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IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server 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 InfoSphere DataStage
Ranking in Data Integration
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM InfoSphere Information ...
Ranking in Data Integration
30th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Metadata Management (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM InfoSphere DataStage is 5.0%, down from 5.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM InfoSphere Information Server is 0.8%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Swetha S - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution streamlines design, development, and deployment with effective ETL features
The support has been really good. Typically, if we have any issues, we raise a ticket with IBM, and they help us resolve the issues if required. We also have the flexibility to submit a feature request to be included as part of the wishlist, potentially becoming a product feature in subsequent releases.
UmeshKumar1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Prompt support, reliable, but lacking scalability
IBM InfoSphere Information Server has multiple tools in that product suite. However, we mainly use it as an integration tool I have been using IBM InfoSphere Information Server for approximately five years. IBM InfoSphere Information Server is stable. IBM InfoSphere Information Server should be…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is stable."
"As a data integration platform, it is easy to use. It is quite robust and useful for volumetric analysis when you have huge volumes of data. We have tested it for up to ten million rows, and it is robust enough to process ten million rows internally with its parallel processing. Its error logging mechanism is far simpler and easier to understand than other data integration tools. The newer version of InfoSphere has the data catalog and IDC lineage. They are helpful in the easy traceability of columns and tables."
"The performance optimization is quite good in DataStage. It provides parallelism and pipelining mechanisms"
"The solution's scalability is really good...we are using multi-instance jobs where you can scale them easily."
"IBM is stable and accurate to monitor. It's easy to understand to monitor the data lineage from source to target."
"The most valuable feature is the data integration for data warehousing."
"We can view what we want to do. We can transform data and put them on tables."
"We like the flexibility of modeling."
"This solution is extremely flexible and scalable."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The integration with different technologies is the most valuable feature."
"IBM InfoSphere Information Server is stable."
 

Cons

"There could be more customization options for the product."
"Currently lacking virtualization ability."
"The error messaging needs to be improved."
"They can provide better support for non-IBM tools when it comes to the target."
"I want the tool to continue with the on-prem version, not the cloud one."
"Currently, the solution does not support cloud migration."
"It takes a lot of time to actually trigger your job and then go into the logs and other stuff. So all of this is really time-consuming."
"The troubleshooting guide is very bad."
"There are certain shortcomings in the cloud side of the solution, where improvements are required."
"Their technical support needs improvement."
"This solution would benefit from the engine being made more lightweight."
"IBM InfoSphere Information Server should be more scalable. It should have the option to change the configuration to run on a single, non-multiple node, or multi-threading processing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing depends on the setup. However, we paid $100,000 as a one-time cost for an on-premises setup."
"The cost is too high."
"Our internal team takes care of group licensing and cost. We don't have individual licenses. We have group licensing at the company level. Usually, IBM doesn't charge anything separately on the licensing side. For storage and everything else, we are paying around $6,000 per month, which is not very high. It includes Linux data storage, execution, and licensing. They're charging $40 for one-hour execution. Based on that, we are spending around $2,000 on the production environment and $1,000 on the lower environment for testing and development-side executions. For the mainframe, we are using the Db2 mainframe database, and we are spending around $1,000 on the Db2 mainframe database as well. All this comes out to be around $6,000. We, however, would like to have some cost reduction."
"Pricing varies based on use, and it is not as costly as some competing enterprise solutions."
"It's quite expensive."
"The solution is cheap."
"It is quite expensive."
"It's very expensive."
"The licensing cost of IBM InfoSphere Information Server depends on how many users there are."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
28%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
23%
Government
16%
Insurance Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Would you upgrade to more premium versions of IBM InfoSphere DataStage?
My company currently uses the free version of the product, and we are definitely switching to a paid one. We needed a tool that can help us not only integrate our data but use it effectively. For ...
Is IBM InfoSphere DataStage more difficult to use compared to other tools in the field?
I think the tool may cause some difficulties if you have not used other data integration solutions before. I have worked at companies that used different tools for data integration, and they work ...
Do you rely on IBM Cloud Paks for your data? Have you utilized this product, or do you use IBM InfoSphere DataStage without it?
IBM Cloud Paks makes a big difference in your data integration. My company has been using it alongside IBM InfoSphere DataStage and while the main product is good on its own, this one truly expands...
What do you like most about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
What needs improvement with IBM InfoSphere Information Server?
There are certain shortcomings in the cloud side of the solution, where improvements are required. In our company, we are presently in the process of doing a PoC phase since we have the solution cu...
What is your primary use case for IBM InfoSphere Information Server?
I use IBM InfoSphere Information Server in retail banking for transformation purposes.
 

Also Known As

No data available
InfoSphere Information Server, IBM Information Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Dubai Statistics Center, Etisalat Egypt
Canadian National Railway Company, Chickasaw Nation Division of Commerce, Swedish Armed Forces, BG RCI, Janata Sahakari Bank Ltd., University of Arizona, Biogrid Australia
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs. IBM InfoSphere Information Server and other solutions. Updated: May 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.