Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) Reviews

We use the solution for data cataloging and lineage.

The valuable feature is metadata management. If you want to trace sensitive data, you can auto-classify them. You can search for sensitive information through EDC. Using Discovery, you can identify if there is any type of data set.

EDC is only used for cataloging and meetings. Currently, not many different databases are integrated with it. The ETL logic should be visible within the tool. If EDC is integrated with Axon, you will see the data lineage and catalog because of EDC. If EDC is removed, you cannot see any lineage or catalog.

We need EDC on the application level. Currently, it is only at a system level. It can be shown as an application layer between policies or regulations. This kind of feature can be enabled.

The integration with other data management tools can be enhanced. For instance, there is no integration with tools like Collibra or Hubview.

I have been using Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog for seven years.

The solution is stable.

EDC needs many ports to run. Therefore, to improve performance, you need to increase the number of cores.

The initial setup is easy and takes two weeks to complete. One person is enough to deploy it.

EDC gives you a better understanding of architecture and the system used. You cannot use EDC completely unless you have access.

The product is expensive.

EDC is a standalone application, so it doesn’t really make much sense. It doesn’t give you a lot of features that way; it’s primarily for cataloging and classification. Nobody would buy EDC as a standalone application. When people are buying EDC, it’s always with Axon.

I recommend buying the solution altogether with Axon.

Overall, I rate the solution as seven out of ten.

Informatica Axon is typically used for data governance, where we establish policies and business glossaries.

Users can benefit from Axon's business lineage. Axon has something called Overlay, which can be used to extend the technical lineage. You can also extend it to stakeholders, all the compliance policies, and all the overlaying business rules. All of these can be seen in the same lineage.

I want to get a deeper understanding of the logic that is being used in the ETL. Informatica Axon does not provide complete transparency about the level of detailing you need and the logic used in ETL. I cannot use Google Fusion for ETL because I don't have a connector within Informatica Axon. I am stuck if I don't have a connector with an ETL tool.

One of the biggest disadvantages of Informatica is that it's very expensive. Many clients don't want to go with Informatica Axon because of its cost structure. You have to buy every component separately. If a customer wants governance, they obviously would need cataloging and lineage also.

Other tools like Collibra have cataloging, lineage, and governance in the same package. You don't need to buy them separately. With Informatica, you have to buy Axon for governance and EDC for cataloging and lineage. So, it becomes difficult for customers to pay for every component.

I have been using Informatica Axon for seven years.

We haven’t faced any stability issues with Informatica Axon.

Scalability is not really a factor in data governance because the volume and storage of metadata is not more than a couple of gigabytes.

The solution provides good technical support.

Positive

The solution's initial setup is easy, but you typically need Informatica support to run some of the preliminary tests. I've heard that the solution will be available on the cloud. Once it is available as software as a service (SaaS), you don't need to install it; you only need to configure it.

Typically, it takes around two days for the solution's installation and integration with the entire Active Directory and EDC. Then, it may take another day for testing. One engineer is enough to do all this work.

Only using Axon will not give you all the benefits, but you will see benefits when Axon, EDC, and IDQ are all plugged in together. It is difficult to get benefits from Axon as a standalone solution.

The solution's pricing model is easy, but it is very expensive.

Informatica Axon has a Marketplace that comes at an additional cost. Other tools like Collibra have built-in collaboration features, and you don't need to buy them separately. Collaboration features like collaborating on data sets, tagging them, and making a request are available in the Informatica Axon Marketplace.

It's not difficult to maintain the tool as long as someone has been trained in administration because Axon has many components. You need to understand how to change the logo of your screen size and how to change the dashboard wizard.

You also need to understand the product's configurations with other tools, personalize your dashboard, customize it, and add roles. There is a learning curve there. You need to train a person to be an administrator, and once they are trained, they can do the role better.

There is an NLP enabled with the solution, but it is not really that great. There is still room for growth in Informatica Axon's AI space.

Although expensive, Informatica Axon is very easy to learn, and you don't need to customize it much. Once you have the tool, you start uploading things. The solution is very easy to use because it has proper documentation and user guides.

If you want to set up business rules, Informatica Axon will give you a readymade template and ask you to start filling it out. You will be told about the mandatory and non-mandatory fields, and as long as you understand what the fields are required for, it's very easy to start filling out. Someone new to governance can get the hang of it and easily start filling in the details. You can have Axon implemented very quickly.

