Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs Microsoft MDS comparison

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is a robust platform used by banks, financial institutions, and health sector organizations for data management, governance, and compliance.

IDMC provides comprehensive tools for data discovery, profiling, masking, and transformation. It supports Salesforce integration, real-time data streaming, and scalable data management solutions. Health organizations manage national product catalogs while financial entities focus on data protection and regulatory compliance. Its intuitive interface, flexible features, and robust tools make it valuable across sectors, though enhancements in data integration and human workflow are being sought.

What are the most important features?

• Data discovery: Facilitates identifying and understanding data sources.
• Data profiling: Analyzes old databases for data quality.
• Data and platform masking: Ensures data protection.
• Salesforce integration: Seamless connectivity with Salesforce.
• Mastering data: Centralizing and standardizing data.
• UI intuitiveness: User-friendly interface.
• Feature map flexibility: Adapts to user needs.
• Business glossary creation: Defines business terms.
• Data lineage: Tracks data flow and transformations.
• Automation: Streamlines data processes.
• Enterprise data cataloging: Organizes extensive data assets.
• Scalability: Supports expanding data requirements.
• Easy setup: Quick deployment process.
• Bulk upload: Efficiently handles large data volumes.
• Customizable data management: Tailors data solutions.
• Real-time data streaming: Manages live data streams.
• Integration with Hadoop and NoSQL: Connects with big data platforms.

What benefits and ROI should be considered?

• Regulatory compliance: Ensures adherence to regulations.
• Data protection: Safeguards sensitive information.
• Enhanced data quality: Improves accuracy and reliability.
• Centralized data: Consolidates data for better management.
• Process automation: Reduces manual tasks and errors.

Banks and financial institutions use IDMC for data masking, transformation, and compliance, while health sector organizations leverage it for national product catalogs. Industry applications focus on automating business processes, centralizing data, and managing data catalogs to meet regulatory demands and ensure data protection.

Microsoft Master Data Services (MDS) is an SQL server solution for master data. MDS enables users to organize and manage a business's master set of data into models while also creating rules for updating the data and control over who can edit it. In addition, the master dataset can be shared with other people in your organization through Excel.

In Master Data Services, you create a model, which is the highest level container in the structure of your master data. This model can then be used to group similar data. Within the model, there can be one or more entities that are similar to a table. Those entities contain members that are the data records. For example, your model can include commodities such as style, color, and product if you manage online product data. The color entity may contain members for various colors. Models may also have attributes that contain values that describe entity members and can be defined within the entities.

There are also attributes that contain values that help describe entities within entity members. There are two different types of attributes:

• Free-form attributes - include numbers, dates, text, or files.
• Domain-based attributes - includes values that can be used as attribute values for other entities.

Features of Microsoft MDS

Microsoft MDS offers a variety of features that provide a central management of master data, while accommodating access to editors and other consumers of the information. These features include:

• Data Validation: With a proactive monitoring process in Business Rules, users can ensure data validity before the lists are used.
  
  
• Domain Agnostic: Any data type or data schema can be supported by the MDS system.
  
  
• Security: Without risking unauthorized changes, IT teams are empowered to control access at the attribute, entity, and record levels.
  
  
• Web-based UI: There is no need to install software, as the web-based user interface gives access to a vast user base.
  
  
• Versioning: Each model in MDS can be versioned, allowing for users to tab particular versions for subscribing systems.
  
  
• Hierarchy Management: MDS offers functional and versatile management of business hierarchies with various hierarchy types and specialized controls.
  
  
• Transaction Logging: MDS offers a transaction log to keep track of changes, as well as the ability to explain why changes were made.

Reviews from Real Users

For those managing large quantities of master data, Microsoft MDS is a solution of choice for a number of reasons. Two of those are its ability to empower everyone to interact with the BI system as well as its integration with Azure active directory.

Satyam S., a senior software developer at a manufacturing company, notes, "Enables non-technical people to directly interact with the BI system."

An individual contributor at a pharma/biotech company writes, "One of the main features I have found useful is the integration with Azure active directory."