InterSystems IRIS Reviews

My main use case for InterSystems IRIS involves creating some classes and working on some pages. I am still working with some CSP pages, which are legacy from Caché, so I am still adapting to the new InterSystems IRIS features. Not that much changes; InterSystems IRIS has more features and is more evolved than Caché, which has basically become a legacy system. InterSystems IRIS has evolved and is much more scalable and more robust.

Among the new features I have started to explore in InterSystems IRIS, what catches my attention the most is working with APIs. With APIs I end up doing a series of integrations. Today we use APIs for almost everything, so this is one of the features I have used the most: API and REST. System integration nowadays is what I end up working with the most.

I focus on the APIs because today almost everyone uses them, so I think it is very easy to work with APIs in InterSystems IRIS. I get a very big gain from this. The orchestration of processes as well is very straightforward.

InterSystems IRIS has had a positive impact on my organization and personal projects since I have been so used to using Caché. InterSystems IRIS has a series of features that keep appearing, but since I work more with APIs, there are a series of other features that have modernized the old Caché. The strongest points end up being what I mentioned: robustness and scalability. These are big advantages that it has. It has a very complete SQL, so I have that SQL, Insert, Delete, views, indexes, and transactions. It is a multidimensional database, and all of that helps a lot in the day-to-day execution of activities.

I think InterSystems IRIS is a continuation of the Caché legacy. Since I have been working with it since 2005 with Caché, I think it is a really amazing tool. It is a very robust and very scalable database. It is very good to work with, and I am already used to working with it. Where it falls a bit short is in the availability of manpower and professionals who work with InterSystems IRIS or Caché. There are few professionals who work with it. Another thing is the cost and the license cost. I think there could be some kind of package that could serve smaller companies and small and medium-sized companies. That would reach a larger slice of the market, because the cost to work with Caché, InterSystems IRIS, and so on is high. I would make this remark about putting together a package and a new product that could serve small and medium-sized companies.

The area where InterSystems IRIS falls a bit short is in the cost and the licensing cost. The licensing cost is the main issue I have already mentioned.

I did not switch to InterSystems IRIS; I have always used it. I started using it, and I have used several tools, but as for the database itself, since 2005 I have been with Caché and now InterSystems IRIS. I have been working with Caché for 21 years now and am now starting my activities with InterSystems IRIS.

As for the stability of InterSystems IRIS, up to the present moment, I have not seen any kind of problem with it. I have been working with it calmly and normally; I have not run into any kind of difficulty.

The scalability of InterSystems IRIS has proven to be very robust and very scalable. When I am developing the application and I end up populating the classes so I can do tests beforehand, it has proven to be very robust and very scalable.

InterSystems IRIS's customer support has been positive. It has been a long time since I called support, but whenever I needed it, I was always very well treated. The staff were always very attentive, and I have never had that type of problem. The staff were always very attentive and helpful. It has been a little while since I have contacted support; I have been getting by with the documentation that is available, and I make do. Today, with all the AI tools we have, it ends up being even easier for us to solve small issues. Support is only a last resort.

I did not even get to choose another option before choosing InterSystems IRIS, because this was something imposed by the company itself. The company was the one that ended up acquiring Caché back then in 2005. The company acquired Caché, so I started working directly with it. Of course, there are several tools on the market, but Caché and InterSystems IRIS is a robust multidimensional database with good scalability, so that is why we are still using it today. I have been working with Caché for 21 years and now InterSystems IRIS.

My experience with InterSystems IRIS pricing, setup costs, and licensing is where things get complicated because the costs are quite high. I think for large companies, not so much. For the kind of robust database it is, it is worth it. But it would be interesting to have a product with a lower cost to serve small and medium-sized companies. I think it would end up serving a slice of the market that sometimes feels the need for a more stable, more scalable, and more robust database. People in these small and medium-sized companies end up opting for other options that are cheaper.

