What is our primary use case?
Informatica PowerCenter is basically used for data integration and ETL processing, data extraction from different heterogeneous sources, and putting that data into different relational databases.
How has it helped my organization?
PowerCenter has proven to be the most beneficial for our data integration tasks. Informatica PowerCenter provides multiple transformations in one particular toolset. You don't need to apply any coding.
Those transformations are the most valuable thing in Informatica PowerCenter, which helps to do the data integration part easily.
Error handling capability:
Error handling capability is quite good in Informatica PowerCenter because it provides a very detailed session log, which is really helpful to identify the errors.
In addition, there are KB articles, which are published by Informatica, that are really helpful. Even if you face any issues or errors, we can resolve that issue.
If the error is not at all possible to solve with Informatica PowerCenter, we can raise a case with Informatica, and their support team helps us to address that particular issue. If it is not possible to solve with that particular version, they consider it and try to solve it with the next patch or hotfix.
AI Capabilities:
Informatica PowerCenter doesn't fit into AI-related things because it's an on-premise tool, which doesn't have any significant role in the field. It is just an ETL on-premise tool.
Basically, in the AI field, Informatica PowerCenter is not going to be that impactful. Informatica has launched IICS and IDMC (Informatica Data Management Cloud). Their AI comes into the picture there, but for Informatica PowerCenter, AI doesn't come into the picture at all.
What is most valuable?
Instead of using SQL queries, Informatica PowerCenter is very helpful when extracting data from multiple sources. That is one of the valuable things.
Other than that, we can do multiple transformations in Informatica PowerCenter.
For data integration tasks, Informatica PowerCenter provides multiple transformations in one toolset. You don't need to apply coding or other things. The transformations are the most valuable thing in Informatica PowerCenter, which helps to do the data integration part easily.
What needs improvement?
I have had performance issues with this product. When I deal with very large amounts of data, performance issues arise.
Improvement is needed in terms of some new transformation because API integration and all those things are very critical nowadays. Some level of transformation, new transformation, if they introduce that, would be helpful, other than that, the performance and scalability related things that they need to improve.
If they are launching another Informatica PowerCenter with a new version, I'm not sure about it because they are promoting IDMC, they are not promoting Informatica PowerCenter.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working in Informatica PowerCenter for around eight plus years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is an on-premise environment, so it's not as scalable as compared to Informatica Cloud.
There are around ten-plus developers and around four administrators using this product.
The approximate volume of data we process varies from project to project; on average, it is eight to nine gigabytes of data.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have experience in Informatica Cloud, IDMC (Informatica Data Management Cloud), Azure Data Factory, and a little bit of Fivetran.
Informatica PowerCenter is a very robust tool. You can implement any kind of complex business logic with it. However, Informatica PowerCenter is a very traditional ETL tool that came into the market very early in the 2000s. They have a very good hold on the market and are able to handle all the complex data problems and business data integration use cases.
Whereas, other tools that came new into the market are less complicated to learn, execute, and create data pipelines. But sometimes, I feel that if some complex business problems arise, then we need to jump into the coding part. And there are not as many transformations available.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not at all easy. Setting up PowerCenter is not at all easy, especially when you are installing your server on Linux machines. It's very complicated, especially the upgrade part, if it is a multi-node cluster environment with high availability.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend using it. But currently all things are moving to the cloud. Informatica PowerCenter is a little bit lagging behind, and now everybody is moving to the cloud.
So, Informatica itself is promoting the use of IDMC and cloud instead of Informatica PowerCenter. But some clients, like banking and pharmaceutical clients, still prefer traditional on-premises ETL tools. So, in that case Informatica PowerCenter is definitely one of the best and unbeatable tools for enterprises.
Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
*Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator