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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) (5th), 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) (4th), 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.
reviewer1524357 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Has supported endpoint management while revealing areas where usability and latency can improve
The couple of times we found issues with technical support from Microsoft for Microsoft MDS, they resolved them. The response time and understanding were adequate, though there was always a language barrier between the teams. The teams we worked with were in Korea, and it was sometimes a language issue.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Informatica is good for integrating data and cloud applications. We have connectors for integrating cloud applications like Salesforce. You can quickly integrate anything with an exposed API or a REST API. The industry is increasingly shifting to the cloud, so we need more products that can connect to cloud-based applications. The integration is seamless and works in real time. It's also secure because you don't need to expose databases or tables."
"The interface has a great look and feel, and the functionality is so easy."
"The quality of the data improves with Informatica Cloud Data Quality."
"The most valuable feature of Informatica MDM is hierarchy management. It's not something that's typically available and effective within ERPs."
"The most valuable features are data quality, data integrate transformations, match-merge, and a few MDM solutions we build into data quality transformation."
"It comes with lot of features and is a one-stop-shop solution for integration, data modeling, and data governance. Everything can be built under one particular umbrella. If any issues come up, then there won't be any blame game saying that it could be an integration issue or an MDM hub issue because it's wholly owned by Informatica. That's the biggest advantage of Informatica MDM over that of any other tools that are available on the market."
"We can scan anything."
"Informatica provides a comprehensive solution for on-the-fly or real-time data masking."
"It's very easy to use."
"One of the main features I have found useful is the integration with Azure active directory."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft MDS is its management."
"Unlike specialized tools, MDS is adaptable for various industries, making it a versatile choice for master data management."
"The best thing about it is that it comes with the Microsoft package."
"It has been a long-standing tool in our organization since it was free."
"Enables non-technical people to directly interact with the BI system."
"The tool is easy to use."
 

Cons

"Its cloud-based version has a few limitations compared to the on-premise version."
"There are some limitations with Informatica Axon when one tries to connect or integrate it with Jira."
"The product isn't mature enough to provide suitable connectors to various data engines."
"The tool is quite good overall, but sometimes the number of modules can be overwhelming. If the development interface could be optimized to have fewer modules, it would be greatly beneficial."
"You cannot import the data discovery rules you create in the solution to the Cloud Data Governance and Catalog (CDGC)."
"It is complicated to establish the lineage in EDC using PowerCenter mappings."
"Informatica Cloud Data Quality could improve by adding more algorithms for matching and mastering. We currently only have five or six. Additionally, the parallelism in data is better in other solutions, such as IBM."
"Error reporting and debugging need improvement."
"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."
"If Microsoft MDS were part of Azure, it would be significantly more helpful."
"There are occasions when the solution maintains SD and we get duplications of MDS."
"The program's navigation tools could be improved."
"The Microsoft license cost could be lower."
"The stability could be improved."
"Microsoft MDS' language should be simple so everyone can use it easily."
"Stability can be fragile at times. If you are not attentive or make a mistake, it can cause problems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product's price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is the cheapest and ten is the most expensive. The product is a bit expensive."
"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 pricing is quite flexible."
"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."
"We switched to Informatica PIM because it was cheaper than the Oracle solution. It is cheaper initially, but they will bundle it later. This is what happens in the industry."
"The licensing price of the product depends on the organization's requirements."
"Licensing is difficult to understand, but the team is always available to explain anything. They are very helpful."
"Informatica Axon is expensive."
"SAP is more expensive than Microsoft."
"Microsoft MDS is an expensive solution."
"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."
"The solution does require a license and we have enterprise licenses."
"I would like to see better pricing."
"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."
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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
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
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
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