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

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
214
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (2nd), Data Quality (1st), Business Process Management (BPM) (6th), Business-to-Business Middleware (2nd), API Management (6th), Cloud Data Integration (3rd), Data Governance (3rd), Test Data Management (3rd), Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) (1st), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (2nd), Data Masking (2nd), Metadata Management (2nd), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (3rd), Test Data Management Services (3rd), Product Information Management (PIM) (1st), Data Observability (2nd), AI Data Analysis (1st)
Microsoft MDS
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Master Data Management (MDM) Software (4th)
 

Featured Reviews

Divya-Raj - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Consultant cum Assistant Manager & Offshore Lead at Deloitte
Handles large data volumes effectively and offers competitive pricing
There is a lot of improvement required, as we still face some cache issues most of the time, which is a challenge that we expect to see resolved in the future. Additionally, there is some limitation when we are working with a tool, especially regarding In and Out parameters, and I feel that this aspect should be improved going ahead. We face issues with the API side, as Cloud Application Integration cannot handle large volumes; according to the API page, there is a limitation of 500 records or 500 MB. The AI integrated into the Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services solution is called Application Integration, where we still face challenges when dealing with huge volumes, as previously explained.
AB
Senior Data Engineer at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Outdated capabilities hinder data mapping efficiency but facilitate cost-free data standardization
Microsoft MDS is outdated and lacks modern capabilities. It is too slow and does not support automated mapping or AI-based functionalities. Although I created Python scripts for some machine learning libraries, we seek tools that offer AI-enabled automated mapping without custom coding. Microsoft support for MDS is also going away.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The interface is really good."
"The quality of the data improves with Informatica Cloud Data Quality."
"Multifeatured and easily scalable data catalog, with good data domain discovery and data profiling features."
"The technical support services are good."
"There isn't any human touch involved. It's just an automated business process to build different applications and talking to various APIs using the client's ecosystems. We then build new functionalities out of it."
"I like the connectivity and richness of features for the technical team, the maturity of the product, and that it had a cloud version. There is Informatica Cloud, and it is part of the Informatica Cloud platform."
"Server maintenance, server hosting, backup, restoration, and DB capabilities are not needed in the cloud."
"The most valuable feature of Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is it provides clients with a full view of the enterprise data assets. For example, how many data assets they have and who owns them."
"Technical support is very good."
"The tool is easy to use."
"The most valuable feature is the administration console."
"Compared to other databases, it is easier to manage and administer."
"Unlike specialized tools, MDS is adaptable for various industries, making it a versatile choice for master data management."
"More generic related things can be included in the services."
"The ease of use is valuable."
"The best thing about it is that it comes with the Microsoft package."
 

Cons

"They have to improve their relationship discovery tool. They say that they have AI inside, but this AI did not automatically find relationships or suggested relationships between entities."
"Exploring the possibility of incorporating AI capabilities that can suggest additional rules would significantly streamline our data analysis process following data profiling."
"We currently have issues with real-time integration."
"The product could be improved in the area of architecture and technology. All the parts are old."
"The customer servive and support could be faster. There is a slow turnaround."
"The downside of Informatica Cloud Data Quality is that it requires a developer to write rules and maintain the systems. This creates a significant cost and time burden."
"The product is not too user-friendly to do the configurations."
"The tools required to migrate existing mappings and server rules through cloud data quality are not available."
"From my understanding, MS, as of 2021, will not maintain the product going forward."
"Microsoft MDS isn't getting strong support because Microsoft is focusing more on cloud solutions."
"I do not like using Silverlight and Internet Explorer. The new 2019 version gets rid of that, which is one of the reasons why we are looking to switch."
"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."
"Most of the Microsoft partners, especially digitally, are separate. Personnel are business people, and they do not have technical expertise, so you end up as a company spending a lot of money training your staff and your engineers."
"In the next version, I would like to see integration with Azure."
"If Microsoft MDS were part of Azure, it would be significantly more helpful."
"Microsoft MDS is outdated and lacks modern capabilities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is not very pocket-friendly for small and medium-sized businesses, and it is understandable because of the kind of features the tool gives."
"The price is neither too high nor too low."
"The solution is expensive."
"We saw an ROI. We have been able to get data from various sources and consolidate it into a data lake, which is helping us in data analytics."
"Cost-wise, I think it is on the higher side, and that is why we are looking for some better options. Licensing costs are huge compared to other players in the market and for my company."
"The pricing structure is good, but having to pay for extra drivers to be used in an ICS environment makes me a little nervous."
"The price of Informatica Cloud Data Integration could be reduced."
"It's offers value for money. They're more competitive with respect to pricing and offerings."
"SAP is more expensive than Microsoft."
"Product licensing is very complicated. It would be helpful to have an online calculator to estimate the cost of a license."
"The solution does require a license and we have enterprise licenses."
"Microsoft MDS is an expensive solution."
"MDS is a part of the SQL Server enterprise license. I am not aware of any additional costs."
"With Microsoft, we buy everything though an agreement, so we purchase volume licensing every year."
"The pricing of this solution is good."
"I would like to see better pricing."
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Answers from the Community

RT
Information Architect at Canadian Food Inspection Agency
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
Enterprise MDM Architect / Solution Arch at Volvo Group
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
Data Architect at World Vision
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
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Media Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise153
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise15
 

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 was pretty affordable. We implemented the solution without a problem.
What needs improvement with Microsoft MDS?
I cannot really give specifics about disadvantages. From what we have seen, speaking to customers, Microsoft MDS was sometimes a bit slow. The frustration they had was just around usability and use...
 

Also Known As

ActiveVOS, Active Endpoints, Address Verification, Persistent Data Masking
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Web Services (AWS), Informatica, Salesforce and others in Cloud Data Integration. Updated: January 2026.
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