Equalum vs IBM InfoSphere DataStage comparison

Equalum and IBM are both solutions in the Data Integration category. Equalum is ranked #58, while IBM is ranked #6 with an average rating of 7.9. Equalum holds a 0.2% mindshare in DI, compared to IBM’s 5.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Equalum users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Equalum

Read 7 Equalum reviews

330 Views
144 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM InfoSphere DataStage

Read 42 IBM InfoSphere DataStage reviews

6,850 Views
5,826 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Equalum

IBM InfoSphere DataStage

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

IBM InfoSphere DataStage and Equalum compete in the data integration platform category. Equalum seems to have the upper hand due to its real-time capabilities and user-friendly interface, despite IBM InfoSphere DataStage's scalability and comprehensive features.

Features: IBM InfoSphere DataStage is acclaimed for its high scalability through parallel processing, robust metadata management, and data quality management. It excels in handling large volumes of data and supports complex transformations effectively. Equalum shines with its user-friendly no-code interface, powerful CDC replication, and efficient integration with Kafka and Spark technologies for real-time data processing.

Room for Improvement: IBM InfoSphere DataStage could enhance its scheduling mechanisms, improve integration with modern databases, and reduce costs. Improved user-friendliness and better cloud capabilities are also suggested. Equalum could expand its database integrations, provide more comprehensive documentation, and establish broader compatibility with other vendors.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM operates mainly on-premises with some hybrid cloud support, requiring significant setup efforts. Equalum offers flexible deployment with cloud options and is noted for easier setup. Both provide strong customer service, although IBM's consistency varies by region, while Equalum may require more support for advanced tasks.

Pricing and ROI: IBM InfoSphere DataStage is considered costly, favoring large enterprises needing extensive capabilities, although its price may deter smaller businesses. Equalum, while also expensive, often justifies its costs through significant time savings in development cycles, offering a compelling ROI compared to other major ETL vendors.

To learn more, read our detailed Equalum vs. IBM InfoSphere DataStage Report (Updated: May 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Equalum vs. IBM InfoSphere DataStage

May 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

58th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Replication (17th), Cloud Data Integration (27th)

IBM InfoSphere DataStage

Ranking in Data Integration

6th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Equalum is 0.2%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM InfoSphere DataStage is 5.2%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Integration

Featured Reviews

reviewer1525674

Managing Director at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Frees staff to focus on data workflow and on what can be done with data, and away from the details of the technology

There are areas they can do better in, like most software companies that are still relatively young. 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. If I had the wherewithal to create a tool that could allow for all that connectivity, it would be massive, out-of-the-box. There are all the updates every month. An open source changes constantly, so compatibility for these sources or targets is not easy. And a lot of targets are proprietary and they actually don't want you to connect with them in real time. They want to keep that connectivity for their own competitive tool. What happens is that a customer will say, "Okay, I've got Oracle, and I've got MariaDB, and I've got SQL Server over here, and I've got something else over there. And I want to aggregate that, and put it into Google Cloud Platform." Having connectors to all of those is extremely difficult, as is maintaining them. So there are major challenges to keeping connectivity to those data sources, especially at a CDC level, because you've got to maintain your connectors. And every change that's made with a new version that comes out means they've got to upgrade their version of the connector. It's a real challenge in the industry. But one good thing about Equalum is that they're up for the challenge. If there's a customer opportunity, they will develop and make sure that they update a connector to meet the needs of the customer. They'll also look at custom development of connectors, based on the customer opportunity. It's a work in progress. Everybody in the space is in the same boat. And it's not just ETL tools. It's everybody in the Big Data space. It's a challenge. The other area for improvement, for Equalum, is their documentation of the product. But that comes with being a certain size and having a marketing team of 30 or 40 people and growing as an organization. They're getting there and I believe they know what the deficiencies are. Maintaining and driving a channel business, like Equalum is doing, is really quite a different business model than the direct-sales model. It requires a tremendous amount of documentation, marketing information, and educational information. It's not easy.