I believe InterSystems IRIS meets all my needs currently, so off the top of my head I do not have anything for improvement. Maybe in about two years or so, I might have some remark about improvements, but at the moment it has met all my needs.

I only have good things to say about InterSystems IRIS. I think that as far as possible, each company should opt for InterSystems IRIS, even because of the features I mentioned. Today it has easy integration and all that robustness and scalability. If the person still wants, they can develop native pages in CSP, which is very easy to develop, but they can also use other front ends, no problem. I think it is very easy to work with InterSystems IRIS. I think it is very straightforward. It is a shame that there is little manpower on the market because people go more towards SQL Server, other languages, and other databases, but I think it is worth it and I completely recommend InterSystems IRIS.

My final observation is that everyone should use InterSystems IRIS. It is an amazing tool on the market. I would really like there to be more promotion of it. I see that there is little promotion of it in the market, but it is a database and an amazing tool. What is missing is a bit more marketing. I do not know how it is in the market here in Brazil and South America for InterSystems IRIS marketing. I see little advertising in the market. Maybe they should invest more in that because it is simply an amazing tool and very good to work with.

I give this product a rating of 10 out of 10.

Private Cloud

Other

At Shift I used InterSystems IRIS as a database and also for building screens with Zen. At Matrix I used it solely as a database, creating code and methods that the C# application called to consume, return, run queries, and set conditions inside InterSystems IRIS. It also included some MUMPS.

In my daily routine, the process worked by creating methods in InterSystems IRIS where I sometimes implemented business rules directly inside it, and in C#, I invoked the method much like calling a stored procedure. I created and ran queries in InterSystems IRIS and housed complex business rules inside it, avoiding the complexity of bringing them to C#.

A specific example of how InterSystems IRIS helped identify and resolve a performance issue includes the execution plan that maps everything, highlighting points where the seek may be incorrect, and offers solutions for improvement, along with configuration changes to data formats that could cause slowness.

InterSystems IRIS as a database is very efficient. Its best features are its speed and high performance, along with an easy understanding of its data searching functionalities. Regarding data search, a specific feature that is a differentiator is its administrator tool that indicates where to add indexes and provides analytical tools for better performance results.

InterSystems IRIS had a positive impact on my organization, which is in the healthcare sector. Many healthcare companies utilize it because of its performance related to data allocation, making it a consolidated choice in the healthcare market.

I noticed a measurable impact in terms of query performance and productivity.

InterSystems IRIS can be improved since its studio is very poor. Although connecting it with VS Code enhances some aspects, the setup can be annoying and should be simpler.

Another area of improvement would be the date part, which is challenging to work with. Finding a more efficient way to improve it would be interesting.

I have been using InterSystems IRIS for three years at Shift and four years at Matrix, totaling seven years.

In my experience, InterSystems IRIS is stable.

The scalability of InterSystems IRIS, in my experience, is reasonable.

InterSystems IRIS has very good customer support. Whenever I needed assistance, I received help from InterSystems consultants in Brazil and had a positive relationship with their team in the United States when referred there.

I previously used SQL Server and PostgreSQL before InterSystems IRIS, and I switched because, as companies change, you adapt to their technologies.

Before choosing InterSystems IRIS, I did not evaluate other options as that decision was not part of my responsibilities as a developer.

My advice for others considering using InterSystems IRIS is to be aware that it is difficult to find professionals in the market who work with this technology. I would rate this review as an 8.

Private Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

My main use case for InterSystems IRIS is to create integrations between my company's main product and laboratories.

A specific example of an integration that I developed using InterSystems IRIS involved creating a BO, BP, and a BS to make this integration, mainly using the interface that InterSystems IRIS had. I preferred to use BP code, which involved creating the BP, the Business Process, in code. What I appreciated most about creating these integrations using InterSystems IRIS is that it is very tightly connected to the property part and everything else, although I disliked that we had to use Studio and could not use VS Code because we used a slightly older version of InterSystems IRIS at Shift, where only the newer InterSystems IRIS allowed the use of VS Code with newer technologies.

