IBM InfoSphere DataStage Reviews

It is in the environment of our client, who is a large Russian bank. They are in the top 20, as of August, and have the re-maintenance project of their data warehouse solution based on IBM technologies. They use IBM BWD, a banking data model, on Netezza and DataStages in ETL tools. It is a native case.

We are using the on-premise deployment model.

Our main goal of this project is to increase the efficiency of the usage of this solution and help the bank to get money from the data.

The data lineage report can be filtered for reporting. The reports are user-friendly and take less time to find what you need.

It is a powerful tool with parallel data streams.

The previous project was based on Microsoft SQL. It moved huge amounts of data from different data sources and DataStage to a middle stage, then moved it to Netezza. This created a bottleneck in the solution. We are trying to streamline it and create ETL processes. These will take data exactly from the data sources and move them to Netezza without using of a middle database. The volume of data is quite detailed. We are talking about records in the tens to hundreds of millions. 

We would be happy to see in next versions the ability to return several parameters from jobs. Now, jobs can return just one parameter. If they could return several parameters, that would be great.

We would be happy if the IBM could give us more tolerance for bad networks or VPN channels, as this happens from time to time.

It would be great if we could use more than one SQL operator in the Source DB connector stage. Currently, in the target DB connection stage, we can use several SQL operators, but in the Source DB connector stage we can use only one. It would be better if we could use several.

Data Vault is become more popular. It would be great if it appeared in the newest versions.

I would like them to have more database procedures.

It is quite stable. I haven't seen any pop up errors. It works properly.

They fixed some bugs in version 11.5.02. It works well now.

It is quite scalable. 

DataStage is okay, but the problem of scalability is with another component of the solution (Netezza). The main problem is with the client version of Netezza. IBM stops to support it, then they tell us that we need move to the next version of Netezza. However, the price is too high for the client and we need to look for another platform. 

The client thinks that Datastage can stay in place with another platform.

There are not more than five data analysts and administrators using DataStage because it works at night with ETL processes. Therefore, end users are not using it. The several people who maintain and administer it are the users. 

We have two data specialist who work with it. From the bank, there are about five people who use it.

I haven't used the technical support.

Our client previously used SSIS from Microsoft. They also used Oracle. However, they did not have a special solution for ETL. Ten years ago, they used another data warehouse solution which used XML files as a transport layer.

DataStage is a directly specialized ETL tool which has instruments built for the ETL process as a stream. It can visualize and can track the ETL process, integrating it with the data governance catalog along with other IBM instruments. Previous solutions, except for SSIS, were just a number of scripts which created a process like peer-to-peer. It wasn't a centralized ETL tool with centralized ETL governance.

It was straightforward technically.

Three to four years ago, they decided to start a new data warehouse project. They were working with another Ukrainian company, which engineered this solution. However, the solution hadn't made it to production because of some problems between the understanding of IT and business. They tried to move it to production several times. After that, they decided to do some technical audits for this solution. They& asked us to come and see the solution, then write the audit report, which we did. Then, they asked us what to do with these problems, and this is when we began to help them.

All the components were already in place. We changed it a bit, tweaked the ETL processes, and changed some structures in the data warehouse. This solved the current needs of their business. 

The deployment is continuous. We are working on this project currently. It should take another year. At the moment, we have some Agile processes, in which we are finding new business needs. We try to understand them, then deploy the current user story.

The main problem of this project is they are trying to move the old solution to production in order to begin getting return on investment.

There were no problems with the licensing model for the bank.

It is the best solution in the IBM environment. It uses IBM data models, such as data quality tools.

My company is a consulting firm and I'm a managing partner. We consult for large size companies in the telecommunications, banking and insurance sectors. We partner with IBM. We're not using the latest version of DataStage but one of the more recent ones. I use the product for a migration project. It's a DB2 to Oracle migration project and the source database is mainframe. I need DataStage for that purpose.

I think the ETL tools are the most valuable features. It has an IBM tool, a friendly UI and it makes things more comfortable. A second good feature is that after you make some ETLs, migrations source to target, DataStage is capable of providing details and extracting data. The push down feature is also a valuable feature. 

The price would be the first thing I would want to change. Reduced cost would allow more customers to choose the product. It's quite expensive in relation to the cost of other similar solutions. I think it would also be helpful if the product was more adaptable to other platforms and vendors. I would also like to see an improvement in support. 

I've been using the product for more than two years. 

The product is stable. 

The product is scalable.

We do sometimes have issues in terms of support with regard to IBM products in this country. It's difficult to get what we want and it could really be improved and made more efficient. 

I recall that the setup was quite difficult. We had to call in some IBM people. It's possible that they have improved that aspect. I know there's a difference in installation depending on whether it's on-prem or cloud. It's possible that the cloud version is easier to install but I don't have experience with that. 

I would rate InfoSphere an eight out of 10. 

The most powerful use of this solution is for full delivery integration. Aside from the ETL aspect, it makes data lineage. We are customers of IBM InfoSphere and I'm head of IT integration and finance transformation.

The key feature for me is the flexibility this solution offers. 

The solution is currently lacking virtualization ability. If they were to include it, it could be a good evolution on this framework. I'd like to see an improvement in support and a more customer friendly and knowledgeable support staff.  

I've been using this solution for over 20 years. 

Scalability is a question of licensing, but it can definitely be done.

Technical support could be better - more knowledgeable and customer friendly. 