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Rahul Saxena

Manager - Business Technology Solutions at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees

A helpful and cost-effective tool that performs well and is very easy to use

I deal with companies from the healthcare industry. The solutions are largely cloud-based. In data-rich industries like telecom or BFSI, such tools are extensively used. Healthcare also has a lot of data. I will encourage people to use the solution. It is quite an easy tool. Every stage has a help guide. It’s an extensive documentation. We can understand the purpose of a stage, how the connection has to be set up, how to set up a username and password, and whom we should contact. New users must start using the tool and explore it. They might have to invest ten days or two weeks to understand the workflows and options. It is easy to learn. My company is a partner with IBM. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

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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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"DataStage has also improved its connectors, such as connectivity with Kafka for real-time data integration, cloud connectors, and others like Spark and HVAC SaaS. All these processes are expected to shift to the cloud in the next five years. It's a very robust tool, much like PowerCenter."

"We are mostly using transmission rules. It has a lot of functions and logic related to transmission. It is a user-friendly tool with in-built functions."

"The solution's scalability is really good...we are using multi-instance jobs where you can scale them easily."

"It's useful for reporting and selecting different extract files."

"The solution is stable."

"The best feature of IBM InfoSphere DataStage for me was that it was very much user-friendly. The solution didn't require that much raw coding because most of its features were drag and drop, plus it had a large number of functionalities."

"IBM is stable and accurate to monitor. It's easy to understand to monitor the data lineage from source to target."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to transfer information via notes."

More IBM InfoSphere DataStage pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"So, there are some features that are missing. If I compare DataStage to Talend, Talend allows you to write custom code in Java or use these tools in your applications as well if you are building a job application. But in DataStage, it does not allow you to write custom code for any component."

"The solution needs improvement in connectivity with big data technologies such as Spark."

"In terms of intermediate storage, we have some challenges, especially with customers who store data in intermediate locations."

"The deployment could be more straightforward."

"It would be great if they can include some basic version of data quality checking features."

"In the future, I would like to see more integration with cloud technologies."

"We would be happy to see in next versions the ability to return several parameters from jobs. Now, jobs can return just one parameter. If they could return several parameters, that would be great."

"There could be more customization options for the product."

More IBM InfoSphere DataStage cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"Our internal team takes care of group licensing and cost. We don't have individual licenses. We have group licensing at the company level. Usually, IBM doesn't charge anything separately on the licensing side. For storage and everything else, we are paying around $6,000 per month, which is not very high. It includes Linux data storage, execution, and licensing. They're charging $40 for one-hour execution. Based on that, we are spending around $2,000 on the production environment and $1,000 on the lower environment for testing and development-side executions. For the mainframe, we are using the Db2 mainframe database, and we are spending around $1,000 on the Db2 mainframe database as well. All this comes out to be around $6,000. We, however, would like to have some cost reduction."

"The solution is cheap."

"The pricing is competitive but on the higher side of the pricing scale."

"The product is expensive."

"The price is expensive but there are no licensing fees."

"I have no information on the exact pricing for IBM InfoSphere DataStage because the solution is usually procured by the clients my company works with, though the pricing is higher compared to other solutions, so many clients choose to go with a different solution rather than IBM InfoSphere DataStage."

"It is quite expensive."

"It's quite expensive."

More IBM InfoSphere DataStage pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

18%

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Healthcare Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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...

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Would you upgrade to more premium versions of IBM InfoSphere DataStage?

My company currently uses the free version of the product, and we are definitely switching to a paid one. We needed a tool that can help us not only integrate our data but use it effectively. For ...

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Is IBM InfoSphere DataStage more difficult to use compared to other tools in the field?

I think the tool may cause some difficulties if you have not used other data integration solutions before. I have worked at companies that used different tools for data integration, and they work ...

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Do you rely on IBM Cloud Paks for your data? Have you utilized this product, or do you use IBM InfoSphere DataStage without it?

IBM Cloud Paks makes a big difference in your data integration. My company has been using it alongside IBM InfoSphere DataStage and while the main product is good on its own, this one truly expands...

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Comparisons

No data available

IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs IBM InfoSphere DataStage

Compared 13% of the time

SSIS vs IBM InfoSphere DataStage

Compared 12% of the time

Talend Open Studio vs IBM InfoSphere DataStage

Compared 11% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs IBM InfoSphere DataStage

Compared 9% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs IBM InfoSphere DataStage

Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Equalum

May 2025

Download Equalum product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM InfoSphere DataStage

April 2025

Download IBM InfoSphere DataStage product report

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.

