IDERA ER/Studio Reviews

We're supposed to be using it for designing new data models, appending and editing data models. We're doing a lot of reverse engineering on our existing databases.

But we have a plan in the works to begin using it as part of our data governance process, something we don't have currently.

We found a lot of duplication, a lot of non-conformity in the way our databases were designed. By identifying these situations, we're able to go back in and try to create a more standardized solution.

The most valuable feature is data modeling, primarily, because it's something that has been lacking in our systems development for 20 years. There was no accountability for data structure.

We did have a big issue when we upgraded to the 2016 version. The Team Server portion never did quite install correctly, and/or the database was corrupted, and we never figured it out.

We're in the process of trying to upgrade to the most current version now, and we're starting over with a fresh database. Then we'll move models from the old version to the new version instead of trying to upgrade.

We've had no issues with scalability.

Tech support is a sticking point with me. I am really disappointed in the tech support. We pay for the Platinum level. It takes hours to get a response. We're on East Coast time. I know that most of their support people are West Coast, but it's very common for me to put in a call in the morning, prior to lunch, and get a response from someone after I've gone home for the day. I then come in the next morning and try to connect with that person and, of course, they're not in yet. I've had some really disappointing experiences with support.

We had a hodgepodge of tools. The only one that had previously been used as our "official" tool for a while was Sybase PowerDesigner. It did well, but when we tried to come up with a standard of what we were going to move to, we had some federal employees and some of our contract employees all saying, "Well, I want to use this," and, "I want to use that." We couldn't standardize on anything. We did some market research and decided ER/Studio was the thing to use, and standardized from there.

The first few years, we only had the standalone ER/Studio, without the Team Server, without the Repository. Of course, that was a straightforward Windows install.

When we first got the Repository and Team Server, they were different products. The Repository installed fine, the Team server installed fine. We didn't really have an issue until the upgrade to 2016, where the Team Server was combined with the Repository. Apparently, there was a step in the instructions that was easily overlooked, and sure enough, I overlooked it.

We've got some training coming up. We want to learn more of the features of the tool, things like the Data Lineage and how to use the ETL tools. We bought this great product and we're not taking advantage of it. That's my only complaint.

I'm a firm believer that all software is overpriced these days but, comparatively speaking, I think ER/Studio is worth the money.

We have to use the Enterprise License Center, what used to be AppWave, and I hate it. We've got concurrent user licenses for ER/Studio, but we also use it for the Embarcadero RAD Studio. We're in a multi-user environment where we have federal users who work here in headquarters, we have contract users who work in their offices, we have contract users who work from home. In order to get the Enterprise License Center to work, they have to be on our network, at least temporarily, to get the License Center to recognize the software and set up. It's a battle every time, trying to get somebody's license renewed or upgraded. There needs to be a better way.

We looked at Sybase PowerDesigner again. I recall at the time they said it wasn't going to be supported anymore, but apparently, it still is. Of course, we looked at ERwin but a lot of people thought the ERwin interface was clunky back then. And at that time, there weren't any freeware or shareware tools that were comparable. So those were the main three options we looked at.

Especially with the Repository/Team Server installation, get Idera to install it for you. Just watch over their shoulder while they do it.

Otherwise, just learn it and enjoy it.

I rate this product at nine out of 10 because it does so much. It's so powerful. The only reason I don't give it a 10 is because it probably has things in it that I'll never use because I don't know how to use them.

This is a good tool to use. I find it to be very useful.

I cannot evaluate any areas for improvement at this time. I need more time to assess this aspect.

I used it for about half an hour each day for ten days.

As of now, I did not experience any stability issues. Everything has went well with the tool.

I did not use any other tool before this one.

I set up this tool and found it to be very simple.

The setup cost may have been around $1500 to $2000.

I would 100% recommend the product. Out of ten, I would rate it nine out of ten.

We use it to develop our data warehouse, it's the core server.

It's much easier to develop the database structure and change it on the fly, rather than doing it manually in SQL Server itself. That saves time.

The most important features are logical and physical models that we can compare and develop. Also, the Data Dictionary can be created out of your studio. Finally, database schemas help understand the logic that's behind the scene, behind the SQL tables. Especially when there are a lot of them, the schemas help everyone understand the business processes.

They is a lot of room of improvement. I have emailed and have asked for things but nothing has been done. For example, when there are some links to the external databases, if this database is not structured it is not uploaded. It gives me errors and I cannot see the view that was created on this structure and I cannot change those views, even manually. It skips the views. I have to ignore those views. I cannot re-upload them because it gives me an error.

Another situation is that I need, and I would like to upload, a database with about 3,000 tables. It takes so much time and, finally, it freezes the whole solution so that I actually cannot work with that environment. For the data warehouse, it's fine, because I have 20 or 30 tables. But, when I reverse-engineer the database with 3,000 tables, it freezes and it's hard to upload and reverse-engineer such environments in ER/Studio. 