In my opinion, the best features that InterSystems IRIS offers are its very optimized database, which I found amazing, and the observability it provides for checking messages and how the data is being transferred, which I find very interesting.

The observability feature in InterSystems IRIS helped me mainly when we had exceptions or issues impacting production, as it was very easy to trace. For example, we grabbed the message that was transferred and identified where this exception occurred, allowing us to quickly find the problem and see which part of the object was breaking, enabling us to solve it quickly.

I did notice a significant reduction in incident resolution time and an improvement in the team's workflow because of the observability.

I believe that backward compatibility would be a very important point for InterSystems IRIS, especially for VS Code, as it is necessary to consider the technologies from before InterSystems IRIS to transition smoothly. This backward compatibility is somewhat lacking, and I also think more support from the community and better documentation are needed, especially in the search part and with examples. There are many examples missing on how to use it. Many times, I opened the documentation and found how the code was written but did not see examples of how to use it, leading us to sometimes resort to other means or developers for knowledge.

I have been using InterSystems IRIS for about a year and a half.

InterSystems IRIS is stable in daily use.

In terms of scalability, InterSystems IRIS is quite scalable, but I believe the best scalability relies heavily on the infrastructure.

I give it a six mainly because there are other solutions in the market that propose the same thing. Although these solutions might not cover everything that InterSystems IRIS does, as InterSystems IRIS is a complete solution, some can achieve similar results. Moreover, the lack of community and documentation about everything InterSystems IRIS can do weighed heavily in my evaluation.

I cannot determine a very positive impact or a beneficial result from InterSystems IRIS, although this observability part is important because we were able to find problems much faster. However, stating something definitive or something very positive that other tools do not already provide is difficult to say.

I advise people considering using InterSystems IRIS to contact an experienced InterSystems IRIS developer to clear their doubts and to join the InterSystems IRIS community, which, although small, still has some people willing to answer questions. I gave this product a rating of six out of ten.

My main use case for InterSystems IRIS is hospital integrations. In hospital integrations, I use InterSystems IRIS for object conversions. Regarding this use case, I utilize TCP/IP, REST, and SOAP connections.

The best features that InterSystems IRIS offers are reliability, data retrieval speed, and traceability.

Reliability, data retrieval speed, and traceability impact my day-to-day work by providing reliable, solid, and robust integrations for clients, agility in data retrieval that makes these integrations agile and secure, and traceability to know everything that passes through the integration.

InterSystems IRIS has had a positive impact on my organization by improving performance and data security. These performance and security improvements manifest in practice through new security functions, security layers, and internal improvements in the language that helped the integrations become more agile, allowing us to develop faster.

InterSystems IRIS can be improved by addressing the lack of libraries, mainly mathematical ones, where we would save a lot of time on some formulas that we have to build by hand every time we need them.

I have been using InterSystems IRIS for four years.

InterSystems IRIS is very stable.

The scalability of InterSystems IRIS is very good, allowing you to build very robust integrations with scalability that is very predictable and easy to operate.

I have never needed support for InterSystems IRIS, but I did use InterSystems support some time ago, and it is very good.

I previously used a different solution, InterSystems Ensemble, and we migrated in search of improvements, speed, and robustness of the database.

I have not obtained any return on investment with InterSystems IRIS, and I do not have access to that data as I am just the developer.

Before choosing InterSystems IRIS, I did not evaluate other options as that is not within my scope in the organization.

My advice to others who are considering using InterSystems IRIS is to use it without fear, take advantage of all the platform's resources, and follow the community that has many tips and solutions that can help you. I would rate this product a 10.

Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, On-premises

Other

My main use case for InterSystems IRIS is interoperability for building integrations. I use InterSystems IRIS for building integrations and developing integrations, often using the community edition for doing local development.

The best features InterSystems IRIS offers, in my experience, include being a really powerful engine and a really good database.

