Equalum vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data comparison

Google and IBM are both solutions in the Data Integration category. Google is ranked #66, while IBM is ranked #26 with an average rating of 7.0. Google holds a 0.4% mindshare in DI, compared to IBM’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Equalum

Read 7 Equalum reviews

599 Views
383 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Read 13 IBM Cloud Pak for Data reviews

2,186 Views
2,055 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Equalum

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

IBM Cloud Pak for Data and Equalum target data integration and analytics. IBM Cloud Pak for Data leads with its AI-driven features, while Equalum excels in real-time data processing and seamless integration.

Features: IBM Cloud Pak for Data includes AI-driven analytics, a wide range of integration options, and scalable data governance. Equalum provides robust real-time data processing with ETL capabilities, alongside efficient data extraction and transformation.

Room for Improvement: IBM Cloud Pak for Data can improve in reducing setup complexity for faster implementation, enhancing real-time data processing features, and optimizing cost efficiency. Equalum could expand its capabilities beyond real-time processing, improve its batch processing features, and offer more comprehensive data governance tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Cloud Pak for Data offers a modular setup with cloud compatibility, supported by extensive global customer services, though it may require more setup time. Equalum provides a quick, streamlined deployment experience and quick customer service responses, prioritizing speed and efficiency.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Cloud Pak for Data generally involves higher initial costs with scalable ROI through AI features, justified for larger engagements seeking extensive capabilities. Equalum provides a cost-effective entry with significant ROI from its efficient data processing, delivering immediate value for projects focused on rapid deployment and real-time data handling.

To learn more, read our detailed Equalum vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Data Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Equalum vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Data

September 2025

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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

Equalum

Ranking in Data Integration

66th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Replication (19th), Cloud Data Integration (30th)

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Ranking in Data Integration

26th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Virtualization (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Equalum is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 1.8%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Integration Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Cloud Pak for Data	1.8%
Equalum	0.4%
Other	97.8%

Data Integration

Featured Reviews

Joel Buck

Director of Enterprise Architecture at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

There is no better product for CDC and streaming on Kafka

The Equalum user interface is extremely easy to use. I would rank it really highly on user-friendliness. The only issue with the user interface is it doesn't supply everything that you need for somebody who has to work with Equalum. For example, when you get deep into development, there are many areas where you have to go to the command line to do things and the Equalum user interface does not have that functionality. The deployment of their flows needs improvement. It doesn't work with a typical Git branching and CI/CD deployment strategy. If you have multiple projects, all working in one Equalum environment, separating out their work is something that you have to design into your implementation, as opposed to baked into the product.

Read full review

Michelle Leslie

Data asset management engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Starts strong with data management capabilities but needs a demo database

What I would love to see is an end-to-end, almost a training demo database of some sort, where one of the biggest problems with data management is demonstrated. There are so many components to data management, and more often than not, people understand one thing really well. They may understand DataStage and how to move data around, but they do not see the impact of moving data incorrectly. They also do not see the impact of everyone understanding a piece of data in the same way. I would love Cloud Pak to come with a demo database that illustrates the different components of data management in a logical way, so I can see the whole picture instead of just the area I'm specializing in. It would be great if Cloud Pak, from a data modeling point of view, allowed us to import our PDMs, for example. It would be ideal to import and create business terms in Cloud Pak. The PEA would be great to create the technical data. The association between the business and the technical metadata could then be automated by pulling it through from your ACE models. The data modeling component is available in Cloud Pak. Additionally, when it comes to Cloud Pak, even though it has the NextGen DataStage built into it, there is Cloud Pak for data integration as well. Currently, I do not think we have a full enough understanding of how CP4D and CP4I can enhance each other.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"All our architectural use cases are on a single platform, not multiple platforms. You don't have to dump into different modules because it is the same module everywhere."

"Equalum is real-time. If you are moving from an overnight process to a real-time process, there is always a difference in what reports and analytics show compared to what our operational system shows. Some of our organizations, especially finance, don't want those differences to be shown. Therefore, going to a real-time environment makes the data in one place match the data in another place. Data accuracy is almost instantaneous with this tool."

"The main impact for Oracle LogMiner is the performance. Performance is drastically reduced if you use the solution’s Oracle Binary Log Parser. So, if we have 60 million records, initially it used to take a minute. Now, it takes a second to do synchronization from the source and target tables."

"Equalum has resulted in system performance improvements in our organization. Now, I am ingressing data off of multiple S3 sources, doing data processing, and formatting a schema. This would usually take me a couple of days, but now it takes me hours."

"It's a really powerful platform in terms of the combination of technologies they've developed and integrated together, out-of-the-box. The combination of Kafka and Spark is, we believe, quite unique, combined with CDC capabilities. And then, of course, there are the performance aspects. As an overall package, it's a very powerful data integration, migration, and replication tool."

"It's got it all, from end-to-end. It's the glue. There are a lot of other products out there, good products, but there's always a little bit of something missing from the other products. Equalum did its research well and understood the requirements of large enterprise and governments in terms of one tool to rule them all, from a data migration integration perspective."

"I found two features in Equalum that I consider the most valuable. One is that Equalum is a no-code tool. You can do your activities on its graphical interface, which doesn't require complex knowledge of extracting, changing, or loading data. Another feature of Equalum that I like the most is that it monitors the data transfers and tells you if there's any issue so that you can quickly check and correct it. Equalum also tells you where the problem lies, for example, if it's a hardware or communication issue."

"Equalum provides a single platform for core architectural use cases, including CDC replication, streaming ETL, and batch ETL. That is important to our clients because there is no other single-focus product that covers these areas in that much detail, and with this many features on the platform. The fact that they are single-minded and focused on CDC and ETL makes this such a rich solution. Other solutions cover these things a little bit in their multi-function products, but they don't go as deep."

"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten."

"You can model the data there, connect the data models with the business processes and create data lineage processes."

"The most valuable features of IBM Cloud Pak for Data are the Watson Studio, where we can initiate more groups and write code. Additionally, Watson Machine Learning is available with many other services, such as APIs which you can plug the machine learning models."

"I love the way that I can start at a very basic level with my data management journey by capturing my policies, justifying my data, and putting them into different categories to say this is data relating to individuals, for example, or data relating to geography."

"It is a scalable solution, and we have had no issues with its scalability in our company. I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten."

"Cloud Pak's most valuable features are IBM MQ, IBM App Connect, IBM API Connect, and ISPF."

"Its data preparation capabilities are highly valuable."

"Cloud Pak is a very, very, very good system."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data pros

Cons

"They need to expand their capabilities in some of the targets, as well as source connectors, and native connectors for a number of large data sources and databases. That's a huge challenge for every company in this area, not just Equalum."

"I should be able to see only my project versus somebody else's garbage. That is something that would be good in future. Right now, the security is by tenants, but I would like to have it by project, e.g., this project has this source and flows in these streams, and I have access to this on this site."

"Their UI could use some work. Also, they could make it just a little faster to get around their user interface. It could be a bit more intuitive with things like keyboard shortcuts."

"Right now, they have a good notification system, but it is in bulk. For example, if I have five projects running and I put a notification, the notification comes back to me for all five projects. I would like the notification to come back only for one project."

"There is not enough proven integration with other vendors. That is what needs to be worked on. Equalum hasn't tested anything between vendors, which worries our clients. We need more proven vendor integration. It is an expensive product and it needs to support a multi-vendor approach."

"The deployment of their flows needs improvement. It doesn't work with a typical Git branching and CI/CD deployment strategy."

"If you need to use the basic features of Equalum, for example, you don't even need data integration, then many competitors in the market can give you basic features. For instance, if you need batch ETL, you can pick among solutions in the market that have been around longer than Equalum. What needs improvement in Equalum is replication, as it could be faster. Equalum also needs better integration with specific databases such as Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server."

"One thing that bugs me is how much infrastructure Cloud Pak requires for the initial deployment. It doesn't allow you to start small. The smallest permitted deployment is too big. It's a huge problem that prevents us from implementing the solution in many scenarios."

"The solution's user experience is an area that has room for improvement."

"What I would love to see is an end-to-end, almost a training demo database of some sort, where one of the biggest problems with data management is demonstrated."

"The technical support could be a little better."

