We performed a comparison between Databricks and Informatica PowerCenter based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: PeerSpot users consistently feel Databricks is a more complete solution, providing better integrations, features, and ease of use. The cloud-based architecture makes scaling seamless.
"Databricks covers end-to-end data analytics workflow in one platform, this is the best feature of the solution."
"The initial setup phase of Databricks was good."
"There are good features for turning off clusters."
"We can scale the product."
"It is a cost-effective solution."
"The solution is easy to use and has a quick start-up time due to being on the cloud."
"The fast data loading process and data storage capabilities are great."
"The ability to stream data and the windowing feature are valuable."
"It is very comprehensive in terms of connector and transformation capabilities from both a source and target perspective."
"Informatica PowerCenter has been implementing mapping design, data flow, and workflow execution for years."
"The setup is straightforward."
"It is UI friendly and has all the advantages of an ETL tool."
"Once you figure it out, it is a powerful and simple ETL tool. Its stability has been very satisfactory."
"The performance and design of Informatica have been very valuable. I find the performance faster than, say, Oracle Data Integrator or DataStage."
"The technical support for Informatica PowerCenter is good."
"It has very good monitoring and process monitoring."
"Implementation of Databricks is still very code heavy."
"A lot of people are required to manage this solution."
"Databricks is not geared towards the end-user, but rather it is for data engineers or data scientists."
"The connectivity with various BI tools could be improved, specifically the performance and real time integration."
"Databricks' technical support takes a while to respond and could be improved."
"Costs can quickly add up if you don't plan for it."
"Can be improved by including drag-and-drop features."
"I have had some issues with some of the Spark clusters running on Databricks, where the Spark runtime and clusters go up and down, which is an area for improvement."
"It should be more cloud-centric than on-prem-centric."
"We had stability issues, mostly with JVM size."
"PowerCenter could integrate better with cloud applications. We had to do a lot of configuration work using API integrations to connect with cloud applications. Informatica Cloud Data Integration has a generic connector that you can use directly, so it's much easier."
"The solution could have better documentation on basic steps or blocks that specify what to do."
"Requires an established data center because there is no option for software as a service."
"PowerCenter has three clients. I wish they would consolidate everything into one GUI, not three. Also, we had a persistent issue with the Informatica Developer tool but it was solved when we migrated to the newest one."
"There is a need to buy a separate license if one wishes to connect with some kind of SAP system, such as SalesForce."
"They should release new versions for the solution's on-premises setup."
Databricks is ranked 1st in Data Science Platforms with 78 reviews while Informatica PowerCenter is ranked 3rd in Data Integration with 78 reviews. Databricks is rated 8.2, while Informatica PowerCenter is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Databricks writes "A nice interface with good features for turning off clusters to save on computing". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Informatica PowerCenter writes "Stable, provides good support, and integrating it with other systems is very fast, but its pricing is expensive". Databricks is most compared with Amazon SageMaker, Dataiku Data Science Studio, Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio, Dremio and Azure Stream Analytics, whereas Informatica PowerCenter is most compared with Informatica Cloud Data Integration, Azure Data Factory, SSIS, AWS Glue and Oracle Data Integrator (ODI). See our Databricks vs. Informatica PowerCenter report.
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