IDERA ER/Studio Reviews

The ability to define a set of domain definitions and group them in folders is a valuable feature. There is also a Macro (VB script) feature that allows you to automate many features that can save a lot of time.

Although the tool allows for many different options as far as the what can be displayed on the model, it would be nice if they allowed for entity objects (attributes, indexes, keys, etc.) as well as the textual definition of the object. The current design only allows one or the other. I like to have a little verbiage on each entity included in the model that describes it purpose, this is allowed in the tool but you can't show both the entity structure and the text at the same time without creating a separate text object and placing the text in it.

I've been personally using this product for 9 Years.

Deployment can be complicated with their licensing model. I typically have to call tech support to get the correct files and licensing all straightened out.

The repository which is used to store the models can slow down when multiple models are added. This has improved with later releases but it is still slow at times.

Customer service is very good but they're a west coast company and we're on the east coast and I have to wait until later in the morning before I can talk to a support person.

Technical support is typically very good.

I had prior experience with Sybase's Power Designer tool at a former employer. When I came to this company they had other Embarcadero tools and were interested in using a single vendor for SQL Server development.

Installation of the product itself is straight forward although the licensing process is awkward and confusing at best. If you have a workstation license that's not to bad, but we have a WS and 2 different concurrent licenses, which requires a license server set up and getting all the proper installations products requires (me anyway) to contact the support to get the correct files and the correct licensing information.

If you have a repository setup that increases the process even more.

I'm the administrator for our ER/Studio setup for our IT department, we have 5 or so actual users of the tool.

Fairly expensive tool and licensing setup is cumbersome.

Sybase Power Designer

It's a great tool for modeling and I'm generally very happy with its features.

It isn't easy to compare the thousands of tables in the model against the database. The tool should improve the synchronization within the large organization

I have been using the product for one month. 

I would rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten. 

I would rate the product's scalability a five out of ten. 

The tech support team is helpful. 

Positive

I have used PowerDesigner before. The tool is not as specialized as Edera. 

The solution's setup is easy and straightforward. It took a couple of minutes to deploy the tool. 

I use the product's trial version. 

I would rate the product a nine out of ten. The tool is simple to use. 

We use it for data modeling. It is the way we communicate requirements, both for gathering and presenting them. We also use it for putting together our metadata and publishing it.

There are a lot of different ways we use the tool. One of the ways is that we do auditing of what's been billed to production to make sure it matches what we have designed. And it has also improved things in that we have design requirements for the DBA.

Because of all the various things we use it for, it has a high value within the organization.

The most valuable features are the various features for different databases, but mainly those that enable me to represent the database to the development community and the business users.

It would be helpful if they could create a generic JSON database type, as a target database, rather than a specific one like Mongo.

Also, Business Objects doesn't seem to be very stable at the moment, so we've stopped using that.

We did not encounter stability issues in the past but lately, since they're undergoing the rewrite of their internal system, there is some stuff creeping in. We've had some stability issues in the last six months.

We haven't had any scalability issues.

Tech support hasn't been as good lately as it was in the past. It is down to "average."

Prior to using ER/Studio, there was ERwin in-house, but their tech support was horrible, their product was not very good. This was back in the early 2000s, so we switched over because ER/Studio was more flexible. It was able to reverse-engineer a database in under a minute, versus ERwin, which was taking over an hour. That performance was a big issue. Also, early on, and other than in the last six months, Idera's tech support was excellent.

I don't know enough about what the pricing is for other choices out there. I've only really worked on this one tool.

We looked at PowerDesigner, Oracle's native designer, and ERwin. We only did those three, four including ER/Studio. And this tool was, by far, at the time, the better one. Since that time, and now that we have more people in-house, ERwin, evidently, now has more features. I can't confirm or deny that, I don't know because I have never used ERwin. But, at the time, back in 2004, there was a big difference.

I really like ER/Studio personally, so for me, it's a nine out of 10. I like it because it doesn't let you make stupid mistakes - and it's easy to make a stupid mistake. The tool can save you a lot of trouble. The only other tool I used before this was Oracle Designer, back in the 90s. This is way better than that. I haven't used anything else, so I'm a loyal customer.

Being able to to perform reverse engineering is valuable to us.

I used the tool for data modeling, so I cannot say much.

It did everything that I needed, and I didn't think about enhancements while using the product.

I've used it for six months.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

9/10.

9/10.

I did use different solutions that were available with the companies I worked for. I evaluated a couple of modeling tools, as I personally wanted to purchase a product.

Initial set-up is straightforward.

I think ER/Studio Data Architect is priced high, but it comes with user-friendly features.

I personally compared it with SAP PowerDesigner when I started using ER/Studio Data Architect, and I think they both are equally good tools.

• Centralised Repository where all the models are stored
• TeamServer (Portal) which gives access to the models (read only) through a web browser
• Entity Llinking Ability across data models
• Reuse of objects within workspace on multiple diagrams

The organisation is a huge enterprise spread across various countries, and use ER Studio as a centralised documentation of systems/application architecture repository. This has helped the new application development team in cross-verifying, and understanding, the current setup, proposing and architecting new solutions for the organisation. Since the models are stored in a centralised repository, the process of review/refinement are handled by teams all over the world, who can now collaborate and build a common solution.

• Reusability of objects across multiple workspaces is a feature that would help in building a single enterprise model using linked up workspaces
• Copy/Paste of diagrams to create copies between workspaces would be a handy feature to have

I've used it for over two years.

There have been no issues encountered.

There have been no issues encountered.

We are fully satisfied.

We are fully satisfied.

We did use other tools, and we switched because this solution offered us the following -

1. Stability
2. A centralised repository
3. Provision for offline availbility using TeamServer
4. Entity linking accross modules

As a fresh implementation the setup was straightforward, and clear documentations helped when we were setting up the environment.

We take care off all maintenance/upgrades of the toolset in-house.

.Purchase licenses only for the functionalities which the organisation will use.

Make effective use of Entity Reusability for an enterprise level usage.

• Reverse engineering physical database
• Compare and Merge utility

We have offshore developers/DBA who actively request/implement DDL changes vs. a development database. The changes are reversed-engineered into both logical and physical schemas with generated DDL for source control check-in/check-out and other environment synchronization. With both onshore and offshore development teams working 18x5 days, it is an easy way to control check-in's while also maintaining schema views.

This version does not properly generate SQL Server computed columns; future versions do this.

I've used it for eight months.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

It was pretty good once the licensing phase was completed.

It's good.

I am relatively new to this company, but in previous companies I used CA ErWin and SAP PowerDesigner. ErWin is very easy to use, as is PowerDesigner. The latter also provides a free developer viewer tool. At this point, all three products seem pretty equal: I would look at the conceptual model (business process rule) capture/conversion/maintenance with dynamic links to logical/physical ER with data dictionary/MDM capabilities to possibly separate them.

Since we are just reverse-engineering existing databases, and not using it for primary design/deployment/communication, relatively low.

Review the total number of architects/DBAs who need full access and developers who need to view the model/data dictionary to determine number/types, and whether a stand-alone vs. repository version is needed.

• Running macros on logical and physical models
• Compare and Merge

I am able to create (and publish) logical data models, apply naming standards using macro, generate the physical models and DDL. This makes the development process consistent and clean, improves communication and quality.

Product registration always seemed difficult and time consuming.

I have been a user of ER/Studio for at least ten years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

I've not had to use it in a while.

I've not had to use it in a while.

I used ErWin long time ago but ER/Studio was more likable at the time.

Product registration always seemed difficult and time consuming.

We did it in-house.

ER/Studio is a must to have for data modelers.