IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs SSIS comparison

IBM and Microsoft are both solutions in the Data Integration category. IBM is ranked #24 with an average rating of 7.7, while Microsoft is ranked #2 with an average rating of 7.8. IBM holds a 2.0% mindshare in DI, compared to Microsoft’s 7.4% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 79% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Read 13 IBM Cloud Pak for Data reviews

2,349 Views
2,208 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

SSIS

Read 74 SSIS reviews

13,168 Views
10,798 Comparison Views

79% willing to recommend

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

SSIS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

SSIS and IBM Cloud Pak for Data are competing in the data integration and analytics category. IBM Cloud Pak for Data has the upper hand due to its advanced analytics capabilities and scalability, while SSIS offers benefits like lower setup costs and seamless Microsoft integration.

Features: SSIS provides strong ETL capabilities, seamless integration with SQL Server, and flexibility to add custom code through its scripting component. IBM Cloud Pak for Data offers extensive AI and machine learning features, data virtualization, and data governance with Watson Knowledge Catalog.

Room for Improvement: SSIS could improve in handling large data volumes, further enhancing cloud integration, and simplifying work with non-Microsoft environments. IBM Cloud Pak for Data can enhance user-friendliness, reduce high pricing for smaller firms, and streamline initial setup processes to be less complex.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SSIS is easier to deploy for those familiar with Microsoft systems, providing straightforward integration with SQL Server. IBM Cloud Pak for Data caters to enterprise needs with a scalable, hybrid-cloud-friendly model. IBM's customer service is adept at handling complex, diverse environments, offering tailored support.

Pricing and ROI: SSIS offers a cost-effective solution, especially for businesses already invested in Microsoft products, with affordable setup costs. IBM Cloud Pak for Data, although more expensive, promises higher ROI via deep data insights and analytics. The pricing models vary, with SSIS being budget-friendly initially, while IBM presents higher strategic value over time.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. SSIS Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. SSIS

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 865,384 peers since 2012

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)

SSIS

Ranking in Data Integration

2nd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 2.0%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SSIS is 7.4%, down from 7.7% 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.

Read full review

Sean Achim

Managing Director at Knights Innovation Support Centre

Building impactful organizational KPIs with ease and precision

Stability is rated at 10. One other important aspect I appreciate is that SSAS is included in the base installation of SQL Server. Obviously, it requires installation, but it is readily available, which is a major strength. It's all about setting it up, configuring it, and then using it. If there are additional costs associated with it or separating it as a second product, that would be a disadvantage. The area of improvement is really in education. Microsoft is trying to push everything as a Power BI solution or trying to get people to solve the problems which are solved with SSAS in another space in Power BI, or in Power Pivot, is not enough. There's not enough marketing, conversation, and support around that space. As a result, we end up with people not understanding that you need to build your models correctly, and then they try to model everything inside of Power BI, or another visualization tool, without first building the data model. That leads people to consider alternate solutions because SAP and others argue that their whole thing is in memory, and they disseminate misleading information. Additionally, what would be very helpful is local user group developments, so getting people around the table and teaching them how to use it. That is the biggest problem; it's not the technology itself. The challenge lies in Microsoft withdrawing a lot of the qualifications and watering down its emphasis, leading to a perception that this is supposed to be an elite product.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"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."

"Its data preparation capabilities are highly valuable."

"You can model the data there, connect the data models with the business processes and create data lineage processes."

"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 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."

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

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

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data pros

"The setup is easy to use and understand."

"Overall, it's a good product."

"The scalability of SSIS is good."

"The technical support is very good."

"The most valuable feature of SSIS is its ease of use. It is easier to use than other applications."

"The solution is stable."

"There are many good features in this solution including the data fields, database integration, support for SQL views, and the lookups for matching information."

"With this solution, there is the potential to expand, so that you can immediately write code onto the SQL server."

More SSIS pros

Cons

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

"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."

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

"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 must improve its performance."

"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."

"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."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data cons

"We purchase an add on called task factory primarily to allow bulk delete, update and upsert capability. I'd like to see this be part of the standard package."

"We'd like more integration capabilities."

"There are a lot of things that Microsoft could improve in relation to SSIS. One major problem we faced was when attempting to move some Excel files to our SQL Server. The Excel provider has a limitation that prevents importing more than 255 columns from a particular Excel file to the database. This restriction posed a significant issue for us."

