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

IBM and Informatica are both solutions in the Data Integration category. IBM is ranked #24 with an average rating of 8.0, while Informatica is ranked #2 with an average rating of 7.7. IBM holds a 1.9% mindshare in DI, compared to Informatica’s 4.3% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Informatica users who would recommend it.

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Read 13 IBM Cloud Pak for Data reviews

2,494 Views
1,410 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Informatica Intelligent Dat...

Read 185 Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) reviews

8,610 Views
5,511 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Informatica Intelligent Dat...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) and IBM Cloud Pak for Data are competitors in the data management and analytics sector. IDMC seems to have the upper hand in deployment flexibility, while IBM Cloud Pak for Data excels in machine learning capabilities.

Features:IDMC provides seamless integration across various data management modules, efficient data cleansing, and flexible architecture options. IBM Cloud Pak for Data offers advanced machine learning capabilities, a modular design, and integration with enterprise solutions, facilitating data governance.

Room for Improvement:IDMC requires an improved UI, better integration with platforms like SAP, and more preconfigured rules. IBM Cloud Pak for Data faces challenges with initial deployment, demands on infrastructure, and connectivity issues, with a need for more integrated connectors.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:IDMC supports versatile deployment options providing flexibility but complexity in setup, and is praised for customer support. IBM Cloud Pak for Data is mainly deployed on cloud environments, although its customer service can be slow.

Pricing and ROI:IDMC and IBM Cloud Pak for Data both have high license costs. IDMC offers comprehensive functionality for larger enterprises, providing strong ROI when fully utilized. IBM Cloud Pak for Data is considered expensive, particularly when machine learning modules are added, and shows better ROI for organizations with complex data needs.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

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

June 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

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)

Informatica Intelligent Dat...

Ranking in Data Integration

2nd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

185

Ranking in other categories

Data Quality (1st), Business Process Management (BPM) (11th), Business-to-Business Middleware (5th), API Management (8th), Cloud Data Integration (3rd), Data Governance (2nd), Test Data Management (3rd), Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) Solutions (1st), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (2nd), Data Masking (2nd), Metadata Management (1st), Test Data Management Services (3rd), Product Information Management (PIM) (1st), Data Observability (2nd)

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 Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is 4.3%, down from 7.0% 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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Raj Sethupathi

Data Integration Consultant GCP/AWS at Infogrators Inc

Offers profiling and address standardization but can be complicated

Informatica Data Quality has its data warehouse, primarily using Oracle and some SQL databases. You need a database to host the data. The cleansed version of the data is stored in the data warehouse. It integrates with PowerCenter and other Informatica tools. The integration details can be complex, but a regional setup is involved in this process. Profiling smaller datasets, such as 10,000-50,000 records, worked fine. However, unexpected issues could arise with larger datasets, such as thousands of records or more, especially with tables containing many columns. Handling tables with fifty or more columns can be challenging, even in Excel. A mismatch in data types could cause the entire system to crash. Continual enhancements are being made to address these issues, which can be unique to specific industries like finance and healthcare.

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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

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

"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."

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

"The most valuable feature of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is the Modeler flows. The ability to develop models using a graphical approach and the capability to connect to various sources, as well as the data virtualization capabilities, allow me to easily access and utilize data that is dispersed across different sources."

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

"The most valuable features are data virtualization and reporting."

"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."

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

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data pros

"Its data cleansing capabilities are very valuable. The match and merge and the audit trail functionalities are very good."

"The match and merge functionality is invaluable for discovering golden master data records."

"The solution has multiple valuable features for metadata collection"

"The application integration will give you more flexibility when dealing with APIs."

"I like that Informatica MDM has robust matching technology. Informatica MDM is also porting the external Java applications for validations. I can consider that a must-have. It is also exposed to Rest API calls, and we can engage in real-time integrations with any third-party systems."

"The solution has the best feature for parameterization."

"The MDM solution is capable of integrating multiple systems, so it helped us to solve the purpose of centralizing the depository as well as the standardization of mass data. It takes away all the ambiguity around data integrity issues or all the process challenges which happen when every stage of a process uses a different source as master data."

"It is very useful for testing purposes and designing mappings for small projects. If you go for IDQ in the mapping itself, you can see the data. You can then correct it, and test it so easily. It is working fine. It is also stable, scalable, and easy to deploy."

More Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) pros

Cons

"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."

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

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

"The technical support could be a little better."

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

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

"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 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."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data cons

"Informatica Cloud Data Integration could improve the price by making it less expensive."

