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IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs WhereScape RED 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
16th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (3rd)
WhereScape RED
Ranking in Data Integration
48th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 1.8%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhereScape RED is 1.1%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Michelle Leslie - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
it_user584544 - PeerSpot reviewer
The ​architecture is based on metadata and documentation is automated.
I would love to see a GUI interface for defining dependencies between build processes. RED provides a spreadsheet like interface for defining the dependencies between builds. Once the dependencies are defined, RED can produce a nice dependency diagram to give a visualization of the dependency tree. It would be easier to define complex dependency relationships if the dependency diagram were interactive. Our legacy ETL tool provided this GUI dependency definition via a drag and drop diagram which was very useful. The solution provided by WhereScape does work, and the dependency diagrams generated are helpful. It would just be nice to have the ability to define dependencies via a diagram, since dependencies relationships are much easier to understand via a diagram.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of Cloud Pak's best features is the Watson Knowledge Catalog, which helps you implement data governance."
"The most valuable features are data virtualization and reporting."
"Cloud Pak's most valuable features are IBM MQ, IBM App Connect, IBM API Connect, and ISPF."
"DataStage allows me to connect to different data sources."
"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."
"It is a scalable solution, and we have had no issues with its scalability in our company. I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten."
"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."
"Their support staff are very knowledgeable, courteous, and professional. I feel their support staff go above and beyond to assure their customers are satisfied."
"I found the initial setup very easy."
"RED has provided us the ability to integrate, stage, and transform data from diverse sources into an enterprise-grade data warehouse which meets the needs of my organization, but it also enables us to easily and quickly make ETL or DW changes."
"Support is absolutely excellent, efficient, and timely."
"Quickly develops a data warehouse for our organization with documentation and can track back/forward features."
"Naturally produces a way to easily debug your DW data solutions."
"It has a built-in automatic scheduling environment."
"I like the data vault implementations."
 

Cons

"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 solution's user experience is an area that has room for improvement."
"The technical support could be a little better."
"The product must improve its performance."
"The solution's catalog searching or map search needs to be improved."
"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."
"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."
"The solution can be a little more user-friendly on enterprise-level where people use it."
"Project-based searching of data objects in the data warehouse browser needs to be improved."
"Improve the object renaming ability (it works, but it could be more automated)."
"Technical support isn't the best."
"The scheduled jobs which are run by the WhereScape scheduler seem to be a strangely separate animal. Unlike all other WhereScape objects, jobs cannot be added to WhereScape projects. Also, unlike all other objects, jobs also cannot be deleted using a WhereScape deployment application."
"The ability to execute SSIS projects within WhereScape would be nice because we have a lot of packages that are too cumbersome to recreate."
"Jobs cannot be deleted via the deployment package. When deploying from dev to QA or production, a job has to be retired. The job has to be manually removed from the target environment."
"Customization could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"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."
"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."
"I think that this product is too expensive for smaller companies."
"Cloud Pak's cost is a little high."
"The solution's pricing is competitive with that of other vendors."
"It's quite expensive."
"Our company purchased a corporate unlimited license."
"Speed to market of a warehouse solution at a relatively inexpensive price point."
"ROI is at least 10 times."
"Factor in the price of specialized consulting who know this product. They're hard to find and expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
27%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
10%
Insurance Company
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

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 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...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

Cloud Pak for Data
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival
British American Tobacco, Cornell University, Allianz Benelux, Finnair, Solarwinds and many more.
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. WhereScape RED and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.