IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server comparison

IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. IBM InfoSphere Information Server

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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

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Ranking in Data Integration

25th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Virtualization (3rd)

IBM InfoSphere Information ...

Ranking in Data Integration

30th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Metadata Management (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 1.8%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM InfoSphere Information Server is 0.9%, up from 0.9% 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%
IBM InfoSphere Information Server	0.9%
Other	97.3%

Data Integration

Featured Reviews

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.

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UmeshKumar1

Business Analyst Team Lead at Accenture

Prompt support, reliable, but lacking scalability

IBM InfoSphere Information Server has multiple tools in that product suite. However, we mainly use it as an integration tool I have been using IBM InfoSphere Information Server for approximately five years. IBM InfoSphere Information Server is stable. IBM InfoSphere Information Server should be…

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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

"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."

"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."

"What I found most helpful in IBM Cloud Pak for Data is containerization, which means it's easy to shift and leave in terms of moving to other clouds. That's an advantage of IBM Cloud Pak for Data."

"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."

"IBM Watson Catalog and data pipelines are the most valuable features of the solution."

"DataStage allows me to connect to different data sources."

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

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data pros

"IBM InfoSphere Information Server is stable."

"This solution is extremely flexible and scalable."

"The integration with different technologies is the most valuable feature."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

Cons

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

"The solution's catalog searching or map search needs to be improved."

"The product must improve its performance."

"The solution could have more connectors."

"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 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."

"There is a solution that is part of IBM Cloud Pak for Data called Watson OpenScale. It is used to monitor the deployed models for the quality and fairness of the results. This is one area that needs a lot of improvement."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data cons

"Their technical support needs improvement."

"This solution would benefit from the engine being made more lightweight."

"IBM InfoSphere Information Server should be more scalable. It should have the option to change the configuration to run on a single, non-multiple node, or multi-threading processing."

"There are certain shortcomings in the cloud side of the solution, where improvements are required."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's quite expensive."

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

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

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

"The solution is expensive."

"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."

"The licensing cost of IBM InfoSphere Information Server depends on how many users there are."

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868,654 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

29%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

21%

Government

16%

Insurance Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

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.

What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

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...

What do you like most about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

What needs improvement with IBM InfoSphere Information Server?

There are certain shortcomings in the cloud side of the solution, where improvements are required. In our company, we are presently in the process of doing a PoC phase since we have the solution cu...

What is your primary use case for IBM InfoSphere Information Server?

I use IBM InfoSphere Information Server in retail banking for transformation purposes.

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Comparisons

Compared 45% 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

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data Competitors

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server

Compared 39% of the time

Oracle GoldenGate vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server

Compared 21% of the time

Qlik Replicate vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server

Compared 11% of the time

IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server

Compared 8% of the time

IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM InfoSphere Information Server Competitors

Product Reports

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Download IBM Cloud Pak for Data product report

Data Integration

Download IBM InfoSphere Information Server product report

IBM InfoSphere Information Server report

Also Known As

Cloud Pak for Data

InfoSphere Information Server, IBM Information Server

Overview

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

IBM InfoSphere Information Server is a market-leading data integration platform which includes a family of products that enable you to understand, cleanse, monitor, transform, and deliver data, as well as to collaborate to bridge the gap between business and IT. InfoSphere Information Server provides massively parallel processing (MPP) capabilities to deliver a highly scalable and flexible integration platform that handles a variety of data volumes (big, small, and everything in between).

IBM

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival

Canadian National Railway Company, Chickasaw Nation Division of Commerce, Swedish Armed Forces, BG RCI, Janata Sahakari Bank Ltd., University of Arizona, Biogrid Australia

IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. IBM InfoSphere Information Server