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Informatica PowerCenter vs Informatica PowerExchange comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Informatica PowerCenter
Ranking in Data Integration
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (8th)
Informatica PowerExchange
Ranking in Data Integration
19th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Informatica PowerCenter is 10.9%, up from 10.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Informatica PowerExchange is 1.2%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Mohammad Faizan Ahmad - PeerSpot reviewer
Helpful in handling areas like complex data sources and data processing but needs improved support services
The major challenge with the tool stems from the fact that if you are implementing it in the cloud, then it has to be within the framework. Another challenge is the large volume of data. Informatica PowerExchange is a product through which we enable connectivity, so it is not an application product or a stand-alone tool, but Informatica's core systems or IICS uses it to connect to multiple systems. The major challenge associated with the tool is on the infrastructure side. The tool's features could be something faster with more connectors. A number of connectors can help connect to a wide variety of applications. The tool should focus on reducing the resilient time, like, if any network disconnectivity happens, then auto-reconnection and the retry method should be more robust so that manual intervention is not required. We communicate with the tool's support team as we need to raise our issues with them. I have already worked with Informatica and have a total experience of around eight to nine years; the one problem with the tool is its support team since they take a lot of time to address a particular issue. If one time you schedule a call and explain the situation to them about the issue, the support team will raise tickets and take notes. They will ask you to share the logs or screenshots of the errors, and you will get no resolution. The support team will randomly give you some documents and expect you to go through them, and if you get back to them with questions, a new person will be allocated, and you will have to start explaining everything again. I would not say it is a pleasant experience.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The number of docs has been reduced drastically, which is very good."
"The most valuable aspects of Informatica PowerCenter are the many features, ease of use, and user-friendliness."
"It is UI friendly and has all the advantages of an ETL tool."
"I like the automated scheduling feature."
"The partitioning and optimization to help enhance our development is a very valuable aspect of Informatica PowerCenter."
"The most valuable feature of Informatica PowerCenter is data transformation and user-friendliness."
"We can scale the product."
"What I like most about Informatica PowerCenter is that it's the best tool in the market for data integration. Currently, I work in L'Oréal, where a new system from SAP is used. Informatica PowerCenter integration with SAP is very, very fast and very, very simple, so you have the server flow from SAP, and through Informatica PowerCenter, you can ingest the data and make that data available for the business more quickly."
"It is a scalable and versatile solution."
"The product's initial setup phase was not complex. The tool is easy to install onto any of the servers, and you can integrate it."
"The user interface and user experience are perfectly all right."
"The transformation work called for Informatica PowerExchange. It was easy to work with this and very stable."
"In terms of the return on investment, the tool is very helpful in the digital transformation process since multiple systems are available."
"It is easy to integrate the solution with other tools."
"This product is easy to install and it can be done in a few hours."
"The agentless RCDC enablement through PowerExchange is a great idea and has worked very well so far."
 

Cons

"There is some room for improvement in terms of pricing."
"The pricing could be improved."
"Informatica, in my opinion, is very rigid and not very flexible, whereas platforms like Alteryx or Matillion are very flexible and agile."
"There is a need to buy a separate license if one wishes to connect with some kind of SAP system, such as SalesForce."
"We had to take on a large volume of data from the legacy Sybase system. This was taking a very long time, i.e., more than a day. We were trying to improve it with partitions to gpload, but we were told that we can't go more than four partitions."
"If we could have the option of performance improvement within Informatica, and if it could have more features, that would be ideal."
"The licensing cost for Informatica is very high. Other all-in-one solutions have much lower prices than Informatica."
"What needs improvement in Informatica PowerCenter is the cloud experience because, nowadays, other companies, such as AWS, Azure, and Google, have more experience in the cloud. The pricing for Informatica PowerCenter on the cloud is also very expensive for customers, so some customers prefer open-source tools or lower-priced tools, such as Azure. From my point of view, Informatica must work on the pricing policy and review the policy on the cloud for Informatica PowerCenter or propose more tools with lower pricing. Clients want the automatic integration of Informatica PowerCenter with other tools. Currently, the integration process is manual, and you have to add other tools to facilitate the integration, especially with the DevOps methodology. You need scripts and tools for the integration, and you'll need to use other integration tools if you want automatic deployment for Informatica PowerCenter, so this is another area for improvement in the solution. What I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is for the integration with APIs to be simpler, because currently, the API integration feature of Informatica PowerCenter is very difficult. It's not intuitive. You have to facilitate API integration and the real-time streaming of messages in Kafka, for example, so that should be improved."
"The major challenge associated with the tool is on the infrastructure side."
"I would like the stability to improve."
"The product's high costs can be an area of concern where improvements are required."
"Apache Spark has a machine learning algorithm, an area where Informatica PowerExchange lacks."
"Integration with the largest number of databases and other systems would be important."
"Pushdown optimization could be improved."
"The major shortcoming of PowerExchange is high availability and failover. None of the versions we've used to date have had the out-of-the-box ability to enable failover and high-availability requirements. This is a significant challenge and risk."
"The solution needs better integration with other tools."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its maintenance is expensive."
"I rate the product's price a ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"We have found the pricing very cost-effective. The licensing is CPU and data source-based."
"Pricing for Informatica PowerCenter isn't cheap, but if I compare it with IBM, it's as expensive as IBM, however, Informatica PowerCenter is more innovative, especially when compared to a giant company such as IBM that has thousands of products. Informatica PowerCenter is limited only to data management, but it has new features that come out every quarter. Points for ease of use and flexibility go to Informatica PowerCenter, but price-wise, IBM and Informatica are equal because they're both expensive."
"The price of this solution is high."
"The price is mostly reasonable."
"The solution is in the middle price range compared to other solutions."
"I am not sure about the most recent price, but I think it should be $100,000 or more."
"There is a need to pay towards the licensing cost of the product. It is an expensive product."
"The product is not very expensive."
"The cost of PowerExchange is reasonable. It does not rely on complicated formulas or unrealistic equations. The pricing model is straightforward. There is one component, and real-time integration is included. Some other solutions require purchasing additional modules or third-party plugins for this capability."
"An annual package license fee is required."
"There are licensing and connector costs. Basically, Informatica is pay-as-you-use."
"It's expensive. In fact, nobody would buy any product of Informatica if the price was the only consideration. It costs money, and it doesn't come cheap, but it provides value for money in many ways."
"Many users don't prefer to use the product, considering the high costs attached to the licensing part of the solution."
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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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
27%
Computer Software Company
13%
Insurance Company
11%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Informatica PowerExchange?
There are licensing and connector costs. Basically, Informatica is pay-as-you-use. There is one product cost and then the additional number of connectors or applications to which you are connecting...
What needs improvement with Informatica PowerExchange?
The major challenge with the tool stems from the fact that if you are implementing it in the cloud, then it has to be within the framework. Another challenge is the large volume of data. Informatic...
 

Also Known As

PowerCenter
PowerExchange, Connectors
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, LexisNexis, Rabobank
ACH Food, BNSF Railway Company, Illinois State University
Find out what your peers are saying about Informatica PowerCenter vs. Informatica PowerExchange and other solutions. Updated: November 2024.
816,636 professionals have used our research since 2012.