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IBM App Connect vs Informatica PowerCenter vs WSO2 Enterprise Integrator comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Featured Reviews

Nirav Patel - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior QA Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Cloud workflows have accelerated integrations and now demand better debugging and DevOps support
IBM App Connect provides many features, but there are several areas for improvement. Better debugging and observability would help us track any single transaction end-to-end across steps and connectors. Features such as a step-by-step line view and one-click download for flow execution would be beneficial. Improved CI/CD pipeline and GitOps experience would be valuable. The team wants flows as code and predictable promotion across development, test, and production environments. Stronger native Git integration, export-import functionalities, and first-class pipeline templates like Jenkins, GitHub, and Azure DevOps would be beneficial. More cloud-native, lightweight runtime options would be very helpful. Connector reliability and consistency need improvement because some connectors feel more mature than others, and version changes can break mapping. Pricing and licensing clarity is important because the licensing is complex and can slow down adoption and planning. Some improvement areas include handling very complex structures that the platform currently does not support. Improvements on the DevOps side, particularly providing templates, would be beneficial. The platform is somewhat expensive and hard to predict in terms of cost. Debugging features need to be provided. For CI/CD, the flows are not truly accurate and need improvement.
Garima Goel - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Principal Engineer at Nagarro
Has supported complex data pipeline creation but performance tuning and monitoring responsiveness need improvement
Sometimes, I see various performance issues with Informatica PowerCenter, including caching concerns, whether it's a joiner transformation or other transformations, so I believe the team can enhance the performance perspectives of these transformations. Additionally, sometimes the Informatica Monitor hangs or takes time to open the current run or logs, which the team can also look into. Informatica is transitioning to cloud solutions and discontinuing on-premise support after 2026, so when we discuss Informatica Cloud and its support, it becomes quite expensive for the organization compared to peers such as SnapLogic or Netezza, which offer lower pricing. Informatica Cloud Intelligence's pricing is notably high.
AC
Technical director at Cremete
Effective data transformation and integration in complex environments with high functionality
Something that could be improved in WSO2 Enterprise Integrator is that the problem is not a lack of capability or functionalities. The problem is that it is a very complex environment. To put your hand on this environment is a very demanding task. This is the real problem. The problem is not about the product, but about the complexity to manage, to configure, to decide what to do. I have some experience using SAP R/3. It seems to me something similar. When you have to configure a situation with a client, especially for a client not in an industrial sector, but in a service sector, it is quite usual that you are in trouble for some reason. This is always the story that I found in the implementations I have done. Maybe there are only three or four big problems, in some other cases there are more than that, but this is the situation usually. For WSO2 Enterprise Integrator, not the same, but I must say it is quite often there is a need to put together some pieces and make it work in a coordinated way.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Provides good security features."
"IBM App Connect definitely saves a lot of time, approximately 50 to 60%, and based on the time savings, we can reduce the number of employees needed and save money on reduced resources."
"Because it has a graphical developer interface, we can quickly develop solutions that are connecting to anything on the cloud, without having to build those connectors ourselves."
"The most valuable feature is the security."
"This latest version is very scalable, flexible and user-friendly."
"There is a friendly interface for configuration, and integration is made easy."
"Technical support is good."
"We always have ROI when we use IBM products."
"This is the best tool that we have."
"Ease and speed of building integrations, especially integrations between different applications, such as our Hospital Information System."
"The partitioning and optimization to help enhance our development is a very valuable aspect of Informatica PowerCenter."
"The support is valuable; when we face a production problem, being able to get support is valuable and it brings efficiency."
"Informatica PowerCenter is a scalable solution; expanding is easy, and we can execute multiple workflows based on events, and I don't see any constraints, and it looks pretty good."
"The reliability of the product and the way of orchestration of different services is valuable to us."
"I would recommend that others considering the solution go ahead and use it for any batch and high volume loads with complex transactions."
"Informatica PowerCenter is worth the money to use for its benefits."
"I like the user-friendly system and development of the service-oriented architecture."
"The built-in connectors help with quick connectivity to the platforms, and we are using this for both our banking and insurance clients."
"The installation process is easy."
"The stability is excellent."
"The solution has two main parts: integration and transformation. It's very user-friendly and easy to understand for everyone."
"It was mostly easy to set up the product."
"The solution's customer service is good."
"The productivity is the most valuable feature. It is very easy to write remediations."
 

