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Broadcom Test Data Manager vs IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management (TDM) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 1, 2024

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

Broadcom Test Data Manager
Ranking in Test Data Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Data Masking (3rd), AI Synthetic Data (3rd)
IBM InfoSphere Optim Test D...
Ranking in Test Data Management
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Test Data Management category, the mindshare of Broadcom Test Data Manager is 13.3%, down from 18.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management (TDM) is 6.8%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Test Data Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Broadcom Test Data Manager13.3%
IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management (TDM)6.8%
Other79.9%
Test Data Management
 

Featured Reviews

Hosney Osman - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Solution Architect at Vodafone
Offers great utility with synthetic data generation and reliable technical support
Overall, this can definitely be the advantage of the product, and I'm happy with these functionalities that Broadcom provides. I totally recommend any application working on the database layer directly and I don't recommend any applications from other external vendors to perform the same function. Oracle and PostgreSQL have similar applications and they both work directly in the database, reading directly from the database, transforming values in another table within the same database, making it easy to run. The solution is saving me time and money in general because this application saves money and a lot of effort. I can generate any amount of data from Broadcom Test Data Manager, which has a lot of information and equations regarding this task. It saves money because my testing team needs this data to create use cases tested on realistic data. Broadcom Test Data Manager adds great value to my organization, but I believe it can be afforded only in international, large-sized companies. It is not affordable for medium or small-sized organizations.
Ajai Lal - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at Mphasis
Supports both legacy and non-legacy systems
The solution's initial setup is neither complex nor too easy. Around six or seven people, including database administrators, were involved in the solution's deployment. On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup a four to five out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Just use it as a proof of concept and you'll see the power of the TDM."
"Core features that we needed were synthetic data creation, and to be able to do complex data mining and profiling across multiple databases with referential integrity intact across them. CA's product actually came through with the highest score and met the most of our needs."
"Data generation, data masking, and data subsetting are three key features of this tool."
"It saves us time from generating the same amount of data in real-time.​"
"If I were talking to my peer managers, I would recommend Test Data Manager - and I have, on multiple occasions - because it does allow the developer to have quick access to data that, normally, would take them hours or sometimes days to gather."
"​The masking of data has really been key for us to be able to replace PII with fake values."
"When I run my App Test, I can directly connect with TDM. I can publish all my data into one table in TDM, then run my App Test directly."
"When I look at the return on investment, there are not only huge financial gains on it, in fact, when I recently ran the numbers, we had about $1.1 million in savings on just the financials from 2016 alone."
"Data masking features are the most valuable, as non-production environments are used by diverse parties and data privacy has to be guaranteed."
"I like the features compared to other tools. This tool is more flexible to use than other tools like an Oracle product or SAP product. I think IBM tools are more flexible, and this tool is also a good product."
"IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management can be found in the following platforms: Windows, Linux, *nix and z/OS; this presents a great opportunity to scale code and develop multiplatform libraries, updating the code once and deploying to all platforms."
"Reduces the need to keep expanding data storage Faster query performance with shorter batch execution times Consistent data masking and data integrity in non-production environments Efficient test data management"
"Customer service is good."
"IBM Optim solutions are highly scalable."
"Data masking features are the most valuable, as non-production environments are used by diverse parties and data privacy has to be guaranteed."
"The Data Archive or Data Growth feature is one of the very useful solutions that help organizations to manage and support their database archiving strategies."
 

Cons

"They could make it easier to model databases, because right now it is really technical, so to train someone on it takes a while."
"Get everything centralized into the portal."
"That quickness I think is something that can be improved."
"They should make the Portal a little more user-friendly, make it even easier to configure things directly from the Portal."
"Product is quite stable but it has some functional bugs which are fixed as soon as they are reported to the support team."
"When we publish a lot data into the target, sometimes it is not able to handle it."
"The integration with various utilities is also really important. That still has to happen. That's a major area for improvement."
"More data visualization, the way that we are looking at data, we want to be able to see it in different ways."
"Improvisation in the area of the self-service user interface for test data management is required to cater to test data needs."
"Installation is too cumbersome."
"In the past, we have waited months for IBM to resolve the problem."
"The tool does not support new test data generation."
"Data masking with InfoSphere Optim products creates intermediary extract files and writing the data to persistent storage, which means that extraction, masking, and insertion happen being separate processes, taking more for the process to run."
"In the IBM Optim tool, the Synthetic Test Data Generation feature is lagging behind."
"I would like to be able to combine different masking functions on the same column map, making more complex masking without the need to write a Lua procedure."
"I think it could be more secure. It could also have some more features, and the initial setup could be more straightforward."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is high."
"Part of the licensing is dependent on whether you want to use the portal. It's based on floating users. The other part is dependent on what type of system you are using. We are using mainframe, so we paid good money for a mainframe license."
"Know all the data requirements before buying this product. There are a lot of features for this tool, which may or may not be useful to a particular company. Make sure of what your requirements for your data are."
"The cost of this tool is pretty high... CA provides licenses for different utilities like masking but even if you break it up, the pricing is still high."
"It can be scaled for as many licenses as the customer is willing to pay. It's kind of expensive."
"Mainly, we compete with the IBM team and Informatica, and if you compare the license cost, Broadcom is too flexible. Depending on the customer's budget, we suggest they buy only respective SKUs, and it's much cheaper compared to others because we have gone over multiple deals where pricing was never a factor in differentiating products."
"My company makes yearly payments toward the licensing costs. So, I consider the licensing costs to be expensive, especially considering what I have heard from my colleagues."
"I would rate Broadcom TDM's pricing as four out of five."
"You have to pay yearly for the license, which comes at a reduced cost. The monthly payment option for a shorter project duration is also good."
"We purchase TDM's yearly license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
30%
Insurance Company
7%
Marketing Services Firm
5%
Comms Service Provider
4%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
15%
Insurance Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise30
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Broadcom Test Data Manager?
In terms of areas for improvement in Broadcom Test Data Manager specifically, I recognize that building the ERD diagram after connecting to the database is very difficult and requires improvement e...
What is your primary use case for Broadcom Test Data Manager?
When it comes to use cases for Broadcom Test Data Manager, clients may use it for data masking. From a service provider perspective, regarding the data masking, data subsetting, and data virtualiza...
What advice do you have for others considering Broadcom Test Data Manager?
If I were to rate their support from one to ten, I would give them a ten. Let's divide the question about Broadcom's standing compared to other vendors. If we talk about Oracle, PostgreSQL, or any ...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management (TDM)?
The solution does not need much maintenance. The solution is maintained by the infrastructure team. There is a separate team for the software installation. I would recommend the solution to other u...
 

Also Known As

CA Test Data Manager, DataMaker, DataFinder, Fast Data Masker, CA TDM
IBM Optim Test Data Management, Optim Test Data Management, IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Manheim, Arag
Dignity Health
Find out what your peers are saying about Broadcom Test Data Manager vs. IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management (TDM) and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.