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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
3rd
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
6th
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 July 2026, in the Test Data Management category, the mindshare of Broadcom Test Data Manager is 13.9%, down from 16.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management (TDM) is 6.1%, 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 Manager13.9%
IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management (TDM)6.1%
Other80.0%
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

"Technical support is really quick to respond and usually very helpful."
"I would certainly recommend this product, because of the vast variety of data it provides for testing and its different features, like subsetting and cloning."
"CA is one of the few tool suites that has end-to-end features. Whatever role you are playing, whatever personality you are trying to address, it has that feature. For example, CA Service Virtualization goes hand-in-hand with TDM."
"An ROI is easily achievable with Broadcom TDM and can be achieved in two-and-a-half years."
"It has really changed the culture in the company because nobody could ever imagine generating millions of records."
"CA's product actually came through with the highest score and met the most of our needs."
"The solution has a portal where we can create data. We can also create synthetic data with the help of the product. We can use it to create a new data set in the database, eliminating many issues. The product helps with data accuracy and availability."
"In terms of the speed to market, because we do not manually produce data anymore, we use intelligent profiling techniques and test data matching, we massively reduce the time we spend finding data, and we also can produce data on the fly, which turns around test data cycles."
"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."
"Customer service is good."
"Data archiving reduces application performance issues and storage."
"Data archiving saved much storage and improved production performance."
"The product has helped to streamline the Test Data Management (TDM) process."
"IBM Optim solutions are highly scalable."
"Makes it really easy to obfuscate big tables involving lots of columns and to manage 100’s of tables without putting in much effort."
"Data masking with consistency across databases and applications is the most valuable feature."
 

Cons

"There are different modules for masking. There is a portal and there is a standalone application as well. The standalone application is more old-fashioned. When you write rules on this old-fashioned interface, because it has more complex functions available for use, you can't migrate them to the portal."
"It has a feature called TDM Portal, where testers can find test data by themselves, based on multiple models. They can reserve the data so that it belongs to one group or individual. Obviously, that data is not available to anybody else... This feature is for one environment. But if a different group of testers wanted that data for a different environment, they can't use it via CA TDM. That feature doesn't exist."
"They could make it easier to model databases, because right now it is really technical, so to train someone on it takes a while."
"We had one user that was primarily working on it, who probably spent a few months initially setting it up."
"Broadcom TDM takes a long time to import documents, which wastes time that could be spent on other things."
"As the solution continues to evolve, the one thing I like about it is the API-friendly layers that they have added into the realm. So, I just would like to see more support around that and more usability."
"The problem is that the cost of this tool is pretty high. Even if an organization likes the tool, at times it becomes difficult for us to sell the license."
"I would probably like to see improvement in the ease of the rule use."
"In the past, we have waited months for IBM to resolve the problem."
"In the IBM Optim tool, the Synthetic Test Data Generation feature is lagging behind."
"I think it could be more secure. I don't have experience with the security aspects concerning PII data, but I think it can still be streamlined a little more. It could also have some more features, and the initial setup could be more straightforward."
"Pricing and licensing is higher compared to other products."
"TDM's efficiency in terms of generating reports needs improvement. It could work faster."
"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."
"Licensing could be improved. The PVU licensing mechanism is a limiting factor to expanding the use of the tool."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 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."
"I would rate Broadcom TDM's pricing as four out of five."
"It can be scaled for as many licenses as the customer is willing to pay. It's kind of expensive."
"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."
"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."
"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
28%
Construction Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
14%
Insurance Company
8%
Construction 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: June 2026.
903,996 professionals have used our research since 2012.