We outsourced deployment to IBM and didn't have any issues. Implementation took about two weeks. We have between 20 and 30 users in the company and our maintenance is carried out by IBM.

We pay an annual licensing fee. 

Yes, we evaluated other tools, and this tool is competing internally with our PySQL development. It's a battle between code and local.

I rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

I am a consultant. I provide product information for our clients.

IBM InfoSphere DataStage is a good product.

It is quite useful and powerful.

From a practice point of view, solutions such as IBM InfoSphere DataStage and Oracle Data Integrator are losing ground, whereas open-source solutions are becoming increasingly powerful.

For example, we are currently working hard on several examples, and in a few years, open-source solutions will take the lead in the market. It will be used by large enterprises. 

Clients are looking for open-source solutions more and more.

It would be useful to provide support for Python, R, and Java.

I have more than 22 years of experience with many different products. 

It has been three to four years that we have been using IBM InfoSphere DataStage.

I have no issues with the stability of IBM InfoSphere DataStage.

Clients are quite dependant on support from the vendor. For example, if you want to activate a new feature on the product, you must create a ticket. You have no information on when it will be implemented, and the vendor does not know because they have a stream of tickets that are completed by the priority given to the ticket.

I am a consultant. I have different projects with different platforms. We are constantly going back and forth to different solutions for different projects.

I have had clients who have used Amazon Redshift.

Over the years, my clients have used many different products. For example, they use IBM Landscape and we use IBM InfoSphere.

The initial setup was straightforward. We did not have issues.

Comparable solutions will have common disadvantages, which is the total cost of the project.

It's quite expensive.

From time to time, I evaluate different products for my clients.

We have had different projects with three of four clients. The average term per project has been nine months and one year.

If you are working with an open-source solution or another solution, you can implement some features by yourself. For example, in the case of Amazon, which has Amazon Lambda, you can easily write your code in Python or Java, and it will orchestrate it. You can create your features yourself easily and gives you more abilities to make your solution run quicker, eliminating the dependence from the vendor.

I would rate IBM InfoSphere DataStage an eight out of ten.

We are using this solution with enterprise customers for ETL (Extract, Transform and Load). The clients are just using it for retail processes.  

The ETL features are the most valuable to our clients.  

The product is pretty complex to set up. I think it is quite expensive. So, the set up could be simplified and the price could be brought in line.  

I have been using IBM Infosphere for 20 years.  

Once you have Infosphere up and running properly, it is stable.  

The product is definitely scalable.  

We previously worked with DataStage Informatica, we worked with Talend, we worked with SSIS, we looked at a lot of things in the course of providing solutions for customers.  

We probably work with SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) more often because it is cheaper and easier to get hold of. More clients run SSIS than most of the others, but then most clients do not have massive workloads that require something more robust.  

It is quite a complex tool to set up properly in any environment. It requires someone who has experience with the product.  

My advice for anyone considering IBM Infosphere Datastage is to use a decent consulting house to help you once you get around to committing to the product. Do not assume that you will be able to go at this alone unless you have an extremely talented staff.  

On a scale from one to ten (where one is the worst and ten is the best), I would rate this product as a seven-out-of-ten.  

I'm an enterprise and information architect, and we're a customer of IBM. I personally don't use the product but assist companies in the market do for making the integration picture and design.

ETL is the most valuable feature, extract, transform and load. 

I think that performance monitoring could be improved. I know that my colleagues don't give good monitoring. I'm not sure if it's because of the product or because they don't do it normally, but performance monitoring is an issue. I also believe integration with the cloud is not so clear. It's typically a heavy system that people install on-premise. You can install it in the cloud, but it's not so straightforward. You don't find a lot of information unless you go to the IBM cloud. I think IBM is behind in cloud strategy, we would like to put it in the cloud, but there isn't much information about that. 

There are three things that could improve - the cloud, monitoring and cloud integration. It's a solid product but not a modern one and of course it depends what you're looking for. 

I've been using this product for 15 years. 

In the company I'm working with now you can see it's scalable.

We've been using the product a long time and hardly need technical support, which is great. We have very few problems.

I've never done an installation but I believe it's relatively complex, IBM usually is. 

I think DataStage is a product that one should look at as a good candidate in this segment.

I would rate this product a seven out of 10.

My customers use it. I don't use this solution. It's used to extract data from several different sources, as well as to store data and load it into a data warehouse.

The most valuable feature is the product's versatility to inject data.

The interface needs improvement. It is really too technical. That is the main problem.

In the next release, they could offer more connectors with the new database, especially cloud databases.

We've been using this solution for five or six years.

It is very stable.

It depends on project and the customer. Mostly, we have three or four developer users. Maybe three people maintain the solution.

Their technical support is very good.

We used Microsoft Talend previously.

The initial setup is quite complex. Actually, it is probably very quick to deploy, but a difficult project. Typical projects about ETL or extracting some information take dozens of days.

Try to do a lot of training before beginning the project.

I would rate this solution as seven out of ten because I think there are some problems with the design of the interface. They should also develop new connectors. The solution is quite complex for people and you need a lot of training to use it.

Anything that is administrative related, as I don't program in this environment.

The recovery feature. We had DS repos in a bad condition, but IBM couldn't recover it.

I've been using it for one year.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

Mostly, I would give 9/10. I did have one bad experience, so that leaves a bad impression.

It's generally good, although sometimes I see a lot of confusion about how to resolve issues.

It was complex.

It was setup by an outside vendor.

No other options were evaluated.

Don't use the Netezza adapter, as it's poor