Those are the two main problems that I encounter today.

I have not encountered any issues with the stability of the product.

As I mentioned, I cannot upload the 3,000-table database. It cannot work with that.

Overall, technical support is okay. It's fast and usually, within four or five hours, I get a reply.

The setup was very easy. Everything was fine during the installation process.

I think the pricing matches what we get from the product. It is good value.

Licensing is a bit of a complicated process because there are three different types of licenses and sometimes it's a bit confusing. For example, when we had to reinstall Windows, and they had to contact support so that they reissue the license for me, that was not easy. It would be easier if I had the number and I could use that number for the computer, somehow. It should connect to the hardware, not to Windows. Because each time I need to update Windows, they need to contact support to reissue licenses or switch to another type of license. They mention that there are additional charges for this. It's not an easy process for users. It should be way easier.

I considered erwin software and I compared different functionalities and installed a trial version before choosing this software. I analyzed and found out that this software would match our needs more, in terms of flexibility and the features that it allows us to do. Also, I like that we have logical and physical modeling. We can have two separate environments for different purposes to develop the structures.

Any advice would depend on the infrastructure, but just start using it more and more. It's mainly for developing databases. If you have a smaller number of tables and all of them are relational, you may not need this software. But, if you have a data warehouse that needs to be developed and you need to frequently implement changes to the databases, it will help.

I rate the solution a rating of eight out of ten. I would consider it one of the best solutions on the market.

We use it for data modeling.

I always work in big corporations, and what I do is relatively small, it's enhancements. The company that I work for has many products and this is just one of them. 

The main benefit is that you can do things fast with it and that's very important. It helps reduce the overall time and meet the deadlines.

Also, IDERA keeps up with the versions of Oracle and SQL Server that I'm using. I mostly use SQL Server and when there are new features, a new type of index, for example, IDERA also includes them in upgrades of the data modeling tool.

The data modeling module is important to me because I am a database developer and designer. I also take part in designing applications and that always starts with data modeling. It's very fast, reliable, up-to-date, so easy to use, smooth.

The solution is also easy to explain to others and the graphics are good. Finally, the menu choices are also important. There are a lot of them and they are good.

I've not encountered any issues with its stability.

I haven't tested the scalability. I have hundreds of tables, but if you have thousands of tables I don't know how it would work.

The only thing I had an issue with was licensing, and the support was very good. They replied very quickly and it was very smooth.

A long time ago I use erwin. I switched at that time because it became too complicated to use. But that was a long time ago.

No issues with the initial setup.

It is priced fairly. It's around the same as erwin and other competitors' costs.

I evaluated Microsoft Visio.

I would recommend IDERA ER/Studio, but people in my profession are divided by their loyalties. I am loyal to this product, but if you talk to another developer who has been using erwin all his life, that person might say, "Hey, erwin is better." I say ER/Studio is good but in the world of developers, people still have to evaluate things for themselves.

I have no complaints. That's why I've been using it for so long. I rate it a nine out of ten. It's easy and fast to use.

Our primary use case is for building out data models. As the DBA, I am also responsible for modeling the OLTP databases as well as our warehouse. Our databases can have well over 200 tables. Add in the views and we can hit 500 objects pretty quickly. We currently have over 30 databases. Without solid models, it would be impossible to manage all the interdependencies.

When validating the model, the ability to provide sub-models to developers, and generate a physical model from the logical, makes it easier to review a logical model with stakeholders.

One of the valuable features is inheritance when joining tables. When setting up RI and domains and rules, ER/Studio does a lot of the grunt, boilerplate code that would otherwise have to be hand-coded.

The number of options can be overwhelming at times. That is not necessarily a bad thing but for a newbie, it can be daunting.

There was one version upgrade, I don't remember which one, that required intervention by the support team, but it was resolved quickly.

No issues with scalability.

Tech support is very helpful. I have only had to engage with them once, as far as I can remember, during an upgrade. They stuck with me until it was resolved. The initial request was responded to the same day and I believe we had it all wrapped up in less than two working days, from the time I submitted the ticket. Part of that was scheduling a time for them to remote into my desktop. Once they were in, it was resolved within 30 minutes.

I previously used ERwin but the support became very lacking.

The initial setup was very simple and easy.

Pricing is on point, but do your due diligence - not every developer needs the tool.

There are a lot of options, so take the time to play with it a bit before you start doing things the hard way.

The primary use would be all the data modeling of the enterprise. People can access the data model through the portal: all the modeling and all the data dictionary, column-level documentation, glossaries, etc. We use the portal for maintaining those.

The main tool that we use is IDERA Architect on the team portal.

