IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs SAS Data Integration Server comparison

IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. SAS Data Integration 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)

SAS Data Integration Server

Ranking in Data Integration

38th

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

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 SAS Data Integration Server is 0.5%, up from 0.5% 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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reviewer2937544

Works at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

Offloads processes on the server side but needs better installation syntax

One area for improvement is the installation process. Another point could be the syntax, as it sometimes involves using syntax names that are not intuitive. For example, to calculate the difference between two dates, the general syntax in SAS is called the data difference or data net function. However, another name is used, such as NF and INK. Without knowledge of SAS programming, it becomes unclear what these functions mean. It is not good to define function names this way.

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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

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

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data pros

"A key feature allows us to enhance job performance by offloading processing to the server side, rather than processing on the server itself."

"The solution offers very good data manipulation and loading."

"A key feature allows us to enhance job performance by offloading processing to the server side, rather than processing on the server itself."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its amazing capabilities in regard to data handling."

"The solution is very stable."

"A key feature allows us to enhance job performance by offloading processing to the server side, rather than processing on the server itself."

Cons

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

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"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 technical support could be a little better."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data cons

"The transform tool has limited access. They should make it more flexible."

"So I would like to see improved integration with other software."

"One area for improvement is the installation process."

"The initial setup had issues, and even after using it for about one year, it was still not fixed."

"The initial setup of SAS Data Integration Server was complex."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"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."

"It's quite expensive."

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

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

"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."

"It is an expensive program."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

30%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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 SAS Data Integration Server?

The most valuable feature of the solution is its amazing capabilities in regard to data handling.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAS Data Integration Server?

I don't handle the cost and budget part. From the tool's perspective, I can say that it is an amazing product.

What needs improvement with SAS Data Integration Server?

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Comparisons

Compared 40% 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

SSIS vs SAS Data Integration Server

Compared 30% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs SAS Data Integration Server

Compared 24% of the time

Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) vs SAS Data Integration Server

Compared 17% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs SAS Data Integration Server

Compared 17% of the time

AWS Glue vs SAS Data Integration Server

Compared 12% of the time

More SAS Data Integration Server Competitors

Product Reports

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Download IBM Cloud Pak for Data product report

Data Integration

Download SAS Data Integration Server product report

Also Known As

Cloud Pak for Data

SAS Enterprise Data Integration Server, Enterprise Data Integration 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

SAS Data Integration Server is a powerful, configurable and comprehensive solution that can meet a wide variety of data integration requirements, from small tactical projects to strategic business initiatives. It can access virtually all data sources, support data warehousing, migration, synchronization, federation and provisioning initiatives. It can support both batch-oriented and real-time master data management solutions. It can create reusable data integration services in support of service-oriented architectures and data governance and extract, cleanse, transform, conform, aggregate, load and manage data.

SAS

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival

Credit Guarantee Corporation, Cr_dito y Cauci‹n, Delaware State Police, Deutsche Lufthansa, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, DSM, Livzon Pharmaceutical Group, Los Angeles County, Miami Herald Media Company, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, New Zealand Ministry of Health, Nippon Paper, West Midlands Police, XS Inc., Zenith Insurance

IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. SAS Data Integration Server