API Connect gateway types

IBM® API Connect provides two gateway types, DataPower® API Gateway and DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible).

DataPower API Gateway

The DataPower API Gateway has been designed with APIs in mind, and with the same security focus as DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible). Where DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible) was built for flexibility, DataPower API Gateway is built specifically for the API use case, with resulting performance benefits.

DataPower API Gateway was built and optimized for the cloud. Use this gateway if you are running applications in a public or private cloud and want to expose them as APIs.

DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible)

DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible) provides compatibility with the IBM DataPower Gateway that was provided with IBM API Connect Version 5 and earlier releases.

Consider using DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible) if you are an existing DataPower user and want to utilize your DataPower resources and knowledge.

Gateway comparison

The following table compares support for features between the gateway types. For v5-compatible features and policies that are not supported in DataPower API Gateway, you can use the API Connect Migration Utility (AMU) to migrate them to an API Gateway-compatible format. For more information, see Migrating a Version 5 deployment .

Table 1. Comparison of the DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible) and DataPower API Gateway
Feature DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible) DataPower API Gateway
Native policies No Yes
OAuth provider Full OAuth 2.0 Support Full OAuth 2.0 Support
OAuth policy No Yes
OpenID Connect Supported through a template Supported natively
Invoke policy Yes Yes
Custom policies Yes Yes
Conditional policies if, operation-switch, switch switch
Activity logging Implicitly executed at the end of API assembly Configured in the API design, outside of the API assembly.
Parse policy (threat detection) No Yes
Gateway extensions Yes Yes
Support for mutual TLS (mTLS) Yes Yes
Attention: Version 5 compatible gateways and DataPower API Gateways have different mechanisms for interacting with the API context for GatewayScript and XSLT policies, or if you are authoring user-defined policies. Ensure that you are using the correct mechanisms for your gateway type.