"The interface could improve because sometimes it becomes slow. Sometimes there is a delay between clicks when using the software, which can make the development process slow. It can take a few seconds to complete one action, and then a few more seconds to do the next one."

"The product is trying to be more maturity in terms of connectors. That, I believe, is an area where Cloud Pak can improve."

"Cloud Pak would be improved with integration with cloud service providers like Cloudera."

"The product must improve its performance."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Equalum was reasonably priced. It is not like those million dollar tools, such as Informatica."

"Equalum licensing costs vary, but I won't be able to give information on its fees."

"They have a very simple approach to licensing. They don't get tied up with different types of connectivity to different databases. If you need more connectors or if you need more CPU, you just add on. It's component-based pricing."

"As soon as you have more than six users, Equalum is lower in cost [than Talend] and if the group gets bigger, it's quite a big delta. If more users want to use it, you don't end up with an increase in licensing costs, so that makes it very easy. And if you need more licenses or more sources, it's a very simple upgrade methodology."

"Equalum is rather expensive compared to its competitors. So, you have to make up that cost in time savings, and we usually do that. If we are saving money, it is because we are reducing our development time."

"It's quite expensive."

"Cloud Pak's cost is a little high."

"I think that this product is too expensive for smaller companies."

"IBM Cloud Pak for Data is expensive. If we include the training time and the machine learning, it's expensive. The cost of the execution is more reasonable."

"For the licensing of the solution, there is a yearly payment that needs to be made. Also, since it is expensive, cost-wise, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten."

"I don't have the exact licensing cost for IBM Cloud Pak for Data, as my company is still finalizing requirements, including monthly, yearly, and three-year licensing fees. Still, on a scale of one to five, I'd rate it a three because, compared to other vendors, it's more complicated."

"The solution is expensive."

"The solution's pricing is competitive with that of other vendors."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

28%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

Why should I use Equalum instead of LogMiner?

You'd want to use the Equalium Oracle Binary Log Parser because it's just better than the LogMiner. Sure, LogMiner is made by Oracle and probably the team knows some insight to make it efficient th...

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Is Equalum compatible with all databases?

I'm using Equalum's data replication software for Oracle because that's the one database it's designed for. While it may sound limiting, when you find out how many solutions it can provide for you ...

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Can I use Equalum for free?

No, it's not free but you can benefit from a free trial, though. There's an option to try their platform for a limited amount of time, so that may be useful to help you decide if you want to contin...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

The setup cost is very expensive. The cost depends on the pieces of the solution I'm using, how much data I have, and whether it's on the cloud or on-prem.

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What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

My primary use case for Cloud Pak is that I am the reference Data steward for the Africa regions in the banks where I work. My main objective is to capture the reference data in Caltech or Data and...

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Comparisons

No data available

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 44% of the time

Denodo vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 13% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 11% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 9% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Equalum

October 2025

Download Equalum product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

September 2025

Download IBM Cloud Pak for Data product report

Also Known As

No data available

Cloud Pak for Data

Overview

Equalum is a fully-managed, end-to-end data integration and real-time data streaming platform, powered by industry-leading change data capture (CDC) tech and modern data transformation capabilities (streaming ETL and ELT). Equalum's enterprise-grade platform features intuitive UI allowing you to build robust, real-time data pipelines in minutes.

Google

IBM Cloud Pak® for Data is a fully-integrated data and AI platform that modernizes how businesses collect, organize and analyze data to infuse AI throughout their organizations. Cloud-native by design, the platform unifies market-leading services spanning the entire analytics lifecycle. From data management, DataOps, governance, business analytics and automated AI, IBM Cloud Pak for Data helps eliminate the need for costly, and often competing, point solutions while providing the information architecture you need to implement AI successfully.

Building on the streamlined hybrid-cloud foundation of Red Hat® OpenShift®, IBM Cloud Pak for Data takes advantage of the underlying resource and infrastructure optimization and management. The solution fully supports multicloud environments such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud™ and private cloud deployments. Find out how IBM Cloud Pak for Data can lower your total cost of ownership and accelerate innovation.

IBM

Sample Customers

SIEMENS, GSK, Wal-Mart, T Systems

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival

Buyer's Guide

Equalum vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Data

September 2025

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