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Informatica PowerCenter vs StreamSets comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

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)
StreamSets
Ranking in Data Integration
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
24
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 StreamSets is 1.7%, up from 1.3% 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.
Reyansh Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
We no longer need to hire highly skilled data engineers to create and monitor data pipelines
The things I like about StreamSets are its * overall user interface * efficiency * product features, which are all good. Also, the scheduling within the data engineering pipeline is very much appreciated, and it has a wide range of connectors for connecting to any data sources like SQL Server, AWS, Azure, etc. We have used it with Kafka, Hadoop, and Azure Data Factory Datasets. Connecting to these systems with StreamSets is very easy. You just need to configure the data sources, the paths and their configurations, and you are ready to go. It is very efficient and very easy to use for ETL pipelines. It is a GUI-based interface in which you can easily create or design your own data pipelines with just a few clicks. As for moving data into modern analytics systems, we are using it with Microsoft Power BI, AWS, and some on-premises solutions, and it is very easy to get data from StreamSets into them. No hardcore coding or special technical expertise is required. It is also a no-code platform in which you can configure your data sources and data output for easy configuration of your data pipeline. This is a very important aspect because if a tool requires code development, we need to hire software developers to get the task done. By using StreamSets, it can be done with a few clicks.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Error handling capability is quite good in Informatica PowerCenter because it provides a very detailed session log, which is really helpful to identify errors."
"It provides monitoring and we can therefore be aware of what is happening when we are handling jobs."
"Reusable definition of data sources and the out-of-the-box availability of a large number maplets for common transformation functions."
"The setup is very simple."
"It's very easy to use it to develop mappings and workflows."
"The technical support is excellent."
"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."
"Deployment was simple and straightforward."
"The Ease of configuration for pipes is amazing. It has a lot of connectors. Mainly, we can do everything with the data in the pipe. I really like the graphical interface too"
"The most valuable would be the GUI platform that I saw. I first saw it at a special session that StreamSets provided towards the end of the summer. I saw the way you set it up and how you have different processes going on with your data. The design experience seemed to be pretty straightforward to me in terms of how you drag and drop these nodes and connect them with arrows."
"The entire user interface is very simple and the simplicity of creating pipelines is something that I like very much about it. The design experience is very smooth."
"The ability to have a good bifurcation rate and fewer mistakes is valuable."
"It is a very powerful, modern data analytics solution, in which you can integrate a large volume of data from different sources. It integrates all of the data and you can design, create, and monitor pipelines according to your requirements. It is an all-in-one day data ops solution."
"The most valuable features are the option of integration with a variety of protocols, languages, and origins."
"Also, the intuitive canvas for designing all the streams in the pipeline, along with the simplicity of the entire product are very big pluses for me. The software is very simple and straightforward. That is something that is needed right now."
"The ETL capabilities are very useful for us. We extract and transform data from multiple data sources, into a single, consistent data store, and then we put it in our systems. We typically use it to connect our Apache Kafka with data lakes. That process is smooth and saves us a lot of time in our production systems."
 

Cons

"We had stability issues, mostly with JVM size."
"Integrated Reporting service should be more smoothly transitioned from view to function to be in sync with the main design."
"PowerCenter could be improved by having more big data components. Normally, we prefer Informatica as a relational database, but nowadays, companies are trying to understand and use big data components. I think it would be useful if we had more chances to create a hub ecosystem because customers try to use some data integration tasks by SQL, Spark and Spark codes, and Scala, but at the end of the day, the company will understand that we need to trace all the steps. An ETL tool is a must for that company, if we're talking about the regulated industries like finance, telcos, etc. If Informatica's biggest ecosystems feature were okay, I would prefer to use it."
"Its licensing can be improved. It should be features-wise and not bundle-wise. A bundle will definitely be costly. In addition, we might use one or two features. That's why the pricing model should be based on the features. The model should be flexible enough based on the features. Their support should also be more responsive to premium customers."
"They should release new versions for the solution's on-premises setup."
"Informatica PowerCenter could improve on the documentation for the implementation. The documents provided are not very good for a new user."
"There is some room for improvement in terms of pricing."
"The solution must improve the integration with new services."
"StreamSets should provide a mechanism to be able to perform data quality assessment when the data is being moved from one source to the target."
"The monitoring visualization is not that user-friendly. It should include other features to visualize things, like how many records were streamed from a source to a destination on a particular date."
"The logging mechanism could be improved. If I am working on a pipeline, then create a job out of it and it is running, it will generate constant logs. So, the logging mechanism could be simplified. Now, it is a bit difficult to understand and filter the logs. It takes some time."
"We create pipelines or jobs in StreamSets Control Hub. It is a great feature, but if there is a way to have a folder structure or organize the pipelines and jobs in Control Hub, it would be great. I submitted a ticket for this some time back."
"Visualization and monitoring need to be improved and refined."
"We've seen a couple of cases where it appears to have a memory leak or a similar problem."
"The design experience is the bane of our existence because their documentation is not the best. Even when they update their software, they don't publish the best information on how to update and change your pipeline configuration to make it conform to current best practices. We don't pay for the added support. We use the "freeware version." The user community, as well as the documentation they provide for the standard user, are difficult, at best."
"The software is very good overall. Areas for improvement are the error logging and the version history. I would like to see better, more detailed error logging information."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing costs are excessive and pose an obstacle to someone who lacks familiarity with the solution and wishes to have a proper understanding of it."
"We have a site license, but we do pay by the division."
"We have found the pricing very cost-effective. The licensing is CPU and data source-based."
"I would rate the pricing for this solution a six out of ten. The exact pricing depends on various products that you have."
"The price of Informatica PowerCenter is expensive, but it does give value."
"We are satisfied with the pricing."
"Our client has purchased the license, and we are using it."
"Price-wise, it's more expensive than SSIS, but it's a better tool, so it has more features. Licensing is on a yearly basis."
"StreamSets Data Collector is open source. One can utilize the StreamSets Data Collector, but the Control Hub is the main repository where all the jobs are present. Everything happens in Control Hub."
"It's not expensive because you pay per month, and the tasks you can perform with it are huge. It's reliable and cost-effective."
"It's not so favorable for small companies."
"StreamSets is expensive, especially for small businesses."
"Its pricing is pretty much up to the mark. For smaller enterprises, it could be a big price to pay at the initial stage of operations, but the moment you have the Seed B or Seed C funding and you want to scale up your operations and aren't much worried about the funds, at that point in time, you would need a solution that could be scaled."
"StreamSets is an expensive solution."
"I believe the pricing is not equitable."
"We are running the community version right now, which can be used free of charge."
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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
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
 

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 do you like most about StreamSets?
The best thing about StreamSets is its plugins, which are very useful and work well with almost every data source. It's also easy to use, especially if you're comfortable with SQL. You can customiz...
What needs improvement with StreamSets?
We often faced problems, especially with SAP ERP. We struggled because many columns weren't integers or primary keys, which StreamSets couldn't handle. We had to restructure our data tables, which ...
What is your primary use case for StreamSets?
StreamSets is used for data transformation rather than ETL processes. It focuses on transforming data directly from sources without handling the extraction part of the process. The transformed data...
 

Also Known As

PowerCenter
No data available
 

Learn More

Video not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, LexisNexis, Rabobank
Availity, BT Group, Humana, Deluxe, GSK, RingCentral, IBM, Shell, SamTrans, State of Ohio, TalentFulfilled, TechBridge
Find out what your peers are saying about Informatica PowerCenter vs. StreamSets and other solutions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.