"There is room for improvement in the support. The response time could be faster."

"I think they should work really hard on UI."

"We'd like to see the microservices, which don't run yet because the solution is not yet fully cloud-based."

"One area that could use improvement is the speed of the web interfaces. At present, they are very slow. I think it is essential that we are original and robust on-premises."

"The scalability is tough."

"Informatica should simplify the rules for setting classifications and user access management permissions. It's too complex to define, configure, and make work."

"We would like to have accessibility to the repository."

More Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 solution is expensive."

"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 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."

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

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

"Pricing is determined by the number of licensed users as well as the number of Core CPUs."

"The solution's pricing model is easy, but it is very expensive."

"The platform has a premium cost. I rate the pricing as seven out of ten."

"Informatica MDM is a costly solution because it comes as a bundle. They are also globally positioning themselves and are definitely working on very upgraded technologies. If someone wanted to do it on the cloud, they have a lot of flexibility because they upgrade themselves according to the current needs. It definitely comes with a lot of features and that's the reason why it's costly. The licensing cost should be approximately one million dollars. It's about four to five times that of other vendors."

"Informatica Axon is a costly solution. I rate Informatica Axon a four out of ten for its pricing."

"Licensing is difficult to understand, but the team is always available to explain anything. They are very helpful."

"It's pretty high for us. It's more on the higher side, like low to middle high."

"It's a costly solution"

More Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

30%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance 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.

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

See all answers

How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica Cloud Data Integration?

Azure Data Factory is a solid product offering many transformation functions; It has pre-load and post-load transformations, allowing users to apply transformations either in code by using Power Q...

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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 real data governance strategy. Additionally, PowerCenter is able to manage huge...

See all answers

What are the biggest benefits of using Informatica Cloud Data Integration?

When it comes to cloud data integration, this solution can provide you with multiple benefits, including: Overhead reduction by integrating data on any cloud in various ways Effective integration ...

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 41% 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

Informatica PowerCenter vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 5% of the time

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data Competitors

Informatica PowerCenter vs Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)

Compared 5% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)

Compared 5% of the time

Reltio Cloud vs Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)

Compared 4% of the time

More Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

June 2025

Download IBM Cloud Pak for Data product report

Buyer's Guide

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)

April 2025

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) report

Download Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) product report

Also Known As

Cloud Pak for Data

ActiveVOS, Active Endpoints, BPM, Address Verification, Persistent Data Masking, Cloud Test Data Management, PIM, , Enterprise Data Catalog, Data Integration Hub, Cloud Data Integration, Data Quality, Cloud API and App Integration

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

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is a robust platform used by banks, financial institutions, and health sector organizations for data management, governance, and compliance.

IDMC provides comprehensive tools for data discovery, profiling, masking, and transformation. It supports Salesforce integration, real-time data streaming, and scalable data management solutions. Health organizations manage national product catalogs while financial entities focus on data protection and regulatory compliance. Its intuitive interface, flexible features, and robust tools make it valuable across sectors, though enhancements in data integration and human workflow are being sought.

What are the most important features?

Data discovery: Facilitates identifying and understanding data sources.
Data profiling: Analyzes old databases for data quality.
Data and platform masking: Ensures data protection.
Salesforce integration: Seamless connectivity with Salesforce.
Mastering data: Centralizing and standardizing data.
UI intuitiveness: User-friendly interface.
Feature map flexibility: Adapts to user needs.
Business glossary creation: Defines business terms.
Data lineage: Tracks data flow and transformations.
Automation: Streamlines data processes.
Enterprise data cataloging: Organizes extensive data assets.
Scalability: Supports expanding data requirements.
Easy setup: Quick deployment process.
Bulk upload: Efficiently handles large data volumes.
Customizable data management: Tailors data solutions.
Real-time data streaming: Manages live data streams.
Integration with Hadoop and NoSQL: Connects with big data platforms.

What benefits and ROI should be considered?

Regulatory compliance: Ensures adherence to regulations.
Data protection: Safeguards sensitive information.
Enhanced data quality: Improves accuracy and reliability.
Centralized data: Consolidates data for better management.
Process automation: Reduces manual tasks and errors.

Banks and financial institutions use IDMC for data masking, transformation, and compliance, while health sector organizations leverage it for national product catalogs. Industry applications focus on automating business processes, centralizing data, and managing data catalogs to meet regulatory demands and ensure data protection.

Informatica

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival

The Travel Company, Carbonite

Buyer's Guide

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

June 2025

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