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

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Informatica Intelligent Dat...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
181
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (3rd), 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) (2nd), Data Masking (2nd), Metadata Management (1st), Test Data Management Services (4th), Product Information Management (PIM) (1st), Data Observability (2nd)
Microsoft MDS
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.9
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Master Data Management (MDM) Software (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Data Integration and Access solutions, they serve different purposes. Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is designed for Data Management Platforms (DMP) and holds a mindshare of 16.3%, up 13.7% compared to last year.
Microsoft MDS, on the other hand, focuses on Master Data Management (MDM) Software, holds 12.6% mindshare, down 15.2% since last year.
Data Management Platforms (DMP)
Master Data Management (MDM) Software
 

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.
Pierre Godard - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to use with a helpful Excel plugin and integration of various data sources
The tool is very comprehensive; it has a lot of features and yet is easy to use. It is multi-domain which means that no matter what industry you are in, you can use the tool to create master data or reference data. One of the cool features of MDS is the fact that you can reference entities in different models in the MDS DB. MDS uses the model concept to encapsulate different domains in the MDS DB. From my understanding, MS, as of 2021, will not maintain the product going forward. That said, the original creator of the product is doing an excellent job building a new service on top of MDS called Profisee MDM.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of Informatica MDM are its reliability, match functions, and integration capabilities. The out-of-box functionality of deduplication and built-in data models ensure faster implementation."
"I like the fact that you can find almost any product connection that you need and the list is always expanding."
"I know that there are two good features, APN and ServiceNow but we haven't explored all of its features yet."
"Informatica MDM's most valuable feature is the interconnection between multiple Master Data domains."
"The tool's most valuable feature is bulk upload. We upload files in CSV or Excel format."
"​The tool manually checks on applying business rules and helps to implement them."
"The product seems stable enough."
"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."
"Unlike specialized tools, MDS is adaptable for various industries, making it a versatile choice for master data management."
"It is very easy to deploy and provision a machine."
"It has a very good feature called Excel plug-in. You just have to install the plug-in, and then it directly connects to the MDS instance where you can maintain and manage your data and publish it right through Excel. You don't need to go to the front end to make any changes. It has easy integration with SQL Server, and you can use SSIS to do the ETLs. It is a part of the Microsoft stack. It works with most of the Microsoft stuff."
"The ease of use is valuable."
"Compared to other databases, it is easier to manage and administer."
"It's very easy to use."
"The most valuable feature is the administration console."
"One of the main features I have found useful is the integration with Azure active directory."
 

Cons

"There is room for improvement in the support. The response time could be faster."
"One thing Informatica could improve is the way IPUs are used. Each customer purchases a certain amount of IPUs per month, but you can use more or less than that defined quantity. The only problem is if you don't use the all your IPUs, they don't carry over into the next month. I think customers should have the ability to transfer unused IPUs into the next month or year. This improvement could help give customers more flexibility, especially since cloud solutions need flexibility in how we use and pay for them."
"Pre-sales technical support is much better than post-sales technical support."
"Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog could improve by having a much better user interface. It is not user-friendly."
"One area that needs to improve is the user experience because it is very complex. The trial version is very complex so it's not easy to start using the program immediately. You must study the rules first."
"The product is not too user-friendly to do the configurations."
"When it comes to UI look and feel and user experience, Informatica is not as good as other solutions."
"The only thing that I can imagine that might be improved is how the available transactions verify addresses used. These transactions have a valid end date and must be used within the agreed timeframe."
"There are occasions when the solution maintains SD and we get duplications of MDS."
"The Microsoft license cost could be lower."
"In the next version, I would like to see integration with Azure."
"More generic related things can be included in the services."
"The only drawback is that it does not have the matching, merging, and all true MDM components. For these, you have to use another competent called Data Quality Services (DQS). You need to plug it in and use it along with MDS for true MDM. Both of these are integrated together, but you have to do them separately, whereas, in Profisee, there are a couple of screens where you can configure the matching process, create matching rules, and other things, and everything is in one product, which is not the case with MDS. In order to implement a true MDM, you need MDS, DQS, and SSIS. You have to use MDS to store your golden records, DQS to configure and standardize all your rules and matching percentages, and SSIS to load the data to DQS and MDS. At the same time, you also need Melissa Data to clean up your addresses to validate and standardize the addresses. That's the main component of true MDM. It would be good if they can create a true matching component inside MDS and merge MDS and DQS."
"The program's navigation tools could be improved."
"The stability could be improved."
"Stability can be fragile at times. If you are not attentive or make a mistake, it can cause problems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is cost effective and an easily accessible tool."
"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."
"The product has a high price point."
"A yearly subscription is paid based on the number of people using the solution. Price-wise, it falls under the medium range since it is neither very costly nor too cheap."
"I rate the product's pricing a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is high price."
"The platform has a premium cost. I rate the pricing as seven out of ten."
"The product is highly-priced."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing nine and a half out of ten."
"The solution does require a license and we have enterprise licenses."
"SAP is more expensive than Microsoft."
"With Microsoft, we buy everything though an agreement, so we purchase volume licensing every year."
"Microsoft MDS is an expensive solution."
"MDS is a part of the SQL Server enterprise license. I am not aware of any additional costs."
"I would like to see better pricing."
"The pricing of this solution is good."
"Product licensing is very complicated. It would be helpful to have an online calculator to estimate the cost of a license."
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Answers from the Community