Before this tool, just managing the changes and publishing the models to the users became very cumbersome. This tool has simplified our day-to-day tasks a lot.

• Easy to model.
• Has a user-friendly interface.
• I like the team portal because, once we upload, the entire team can see the model.

Whenever there is a new version, there are a lot of release notes on the technical side of it, but I would like to be told why are we doing the upgrade. For example, we are moving from 16 to 17. What I would like to really see is how this benefits us from the business point of view. What are the real benefits that the user gets? I want some kind of white paper. The release notes describe the technical enhancements but, from the layman's point of view, if someone asks me what are the business benefits of this upgrade, I don't have any documentation to explain it to the business.

I already mentioned this to my account manager. He said they will put me with one of the product development teams to have this kind of discussion.

There have been some issues with performance, and there are some issues with inconsistencies.

We are also working to upgrade our servers. With more and more model and more and more operators, the check-in and the checkout processes are somewhat slow. Right now it's difficult for us to tell if it is, in fact, a product issue. We are upgrading our servers. We will have to really test it. Right now, if there are more than two or three users using the product, we sometimes face the issue.

We bought premium support and so far it is good. The normal technical support is okay; I would not rate it too high. After we got the premium support things were much better. Regarding the last upgrade, they really helped us by walking us through it step by step. That was really good.

We always want to have peace of mind that we can reach them. When we had regular support, sometimes it was very difficult to get hold of them. We upgraded our support to premium, to make sure that we get the proper attention.

The initial setup was straightforward. While there is some documentation, we had a live session and the support and product management team really walked us through, so it was straightforward. There are some areas that we do by looking at the documentation.

The licensing could be a little bit more flexible. The issue we face is that it is kind of complex the way the keys are set up. I'm not sure if it's by design, but let's say you have to install a product on a test system. You have to get a trial license key, even though you have been a loyal customer for two years. It's just very difficult to again request an additional key and then go through all the setup. It could be much simpler. 

The way we update the licenses is also a complex. I have to register the keys every time. And when we do it online there can be errors so we have to go to the workaround to be able to work on the data. 

The process of licensing could be much simpler, from our experience.

We evaluated ERwin and some other products.

It's a good tool but we have not had much training, so we are really exploring it on our own. There are some features we are still working on with our stakeholders to implement. So my advice to other customers who are implementing this product is to really understand the full features of the product and try to implement all the features at the beginning. Get training in all areas of expertise before launching the product. I wish we could have done that from the beginning.

To develop an underlying platform upon which to base our data governance program by creating a central repository for maintaining and disseminating logical, physical models for our enterprise-wide databases.

We have been able to quickly create models for our enterprise-wide databases, even when some of them are third-party databases. We have been able to then modify those models, breaking them down to make them more understandable. Loading these models into the ER/Studio Team Server repository, it allows us to disseminate this information to the entire enterprise. 

Team Server allows us to further define those models through the use of glossaries and gives us the ability to collaborate as a data governance team to ensure that terms defined provide us a common understanding of our data. We are also able to document the data lineage and data flows of our data from one system to another.

• Modeling with Data Architect: We can quickly reverse-engineer a database from an existing database or create a model from scratch.
• Data lineage tracking: It allows us to identify upstream and downstream systems using data. This allows us to identify downstream impacts of making changes to data in a particular system, before the downstream systems break.
• Collaboration features in Team Server: With discussion threads, email notifications, and streams, we can collaborate with team members to make sure that models and glossaries are sufficiently defined to accurately and concisely reflect the meaning, purpose, etc. of our enterprise data.
• Change management: We can track changes to our data models and tie those changes back to specific tasks or efforts that we identify.

I would like to see better documentation/help for the Data Architect tool. 

Creation of tutorials would be nice. There are some features which are not as clearly defined as they should be.

I am primarily using this solution for reverse engineering and database comparisons.

The interface is really simple to use and it allows me to pick and choose which tables I want to reverse engineer.

The visual presentation is a little too colorful and seems that it is dumbed down.

I would like to see support for creating macros in the way that erwin can.

It did not reverse engineer all of the data types correctly, although it was pretty close. The only mistake was with some Oracle table objects, where it incorrectly determined them to be character references.

I have been using the trial edition of IDERA ER Studio for about a month.

I am using ER Studio on a daily basis I think that is very stable. It reverse-engineered a large number of tables all at once, without any problems.

It seems that there would not have to be much for me to do if I wanted to expand my usage. I am the only person in the company using it at this time.

The initial setup is very straightforward and the deployment took less than an hour.

I deployed this solution, myself, and no additional staff is required for maintenance.

I am currently using the trial version, but this solution is definitely worth considering for the price point.

I am in the process of comparing this product to erwin and SAP PowerDesigner.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.