Cons:

hard to use, complicated to deploy, expensive

IBM WebSphere: Doesn't Provide a Lot More than Reference Application Server Implementations

Comments: Very good performance and customization of the different server processes. A cloud deployment would be great to reduce the cost burden.

Pros:

Great control center for managing the different server configuration such as setting port numbers, users and authentication, Servlet auto reloading, etc. Excellent performance even on Virtual machines. Easy loading process of application/library WAR and JAR files. A great complete implementation of the J2EE platform. Used it mainly for testing secure SSL channels with JSPs and Servlets. Very customizable and performance efficient.

Cons:

The cost is a major concern. With cloud integration by IBM this would be more manageable. Not much more features than that provided by Apache Tomcat or the J2EE Glassfish reference implementation. Definitely better performance with specific tuning of the JVM, but still the cost is a major factor.

Big enterprise solution and comes with a lots of problems

Comments: I would recommend to anyone to really think do they really need IBM WebSphere or if their business problem could be solved using some other (more stable and cheaper) options.

Pros:

I have been using IBM WebSphere Application Server and Portal for a long time, and it does come with tons of options and integration features, which is great for big enterprise systems.

Cons:

I've had many issues with it - official docs are really bad, the community is small and it is hard even to describe some problems you experience, and it takes more time to learn than other options available. And since not many people are familiar with it, it is sometimes not easy to find a good engineer to support it.

Powerful Application Server

Comments: Generally using IBM WebSphere application server for building, deploying and running an java applications.Also it's maintenance is easy, also we are currently moving our applications to cloud so WebSphere helped us without much problems. I would say for java applications and security wise it's a great tool in the market.Our organisation is big so we were looking for such kind of tool only. It solves a problem of integration of front end and backend. Recommended tool

Pros:

IBM WebSphere Application Server allows to integrate with other WebSphere tools easily and quickly. It is the oldest application running server to deploy or host java applications mostly, Also the documentation provided by IBM is pretty easy to understand and implement, customer support is also good. The best thing about it is it supports both on prem as well as cloud.

Cons:

Cost is bit hight for IBM WebSphere application server so it is suitable for banking or big companies. Also if it provides videos along with documents then it will be helpful to beginners. Sometimes it tooks time to start the server.

The implementation of services and microservices in the latest version is simple and agile. Integrat

Comments: Understanding of application development concepts in ESB due to the easy application of concepts within the tools.
Understanding of application development concepts in ESB due to the easy application of concepts within the tools.
The almost zero administration of the tool that contributes to almost 99% of service availability and easy integration with third-party applications.
Versatility for design and development of customized frameworks in an agile way due to the diversity of prefabricated components that are included in the Enterprise Service Bus.
The development of support packages either by IBM or by the community is of great help when implementing or obtaining specific features such as traces, quick statistics on the behavior of the integrations and evaluation of resources based on work load.

Pros:

Highly scalable High availability in hardware and software mode Easy maintenance Simple and easy-to-use development tools

Cons:

Limited web console Managed security in operating system and not in application layer Desktop tools for administration very poorly optimized Poor emphasis on JCA standards

Enterprise grade Application server

Comments: We have recently deployed a WebSphere cluster for one of our customer. They are running banking application on it and we were never reported an issue after go-live. WebSphere is highly stable and perform really well on most enterprise environments. My overall experience with WebSphere is unmatchable with another application servers.

Pros:

+ Easy to install. (No complex implementation steps) + High stability (Never experienced an unstable situation ) + Can deploy as a microservice. + Larger community support and plenty of community resources. + Proper documentation from principal vendor. + Supports both On-prem and cloud.

Cons:

+Even though the installation is easy, Configuration is quite complex. +Key management is not easy. +Patch management is little bit tricky , but manageable.

Websphere Review

Pros:

It provides the feature of creating custom queue managers and put custom messages on it for your component. Main benefit of this software is it helps to customize it according to your requirement.

Cons:

Any tutorial video can be provided for the beginner users.

Very Good Java Application Server

Pros:

What I like most about this software is how easy it is to deploy. There's a simple wizard and step by step guide that makes setting it up pretty easy and straightforward. Another thing I like is that it's highly customizable.

Cons:

One major thing I don't like about this product is the cost. I think the price is rather too high, especially when compared to similar products. Another thing is the really bad support. I hope IBM can improve on that

Enterprise application integration

Comments: IBM WebSphere is a good middleware to send messages from a system to others and integrate several applications.

Pros:

It is recommended to implement enterprise applications integration with different platforms. Security is a key point when we work on several platforms because the information is sending through a middleware across different operating systems.

Cons:

It is important that implement monitoring systems to ensure the delivery of the messages. It could increase the costs in other applications

Awful framework, hard to work with

Pros:

- Good amount of features and customization ability

Cons:

- Very hard to work with, a specialized team had to be brought in to customize it - Expensive - Has performance issues if you stray too much from the "conventional" features

Powerful & Stable Application server

Comments: It's been a smooth experience working with IBM Websphere. Integration with other Websphere tools is very easy and quick. The deployment and hosting, both are stable and secure.

Pros:

It is one of the oldest running application servers from IBM, though they keep upgrading it to a newer version. It has all the basic functionality that you will look for in an application server. You can host all your applications especially the Java built applications on it. Our complete middleware tools like MQ and Message Broker were integrated very easily and securely with it.