When I say it's a powerful engine and a good database, I think it's the reliability part of the system which is really attractive to me. When I look at the documentation that is available publicly, I can see a lot of mechanisms that InterSystems IRIS provides for designing solutions that are reliable, and partly that's one of the reasons why it's widely used in healthcare.

InterSystems IRIS has positively impacted my organization because we are able to do work.

I think the use of mainstream programming languages is a pretty good idea for how InterSystems IRIS can be improved. Python support can be enhanced further, as it's really clunky at the moment, considering that the use of Python is pretty much all over the world and nobody knows ObjectScript really thoroughly and deeply. I would say using Python more effectively and giving more power to that language, along with native integration with the platform, would help.

I would add more about the needed improvements, particularly that the documentation needs to be thorough. It should have examples and definitions, as there are some methods which have no documentation at all that need to be fixed.

I do not have much else to add about the features; perhaps something about scalability, security, or the developer experience.

It's a pretty standard integration platform, and it's one of the selected products that we are using for doing work.

Regarding InterSystems IRIS's AI capabilities, we do not use that. I have not really used the accuracy and reliability of output, but I would say it's pretty accurate and reliable if you program it properly.

I give this review a rating of 5.

On-premises

My main use case for InterSystems IRIS is to manage bugs in the system when they are in production.

A quick, specific example of how I use InterSystems IRIS to manage bugs in production is when the client has a bug in our ERP system; I have the responsibility to correct these bugs.

I have extensive experience with my main use case with InterSystems IRIS, and I have significant integration with AI.

The best features InterSystems IRIS offers are its powerful database and speed, which contribute greatly to my work.

The speed and power of InterSystems IRIS have helped me in my day-to-day work. When I need to correct ERP bugs, I need to search in my clients' database, and this process is faster when I am using InterSystems IRIS's database.

InterSystems IRIS has impacted my organization positively because it is simple to use, which is great for us. Being simple to use has helped my team and organization because although it can be difficult to use InterSystems IRIS initially, once you understand how it functions, it becomes simple, faster, and easier to work with.

InterSystems IRIS has already improved in many areas, and I enjoy using it. My work is sufficient for what I use, and I do not have anything more specific to make InterSystems IRIS better.

I have been using InterSystems IRIS for four years.

I did not previously use a different solution before InterSystems IRIS.

I do not have a return on investment from using InterSystems IRIS that I can share regarding metrics such as time saved, money saved, or fewer employees needed.

Before choosing InterSystems IRIS, I did not evaluate other options; we have always used InterSystems IRIS from the beginning.

Regarding InterSystems IRIS's AI capabilities, I believe the governance and security are positive. In my experience with its governance and security, I feel my data is well-protected, which is a great achievement. Regarding InterSystems IRIS's AI capabilities, I believe its accuracy and reliability of output are excellent. I do not have any improvements needed for InterSystems IRIS that I have not already mentioned. I would rate this review a 9.

Private Cloud

Other

My main use case for InterSystems IRIS is software development. I use InterSystems IRIS as a database in this software effort. I use InterSystems IRIS to integrate different systems and to manage data between applications.

The best features that InterSystems IRIS offers in my opinion are the speed in querying data. Due to our system, which requires a large query with a large volume of data, InterSystems IRIS stands out for its query speed, making my work easier. InterSystems IRIS had a positive impact on my organization with the speed in querying the data. We have a study done regarding using other databases in relation to InterSystems IRIS, but I wouldn't be able to tell you exactly how long it took before and how long it takes now to query the data.

I have nothing to say about how InterSystems IRIS could be improved at the moment.

I have been using InterSystems IRIS for 4 years.

InterSystems IRIS is stable.

The customer support of InterSystems IRIS is very good.

I didn't use a different solution before InterSystems IRIS.

There was a gain from using InterSystems IRIS. I would say there was a reduction in process time and a decrease in operational costs.

Alternate solutions were not evaluated before choosing InterSystems IRIS. I did not evaluate other options.

My advice for other people thinking of using InterSystems IRIS is that it is very good. I give this review a rating of 9.

On-premises