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Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) 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

Informatica Intelligent Dat...
Ranking in Data Integration
3rd
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), Metadata Management (1st), Test Data Management Services (2nd), Product Information Management (PIM) (1st), Data Observability (2nd)
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)
 

Q&A Highlights

NC
Feb 13, 2022
 

Featured Reviews

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.
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

"The interface has a great look and feel, and the functionality is so easy."
"The profiling feature in Informatica Data Quality is incredibly effective for data governance."
"Replication allows us to fully replicate all objects from Shop Floor Data Collection (SFDC) to in-house/on-premises database in one job."
"The solution is easier to use compared to the other solutions."
"Able to customize data search and data sharing."
"The most valuable feature is the building of mockups and tasks."
"The data quality component is very good."
"The product is stable."
"Easy, scalable, robust platform to integrate heterogeneous source platform's data into the unified data warehouse."
"Complex transformations can be easily achieved by using PowerCenter. The processing layer does transformations and other things. About 80% of my transformations can be achieved by using the middle layer. For the remaining 15% to 20% transformations, I can go in and create stored procedures in the respective databases. Mapplets is the feature through which we can reuse transformations across pipelines. Transformations and caching are the key features that we have been using frequently. Informatica PowerCenter is one of the best solutions or products in the data integration space. We have extensively used PowerCenter for integration purposes. We usually look at the best bridge solution in our architecture so that it can sustain for maybe a couple of years. Usually, we go with the solution that fits best and has proven and time-tested technology."
"UI-based ability to create data mapping."
"Informatica PowerCenter has been implementing mapping design, data flow, and workflow execution for years."
"The setup is very simple."
"Technical support is great. It's one of the reasons we really like them. When you compare support from IBM and support from Informatica, Informatica is much better."
"Has a good visual tool for data mapping."
"The most valuable aspects of Informatica PowerCenter are the many features, ease of use, and user-friendliness."
 

Cons

"I would rate my experience with the initial setup a two out of ten, with one being difficult and ten being easy."
"IEDC can improve the comparison of lineages."
"Performance also needs to be significantly improved, especially when connecting to SFDC for read and write operations."
"We cannot sell the product directly with an additional layer."
"It is more complicated to extract data using the product compared to Visio. The system could display the details on the screen."
"Error reporting and debugging need improvement."
"The product isn't mature enough to provide suitable connectors to various data engines."
"Managing the licenses with the on-premises version was difficult."
"If you want to transfer a ZIP file, it is a pain. You need to use Command-Line. Sometimes we just want to transfer a file. It should be easy to move them from A to B."
"The only problem with this product is the level of complexity with the number of levels of transformation that you have to go through."
"The licensing cost for Informatica is very high. Other all-in-one solutions have much lower prices than Informatica."
"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."
"I would like to see an improvement in the digital adoption."
"I found it is kind of weird that not all of the mapping changes are treated as true changes."
"Lacks ability to calculate cost of the product."
"The price of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required, considering the fact that the present licensing charges of the tool are expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"It's pretty high for us. It's more on the higher side, like low to middle high."
"Informatica Cloud Data Integration is famously known for its high price. The vendor targets large enterprises, and not medium or small companies. These large companies, and organizations, handle large amounts of data. If you go into any large bank, such as American or Canadian banks, these banks use this solution because it is more reliable, secure, and has more functionality."
"Informatica MDM's pricing is not cheap but comparable to other vendors."
"The price is high, but the competitors are even higher, like Collibra."
"The pricing is high compared to other tools on the market."
"My understanding is that Informatica is quite expensive compare to other tools that are available in the market."
"A basic setup can be from $100,000 and up annually."
"We have found the pricing very cost-effective. The licensing is CPU and data source-based."
"The price is mostly reasonable."
"The price of this solution is high."
"We are satisfied with the pricing."
"The license model is CPU based."
"According to what I've heard and read on various blogs, it's quite expensive when compared to similar competitive products."
"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."
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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…
 

Answers from the Community

NC
Feb 13, 2022
Feb 13, 2022
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 quantities of data with a high level of reliability. We also like the metadata repository and the data warehouse application console. We would like to see the licensing improved, though. We would lik...
2 out of 3 answers
RC
Oct 25, 2021
Cloud Data Integration
Nov 21, 2021
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 quantities of data with a high level of reliability. We also like the metadata repository and the data warehouse application console. We would like to see the licensing improved, though. We would like to see a feature-wise option as opposed to the current bundle option. PowerCenter is a very expensive solution. The numerous levels of transformation and multiple interfaces can make it a very confusing solution to learn. Cloud Data Integration offers great options for data cleansing, data mastering, data masking, master data management, and API management. The UI is very easy to use and the setup is straightforward. The new licensing is very flexible. Cloud Data Integration has inbuilt tools that allow for a lot of data transformation without changing any SQL queries from the code. This is one of our favorite features. We would point out, though, that there are some limitations with performance using Cloud Data Integration. We experienced some connectivity issues, making things run a bit slow. There are some issues with data residency laws in some countries. More regions should be added. Finally, it would behoove Cloud DataIntegration to consider adding more data sources. Conclusion: These are two great solutions under Informatica Brand which is synonymous with quality, reliability, and price. (Very high price.) Cloud Data is best suited for small to medium organizations and is somewhat limited in the regions it can be used. PowerCenter is most applicable for large enterprises that can more easily absorb the cost and best utilize everything PowerCenter has to offer with their current bundle licensing tier.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
6%
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

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 ...
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...
How do you evaluate the pricing model of Informatica PowerCenter?
The pricing model of Informatica PowerCenter is suitable for big companies and enterprises. This is an amazing product, and it certainly does its job, however, if you are a medium or small business...
 

Also Known As

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
PowerCenter
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

The Travel Company, Carbonite
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, LexisNexis, Rabobank
Find out what your peers are saying about Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs. Informatica PowerCenter and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
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