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

24th

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 (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 1.9%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM InfoSphere Information Server is 0.8%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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

"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."

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

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

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

"One of Cloud Pak's best features is the Watson Knowledge Catalog, which helps you implement data governance."

"Its data preparation capabilities are highly valuable."

"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."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data pros

"This solution is extremely flexible and scalable."

"IBM InfoSphere Information Server is stable."

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

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

Cons

"The technical support could be a little better."

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

"The tool depends on the control plane, an OpenShift container platform utilized as an orchestration layer...So, we have communicated this issue to IBM and asked if it is feasible to adapt the solution to work on a Kubernetes platform that we support."

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

"One challenge I'm facing with IBM Cloud Pak for Data is native features have been decommissioned, such as XML input and output. Too many changes have been made, and my company has around one hundred thousand mappings, so my team has been putting more effort into alternative ways to do things. Another area for improvement in IBM Cloud Pak for Data is that it's more complicated to shift from on-premise to the cloud. Other vendors provide secure agents that easily connect with your existing setup. Still, with IBM Cloud Pak for Data, you have to perform connection migration steps, upgrade to the latest version, etc., which makes it more complicated, especially as my company has XML-based mappings. Still, the XML input and output capabilities of IBM Cloud Pak for Data have been discontinued, so I'd like IBM to bring that back."

"The solution could have more connectors."

"The product must improve its performance."

"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."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data cons

"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."

"Their technical support needs improvement."

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

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"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 is 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."

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

"It's quite 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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856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

30%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

23%

Government

16%

Insurance Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

DataStage allows me to connect to different data sources.

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 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 41% of the time

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

Compared 15% of the time

Denodo vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 13% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 10% 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 57% of the time

Oracle GoldenGate vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server

Compared 17% of the time

Qlik Replicate vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server

Compared 12% of the time

IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server

Compared 8% of the time

IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server

Compared 6% 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