Cons

"The installation of containers could be simplified, as it currently requires a senior-level installer."
"Plugins for the repositories are a little difficult to find."
"The platform is somewhat expensive and hard to predict in terms of cost."
"The integration with HR systems could be better."
"IBM needs to enhance and have a stronger offering for the event streaming part because this is the future needed for the containerization and the new integration requirement."
"One more important point is that if IBM improves its CI/CD capabilities, it will make a big difference. Right now, I have to create my own CI/CD setup from scratch for every client, which is inefficient."
"The product should improve its support."
"Updates are constantly delayed and that is something IBM could improve."
"Some of the conversions are done inside the product. We use work tables that are created by the engine itself, but the names of the work tables are very long, and they don't have any meaning, which makes it a bit difficult to understand and follow exactly what is happening inside."
"PowerCenter has three clients. I wish they would consolidate everything into one GUI, not three."
"Informatica PowerCenter could improve the data threshold for large sets of data. Additionally, they should add real-time integration."
"Lacks ability to calculate cost of the product."
"There can be scalability issues. Huge amounts of data ingestion will impact performance."
"Support could be better. Technical support's friendly, but we should be able to get responses from them more quickly."
"Informatica PowerCenter could improve by having a single interface because half of the system is still in the legacy interface and many other elements are moved to the developer client. It would be good if there was a single interface for the end user and developers."
"The licensing cost for Informatica is very high. Other all-in-one solutions have much lower prices than Informatica."
"One of the reasons that we are looking for a replacement is their way of defining integration. The language of the XML structures that I use to describe the integrations are not that standard, and it's not easy to find people who are familiar with this approach."
"The configuration of the product is not an easy task for everyone."
"WSO2 libraries are not mature enough. For example, if you want to integrate with Kafka using its Kafka library, it often has many bugs."
"They should introduce better pricing for small companies."
"The administration side is complex and could use significant improvements to enhance the solution's functionality."
"The micro integrator should be improved. There is room for enhancement considering alternative integration components."
"They should release upgrades more frequently."
"The server is very specific and it is very difficult to get experience with it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing isn't cheap, but you can get good discounts based on your competitive deal."
"It is very expensive if we want to scale."
"Initially, App Connect was quite expensive because the cost was based on the number of processors we used. However, it's now based on containers, which means we can be more specific about our consumption and get a better price."
"The cost depends upon the consumer."
"IBM App Connect's pricing is high compared to other products."
"The price could be better."
"App Connect is not cheap."
"The licensing cost for IBM App Connect is very high."
"I rate the product's price a ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"The pricing for Informatica PowerCenter is expensive. Some clients have simple needs and only want to integrate and store data. Some clients have small needs, while some clients have bigger needs and focus more on performance and time. The licensing cost for Informatica PowerCenter isn't good. In my project, if I remember correctly, the company pays €20,000 per year for the Informatica PowerCenter license. I'm not aware of additional costs that you need to pay for some features of the solution. On a scale of one to five, I'm rating its price a three."
"Price-wise, it's more expensive than SSIS, but it's a better tool, so it has more features. Licensing is on a yearly basis."
"It is for big enterprises. We have leveraged Informatica for big enterprises but not for small and medium enterprises because it is a very costly product as compared to other products. We propose this solution only for enterprise customers. For small to medium enterprises, we would propose the Microsoft solution. Its licensing is currently bundle-wise. It should be features-wise and not bundle-wise."
"We have a site license, but we do pay by the division."
"We are using an annual license for Informatica PowerCenter."
"Compared to other tools, I think PowerCenter is a bit expensive. When I compare it to Oracle, if you want to use Oracle databases, you can easily get an ODI tool, so it's easier to handle. Informatica is a standalone tool—it's an independent company—and there are no databases around them, so it's quite expensive to use. Generally, large companies use PowerCenter because of the price. If companies want to expand their usage areas, they try to consider if it's easy to implement and easy to understand the pricing. I think the pricing is a barrier for Informatica."
"Pricing for Informatica PowerCenter isn't cheap, but if I compare it with IBM, it's as expensive as IBM, however, Informatica PowerCenter is more innovative, especially when compared to a giant company such as IBM that has thousands of products. Informatica PowerCenter is limited only to data management, but it has new features that come out every quarter. Points for ease of use and flexibility go to Informatica PowerCenter, but price-wise, IBM and Informatica are equal because they're both expensive."
"I rate the product price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"The solution costs about 20,000 or 30,000 euros per year, per instance."
"The cost is better than IBM Cloud Pak."
"It is a low-cost solution."
"The pricing of WSO2 Enterprise Integrator for enterprise subscriptions can be considered expensive, especially from the perspective of someone who prefers open-source software."
"The open-source, unsupported version is available free of charge."
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Comparison Review

it_user90069 - PeerSpot reviewer
BI Expert at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Feb 20, 2014
Informatica PowerCenter vs. Microsoft SSIS - each technology has its advantages but also have similarities
Technology has made it easier for businesses to organize and manipulate data to get a clearer picture of what’s going on with their business. Notably, ETL tools have made managing huge amounts of data significantly easier and faster, boosting many organizations’ business intelligence operations…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
9%
Retailer
6%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise75
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM App Connect?
I like the adapters. The adapters help us achieve scalability. If you want to connect to SAP, there's an adapter. Sal...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM App Connect?
Configuration time varies by implementation. For insurance companies with simple JDBC connections, the process is str...
What is your primary use case for IBM App Connect?
IBM App Connect serves as our integration platform, allowing us to connect application systems and data without heavy...
How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica PowerCenter?
Azure Data Factory is flexible, modular, and works well. In terms of cost, it is not too pricey. It offers the stabil...
Which is better - SSIS or Informatica PowerCenter?
SSIS PowerPack is a group of drag and drop connectors for Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services, commonly called ...
Which Informatica product would you choose - PowerCenter or Cloud Data Integration?
Complex transformations can easily be achieved using PowerCenter, which has all the features and tools to establish a...
What needs improvement with WSO2 Enterprise Integrator?
Something that could be improved in WSO2 Enterprise Integrator is that the problem is not a lack of capability or fun...
What is your primary use case for WSO2 Enterprise Integrator?
A typical use case for WSO2 Enterprise Integrator is when I am in an interoperability environment with healthcare fac...
What advice do you have for others considering WSO2 Enterprise Integrator?
For simpler tasks or simpler use cases, we avoid using WSO2 Enterprise Integrator because it is quite complex. So it ...
 

Also Known As

IBM Cast Iron
PowerCenter
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

United Way of Allegheny County, Saint-Gobain CPS, Ricoh, SunTrust Banks Inc.
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, LexisNexis, Rabobank
West
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