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ACF2 vs Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

ACF2
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Database Security (16th), Mainframe Security (6th)
Informatica Intelligent Dat...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
183
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (3rd), Data Quality (1st), Business Process Management (BPM) (13th), Business-to-Business Middleware (4th), API Management (8th), Cloud Data Integration (3rd), Data Governance (2nd), Test Data Management (3rd), Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) Solutions (1st), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (2nd), Data Masking (2nd), Metadata Management (1st), Test Data Management Services (3rd), Product Information Management (PIM) (1st), Data Observability (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Database Development and Management Tools solutions, they serve different purposes. ACF2 is designed for Mainframe Security and holds a mindshare of 10.3%, down 11.3% compared to last year.
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC), on the other hand, focuses on Data Management Platforms (DMP), holds 16.3% mindshare, up 14.1% since last year.
Mainframe Security
Data Management Platforms (DMP)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1077621 - PeerSpot reviewer
A reliable, scalable product for security and auditing of our mainframe environment
It is a good product. It has been used for years. As long as it is configured correctly, it is a very stable product. It depends on how an institution or a company configures it. It depends on an institution's risk appetite. You need to make sure it is configured as per the concept of least privilege, and the logging features, detection and control mechanism, and other things like that are enabled. If you configure it to give access to the public, then there could be compromises. You should also have someone who independently checks it to make sure that it is configured keeping security in mind. If it has been configured for a while, when there are enhancements to the product or when you enhance it, you need to make sure that security is also looked at, and it is configured according to an institution's security policies. I would rate it a nine out of 10.
Raj Sethupathi - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers profiling and address standardization but can be complicated
Informatica Data Quality has its data warehouse, primarily using Oracle and some SQL databases. You need a database to host the data. The cleansed version of the data is stored in the data warehouse. It integrates with PowerCenter and other Informatica tools. The integration details can be complex, but a regional setup is involved in this process. Profiling smaller datasets, such as 10,000-50,000 records, worked fine. However, unexpected issues could arise with larger datasets, such as thousands of records or more, especially with tables containing many columns. Handling tables with fifty or more columns can be challenging, even in Excel. A mismatch in data types could cause the entire system to crash. Continual enhancements are being made to address these issues, which can be unique to specific industries like finance and healthcare.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The NOACCESS by default is another very good feature. Also, access rules are straightforward, and easy to understand."
"Excellent real-time reporting that saves time and resources."
"Logging and monitoring are most valuable. It is for the mainframe environment, and it is at the forefront for security and resilience."
"I love their support. The support is great. They are number one."
"We use this tool to quickly assign privileges to different users as soon as they come in."
"Informatica Cloud Data Integration is stable."
"In the latest version, I like the outlay of the business roles creation. I like seeing that visualization as you're building it, as opposed to going through metatables or XML mappings. We liked that piece, and it makes it more intuitive for the business."
"The tool does give a good ROI."
"The most valuable features of the solution are pushdown, optimization, and partitioning, which can be used for frequent data loading, especially when we have a huge data volume in our company."
"The most valuable feature of Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is it provides clients with a full view of the enterprise data assets. For example, how many data assets they have and who owns them."
"It is one of the best tools available for data integration."
"The Mapping Designer allows for declarative ETL development (visual scripting) that leverages a wide array of different transformations."
"The MDM solution is capable of integrating multiple systems, so it helped us to solve the purpose of centralizing the depository as well as the standardization of mass data. It takes away all the ambiguity around data integrity issues or all the process challenges which happen when every stage of a process uses a different source as master data."
 

Cons

"It needs longer rules. The max rule is 32K."
"I would like my team and me to be able to use simple browsers, like Chrome, to be able to access mainframe data and provision users using the browser.​"
"They can work on its ability to work in a distributed environment. It's a mainframe product. As many companies move to the cloud, depending on what cloud models they choose, such as a public, hybrid, or private cloud, it should be deployable. I am not sure if it can be deployed on those platforms. It has been there since the '50s or '60s, and it's still scalable. It has survived all these years, and it's scalable to many platforms, but I don't know about the cloud."
"Reporting can sometimes include false positives."
"Though EDC has maximum coverage, a few things were not available to scan, but I think EDC is evolving to address this issue."
"The product interface could be improved to be more intuitive."
"I would like to see support for more data sources."
"The data discovery isn't that good yet for Salesforce. We have another tool that we use for this. It may be a problem because Salesforce on the cloud."
"The cloud version of Axon is far behind the on-prem, and many of my clients want to go fully to the cloud. However, Axon has to be an on-prem installation. I would like to see their cloud products catch up with their on-prem capabilities."
"There is room for improvement at the highest level in terms of useability and connectors for various types of new applications. The row processing performance could be better because you experience some latency dealing with high volumes of data. Most organizations will be dealing with multiple cloud applications, so you could see performance issues moving from one system to another."
"One area where Informatica Cloud Data Integration could improve is in providing more accelerators for certain functionalities."
"I feel the out-of-the-box APIs or the API management could be improved slightly from their current state. It could be more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The pricing is quite flexible."
"My understanding is that Informatica is quite expensive compare to other tools that are available in the market."
"The product has a high price point."
"Informatica is very expensive."
"I rate Informatica MDM's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"The price is comparable."
"Cost-wise, I think it is on the higher side, and that is why we are looking for some better options. Licensing costs are huge compared to other players in the market and for my company."
"So, there are plans for licensing. There are subscription-based and usage-based licenses. Also, there are licenses for exceptional analytics, etc. In short, there are different models of licensing for every enterprise."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
33%
Computer Software Company
9%
Insurance Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is a good length for a password in ACF2 so it's safe?
A set length of 12 characters can ensure the safety of a system. Longer passwords provide an added layer of security, especially when combined with other password complexity requirements. With a le...
Is ACF2 suitable for beginners?
ACF2 can be suitable for beginners with the right guidance and support. While it may have a steep learning curve for many due to its complexity, it offers extensive documentation and resources that...
What types of auditing and reporting capabilities does ACF2 offer?
ACF2's reporting capabilities are highly valuable. It offers various predefined reports that provide insights into our system's security posture. These reports include information on user access pr...
How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica Cloud Data Integration?
Azure Data Factory is a solid product offering many transformation functions; It has pre-load and post-load transformations, allowing users to apply transformations either in code by using Power Q...
Which Informatica product would you choose - PowerCenter or Cloud Data Integration?
Complex transformations can easily be achieved using PowerCenter, which has all the features and tools to establish a real data governance strategy. Additionally, PowerCenter is able to manage huge...
What are the biggest benefits of using Informatica Cloud Data Integration?
When it comes to cloud data integration, this solution can provide you with multiple benefits, including: Overhead reduction by integrating data on any cloud in various ways Effective integration ...
 

Also Known As

CA ACF2
ActiveVOS, Active Endpoints, BPM, Address Verification, Persistent Data Masking, Cloud Test Data Management, PIM, , Enterprise Data Catalog, Data Integration Hub, Cloud Data Integration, Data Quality, Cloud API and App Integration
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Sky, Rogers Communications
The Travel Company, Carbonite
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM, CyberArk, Broadcom and others in Mainframe Security. Updated: April 2025.
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