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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
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 April 2026, in the Test Data Management category, the mindshare of Broadcom Test Data Manager is 13.6%, down from 18.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management (TDM) is 6.6%, 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 Manager13.6%
IBM InfoSphere Optim Test Data Management (TDM)6.6%
Other79.8%
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

"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."
"It allows us to create a testing environment that is repeatable. And we can manage the data so that our testing becomes automated, everything from actually performing the testing to also evaluating the results."
"Just use it as a proof of concept and you'll see the power of the TDM."
"CA Test Data Manager is enormously helpful to us."
"Based on our experience we have seen this is a very good tool, especially when you need to get the bulk data and make changes to it on the fly to do testing."
"In the last year, we captured some metrics around our ROI, and we've saved over eleven thousand hours in manual time of trying to create test data."
"What I find to be most valuable is its ability to do synthetic data creation. I love that because it has a lot of flexibility and you do not have to worry about one specific database or how you are going to manage all the data points."
"The solution is very user-friendly. For instance, if I wanted to create a project with Data Generation, Data sub-setting, Selective sub-setting, and Data Marketing, it can be easily done in TDM. And if you want to export these project definitions from one system to another, it can be done with just one click."
"Data masking features are the most valuable, as non-production environments are used by diverse parties and data privacy has to be guaranteed."
"Customer service is good."
"Optim is a great tool for enterprise data movement, data masking, data sub-setting, data comparison, and data aging."
"IBM Optim solutions are highly scalable."
"The solution can be used on both legacy and non-legacy systems."
"The product has helped to streamline the Test Data Management (TDM) process."
"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."
"I like the features compared to other tools, as this tool is more flexible to use than other tools like an Oracle product or SAP product, and I think IBM tools are more flexible, and this tool is also a good product."
 

Cons

"A lot of research, data analysis, and work needs to be done on the source system in the tool which requires a data expert."
"When we publish a lot data into the target, sometimes it is not able to handle it."
"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."
"We had one user that was primarily working on it, who probably spent a few months initially setting it up."
"The integration with various utilities is also really important. That still has to happen. That's a major area for improvement."
"Broadcom TDM takes a long time to import documents, which wastes time that could be spent on other things."
"All financial institutions are based on mainframes, so they're never going to go away. Opportunities to increase functionality and efficiencies within the mainframe solution, within this TDM product."
"Needs a better fit and finish."
"TDM's efficiency in terms of generating reports needs improvement. It could work faster."
"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."
"Licensing could be improved. The PVU licensing mechanism is a limiting factor to expanding the use of the tool."
"In the IBM Optim tool, the Synthetic Test Data Generation feature is lagging behind."
"The tool needs to have more test data management features like synthetic data generation and data reservation."
"Improvisation in the area of the self-service user interface for test data management is required to cater to test data needs."
"Pricing and licensing is higher compared to other products."
"I would like to be able to combine different masking functions on the same column map, making more complex masking without the need of writing an Lua procedure."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"The tool's pricing is high."
"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."
"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."
"It can be scaled for as many licenses as the customer is willing to pay. It's kind of expensive."
"I would rate Broadcom TDM's pricing as four out of five."
"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."
"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
31%
Insurance Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Marketing Services Firm
5%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
14%
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: April 2026.
889,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.