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Alation Data Catalog vs Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Alation Data Catalog
Ranking in Data Governance
4th
Ranking in Metadata Management
2nd
Average Rating
7.6
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Informatica Intelligent Dat...
Ranking in Data Governance
2nd
Ranking in Metadata Management
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
180
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (3rd), Data Quality (1st), Business Process Management (BPM) (5th), Business-to-Business Middleware (3rd), API Management (8th), Cloud Data Integration (3rd), Test Data Management (3rd), Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) Solutions (1st), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (2nd), Data Masking (2nd), Test Data Management Services (3rd), Product Information Management (PIM) (1st), Data Observability (2nd)
 

Featured Reviews

SB
Oct 14, 2021
Has a great capability to connect pieces of information and people to build out a graph or an ecosystem of the data that's being used
It has a really great capability to connect pieces of information and people to build out a graph or an ecosystem of the data that's being used; whether it's the system, the people, or the artifacts that are being generated with the data. It's important to us because one of our key pain points for our data scientist is understanding the context and the data. It builds that context natively into the tool so that's served up to you. You don't have to go looking for that contextual information that you need about data. Alation's active data governance, as opposed to command and control style data governance, is the way of the future. That's the approach that we have shifted to over the past few years, really trying to use a more adaptive governance approach. Where we're reacting to what the business is telling us we need, instead of trying to dictate how things should be done. It sits nicely with their analyst-focused product.
PrabhatKumar1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 20, 2023
Offers good stability, helpful in integration but maintenance is time-consuming
The speed with which the data should be moved could be improved because of the firewall. It's becoming quite slow. And the integration with Teams or with Microsoft is not so smooth. So these are the areas of improvement. So, probably, they might even look for some upgrades or some changes over there. But these are the two key areas that we are facing issues with. One is the data moves a bit slow, and the integration within Microsoft products. Maintenance is another issue that takes a lot of time and money. It can be a challenge in the long term.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The tool's metadata cataloging is the most valuable feature."
"We can customize templates based on our use cases."
"The platform's most valuable features are workflow automation, automated business metadata tagging, technical metadata tagging, and data integration with data quality tools or platforms."
"We had some of our data science engineers, who had built out some cloud-based data and data products for users. They were spending a lot of their time, up to 30 to 35% of their time, answering questions about the data and helping people understand how to use it. Once they were able to document that information within Alation, they were only focusing on around 5% of the high-value questions that really couldn't be solved through the catalog itself. It freed them up to be more productive, it made their end-users more productive, and it made the adoption rate of their data products rise more quickly because people were able to get to using them."
"The solution is used to query MySQL clients and store data and documentation."
"Alation Data Catalog provides a nice interface for connecting to the database, querying the data, and working on it."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the ALLIE AI feature."
"The most valuable features of Alation Data Catalog are the simplicity in onboarding data sources, the security in securing the data sources, and the way the various users of Alation Data Catalog communicate with each other through a messenger."
"It is very useful for testing purposes and designing mappings for small projects. If you go for IDQ in the mapping itself, you can see the data. You can then correct it, and test it so easily. It is working fine. It is also stable, scalable, and easy to deploy."
"Axon has a marketplace that allows you to showcase all the assets the data owner has, so they can request access. That's one feature we use extensively. Axon also offers great visibility and intuitive searchability, allowing you to easily search data assets. You can check the lineage and see the work EDC does. EDC handles all the classification, cataloging, and lineage. It's integrated with Axon, and anyone can see that."
"It's good for tool management, maintaining the golden record of customer status."
"I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."
"Performance and flexibility-wise, they're very user-friendly."
"The solution provides increased efficiency while still being user-friendly and easy to operate."
"The tool does give a good ROI."
"The most valuable features are the structure masking and platform masking."
 

Cons

"The product's data governance features need improvement."
"Alation Data Catalog needs to develop a lot in terms of data governance and would be improved with a built-in interactive data quality solution."
"The tool's domain model needs to be changed."
"Alation Data Catalog doesn't support end-to-end lineage. By that, I mean the ability to trace the movement of data from when it first comes into our organization to where it's consumed."
"It would be good if the tool could show the output from the records while querying."
"We have had issues setting up the connectors and getting Alation's support team to resolve issues."
"Alation Data Catalog does not provide end-to-end data lineage."
"Although the solution performs far better in terms of data cataloging, its data governance capabilities need improvement."
"Its features for partitioning and optimization could be better."
"Cost-wise, it could be better."
"There are some limitations with Informatica Axon when one tries to connect or integrate it with Jira."
"I would rate my experience with the initial setup a two out of ten, with one being difficult and ten being easy."
"Although we are very satisfied with the design of the UI, executing tasks with it can be difficult."
"The stability and the integration of the solution have room for improvement."
"The cloud version could be better in terms of pricing."
"Informatica MDM could be improved by adding drag and drop options, business data insights, and visualization reporting."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"A three-year agreement is better than a one-year rolling 12-month agreement from a price point of view. I'd recommend looking at a three-year deal because you can't stand up a catalog and produce value in 12 months."
"I don't have all the details on the pricing side, but the solution was more expensive than originally expected."
"The solution is a little expensive."
"The platform is moderately expensive compared to the other competitors in the market."
"I rate Informatica MDM's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"It's a costly solution"
"It's pretty high for us. It's more on the higher side, like low to middle high."
"Informatica Axon is a costly solution. I rate Informatica Axon a four out of ten for its pricing."
"The price is very high and has become a big concern for our customers who require the solution in order for their business to function smoothly."
"Informatica is very expensive."
"Informatica MDM's price could be lower."
"It's offers value for money. They're more competitive with respect to pricing and offerings."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Alation Data Catalog?
The platform's most valuable features are workflow automation, automated business metadata tagging, technical metadata tagging, and data integration with data quality tools or platforms.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alation Data Catalog?
I don't have all the details on the pricing side, but the solution was more expensive than originally expected. On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solut...
What needs improvement with Alation Data Catalog?
Although the solution performs far better in terms of data cataloging, its data governance capabilities need improvement. It would be helpful if the solution included data classification and an eas...
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Which Informatica product would you choose - PowerCenter or Cloud Data Integration?
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What are the biggest benefits of using Informatica Cloud Data Integration?
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Also Known As

Alation
ActiveVOS, Active Endpoints, BPM, Address Verification, Persistent Data Masking, Cloud Test Data Management, PIM, , Enterprise Data Catalog, Data Integration Hub, Cloud Data Integration, Data Quality, Cloud API and App Integration
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Salesforce, Snowflake, Citrix, eBay, TripAdvisor, Albertsons, Nasdaq, Pfizer, LinkedIn, Finnair.
The Travel Company, Carbonite
Find out what your peers are saying about Alation Data Catalog vs. Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) and other solutions. Updated: August 2024.
801,394 professionals have used our research since 2012.