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IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs Spring Cloud Data Flow comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

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
23rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (3rd)
Spring Cloud Data Flow
Ranking in Data Integration
20th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Streaming Analytics (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 1.3%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Spring Cloud Data Flow is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Spring Cloud Data Flow1.1%
IBM Cloud Pak for Data1.3%
Other97.6%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

ArchanaSingh - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Data Analyst at Wipro
Collaborative data platform has transformed analytics and now drives faster decisions
The best features IBM Cloud Pak for Data offers include robust data visualization, centralized data analytics, data reliability, and compatibility with hybrid and multi-cloud environments. The compatibility with hybrid and multi-cloud environments has helped our organization as data visualization is very simple. Migrations, reading, analysis, and data management from other sources are performed without problems of requirements. We have a team of experts in IBM Cloud Pak for Data to maintain security and correct data management easily. I find this cloud excellent for visualizing and managing data across networks and also fulfilling fastest data storage, making it less complex and completely improving productivity in my organization. Everything is managed in multiple environments without any problem. IBM Cloud Pak for Data has positively impacted my organization, and I have noticed some improvement since we started using this tool. Configuration with hybrid and multi-cloud environments has been very seamless and easy. It is a robust platform capable of working with multiple data sources where we gain insights to make data-driven decisions easily. It automates data analysis for quick and better performance. We have seen improvements in analysis and data correction from multiple sources. Our productivity in the company is growing, thanks to the data analysis team. We have also seen a robust hybrid and multi-cloud access system working seamlessly. I can share specific outcomes that show how productivity has grown and how performance has improved since the data is automated, and the analysis is done much faster, saving us a lot of time. We have been able to save approximately 80 percent of our time. We are not doing data analysis manually, so this relieves our data department of dealing with data. We have been relieved of a lot of duties, and now we are able to focus on other strategic tasks. Our productivity has greatly increased since we are able to make concrete and data-driven decisions easily.
LN
Senior Software Engineer at QBE Regional Insurance
Provides ease of integration with other cloud platforms
Spring Cloud Data Flow is a useful product if I consider how there are different providers with whom my company had to deal, and most of them offer cloud-based products. I can't explain any crucial circumstances where the product's integration capabilities were helpful, but the aforementioned details explain the scenario for which I used the solution. I was only involved with the development of the product and not with the data pipeline configuration phase. The use of Spring Cloud Data Flow greatly impacted projects' time to market since our company's intention was to actually deploy and ensure that the payment platform integrated with it, which was an easy process. The product's user interface was very intuitive. The tool was deployed in multiple environments, but I am not sure about the production. From the time I started taking up the job in my current organization, I saw that we have deployed the tool in multiple environments wherein the number of users extensively used the product in the UAT environment, which is one of the most stable environments. There were 20 different methods to test the tool. I wouldn't be able to tell you the production details of the tool as I was more part of the production deployment, but I can say that it was deployed with the intent of making it available for 10,000 users. Those who plan to use the product should enjoy the flexibility of the solution. I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

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."
"The most valuable features are data virtualization and reporting."
"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."
"DataStage allows me to connect to different data sources."
"Cloud Pak is a very, very, very good system."
"You can model the data there, connect the data models with the business processes and create data lineage processes."
"IBM Cognos is very stable and has been around for many years, with many users familiar with it, making it a reliable solution for our institution."
"Its data preparation capabilities are highly valuable."
"There are a lot of options in Spring Cloud. It's flexible in terms of how we can use it. It's a full infrastructure."
"The most valuable feature is real-time streaming."
"The most valuable features of Spring Cloud Data Flow are the simple programming model, integration, dependency Injection, and ability to do any injection. Additionally, auto-configuration is another important feature because we don't have to configure the database and or set up the boilerplate in the database in every project. The composability is good, we can create small workloads and compose them in any way we like."
"The product is very user-friendly."
"The dashboards in Spring Cloud Dataflow are quite valuable."
"The best thing I like about Spring Cloud Data Flow is its plug-and-play model."
"The solution's most valuable feature is that it allows us to use different batch data sources, retrieve the data, and then do the data processing, after which we can convert and store it in the target."
"The ease of deployment on Kubernetes, the seamless integration for orchestration of various pipelines, and the visual dashboard that simplifies operations even for non-specialists such as quality analysts."
 

Cons

"The technical support could be a little better."
"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."
"The setup for IBM Cloud Pak for Data is very complex, and our teams responsible for standing up the environment struggled a lot."
"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."
"Cloud Pak would be improved with integration with cloud service providers like Cloudera."
"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 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 product is trying to be more maturity in terms of connectors. That, I believe, is an area where Cloud Pak can improve."
"There were instances of deployment pipelines getting stuck, and the dashboard not always accurately showing the application status, requiring manual intervention such as rerunning applications or refreshing the dashboard."
"Spring Cloud Data Flow could improve the user interface. We can drag and drop in the application for the configuration and settings, and deploy it right from the UI, without having to run a CI/CD pipeline. However, that does not work with Kubernetes, it only works when we are working with jars as the Spring Cloud Data Flow applications."
"On the tool's online discussion forums, you may get stuck with an issue, making it an area where improvements are required."
"I would improve the dashboard features as they are not very user-friendly."
"Some of the features, like the monitoring tools, are not very mature and are still evolving."
"The configurations could be better. Some configurations are a little bit time-consuming in terms of trying to understand using the Spring Cloud documentation."
"Spring Cloud Data Flow is not an easy-to-use tool, so improvements are required."
"The solution's community support could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's quite expensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"Cloud Pak's cost is a little high."
"I think that this product is too expensive for smaller companies."
"The solution's pricing is competitive with that of other vendors."
"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."
"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."
"This is an open-source product that can be used free of charge."
"The solution provides value for money, and we are currently using its community edition."
"If you want support from Spring Cloud Data Flow there is a fee. The Spring Framework is open-source and this is a free solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
26%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
4%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
13%
Retailer
9%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
The pricing and setup cost are handled by a different procurement team. Our IT procurement team is centralized, so licensing and the actual cost of the software are taken care of by a different tea...
What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
I do not know if Cognos has all the features that users are looking for since we provide it as our standard and do not maintain infrastructure for other tools.
What is your primary use case for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
The main use case for IBM Cognos is for business intelligence and reporting.
What needs improvement with Spring Cloud Data Flow?
There were instances of deployment pipelines getting stuck, and the dashboard not always accurately showing the application status, requiring manual intervention such as rerunning applications or r...
What is your primary use case for Spring Cloud Data Flow?
We had a project for content management, which involved multiple applications each handling content ingestion, transformation, enrichment, and storage for different customers independently. We want...
What advice do you have for others considering Spring Cloud Data Flow?
I would definitely recommend Spring Cloud Data Flow. It requires minimal additional effort or time to understand how it works, and even non-specialists can use it effectively with its friendly docu...
 

Also Known As

Cloud Pak for Data
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival
Information Not Available
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