RT
Feb 7, 2022
Feb 7, 2022
Hi @Richard Tibbetts, There's no short answer to your question. Nearly all existing MDM solutions on the market offer a broad range of patterns to ingest master data from various sources and distribute cleanse and consolidated information, also to the Azure stack. Many vendors offer prebuilt connectors for the most common sources (databases, various file types, storages, business applications i...
2 out of 3 answers
InitZero - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 14, 2022
Hi @Richard Tibbetts, There's no short answer to your question. Nearly all existing MDM solutions on the market offer a broad range of patterns to ingest master data from various sources and distribute cleanse and consolidated information, also to the Azure stack. Many vendors offer prebuilt connectors for the most common sources (databases, various file types, storages, business applications including MS Dynamics, Salesforce, etc.), but also support a generic way of ingesting/exposing data via Rest APIs, file drops, etc. MS MDS is an extension of the MS SQL server 2016. I don't know Microsoft plans to extend it, but I know that Profisee and CluedIn are very active in promoting their solutions as-built having Azure in mind and being a part of the stack. Informatica MDM has three types of offerings these days: on-prem, hosted MDM, and cloud-native option - they differ in the functionality and integration options. Obviously, there are many more MDM tools on the market particularly good in various data domains (products, customers/suppliers - so yours, multi-domain, etc). I think that you should start your MDM journey by answering which current challenges you try to solve or what new capabilities you need to enable to the organisation. Once these questions are answered and based on your organization's Enterprise Architecture principles, look for the best fitting tool. It may (or may not) be the one that fits the best into the Azure Reference Architecture. I hope this helped.
GM
Feb 4, 2022
I agree with @InitZero...  I would add that there's no future roadmap for MDS and they don't have an Azure solution for it.  Since it's a free product with an SQL license, don't expect Microsoft to invest in it.   Even though we are highly dependent upon it currently I'm starting to look towards the future where we need to find a replacement - hopefully, a PaaS solution. It would be great if Microsoft came out with something in Azure but I'm not hopeful at this point.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Insurance Company
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
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 ...
What do you like most about Microsoft MDS?
More generic related things can be included in the services.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft MDS?
Microsoft MDS is cost-effective because it comes free with SQL Server.
What needs improvement with Microsoft MDS?
If Microsoft MDS were part of Azure, it would be significantly more helpful. Additionally, integrating fuzzy duplication within MDS itself, rather than relying on SSIS, would streamline operations....
 

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
Microsoft Master Data Services, Microsoft MDM, Microsoft SQL Server Master Data Services, MS MDS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

The Travel Company, Carbonite
ETA a.s., Apeejay Surrendra Group, Blue Star Infotech, Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation, The Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, New Belgium Brewing
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