"SSIS can improve in handling different data sources like Salesforce connectivity, Oracle Cloud's connectivity, etc."

"There's no support for it at all. If you haven't undergone the qualifications, you wouldn't even know you should phone someone."

"SSIS is cumbersome despite its drag-and-drop functionality. For example, let's say I have 50 tables with 30 columns. You need to set a data type for each column and table. That's around 1,500 objects. It gets unwieldy adding validation for every column. Previously, SSIS automatically detected the data type, but I think they removed this feature. It would automatically detect if it's an integer, primary key, or foreign key column. You had fewer problems building the model."

"Improvement as per customer requirements."

"The solution could improve by having quicker release updates."

More SSIS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."

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

"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."

"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."

"It's quite expensive."

"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 comes free of cost."

"Based on my experience and understanding, Talend comes out to be a little bit expensive as compared to SSIS. The average cost of having Talend with Talend Management Console is around 72K per region, which is much higher than SSIS. SSIS works very well with Microsoft technologies, and if you have Microsoft technologies, it is not really expensive to have SSIS. If you have SQL Server, SSIS is free."

"t's incredibly cost effective, easy to learn the basics quickly (although like all ETL tools requires the traditional learning curve to get good at) and has an immense user base."

"It would be beneficial if the solution had a less costly cloud offering."

"Depending on the arrangement that a certain company has with Microsoft, it may supply the permanent license that is included in the SQL server license, or it may be a time-bound license if it is a partner license or other enterprise license."

"We purchased the standard edition of SQL Server and SSIS came with it free of charge."

"Our license with SSIS is annual."

"People have to opt for a perpetual-based licensing model."

More SSIS pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Integration solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Comparison Review

it_user90069

BI Expert at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Feb 20, 2014

Informatica PowerCenter vs. Microsoft SSIS - each technology has its advantages but also have similarities

Technology has made it easier for businesses to organize and manipulate data to get a clearer picture of what’s going on with their business. Notably, ETL tools have made managing huge amounts of data significantly easier and faster, boosting many organizations’ business intelligence operations…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

30%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Healthcare 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

Which is better - SSIS or Informatica PowerCenter?

SSIS PowerPack is a group of drag and drop connectors for Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services, commonly called SSIS. The collection helps organizations boost productivity with code-free compo...

See all answers

What do you like most about SSIS?

The product's deployment phase is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SSIS?

Utilizing SSIS involves no extra charges beyond the SQL Server license. It's an economical choice for my clients.

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 40% of the time

Denodo vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 12% of the time

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

Compared 10% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 9% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data Competitors

Informatica PowerCenter vs SSIS

Compared 14% of the time

Talend Open Studio vs SSIS

Compared 10% of the time

Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) vs SSIS

Compared 7% of the time

dbt vs SSIS

Compared 7% of the time

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs SSIS

Compared 7% of the time

More SSIS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

August 2025

Download IBM Cloud Pak for Data product report

Buyer's Guide

SSIS

July 2025

Download SSIS product report

Also Known As

Cloud Pak for Data

SQL Server Integration Services

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

SSIS is a versatile tool for data integration tasks like ETL processes, data migration, and real-time data processing. Users appreciate its ease of use, data transformation tools, scheduling capabilities, and extensive connectivity options. It enhances productivity and efficiency within organizations by streamlining data-related processes and improving data quality and consistency.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival

1. Amazon.com 2. Bank of America 3. Capital One 4. Coca-Cola 5. Dell 6. E*TRADE 7. FedEx 8. Ford Motor Company 9. Google 10. Home Depot 11. IBM 12. Intel 13. JPMorgan Chase 14. Kraft Foods 15. Lockheed Martin 16. McDonald's 17. Microsoft 18. Morgan Stanley 19. Nike 20. Oracle 21. PepsiCo 22. Procter & Gamble 23. Prudential Financial 24. RBC Capital Markets 25. SAP 26. Siemens 27. Sony 28. Toyota 29. UnitedHealth Group 30. Visa 31. Walmart 32. Wells Fargo

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. SSIS

July 2025

Free Report: IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. SSIS

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. SSIS and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. SSIS report.

See our list of best Data Integration vendors.

We monitor all Data Integration reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.