The major challenge with the tool stems from the fact that if you are implementing it in the cloud, then it has to be within the framework. Another challenge is the large volume of data. Informatica PowerExchange is a product through which we enable connectivity, so it is not an application product or a stand-alone tool, but Informatica's core systems or IICS uses it to connect to multiple systems. The major challenge associated with the tool is on the infrastructure side. The tool's features could be something faster with more connectors. A number of connectors can help connect to a wide variety of applications. The tool should focus on reducing the resilient time, like, if any network disconnectivity happens, then auto-reconnection and the retry method should be more robust so that manual intervention is not required. We communicate with the tool's support team as we need to raise our issues with them. I have already worked with Informatica and have a total experience of around eight to nine years; the one problem with the tool is its support team since they take a lot of time to address a particular issue. If one time you schedule a call and explain the situation to them about the issue, the support team will raise tickets and take notes. They will ask you to share the logs or screenshots of the errors, and you will get no resolution. The support team will randomly give you some documents and expect you to go through them, and if you get back to them with questions, a new person will be allocated, and you will have to start explaining everything again. I would not say it is a pleasant experience.
Informatica is now moving to the cloud. PowerExchange is not being promoted as it used to be. The product is not suitable for application integration. There are other tools in the market that are better.
Vice President --Analytics & Digital Transformation at Polestar Solutions & Services India Pvt Ltd
MSP
Top 5
2024-02-28T10:48:28Z
Feb 28, 2024
The product's functionality attached to the logs is an area of concern where improvements are required. Sometimes, the product takes time to identify certain gaps in scenarios where pipelines are broken. The product fails to provide clear visibility to help users maintain the pipelines, making it an area where improvements are required. The product's high costs can be an area of concern where improvements are required.
Though Informatica PowerExchange is available as a cloud solution, it can be made better by providing something similar to how Apache Spark is developed, which provides functionalities like in-memory execution, making it much faster in terms of execution compared to Informatica. If Informatica PowerExchange can have the capability to work like Apache Spark, then it will be a much better and improved product. Apache Spark and Informatica PowerExchange are ETL tools. Apache Spark has a machine learning algorithm, an area where Informatica PowerExchange lacks. Informatica PowerExchange is a complex tool to work with, especially with the VSAM files, since it has its own architecture, but the underlying data has its own architecture of which mapping the metadata with the data is very difficult, but with certain capabilities and analysis, it is possible to do it. If Informatica PowerExchange had automation capabilities that could automatically provide protection, then it would be a better product.
We are setting up our ecosystem, and PowerExchange is a relatively new addition to our suite. Initially, we had a tough time getting it up and running, but not primarily due to PowerExchange itself. It was more likely due to network settings, port enablement, and server setups. This took quite a long time, and we did not get great support from Informatica. We raised the issue many times in South Arabia, but it lingered for a while on both the network and vertical sides before we could identify and fix the root cause and get the whole ecosystem up and running. Support was not good enough to help us get the whole environment up and running. The installation process is cumbersome, and that should be made easier.
Practice Head, Data & Analytics at Tech Mahindra Limited
Real User
Top 10
2023-02-03T10:31:30Z
Feb 3, 2023
Price competitiveness is an area for improvement. That's something not very good for PowerExchange, and that's an area that Informatica should focus on as a strategy. They should make it quick and easy for use of citizen data integration or for people or integrators developing at the customer side. They could be development teams within the business team. For them, the product owners can consider making it a little bit more seamless and a little bit more democratized. However, it's difficult to democratize data integration and ETL technology in the way you can do with data visualization technology. It's much more difficult, but it's an improvement area. Real-time data processing is another area where it's falling short, and it can certainly do better there.
Sr.Manager - Data Management & Data Governance at a tech company with 201-500 employees
Real User
2022-04-08T18:14:00Z
Apr 8, 2022
The major shortcoming of PowerExchange is high availability and failover. None of the versions we've used to date have had the out-of-the-box ability to enable failover and high-availability requirements. This is a significant challenge and risk. PowerExchange's engine also lacks support for some data types. We are capturing data in a raw format, and there are also some data types like XML structure or big objects that are still hosted, so there are sometimes problems importing data. If it's not supported, you won't be able to build your scenario. Those are two main challenges that hopefully will be covered with any subsequent or new releases.
Practice Head, Data & Analytics at Tech Mahindra Limited
Real User
Top 10
2020-03-16T06:56:22Z
Mar 16, 2020
I think Informatica could be improved if they were to get into the data exploitation side of things. The value chain of exporting, reporting, visualizing, etc. That seems to be a blind spot for Informatica. If it were to diversify a little more, maybe with the reporting and visualization utility, it would be an add-on to PowerExchange. From a product strategy, Informatica seems to be getting fragmented by diversifying to various product lines and then going into the market. If I were to have any additional features, it would be diagnostics and reporting visualization.
