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IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

IBM Cloud Pak for Data
Ranking in Data Integration
23rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (3rd)
IBM InfoSphere Information ...
Ranking in Data Integration
30th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Metadata Management (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 1.3%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM InfoSphere Information Server is 1.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Cloud Pak for Data1.3%
IBM InfoSphere Information Server1.0%
Other97.7%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

ArchanaSingh - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Data Analyst at Wipro Limited
Collaborative data platform has transformed analytics and now drives faster decisions
The best features IBM Cloud Pak for Data offers include robust data visualization, centralized data analytics, data reliability, and compatibility with hybrid and multi-cloud environments. The compatibility with hybrid and multi-cloud environments has helped our organization as data visualization is very simple. Migrations, reading, analysis, and data management from other sources are performed without problems of requirements. We have a team of experts in IBM Cloud Pak for Data to maintain security and correct data management easily. I find this cloud excellent for visualizing and managing data across networks and also fulfilling fastest data storage, making it less complex and completely improving productivity in my organization. Everything is managed in multiple environments without any problem. IBM Cloud Pak for Data has positively impacted my organization, and I have noticed some improvement since we started using this tool. Configuration with hybrid and multi-cloud environments has been very seamless and easy. It is a robust platform capable of working with multiple data sources where we gain insights to make data-driven decisions easily. It automates data analysis for quick and better performance. We have seen improvements in analysis and data correction from multiple sources. Our productivity in the company is growing, thanks to the data analysis team. We have also seen a robust hybrid and multi-cloud access system working seamlessly. I can share specific outcomes that show how productivity has grown and how performance has improved since the data is automated, and the analysis is done much faster, saving us a lot of time. We have been able to save approximately 80 percent of our time. We are not doing data analysis manually, so this relieves our data department of dealing with data. We have been relieved of a lot of duties, and now we are able to focus on other strategic tasks. Our productivity has greatly increased since we are able to make concrete and data-driven decisions easily.
MI
Senior Data Engineer at Mohammed Mansour Alrumiah
Faced challenges with customer support and documentation but have benefited from reliable data integration over the years
As for utilizing the platform's metadata management feature, I have not worked on that feature yet, but personally, I have done that. To evaluate the effectiveness of IBM InfoSphere Information Server's data integration capabilities, if IBM is providing all the solutions we are using, then it is definitely a helpful thing. Mostly, the other thing is that it is a big area including data governance, data lineage, data management, and metadata, but every customer is not putting that much effort and money on that. They mostly migrate the data, use it, and forget it, but slowly things are changing. I am working in Saudi Arabia, so here also data governance, data management, and those kinds of things are getting attention. Regarding how scalable IBM InfoSphere Information Server is, I need to learn how to tune performance and scalability on the cloud. I am familiar with localized hardware, but on the cloud, I still have to do the work around it. In the beginning, we estimate the load and based on that, we put the hardware, but if there is continuous increase, I believe IBM also faces problems. Scalability needs to be improved because once the demand comes, you should be able to improve it, but for that, documentation on how to add hardware or resources to the software needs to be proper. I do not have much hands-on experience with that.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IBM Cognos is very stable and has been around for many years, with many users familiar with it, making it a reliable solution for our institution."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten."
"What I found most helpful in IBM Cloud Pak for Data is containerization, which means it's easy to shift and leave in terms of moving to other clouds. That's an advantage of IBM Cloud Pak for Data."
"It is a scalable solution, and we have had no issues with its scalability in our company. I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten."
"The most valuable features are data virtualization and reporting."
"Cloud Pak is a very, very, very good system."
"The most valuable feature of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is the Modeler flows. The ability to develop models using a graphical approach and the capability to connect to various sources, as well as the data virtualization capabilities, allow me to easily access and utilize data that is dispersed across different sources."
"IBM Watson Catalog and data pipelines are the most valuable features of the solution."
"The integration with different technologies is the most valuable feature."
"Over the years of working with IBM InfoSphere Information Server, I see basically the strength of the tool, capability, and load balancing, which I see is really good."
"IBM InfoSphere Information Server is stable."
"This solution is extremely flexible and scalable."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"Deploying the solution is straightforward for me."
 

