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IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs Informatica PowerCenter 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
18th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (3rd)
Informatica PowerCenter
Ranking in Data Integration
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 1.7%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Informatica PowerCenter is 11.0%, up from 10.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Murali B - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides IBM Watson Catalog and data pipelines, but catalog searching needs to be improved
If people are with the existing stuff, I would definitely suggest they go with IBM Cloud Pak for Data. I usually recommend the solution for the financial sector, where I worked for about ten years. I worked with IBM for almost eight years. Unless they want to migrate to a new product completely, I recommend IBM Cloud Pak for Data to explore current business. It is easy to integrate the tool with other solutions. Except for metadata queries, metadata validations, and metadata integrations, I don't see any issues with the solution. I would recommend the solution to other users if it supports their existing infrastructure. Some people don't want to put their data in the cloud because they are concerned about how the data is secured with encryption and decryption. For such cases, we have listed out all the pros and cons of the solution to suggest them to users. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Lars Borchers - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable and reliable product that provides a variety of features for data integration
The solution is not for newcomers. It has an old touch. The solution must improve the integration with new services. It was part of the program at Informatica when they moved to their cloud platform. It is integrated. However, from an on-premise perspective, we need to buy licenses for PowerExchange. If we want a native driver to access a special service, we need to extend our license to those services. It is expensive. I don't like that it's not all included in the solution.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cloud Pak's most valuable features are IBM MQ, IBM App Connect, IBM API Connect, and ISPF."
"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."
"The most valuable features are data virtualization and reporting."
"IBM Watson Catalog and data pipelines are the most valuable features of the solution."
"One of Cloud Pak's best features is the Watson Knowledge Catalog, which helps you implement data governance."
"The most valuable features of IBM Cloud Pak for Data are the Watson Studio, where we can initiate more groups and write code. Additionally, Watson Machine Learning is available with many other services, such as APIs which you can plug the machine learning models."
"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."
"I would recommend that others considering the solution go ahead and use it for any batch and high volume loads with complex transactions."
"The most valuable features are the metadata repository and the data warehouse application console."
"The number of docs has been reduced drastically, which is very good."
"Good interface, reasonable documentation."
"In the end, you have structured, proper data for use in an integrated BI solution."
"Easy, scalable, robust platform to integrate heterogeneous source platform's data into the unified data warehouse."
"The most valuable feature of Informatica PowerCenter is data transformation and user-friendliness."
"The most valuable features are the monitoring tools and the reporting manager."
 

Cons

"The product must improve its performance."
"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 technical support could be a little better."
"The solution's catalog searching or map search needs to be improved."
"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."
"The solution's user experience is an area that has room for improvement."
"One thing that bugs me is how much infrastructure Cloud Pak requires for the initial deployment. It doesn't allow you to start small. The smallest permitted deployment is too big. It's a huge problem that prevents us from implementing the solution in many scenarios."
"Cloud Pak would be improved with integration with cloud service providers like Cloudera."
"Informatica are very rigid when it comes to cloud migrations which discourages customers in moving their solution to the cloud."
"Informatica PowerCenter could improve on the documentation for the implementation. The documents provided are not very good for a new user."
"PowerCenter has three clients. I wish they would consolidate everything into one GUI, not three. Also, we had a persistent issue with the Informatica Developer tool but it was solved when we migrated to the newest one."
"The UI is outdated and old-fashioned, at least in our current version. Also, we have experienced some stability issues with the Workflow Monitor application."
"The reputation of Informatica is that it is expensive."
"What I didn't like about it is that the platform itself is not great at distributed processing. When you need high parallel processing, it has some inherent issues. We had to use Java transformation, and it did not go very well. I have heard that it is going to the cloud, but we haven't tried that."
"If we could have the option of performance improvement within Informatica, and if it could have more features, that would be ideal."
"I found it is kind of weird that not all of the mapping changes are treated as true changes."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The solution is expensive."
"The solution's pricing is competitive with that of other vendors."
"Cloud Pak's cost is a little high."
"It's quite 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."
"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."
"Pricing for Informatica PowerCenter isn't cheap, but if I compare it with IBM, it's as expensive as IBM, however, Informatica PowerCenter is more innovative, especially when compared to a giant company such as IBM that has thousands of products. Informatica PowerCenter is limited only to data management, but it has new features that come out every quarter. Points for ease of use and flexibility go to Informatica PowerCenter, but price-wise, IBM and Informatica are equal because they're both expensive."
"Licensing costs are excessive and pose an obstacle to someone who lacks familiarity with the solution and wishes to have a proper understanding of it."
"It's much more expensive, almost three times more expensive than most other solutions."
"We have found the pricing very cost-effective. The licensing is CPU and data source-based."
"Informatica PowerCenter is reasonably priced. It is less expensive than Pentaho. There is a standard version fee in Taiwan. It is a one-time yearly subscription price that is approximately $3,010 US dollars for three users."
"The price could be better. It's very expensive. On a scale from one to five, I would give Informatica PowerCenter's price a one."
"I would rate the pricing for this solution a six out of ten. The exact pricing depends on various products that you have."
"We have a site license, but we do pay by the division."
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Comparison Review

it_user90069 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 20, 2014
Informatica PowerCenter vs. Microsoft SSIS - each technology has its advantages but also have similarities
Technology has made it easier for businesses to organize and manipulate data to get a clearer picture of what’s going on with their business. Notably, ETL tools have made managing huge amounts of data significantly easier and faster, boosting many organizations’ business intelligence operations…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
28%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
DataStage allows me to connect to different data sources.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
The solution's pricing is competitive with that of other vendors. The pricing also depends on the number of users.
What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
Previously, we used to extract the information in the DSX and the XML formats. IBM Cloud Pak for Data exports information mostly on the ISX, which is an encrypted format. The only challenge with th...
How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica PowerCenter?
Azure Data Factory is flexible, modular, and works well. In terms of cost, it is not too pricey. It offers the stability and reliability I am looking for, good scalability, and is easy to set up an...
Which is better - SSIS or Informatica PowerCenter?
SSIS PowerPack is a group of drag and drop connectors for Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services, commonly called SSIS. The collection helps organizations boost productivity with code-free compo...
Which Informatica product would you choose - PowerCenter or Cloud Data Integration?
Complex transformations can easily be achieved using PowerCenter, which has all the features and tools to establish a real data governance strategy. Additionally, PowerCenter is able to manage huge...
 

Also Known As

Cloud Pak for Data
PowerCenter
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, LexisNexis, Rabobank
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. Informatica PowerCenter and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.