Solution Integration and Implementation Manager at Amdocs
Real User
2020-03-05T08:39:00Z
Mar 5, 2020
Informatica is very expensive in all aspects, so the pricing is something that could be improved. We are using many other tools for data ingestion that are part of the Apache family, NiFi. When we see that we have some challenges we then use other tools.
Solution / Application Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
2020-03-04T08:49:00Z
Mar 4, 2020
The one place where it could be improved is definitely pricing. That's a very big problem. It depends product to product, but pricing is an issue. They have their own way of pricing it. I'm coming from a technical background, so I don't get myself involved much in pricing. Additionally, I definitely would love to have a PowerExchange tool without having to connect to the call center, to just to load the data directly into the respective target components. This would be very preferable. All in all, they already have a good monitoring tool. It would be better if they could add the feature where we could avoid the call center feed and use PowerExchange directly to our target databases.
Sr.Manager - Data Management & Data Governance at a tech company with 201-500 employees
Real User
2020-03-04T08:49:00Z
Mar 4, 2020
Real-time has not been enhanced that much over the past few years. There have not been as many features added like they did before. When comparing Informatica PowerExchange to other competing technologies, like Oracle GoldenGate, GoldenGate is selling more features and adding more functions. It's why PowerExchange is still behind GoldenGate for certain functions. The higher availability and fill over capabilities is not that strong, so it needs to be enhanced more. It's not an issue, it's a limitation. Like some new data types that are not supported at all by PowerExchange, some new Oracle table types, like some IUT tables, for example. So, it's missing some features. GoldenGate, for example, is supporting everything in Oracle. It's not a good product in the end. However, Informatica is maybe supporting 80% of the things in Oracle systems. So, it is still missing some functions and some features still need to be supported. For example, if you have data stored like XML content and Oracle table, you cannot get it in real-time using PowerExchange. Supporting all the different data types which are still not supported by the product. Adding more flexibility and what I call administration utilities to manage the product in some graphical way, or some new easy way to use, enhancing the high availability and fill over capabilities of the products.
Integration with the largest number of databases and other systems would be important. We worked a lot with this ETL tool and in my opinion, it is the best on the market and what we missed in Informatica, compared with ETL. For example, each component in parallel with a configurable parallel made on the same machine or even on different machines. It's that kind of thing that I don't think Informatica PowerExchange can provide at this moment. In Informatica PowerExchange we ran jobs in parallel but not components with a parallel degree.
Director Technology at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
2020-02-13T07:50:55Z
Feb 13, 2020
Saving a COBOL Copybook can be difficult and it would be nice if it were simplified. The complexity arises when we use recursive statements and redefined classes. Technical support can be improved with respect to delays in ticket response time. I would like to see more implements for big data including ORC file support. This is what most of our clients are now demanding.
OBIEE Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
2019-12-16T08:14:00Z
Dec 16, 2019
The solution needs better integration with other tools. The solution needs to be more user-friendly. Right now, a first time user needs to get training before they can use the solution.
The major challenge with the tool stems from the fact that if you are implementing it in the cloud, then it has to be within the framework. Another challenge is the large volume of data. Informatica PowerExchange is a product through which we enable connectivity, so it is not an application product or a stand-alone tool, but Informatica's core systems or IICS uses it to connect to multiple systems. The major challenge associated with the tool is on the infrastructure side. The tool's features could be something faster with more connectors. A number of connectors can help connect to a wide variety of applications. The tool should focus on reducing the resilient time, like, if any network disconnectivity happens, then auto-reconnection and the retry method should be more robust so that manual intervention is not required. We communicate with the tool's support team as we need to raise our issues with them. I have already worked with Informatica and have a total experience of around eight to nine years; the one problem with the tool is its support team since they take a lot of time to address a particular issue. If one time you schedule a call and explain the situation to them about the issue, the support team will raise tickets and take notes. They will ask you to share the logs or screenshots of the errors, and you will get no resolution. The support team will randomly give you some documents and expect you to go through them, and if you get back to them with questions, a new person will be allocated, and you will have to start explaining everything again. I would not say it is a pleasant experience.
Informatica is now moving to the cloud. PowerExchange is not being promoted as it used to be. The product is not suitable for application integration. There are other tools in the market that are better.
The product's functionality attached to the logs is an area of concern where improvements are required. Sometimes, the product takes time to identify certain gaps in scenarios where pipelines are broken. The product fails to provide clear visibility to help users maintain the pipelines, making it an area where improvements are required. The product's high costs can be an area of concern where improvements are required.
Though Informatica PowerExchange is available as a cloud solution, it can be made better by providing something similar to how Apache Spark is developed, which provides functionalities like in-memory execution, making it much faster in terms of execution compared to Informatica. If Informatica PowerExchange can have the capability to work like Apache Spark, then it will be a much better and improved product. Apache Spark and Informatica PowerExchange are ETL tools. Apache Spark has a machine learning algorithm, an area where Informatica PowerExchange lacks. Informatica PowerExchange is a complex tool to work with, especially with the VSAM files, since it has its own architecture, but the underlying data has its own architecture of which mapping the metadata with the data is very difficult, but with certain capabilities and analysis, it is possible to do it. If Informatica PowerExchange had automation capabilities that could automatically provide protection, then it would be a better product.
