Ab Initio Co&gt;Operating System vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data comparison

Ab Initio Co>Operating System vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Data

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Ab Initio Co>Operating System

Ranking in Data Integration

27th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Workload Automation (17th)

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Ranking in Data Integration

26th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Virtualization (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Ab Initio Co>Operating System is 1.6%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 1.8%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Integration Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Cloud Pak for Data	1.8%
Ab Initio Co>Operating System	1.6%
Other	96.6%

Data Integration

Featured Reviews

AlejandroMosso

Senior Solutions Architect at IDS Comercial

Enables creation of sophisticated applications with powerful parallelism and quick, effective support

The most valuable features of Ab Initio Co>Operating System are its performance and the ability to implement parallelism. There are three kinds of parallelism in Ab Initio Co>Operating System, which allow us to create very sophisticated solutions for almost any kind of application. This parallelism is one of the strongest features. Additionally, its scalability offers a unique way to escalate applications that differs from other technologies. In terms of data processing, the emphasis is on understanding the data. Data profiling is fundamental, and Ab Initio Co>Operating System integrates tools to perform this within the GDE, as well as specialized products for this purpose. Data profiling graphs can be implemented when necessary to understand the data sources.

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Michelle Leslie

Data asset management engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Starts strong with data management capabilities but needs a demo database

What I would love to see is an end-to-end, almost a training demo database of some sort, where one of the biggest problems with data management is demonstrated. There are so many components to data management, and more often than not, people understand one thing really well. They may understand DataStage and how to move data around, but they do not see the impact of moving data incorrectly. They also do not see the impact of everyone understanding a piece of data in the same way. I would love Cloud Pak to come with a demo database that illustrates the different components of data management in a logical way, so I can see the whole picture instead of just the area I'm specializing in. It would be great if Cloud Pak, from a data modeling point of view, allowed us to import our PDMs, for example. It would be ideal to import and create business terms in Cloud Pak. The PEA would be great to create the technical data. The association between the business and the technical metadata could then be automated by pulling it through from your ACE models. The data modeling component is available in Cloud Pak. Additionally, when it comes to Cloud Pak, even though it has the NextGen DataStage built into it, there is Cloud Pak for data integration as well. Currently, I do not think we have a full enough understanding of how CP4D and CP4I can enhance each other.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Ab Initio Co>Operating System support is the best I have encountered."

"Co>Operating System's most valuable feature is its ability to process bulk data effectively."

"Ab Initio reaches the highest performance and is very flexible in processing huge amounts of data."

"The graphical interface of Ab Initio Co>Operating System is very easy to understand and allows me to visualize the data flow effectively."

"The most valuable features of IBM Cloud Pak for Data are the Watson Studio, where we can initiate more groups and write code. Additionally, Watson Machine Learning is available with many other services, such as APIs which you can plug the machine learning models."

"Cloud Pak is a very, very, very good system."

"Cloud Pak's most valuable features are IBM MQ, IBM App Connect, IBM API Connect, and ISPF."

"DataStage allows me to connect to different data sources."

"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten."

"Its data preparation capabilities are highly valuable."

"You can model the data there, connect the data models with the business processes and create data lineage processes."

"The most valuable features are data virtualization and reporting."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data pros

Cons

"Ab Initio Co>Operating System is a very expensive product."

"An awesome improvement would be big data solutions, for example, implementing some kind of business intelligence or neural networks for artificial intelligence."

"Co>Operating System would be improved with more integrations for less well-known technologies."

"The interface could improve because sometimes it becomes slow. Sometimes there is a delay between clicks when using the software, which can make the development process slow. It can take a few seconds to complete one action, and then a few more seconds to do the next one."

"The setup cost is very expensive. The cost depends on the pieces of the solution I'm using, how much data I have, and whether it's on the cloud or on-prem."

"The solution's catalog searching or map search needs to be improved."

"There is a solution that is part of IBM Cloud Pak for Data called Watson OpenScale. It is used to monitor the deployed models for the quality and fairness of the results. This is one area that needs a lot of improvement."

"The product is trying to be more maturity in terms of connectors. That, I believe, is an area where Cloud Pak can improve."

"Cloud Pak would be improved with integration with cloud service providers like Cloudera."

"The technical support could be a little better."

"One challenge I'm facing with IBM Cloud Pak for Data is native features have been decommissioned, such as XML input and output. Too many changes have been made, and my company has around one hundred thousand mappings, so my team has been putting more effort into alternative ways to do things. Another area for improvement in IBM Cloud Pak for Data is that it's more complicated to shift from on-premise to the cloud. Other vendors provide secure agents that easily connect with your existing setup. Still, with IBM Cloud Pak for Data, you have to perform connection migration steps, upgrade to the latest version, etc., which makes it more complicated, especially as my company has XML-based mappings. Still, the XML input and output capabilities of IBM Cloud Pak for Data have been discontinued, so I'd like IBM to bring that back."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Co>Operating System's pricing is on the expensive end since it tends to be used by big enterprises."

"I don't have the exact licensing cost for IBM Cloud Pak for Data, as my company is still finalizing requirements, including monthly, yearly, and three-year licensing fees. Still, on a scale of one to five, I'd rate it a three because, compared to other vendors, it's more complicated."

"It's quite expensive."

"The solution is expensive."

"I think that this product is too expensive for smaller companies."

"IBM Cloud Pak for Data is expensive. If we include the training time and the machine learning, it's expensive. The cost of the execution is more reasonable."

"The solution's pricing is competitive with that of other vendors."

"Cloud Pak's cost is a little high."

"For the licensing of the solution, there is a yearly payment that needs to be made. Also, since it is expensive, cost-wise, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

33%

Computer Software Company

Insurance Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

28%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Ab Initio Co>Operating System?

If Ab Initio Co>Operating System could provide an environment that allows users to practice or use it on their own computers, it would be beneficial. Additionally, having more accessible online ...

What is your primary use case for Ab Initio Co>Operating System?

I am primarily in charge of building applications using Ab Initio Co>Operating System.

What advice do you have for others considering Ab Initio Co>Operating System?

If Ab Initio Co>Operating System provided an environment for users to practice on their own computers, it would be preferable. I sometimes recommend it based on company needs. I rate it eight or...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

The setup cost is very expensive. The cost depends on the pieces of the solution I'm using, how much data I have, and whether it's on the cloud or on-prem.

What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

What is your primary use case for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

My primary use case for Cloud Pak is that I am the reference Data steward for the Africa regions in the banks where I work. My main objective is to capture the reference data in Caltech or Data and...

SSIS vs Ab Initio Co>Operating System

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Product Reports

Data Integration

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IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Download IBM Cloud Pak for Data product report

Also Known As

Co>Operating System

Cloud Pak for Data

Overview

Ab Initio Co>Operating System offers powerful data processing capabilities, catering to big data needs with robustness and flexibility. Its architecture is designed for high performance, efficient data management, and advanced analytics, making it suitable for tech-savvy industries.

Ab Initio Co>Operating System provides an integrated platform that simplifies data processing tasks, from data validation to complex data transformations. It's engineered to handle large data volumes with efficiency, featuring an intuitive design and consistent performance. This makes it indispensable for industries requiring seamless integration and processing power, supported by tools for debugging, metadata management, and data profiling.

What are the key features of Ab Initio Co>Operating System?

Graphical Development Environment: Provides a user-friendly interface for designing data transformations.
Parallel Processing: Enables efficient handling of large datasets by leveraging parallelism.
Data Quality Management: Offers comprehensive tools for ensuring data accuracy and consistency.
Metadata Management: Facilitates easy access and management of data lineage and metadata.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Scalability: Easily adapts to increasing data and processing demands, minimizing additional costs.
Time Efficiency: Reduces development and processing time, enhancing productivity.
Cost Savings: Lowers operational expenses through efficient resource use.
Data Accuracy: Ensures reliable data quality, critical for decision-making processes.

In industries like telecommunications and finance, Ab Initio Co>Operating System is implemented to streamline data workflows and provide real-time analytics. Its role in these sectors involves batch processing, complex event processing, and integrating diverse sources, addressing the demands for agility and performance excellence.

Ab Initio

IBM Cloud Pak® for Data is a fully-integrated data and AI platform that modernizes how businesses collect, organize and analyze data to infuse AI throughout their organizations. Cloud-native by design, the platform unifies market-leading services spanning the entire analytics lifecycle. From data management, DataOps, governance, business analytics and automated AI, IBM Cloud Pak for Data helps eliminate the need for costly, and often competing, point solutions while providing the information architecture you need to implement AI successfully.

Building on the streamlined hybrid-cloud foundation of Red Hat® OpenShift®, IBM Cloud Pak for Data takes advantage of the underlying resource and infrastructure optimization and management. The solution fully supports multicloud environments such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud™ and private cloud deployments. Find out how IBM Cloud Pak for Data can lower your total cost of ownership and accelerate innovation.

IBM

Sample Customers

A multinational transportation company

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival

Ab Initio Co>Operating System vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Data