Understanding MuleSoft Anypoint Platform licensing

Understanding MuleSoft Anypoint Platform licensing

• Historical Overview
• What is MuleSoft Anypoint Platform?
• How is MuleSoft Anypoint Platform licensed?
• Alternatives to MuleSoft Anypoint?

Historical Overview:

MuleSoft LLC (initially founded in 2006 as MuleSource and renamed to MuleSoft in 2009) was founded by Ross Mason and Dave Rosenberg. The company started by providing middleware and messaging software, and later expanded to provide an integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) approach for end-user organisations through its main product, Anypoint Platform.

In April 2013, MuleSoft acquired ProgrammableWeb, a website used by developers to help build web, mobile and other connected applications through APIs.

In February 2017, the company filed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on March 17, 2017.

In May 2018, MuleSoft was acquired by Salesforce.com for $6.5 billion.

What is MuleSoft Anypoint Platform?

MuleSoft's Anypoint Platform is a fully cloud-based solution taking advantage of the elasticity of the cloud while providing a secure connection to on-premises systems. The platform is designed to connect applications, data, and devices across various environments, whether on-premises or in the cloud. It offers a unified solution for building, managing, and monitoring APIs and integrations. In short, Anypoint Platform enables organisations to achieve API-led connectivity, streamlining operations and enhancing the ability to respond to changing business needs.

How is MuleSoft Anypoint Platform licensed?

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform licensing is a subscription based model for a specific term. The Anypoint Base subscription is the base solution and other add-on functionality can be acquired on top (e.g.Platinum Subscription, Titanium Subscription etc.). Key parameters that should be considered when assesing the correct number of licences and associated pricing:

• Number of Cores/vCores
• You should determine how many Cores and/or vCores you need on the different infrastructure platforms (e.g. on-premise, cloud) to run the APIs or applications;
• A Core may refer to either a physical CPU core, or a "virtual core" (also referred to as a vCPU), which is a logical partition of a physical CPU core. When deploying on Amazon EC2, each EC2 vCPU shall be counted as 1 core, except for t2 instances For t2 instances, the number of cores in use by an EC2 instance shall be calculated as the total number of CPU minutes available in a 24 hour period, divided by the total number of minutes in a 24-hour period.
• A vCore is defined as a unit of compute capacity for processing on (The platform-as-a-service (PaaS) component of the Cloud Offerings), which is equal to one virtual core.

• Environment type
• You should determine how many cores and/or vCores you require for different types of environments, including production and pre-production.
• Production environments are environments in which the MuleSoft software or cloud offering is used in a live production environment, being actively used to process data or provide information to end-users, but not being simultaneously used for development or pre-production purposes.
• Pre-production environments are environments in which the MuleSoft software or cloud offering is in any non-production environment for development, sandbox, quality assurance, testing, or staging purposes.

• Minimums:
• You should keep in mind that all additional vCores can be acquired when needed with discounts being offered depending on the quantity (buckets) and subscription length.

• Support Level:
• You should determine which support level you require depending on your needs. MuleSoft distinguishes between different support levels () each with their own specifics:

IMPORTANT:

To determine the correct metric definition and product terms, you should at all times check your own Order Form and governing agreement. If you don’t have them at hand, Salesforce’s Product Terms Directory can be a proper alternative. However, you should keep in mind – as will all other software publishers – that the product terms directory may be updated from time to time by MuleSoft. Product terms set forth in this directory will apply to the products and services on your Order Form for the duration of the Order Term. In the event new terms are added to this directory for new functionality made available within a Service during an Order Term, the new terms will apply to the use of the new functionality.

Alternatives

According to Gartner®, there are several competitors and alternatives that can be looked into in case you are considering to explore alternative options. Among these, Gartner® has highlited:

• Postman API Platform
• Amazon API Gateway
• WSO2 API Manager
• Microsoft Azure API Management
• Apigee API Management Platform
• Axway Amplify API Management
• IBM API Connect
• Kong Gateway

If you want to check out the reviews that were verified by Gartner®, you can check the following link.