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IBM InfoSphere Information Server vs Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) 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 InfoSphere Information ...
Ranking in Data Integration
33rd
Ranking in Metadata Management
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Informatica Intelligent Dat...
Ranking in Data Integration
3rd
Ranking in Metadata Management
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
181
Ranking in other categories
Data Quality (1st), Business Process Management (BPM) (7th), Business-to-Business Middleware (3rd), API Management (7th), Cloud Data Integration (3rd), Data Governance (2nd), Test Data Management (3rd), Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) Solutions (1st), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (1st), Data Masking (2nd), Test Data Management Services (2nd), Product Information Management (PIM) (1st), Data Observability (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM InfoSphere Information Server is 0.9%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is 5.0%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

UmeshKumar1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Prompt support, reliable, but lacking scalability
IBM InfoSphere Information Server has multiple tools in that product suite. However, we mainly use it as an integration tool I have been using IBM InfoSphere Information Server for approximately five years. IBM InfoSphere Information Server is stable. IBM InfoSphere Information Server should be…
Raj Sethupathi - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers profiling and address standardization but can be complicated
Informatica Data Quality has its data warehouse, primarily using Oracle and some SQL databases. You need a database to host the data. The cleansed version of the data is stored in the data warehouse. It integrates with PowerCenter and other Informatica tools. The integration details can be complex, but a regional setup is involved in this process. Profiling smaller datasets, such as 10,000-50,000 records, worked fine. However, unexpected issues could arise with larger datasets, such as thousands of records or more, especially with tables containing many columns. Handling tables with fifty or more columns can be challenging, even in Excel. A mismatch in data types could cause the entire system to crash. Continual enhancements are being made to address these issues, which can be unique to specific industries like finance and healthcare.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IBM InfoSphere Information Server is stable."
"The integration with different technologies is the most valuable feature."
"This solution is extremely flexible and scalable."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"This is where I think MDM shines - with its strong fuzzy matching algorithm. This is the essence of Informatica MDM. Based on these results, I can write our match conditions and then perform the corresponding data management activities."
"Their new licensing is very flexible. With Informatica Cloud, you have plenty of items under the same umbrella, such as services, offerings, data quality, and data masking. You have also got master data management and API management. What I really like about them is that you don't need to go to Informatica and say that you need a data integration module. You would say that you need iPaaS or Informatica Cloud. They'll then try to understand your needs and give you IPUs, which are the processing units. If I purchased a hundred IPUs from Informatica as a customer, I can use 70 IPUs for data integration. I would also need data quality, so I can use 10 IPUs for data quality. I can use the remaining 20 IPUs for API management. Down the line, if I see that my initial data integration needs for the development phase are met, then out of the 70 IPUs assigned for data integration, I can use 30 IPUs for data masking. I can shuffle these numbers in any way within the Informatica Cloud umbrella for the tenure for which I have subscribed to these IPUs. I can use all services the way I want. This flexibility is what I really love about Informatica. It also has got good connectors."
"The most valuable feature of Informatica Axon is that it is flexible and user-friendly."
"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."
"Whether we need data cleansing or data mastering, we get it all in one platform."
"The scalability of the solution is excellent."
"It has improved our organization because it has made our data more reliable. Data is the most important asset these days, and in order to trust your data, you need these tools to make sure that your data is clean and reliable."
"​The tool manually checks on applying business rules and helps to implement them."
 

Cons

"This solution would benefit from the engine being made more lightweight."
"Their technical support needs improvement."
"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."
"There are certain shortcomings in the cloud side of the solution, where improvements are required."
"The cloud version of Axon is far behind the on-prem, and many of my clients want to go fully to the cloud. However, Axon has to be an on-prem installation. I would like to see their cloud products catch up with their on-prem capabilities."
"The UI is extremely complex"
"Managing the licenses with the on-premises version was difficult."
"The setup is complex."
"Certain shortcomings in the product's UI make it an area where improvements are required."
"The integration with other data management tools can be enhanced. For instance, there is no integration with tools like Collibra or Hubview."
"There is room for improvement in the Data Marketplace aspect."
"Informatica Cloud Data Integration could improve the price by making it less expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing cost of IBM InfoSphere Information Server depends on how many users there are."
"Informatica MDM is very expensive. Apart from licensing fees, they have broken down their products into multiple products, and they charge for each and every product. If the data is huge, they charge for the data. At times, we have to use third party services for data cleaning, and they charge for that as well."
"The solution is very expensive."
"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 offers value for money. They're more competitive with respect to pricing and offerings."
"The product has a high price point."
"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."
"There is no doubt that it is very expensive, but the brand value comes at a cost. Other MDM solutions in the market that haven't proven themselves like Informatica are also pretty expensive. We need to understand that MDM itself is very expensive to implement. So, Informatica is also pretty expensive. I would rate it a two out of five for being pretty expensive."
"I'm not sure about the most recent pricing trends, but I don't believe it's significantly different from PowerCenter. I believe it is nearly the same."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Government
15%
Insurance Company
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
What needs improvement with IBM InfoSphere Information Server?
There are certain shortcomings in the cloud side of the solution, where improvements are required. In our company, we are presently in the process of doing a PoC phase since we have the solution cu...
What is your primary use case for IBM InfoSphere Information Server?
I use IBM InfoSphere Information Server in retail banking for transformation purposes.
How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica Cloud Data Integration?
Azure Data Factory is a solid product offering many transformation functions; It has pre-load and post-load transformations, allowing users to apply transformations either in code by using Power Q...
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...
What are the biggest benefits of using Informatica Cloud Data Integration?
When it comes to cloud data integration, this solution can provide you with multiple benefits, including: Overhead reduction by integrating data on any cloud in various ways Effective integration ...
 

Also Known As

InfoSphere Information Server, IBM Information Server
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

Canadian National Railway Company, Chickasaw Nation Division of Commerce, Swedish Armed Forces, BG RCI, Janata Sahakari Bank Ltd., University of Arizona, Biogrid Australia
The Travel Company, Carbonite
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM InfoSphere Information Server vs. Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.