I am more involved with governance, cataloging lineage, EDC, and IDQ. I am getting a little bit into master data management and data security.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

They could improve the product support for the Arabic language. Currently, there are limitations in processing and the interface itself regarding Arabic language support.

We have been using Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog for two years.

I rate the platform's stability a nine out of ten.

Our organization has 12 Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog users. I rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

We encountered a delayed response from the technical support team.

Neutral

We also use the Erwin Data Catalog, depending on the customer's requirements.

The initial setup process is easy. It takes around two days to complete.

We get help from third-party vendors for product implementation.

The ROI from using Informatica EGC (Enterprise Data Catalog) can be substantial, as it helps everyone, from novices to experts and stakeholders, maximize their data's potential. It enables thorough understanding, insightful analysis, and seamless sharing of data assets. Features like adding business terms enhance data quality and governance, benefiting businesses across various sectors. Many customers have truly benefited from these options.

For 12 users, the platform's estimated annual cost is around $160,000.

Our data management processes primarily use Informatica to connect to data sources, scan metadata to obtain physical data and perform data classification. Subsequently, we create business terms to establish a business glossary repository within the platform.

The features that have been most effective in improving our data governance include auto-classification and the ease of exploration and navigation within the tool. It can automatically connect or associate business terms with various options, providing flexibility beyond general capabilities.

The AI-driven discovery capability has significantly enhanced our data cataloging processes. Utilizing AI for auto-classification and discovery has been particularly beneficial. However, there is room for improvement in certain areas for understanding the data.

It has adapted well to changes in our data landscape, seamlessly accommodating new types of data sources. It offers flexibility in adding new data sources and supporting multiple data connectors.

Looking ahead to the future of Informatica Data Catalog, data lineage will be a significant trend influencing the product. These features are currently available, but there is potential for further enhancement and detail. It will enable organizations to comprehensively understand their data and its relationships with business processes and regulatory requirements.

I highly recommend it to others and rate it a nine out of ten.

We are using it for multiple purposes, such as real-time data integration and data migration. It allows seamless integration of various cloud-based applications and services.

The solution provides increased efficiency while still being user-friendly and easy to operate. It includes built-in features that ensure data consistency and accuracy, resulting in excellent data quality. 

It would be helpful if there was a GenAI feature integrated into the system, especially regarding the data quality. It would ensure improved decision-making processes and better insights. 

I have been using this solution for three to four years.

Our experience with the stability has been quite good. I would rate it nine out of ten.

The solution's scalability is one of its key aspects. It facilitates the scaling of data integration capabilities based on customer's needs. 

The deployment process depends on the client's requests. If it requires complex tools and features, the process will take longer. But for normal operations, it is really easy and not very time-consuming.

I have been very satisfied with the feedback I was getting with Informatica Cloud Data Integration. Its automated performance enables the processing and integration of large volumes of data quickly and efficiently. I would rate this solution nine out of ten. 

Informatica MDM is a multi-domain product for any master data management. We could use it for customer master data management or supplier data. Given the nature of the business, we can apply Informatica MDM to master the core data entities within an organization.

Informatica MDM has a defined data model we can customize with user and developer options. The solution's user interface allows users to work with the master data model. Another feature I like is that the solution can integrate with various data cleansing engines, such as address cleansing or data quality-related packages or functionalities.

From a data or master data management perspective, the solution is pretty evolved. But from a business process automation workflow standpoint, it could be a bit more intuitive, rather than technically complex, such as in workflow alteration using ActiveVOS. The solution also needs adaptive rules elaborating AI/ML technologies.

I have been working with Informatica MDM for ten years now.

The solution is robust and stable enough.

With master data, we don't usually talk about tons of data. There could be a lot of records, but then it's not that huge. Now that Informatica is shifting towards the cloud as part of their software, they would have considered the scalability perspective, which is not too huge. Like transactional databases, we would expect less data there. The solution is mature enough to cater to a wide range of users.

We have a huge dependency on support all the time. If something is required or unclear or doesn't work, we have to raise a ticket and follow a process to resolve it. The turnaround time is long sometimes.

Even for simpler questions, we still have to be put on hold and wait for someone to pick up and respond. Even if the problem is critical, support does not treat it with the same urgency we would anticipate or expect.

Neutral

One would need professional services from Informatica to get MDM installed, and there has to be a contract with professionals all the time after that to manage the data model and any changes to the data. Moreover, there is a huge dependency on their professional services to work with the product in the long-term perspective.

The setup is not complex for professionals, but people without a technical background would not be able to set up the solution by themselves.

Once the installations are complete, there are two aspects to the solution. One is the back-end, which is the model, then setting up integration to load the data and configuring the MDM system to perform its master data capability. The other part is the front end, which is deploying the user interfaces and ensuring the user roles are defined and set up.

When deploying the solution, the whole project team needs to be around because the developers, the users, and everybody on the project team must come together because once it is deployed, it needs to be tested. Maintenance teams would be separate. They need to focus on any minor enhancements to the solution and provide support with any bugs, issues, or questions users might have with the data.

I have heard from customers that the product comes with a huge license cost. Under contractual terms, Informatica does not let us have full control of our own datasets, but that comes down to how the billing and licensing work. The licensing is a bit complex and expensive.

I have experience working with Informatica MDM. However, I have been comparing it against MS MDS to see how each stands. More from a costing perspective, a licensing standpoint, or any roadmap from a product's perspective, for which MS MDS has no plans to expand or evolve to a newer product with more capabilities. That's something I am checking in the background. Given the current landscape in my organization, both tools coexist, but we are trying to see if we need to replace one with the other.

At the moment, Informatica is the market leader within the MDM space, expanding into the latest data integration and management advancements. I don't see MS MDS in these areas. But then again, MS MDS has been treated as a legacy system within the organization, and we're trying to find a roadmap to replace it with Informatica by understanding what it offers comparatively.

The solution is pretty evolved from an MDM perspective, and it seamlessly integrates with its product suite.

We work with the on-prem version. We have seen the cloud version, but we're not there yet because it takes a long time to onboard all the businesses onto the cloud. The cloud version is still at a proof of concept stage.

Before purchasing the solution, the user must understand the licensing and cost structure, as well as their professional support. All these aspects are important on an ongoing basis. Depending on the wide suite of products they offer, it's best to understand which products would suffice the business needs rather than having to roll out a full-blown MDM solution, which is not the case with all the clients.

I rate the product a seven out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for tasks such as masking. It's used to mask the customer data.

We are using end-to-end features of Informatica. Everything comes under the product. We really like that the solution is part of a bigger use case that can all be under one umbrella system.

There are new features that are being built to help more closely link all of the solutions we use, and we like that they are always thinking about how each product interplays with the other.

We've used the solution for quite some time, so in our organization, the product is pretty mature.

There are lots of use cases surrounding the use of the product.

The integration could be a bit better. The process is something new. 

They need to include more documentation and support around the build.

It's my understanding that they are currently fixing quite a bit and building in updated capabilities in the upcoming version. We'll have to see what that looks like.

The general design of the resolution could simply be tweaked a bit.

I've been working with the solution for five or six years at this point. It's been quite a while.

We've worked on both the Windows and Linux platforms and have not had any issues with stability. It's been very good in both cases, and we have not faced any errors. There are no bugs and glitches. It doesn't crash.

We have 100 user licenses and we are using them in real-time. We work with an Indian bank that often requires more users. We can implement MDM to accommodate their needs at any given time.

I've worked with support from Oracle and a few other vendors, so I can compare it to those experiences. When I compare with other vendors, Informatica support is better, feedback-wise. Their documentation is great. They are very responsive to their customer base and very quick to respond to inquiries. We're very satisfied with their level of service.

I don't really have experience with other solutions. I only really know MDM.

The initial set up's complexity or simplicity depends on the requirements of the organization. Some have simpler implementation cases. Others are more complex. I would say for the simple to medium cases, the installation and deployment is very straightforward. 

When it comes to bigger builds, we need to be a bit careful in order to configure a few more settings to make it work properly. In general, the solution has simple to medium level complexity during the set up process.

The time for development usually takes a few days. It does depend on who is setting everything up. If you are well informed on the solution, the deployment process itself may only be a few hours. For a downtime point of view, you don't have too much time between products. Depending on when you do it, you can have 0% downtime as well, however, it would need to be strategically planned.

The solution has a couple of pricing models. You can go via can go a number of records, number of CPU, and various other items. I don't know what current model we follow. 

My experience on pricing is maybe four to five years old. I don't know what the current model is based on in our organization.

Although we're on version 10.3, we're working to move over to 10.4 soon. We're about to upgrade.

If you look at the Gartner quadrant, MDM is the top product. There are a few platforms available, however, I don't have good experience with other products in order to compare and to recommend. From my personal point of view, definitely I would recommend MDM.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. We're still testing a few capabilities that the solution provides, however, we aren't using them yet. We do plan to implement them in the future. Since we aren't extensively using the core features, I'm not giving them a higher score. We need to see how things progress.

Informatica MDM is used for our customers' master data management journey. The solution meets our client's requirements for their customer-supplier or any other entities.

The solution's most valuable features are its data quality, match-merge engine, and CLAIRE AI engine, which helps with AI automation.

Compared to other tools in the market, Informatica MDM is costly.

I have been using Informatica MDM for 13 years.

Informatica MDM is highly stable compared to any other tool in the market.

Informatica MDM is a highly scalable solution. Our clients for Informatica MDM are mostly medium and enterprise businesses.

I rate the solution eight and a half out of ten for scalability.

Technical support refuses to support us if we customize the tool. We customize the product based on the customer's needs, and we expect Informatica to provide support during that time as well.

Positive

On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup an eight out of ten for on-premises and nine out of ten for the cloud version. Setting up the tool in the cloud via IDMC doesn't take much time.

The solution can be deployed within a few hours.

Our customers have seen a return on investment with the solution.

Informatica MDM is an expensive solution. On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing nine and a half out of ten.

I would recommend the solution to other users because of its reliability and stability. Compared to other product vendors, Informatica MDM always has additional features. Informatica MDM has a CLAIRE AI engine, which helps with AI automation.

Overall, I rate the solution eight and a half out of ten.

You have to deal with a minimum of five, even if you want to go and check only a particular logic, making it an area with issues where improvements are required.

Certain shortcomings in the product's UI make it an area where improvements are required. The tool should provide ease of use and flexibility.

I have been using Informatica Cloud Data Integration for four years.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a five out of ten.

I see that my company faces frequent challenges in the tool when it comes to the area of UI and related to the area of characters. In my company, we have experienced some issues that occur when upgrading the tool.

It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Enterprise-sized customers can choose Informatica Cloud Data Integration.

The technical support for the solution is helpful, but it takes them time to figure out the issue. The time taken to close the ticket depends on the support that Informatica gets from their backend technical team. It takes a long time to close a ticket. I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

The product's initial setup phase was not difficult.

The product's deployment phase can be carried out by linking a .exe file provided by the solution with your server.

The solution is deployed on the cloud.

Against Informatica Cloud Data Integration, I recommend SnapLogic, which is a cheaply priced product. People know about SnapLogic, as it comes with very good features and ease of use.

The feature of the product that I find the most beneficial for data warehousing tasks is the use of the tool for extracting and loading purposes, which depends upon the connector's availability. Many connectors in Informatica are not free or out of the box, and you have to purchase them. The tool has quality connectors.

I haven't used the tool for real-time data analytics, but I have used it in my company for batch-oriented purposes. Data integration will not be supported in real-time in Informatica Cloud Data Integration. For real-time data integration, you have to go with either the application integration or other products like Informatica PowerExchange.

In Informatica Cloud Data Integration, the transformation feature was almost the same as that of Informatica PowerCenter. In Informatica Cloud Data Integration, the transformation features may offer a couple of more functionalities.

In terms of the ease of learning that the product provides, I would say that those who have experience with Informatica PowerCenter can easily adopt Informatica Cloud Data Integration. A person who has worked on Informatica Cloud Data Integration may not be comfortable with Informatica PowerCenter. In terms of ease of use, I consider Informatica PowerCenter to be easier than Informatica Cloud Data Integration.

I rate the ease of use experience attached to the tool a six out of ten.

Only after considering the use cases of people can I recommend the product to them. If a person only wants a product for extraction and loading purposes, then I feel that there are many cheap products in the market that can satisfy their needs. Suppose someone is looking at a tool that offers widespread features, like application integration and real-time functionalities. In that case, all of it comes under Informatica, which can be a good option.

The tool is the most expensive one compared to any of the other products in the market, especially in terms of ETL functionalities or integration features.

My company has integrated SAP, many databases, and APIs into Informatica Cloud Data Integration.

I can see that the performance of the product keeps improving with every new release, especially in the area of job executions, even though the hardware may be the same.

I rate the tool a seven out of ten.