We used IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog for cataloging metadata, so data about data. We used the product for building a business glossary, searching for information within databases, and helping the business understand where the data sits.
What I liked about IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog is that it seemed to have most of the options that you would want from a government catalog. The features of the product are very rich and comprehensive.
What I would tell IBM in terms of what needs to change or improve is that the product is too complicated. IBM purchased various components from different vendors over time and certainly in the UK, IBM did not have anybody that had the expertise to be able to get IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog to run properly.
I attempted to use IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog for nearly one year. There were two failed installations and IBM could never actually get the product to work.
IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog is not a stable product.
My company never got to the point of scaling up IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog. I don't think that it's a product that's easy to scale.
The technical support for IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog was inconsistent. I would rate the support team somewhere in the middle because some issues were fixed straight away, and some were never, ever, ever fixed.
For an end-user, setting up IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog is fairly easy. The deployment of the product took a year and a half.
We used consultants for implementing IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog.
In terms of pricing, I find IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog excessive. It's at the top end of the price range in terms of what you get for your money. It's an expensive product, and contractually, IBM is difficult to deal with. I can't remember the exact cost of IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog, but it could be in the region of three hundred thousand pounds.
We evaluated Informatica and we found that it was significantly better than IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog.
My company aimed to have about two hundred users of IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog, but only about five people tried to use it.
If you're looking into using the product, my advice is to ensure that your infrastructure and security requirements are in line with IBM's recommendations. This is a product that houses sensitive information, yet on Linux, there's this requirement of certain security features needing to be disabled, which doesn't make much sense.
I'm rating IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog three out of ten.
