Gateway types

IBM® API Connect provides the different types of gateways for use with your deployment.

Important: The DataPower Nano Gateway and webMethods API Gateway are supported only through API Studio‑defined artifacts. Existing Products and APIs created for the DataPower API Gateway or the DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible) cannot be used with these gateway types. For more details on API Studio usage with these gateway types, see Creating, deploying, and publishing APIs using IBM API Studio.

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) (Deprecated)

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 use your DataPower resources and knowledge.

DataPower Nano Gateway

DataPower Nano Gateway is an ultra-light, next-generation gateway for modern cloud-native workloads, running alongside applications to give developers direct control over API traffic, security, and policies at the service boundary. It offers fast startup, tiny footprint, declarative configuration via CI/CD, core security and traffic management features, and OpenTelemetry serviceability, enabling precise scaling, fault isolation, and developer autonomy without sacrificing governance.

IBM webMethods API Gateway

webMethods API Gateway is a secure, policy-driven runtime that manages and exposes APIs to external users. It enforces authentication, authorization, traffic, and mediation policies for performance and threat protection, with a web-based admin interface and analytics for full visibility.

DataPower gateway comparison

The following table compares support for features between the DataPower gateway types.

Table 1. Gateway Comparison
Feature DataPower Gateway (v5 compatible) DataPower API Gateway DataPower Nano Gateway
Native policies No Yes Yes
OAuth provider Is OAuth Provider Is OAuth Provider Uses third party OAuth Provider
OAuth policy No Yes Yes
OpenID Connect Supported through a template Supported natively Supported natively
Invoke policy Yes Yes Yes
Custom policies Yes Yes Yes
Conditional policies if, operation-switch, switch if, operation-switch, switch if, operation-switch, switch
Activity logging Implicitly executed at the end of API assembly Configured in the API design, outside of the API assembly. Configured in the API design, outside of the API assembly.
Scripting GatewayScript GatewayScript LuaScript
Parse policy (threat detection) No Yes Yes
Gateway extensions DP CLI DP CLI No
Support for mutual TLS (mTLS) Yes Yes Yes
Attention: Different Gateway types 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: