One of the most popular comparisons on IT Central Station is Informatica PowerCenter vs SSIS.
People like you are trying to decide which one is best for their company. Can you help them out?
What is the biggest difference between Informatica PowerCenter and SSIS? Which of these two solutions would you recommend to a colleague evaluating data integration tools and why?
Thanks for helping your peers make the best decision!
There's so much to this question that to answer it properly would require an extensive presentation.
I am curious however when people review tools they aren't very familiar with...yes SSIS has debug feature and it's just as robust as any .net debug...with breakpoints, watch for variables, etc. And it only requires SqlServer for it's repository and some SqlServer install to get the SSIS service to run. The only people who think it's hardwired to SqlServer as a source or target are only those who don't understand the tool. Informatica also requires a database for its repository, its just that it supports multiple DBs for it.
If you're a small shop with SqlServer, then SSIS is a no-brainer. If you're a large shop, it depends on a number of factors..
The largest drawbacks with Informatica are: Extremely high cost (especially with all the add-ons you'll likely want), complex logging requiring custom ETL to pull its logs out into a usable design, and its lack of support for parameter passing.
The largest drawbacks of SSIS are: Lack of robust parallel ETL capability, and no support for push-down SQL. Plus if you want simple logging and error handling you need to purchase the BiXpress product which isn't expensive but you need it for every developer.
All other comparisons in my mind are just comparing different ways to do the same thing in both tools (such as version control, deployment, scheduling, etc.) which will be different but not necessarily better or worse.
If you have Microsoft SQL Server in the mix and you have application enterprise applications that run on windows. SSIS is a must as it provides the best integration tools for tapping into the data pipe lines.
However, Informatica is cross platform tool. The answer is that “ it depends”. You need to have the total picture of what you have as databases and what is your need and you need to make the best compromise in terms of technical and intellectual personnel you to manage your business run economically.
It is Informatica Powercenter. It is solid and robust.
MSBI stack as such is good for MS SQL SERVER database and if you have definite sets of procedures that gets executed and ran through SSIS packages.
If you need an ETL tool it is Informatica over SSIS for sure.
1)Transformations ease of use.
2)Error handling.
3)Look up strategies.
4)Implementing custom SCD's.
5)Mainly Performance.
6)Logging capabilities and re directing.
7)Maintaining scripts and calling them.
8)So on and so forth.
Error handling is much easy on Informatica.
we have the option to debug in Informatica which is not allowed (as I know) on SSIS.