Cons

"The technical support could be a little better."
"The solution's user experience is an area that has room for improvement."
"There is a solution that is part of IBM Cloud Pak for Data called Watson OpenScale. It is used to monitor the deployed models for the quality and fairness of the results. This is one area that needs a lot of improvement."
"What I would love to see is an end-to-end, almost a training demo database of some sort, where one of the biggest problems with data management is demonstrated."
"One challenge I'm facing with IBM Cloud Pak for Data is native features have been decommissioned, such as XML input and output. Too many changes have been made, and my company has around one hundred thousand mappings, so my team has been putting more effort into alternative ways to do things. Another area for improvement in IBM Cloud Pak for Data is that it's more complicated to shift from on-premise to the cloud. Other vendors provide secure agents that easily connect with your existing setup. Still, with IBM Cloud Pak for Data, you have to perform connection migration steps, upgrade to the latest version, etc., which makes it more complicated, especially as my company has XML-based mappings. Still, the XML input and output capabilities of IBM Cloud Pak for Data have been discontinued, so I'd like IBM to bring that back."
"The solution could have more connectors."
"The tool depends on the control plane, an OpenShift container platform utilized as an orchestration layer...So, we have communicated this issue to IBM and asked if it is feasible to adapt the solution to work on a Kubernetes platform that we support."
"The product is trying to be more maturity in terms of connectors. That, I believe, is an area where Cloud Pak can improve."
"We have decided to decrease the usage of metadata management because we did not see any significant advantages."
"IBM InfoSphere Information Server should be more scalable. It should have the option to change the configuration to run on a single, non-multiple node, or multi-threading processing."
"Unlike other tools, IBM tools do not provide much help from the internet, so additional support should be available."
"Their technical support needs improvement."
"There are certain shortcomings in the cloud side of the solution, where improvements are required."
"This solution would benefit from the engine being made more lightweight."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing is competitive with that of other vendors."
"I think that this product is too expensive for smaller companies."
"IBM Cloud Pak for Data is expensive. If we include the training time and the machine learning, it's expensive. The cost of the execution is more reasonable."
"It's quite expensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"I don't have the exact licensing cost for IBM Cloud Pak for Data, as my company is still finalizing requirements, including monthly, yearly, and three-year licensing fees. Still, on a scale of one to five, I'd rate it a three because, compared to other vendors, it's more complicated."
"Cloud Pak's cost is a little high."
"For the licensing of the solution, there is a yearly payment that needs to be made. Also, since it is expensive, cost-wise, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten."
"The licensing cost of IBM InfoSphere Information Server depends on how many users there are."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
26%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
4%
Government
19%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Insurance Company
9%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
Regarding my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing, for a small organization, the price might be relatively high, but for huge enterprises such as ours, the price is relatively afforda...
What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
Setting up the hybrid and multi-cloud environments is a long job and it takes time. Additionally, the customer support should be more responsive and reach and respond on time. The two main challeng...
What is your primary use case for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
IBM Cloud Pak for Data is a powerful cloud-native, all-in-one, easy-to-use solution that enables us to put data to work quickly and effectively. This tool enables us to approach analytics our way w...
What needs improvement with IBM InfoSphere Information Server?
As for utilizing the platform's metadata management feature, I have not worked on that feature yet, but personally, I have done that. To evaluate the effectiveness of IBM InfoSphere Information Ser...
What is your primary use case for IBM InfoSphere Information Server?
My usual use case for IBM InfoSphere Information Server is ETL, where we take data from one source to another data warehouse solution.
What advice do you have for others considering IBM InfoSphere Information Server?
Currently, IBM InfoSphere Information Server is deployed on-premises in my organization. Mostly it is on-premises only, but slowly things are changing towards pro-cloud. It will not be a public clo...
 

Also Known As

Cloud Pak for Data
InfoSphere Information Server, IBM Information Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival
Canadian National Railway Company, Chickasaw Nation Division of Commerce, Swedish Armed Forces, BG RCI, Janata Sahakari Bank Ltd., University of Arizona, Biogrid Australia
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. IBM InfoSphere Information Server and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
882,103 professionals have used our research since 2012.