I would like the stability to improve.
We are setting up our ecosystem, and PowerExchange is a relatively new addition to our suite. Initially, we had a tough time getting it up and running, but not primarily due to PowerExchange itself. It was more likely due to network settings, port enablement, and server setups. This took quite a long time, and we did not get great support from Informatica. We raised the issue many times in South Arabia, but it lingered for a while on both the network and vertical sides before we could identify and fix the root cause and get the whole ecosystem up and running. Support was not good enough to help us get the whole environment up and running. The installation process is cumbersome, and that should be made easier.
Price competitiveness is an area for improvement. That's something not very good for PowerExchange, and that's an area that Informatica should focus on as a strategy. They should make it quick and easy for use of citizen data integration or for people or integrators developing at the customer side. They could be development teams within the business team. For them, the product owners can consider making it a little bit more seamless and a little bit more democratized. However, it's difficult to democratize data integration and ETL technology in the way you can do with data visualization technology. It's much more difficult, but it's an improvement area. Real-time data processing is another area where it's falling short, and it can certainly do better there.
The connectivity with T24 core banking could be improved. This is the only downside I can see. The solution could beef up its support.
The major shortcoming of PowerExchange is high availability and failover. None of the versions we've used to date have had the out-of-the-box ability to enable failover and high-availability requirements. This is a significant challenge and risk. PowerExchange's engine also lacks support for some data types. We are capturing data in a raw format, and there are also some data types like XML structure or big objects that are still hosted, so there are sometimes problems importing data. If it's not supported, you won't be able to build your scenario. Those are two main challenges that hopefully will be covered with any subsequent or new releases.
The solution could be made more user-friendly. The configurations are also quite difficult.
I would like to have easier integration with cloud platforms.
I think Informatica could be improved if they were to get into the data exploitation side of things. The value chain of exporting, reporting, visualizing, etc. That seems to be a blind spot for Informatica. If it were to diversify a little more, maybe with the reporting and visualization utility, it would be an add-on to PowerExchange. From a product strategy, Informatica seems to be getting fragmented by diversifying to various product lines and then going into the market. If I were to have any additional features, it would be diagnostics and reporting visualization.
Informatica is very expensive in all aspects, so the pricing is something that could be improved. We are using many other tools for data ingestion that are part of the Apache family, NiFi. When we see that we have some challenges we then use other tools.
The one place where it could be improved is definitely pricing. That's a very big problem. It depends product to product, but pricing is an issue. They have their own way of pricing it. I'm coming from a technical background, so I don't get myself involved much in pricing. Additionally, I definitely would love to have a PowerExchange tool without having to connect to the call center, to just to load the data directly into the respective target components. This would be very preferable. All in all, they already have a good monitoring tool. It would be better if they could add the feature where we could avoid the call center feed and use PowerExchange directly to our target databases.
Real-time has not been enhanced that much over the past few years. There have not been as many features added like they did before. When comparing Informatica PowerExchange to other competing technologies, like Oracle GoldenGate, GoldenGate is selling more features and adding more functions. It's why PowerExchange is still behind GoldenGate for certain functions. The higher availability and fill over capabilities is not that strong, so it needs to be enhanced more. It's not an issue, it's a limitation. Like some new data types that are not supported at all by PowerExchange, some new Oracle table types, like some IUT tables, for example. So, it's missing some features. GoldenGate, for example, is supporting everything in Oracle. It's not a good product in the end. However, Informatica is maybe supporting 80% of the things in Oracle systems. So, it is still missing some functions and some features still need to be supported. For example, if you have data stored like XML content and Oracle table, you cannot get it in real-time using PowerExchange. Supporting all the different data types which are still not supported by the product. Adding more flexibility and what I call administration utilities to manage the product in some graphical way, or some new easy way to use, enhancing the high availability and fill over capabilities of the products.
Integration with the largest number of databases and other systems would be important. We worked a lot with this ETL tool and in my opinion, it is the best on the market and what we missed in Informatica, compared with ETL. For example, each component in parallel with a configurable parallel made on the same machine or even on different machines. It's that kind of thing that I don't think Informatica PowerExchange can provide at this moment. In Informatica PowerExchange we ran jobs in parallel but not components with a parallel degree.
Saving a COBOL Copybook can be difficult and it would be nice if it were simplified. The complexity arises when we use recursive statements and redefined classes. Technical support can be improved with respect to delays in ticket response time. I would like to see more implements for big data including ORC file support. This is what most of our clients are now demanding.
The solution needs better integration with other tools. The solution needs to be more user-friendly. Right now, a first time user needs to get training before they can use the solution.