Cons:

The administration part of the tool is little difficult to understand at first. One really needs to go through the documentation thorougly to get the hang of it.

A solid base for your web applications

Comments: You will always be able to accomplish what you need to with WebSphere, but be prepared to learn! Also, take all tutorials with a grain of salt. Things have changed drastically between versions and also depending on who's doing the video. Some people take shortcuts that may impact (or may not) what you're trying to accomplish.

Pros:

WebSphere has support for nearly any type of web server you need. While we've mainly used WebSphere Application Servers to run Maximo and related 3rd party applications, we've also tested using Tomcat, Liberty, and other server options/configurations with great success. Control is handled nicely from a web-based dashboard.

Cons:

There is a steep learning curve to configuring WebSphere even for a simple use. If you're already familiar with basic web servers (such as Apache Tomcat), you'll be able to get a basic server set up and running fairly quickly, but as soon as you need any additional functionality, it can often take a long time to figure out how to accomplish it in the web-based UI. While guides abound for just about any functionality, there is always multiple ways to do it that seem to conflict with each other at times. The web-based UI is really just executing some .bat files on the backend, and if you learn those, you can accomplish certain tasks much quicker. Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of trial & error is the only way to learn.

IBM WAS - Websphere Application server

Comments: IBM WAS - Websphere Application server is a reliable application server which helps with applications deployment. It offers a lot of features such as runtime logging, SSL Keys management, application caching. It provides a great runtime enviroment.

Pros:

Reliable application server to deploy applications with constant security upgrades. Good support from IBM team to help resolves issues.

Cons:

Cost is one of the major concerns as there are other open sourced free servlet container such as Apache Tomcat.

WebSphere it's the corporate j2ee application server you need

Comments: I'm a WAS admin from several years and i'm happy to work with was. It's not completely easy to be used but it's powerfull and stable.

Pros:

It's robust, it's based on standardize j2ee engine build by IBM and also have SSO technology available out of the box. IBM support is excellent .

Cons:

Not so easy to be used, you need to take some course to have a fast start.

Clean and simple console interface.

Pros:

Security enabled, easy to deploy, stable, reliable, the console is very easy to use. Ease of installation/management, Stays current with patches/updates

Cons:

not lightweight, Takes a bit time to get a server up and running. pricey as well, the support was not up to the mark, if you are struck somewhere.

I wouldn't chose it

Pros:

I worked as WS admin for a number of years. It's a generally stable software, once it's properly installed and configured

Cons:

Mainly, WS suffers common issues in IBM software - Can be REALLY hard to install, specially in non-default scenarios - Support is terrible - Very steep learning curve

WEBSPHERE MESSAGE BROKER

Comments: Easy to get suport and escalate cases

Pros:

Is an integration layer software that allows easy communication With the service components of an organization which makes ir highly profitable system for companies due to its stability and management

Cons:

Ease of integrating bussiness components

Easy to implement

Pros:

Stability and robustness. Its easy to learn and new versions are well tested. The development tools are easy learning

Cons:

Price. Is expensive and the licenses are adquiere by core. Depending on your contract and the infraestructure this could mean a lot of money yearly

Very hard learning curve

Pros:

I am a software developer, I use this software because it works relatively well if it can be configured properly

Cons:

I really dislike it because there is little to no customer support whenever I encounter a problem as well as it has a small supporting community

IBM WTX

Comments: great tool for integration and ease of use is good.
one of the best tools for handling EDI data of various domains such as HEALTH CARE, RETAIL, LOGISTICS

Pros:

EASE OF USE ANY TO ANY TRANSFORMATION VARID FUNCTIONALITY GREAT TOOL FOR INTEGRATION OF BUSINESS AND ERP Systems

Cons:

document tracking is a bit difficult. a better document tracking system should be needed

Best Middleware system to integrate T24 with other ADC channels

Comments: Overall experience is very good. Our check clearing system and online banking system is currently integrated with T24 via IBM websphere.

Pros:

We used IBM webshpere in one of the biggest banks in Pakistan. T24 integrates very well with other ADC channels via IBM websphere. Managing the queues for different ADC channels in IBM websphere is very easy and we can easily debug the particular issue faced in an ADC channel transactions.

Cons:

Customer Care service is a little slow and we dont have much IBM partners and vendors in our region.

probably the best in class in the market for application development

Comments: application development and deployment

Pros:

it is a very stable server for application development and nodes/clusters can be configured/connected. Has a good console interface too.

Cons:

it takes longer than usual to start the server and the other thing is that documentation could have been more comprehensive too

Websphere Review

Pros:

IBM Websphere is one of the highly usable tool in middleware space. The way it integrates with MQ makes it even more popular.

Cons:

Only thing which i least like about IBM is its complex features. It takes time to learn and implement this tool.

IBM Websphere Data Interchange

Comments: We use it to send/receive EDI data to/from our customers.

Pros:

IBM WDI drag and drop mapping is easy

Cons:

send/receive mapping is more complicated than the new DT mapping

How did this become the enterprise standard?

Comments: I like that it has JNDI support and some Eclipse integration. Other than that, the layout for the administration console makes little sense and changes frequently, the memory footprint is huge (it takes far more resources to run the server than to run an application on the server), and there are generally bugs that result in memory leaks or even storage over utilization before even installing an application.

Pros:

JNDI and Eclipse integration

Cons:

Bugs that result in using up my server disk space