Equalum

IBM InfoSphere DataStage is a high-quality data integration tool that aims to design, develop, and run jobs that move and transform data for organizations of different sizes. The product works by integrating data across multiple systems through a high-performance parallel framework. It supports extended metadata management, enterprise connectivity, and integration of all types of data.

The solution is the data integration component of IBM InfoSphere Information Server, providing a graphical framework for moving data from source systems to target systems. IBM InfoSphere DataStage can deliver data to data warehouses, data marts, operational data sources, and other enterprise applications. The tool works with various types of patterns - extract, transform and load (ETL), and extract, load, and transform (ELT). The scalability of the platform is achieved by using parallel processing and enterprise connectivity.

The solution has various versions, catering to different types of companies, which include the Server Edition, the Enterprise Edition, and the MVS Edition. Depending on which version a company has bought, different goals can be achieved. They include the following:

Designing data flows to extract information from multiple sources, transform the data, and deliver it to target databases or applications.
Delivery of relevant and accurate data through direct connections to enterprise applications.
Reduction of development time and improvement of consistency through prebuilt functions.
Utilization of InfoSphere Information Server tools for accelerating the project delivery cycle.

IBM InfoSphere DataStage can be deployed in various ways, including:

As a service: The tool can be accessed from a subscription model, where its capabilities are a part of IBM DataStage on IBM Cloud Park for Data as a Service. This option offers full management on IBM Cloud.
On premises or in any cloud: The two editions - IBM DataStage Enterprise and IBM DataStage Enterprise Plus - can run workloads on premises or in any cloud when added to IBM DataStage on IBM Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.
On premises: The basic jobs of the tool can be run on premises using IBM DataStage.

IBM InfoSphere DataStage Features

The tool has various features through which users can integrate and utilize their data effectively. The components of IBM InfoSphere DataStage include:

AI services: The tool offers services such as data science, event messaging, data warehousing, and data virtualization. It accelerates processes through artificial intelligence (AI) and offers a connection with IBM Cloud Paks - the cloud-native insight platform of the solution.
Parallel engine: Through this feature, ETL performance can be optimized to process data at scale. This is achieved through parallel engine and load balancing, which maximizes throughput.
Metadata support: This feature of the product uses the IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog to protect companies' sensitive data and monitor who can access it and at what levels.
Automated delivery pipelines: IBM InfoSphere DataStage reduces costs by automating continuous integration and delivery of pipelines.
Prebuilt connectors: The feature for prebuilt connectivity and stages allows users to move data between multiple cloud sources and data warehouses, including IBM native products.
IBM DataStage Flow Designer: This feature offers assistance through machine learning design. The product offers its clients a user-friendly interface which facilitates the work process.
IBM InfoSphere QualityStage: The tool provides a feature that automatically resolves data quality issues and increases the reliability of the delivered data.
Automated failure detection: Through this feature, companies can reduce infrastructure management efforts, relying on the automated detection that the tool offers.
Distributed data processing: Cloud runtimes can be executed remotely through this feature while maintaining its sovereignty and decreasing costs.

IBM InfoSphere DataStage Benefits

This solution offers many benefits for the companies that utilize it for data integration. Some of these benefits include:

Increased speed of workload execution due to better balancing and a parallel engine.
Reduction of data movement costs through integrations and seamless design of jobs.
Modernization of data integration by extending the capabilities of companies' data.
Delivery of reliable data through IBM Cloud Pak for Data.
Utilization of a drag-and-drop interface which assists in the delivery of data without the need for code.
Effective data manipulation allows data to be merged before being mapped and transformed.
Creating easier access of users to their data by providing visual maps of the process and the delivered data.

Reviews from Real Users

A data/solution architect at a computer software company says the product is robust, easy to use, has a simple error logging mechanism, and works very well for huge volumes of data.

Tirthankar Roy Chowdhury, team leader at Tata Consultancy Services, feels the tool is user-friendly with a lot of functionalities, and doesn't require much coding because of its drag-and-drop features.

IBM

Sample Customers

SIEMENS, GSK, Wal-Mart, T Systems

Dubai Statistics Center, Etisalat Egypt

Buyer's Guide

Equalum vs. IBM InfoSphere DataStage

May 2025

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