Informatica PowerExchange and IBM InfoSphere DataStage are leading data integration solutions. Informatica PowerExchange usually has the upper hand with its robust real-time integration features, whereas IBM InfoSphere DataStage excels in managing complex data tasks.
Features: Informatica PowerExchange is noted for its real-time integration, extensive connectivity, and native pushdown optimization, which improves performance and supports a variety of data formats. It integrates well with underlying databases. IBM InfoSphere DataStage stands out for its strong ETL capabilities, transformation flexibility, and parallel processing, which provide excellent performance for high-volume data and complex business rule integration.
Room for Improvement: Users suggest PowerExchange can improve its high availability, failover capabilities, and integration with newer data types and cloud platforms. Its pricing is another challenge. DataStage could enhance its integration with modern data sources and better its user interface and support. Cost and complexity in setup are additional areas needing improvement for DataStage.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both Informatica PowerExchange and IBM InfoSphere DataStage are primarily deployed in on-premises and hybrid cloud environments. PowerExchange is generally considered easier to deploy with satisfactory support, while DataStage users have noted occasional slow response times in customer service, signaling a need for better consistency.
Pricing and ROI: Informatica PowerExchange is perceived as expensive with costs increasing based on capacity and additional licensing, but provides significant ROI through streamlined processes. IBM InfoSphere DataStage is also costly but seen as more affordable in large enterprises, with users appreciating its cost efficiency in such settings. Both tools offer substantial ROI, yet PowerExchange users report higher satisfaction with reduced time-to-value and digital transformation savings.
It is considered cost-efficient because it leads to the re-utilization of channels and platforms, which saves time and money.
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.
IBM tech support has allocated dedicated resources, making it satisfactory.
Their support aligns with what I have experienced with Informatica data quality teams, and it is quite effective.
Informatica's technical support team is very supportive and provides help whenever required.
The support was good enough, and they were able to resolve all the issues I raised in the past.
Technical errors sometimes occur, such as network breakages at the source level, which breaks connectivity.
I wonder if it supports other areas, such as cloud environments with open source support, or EdgeShift.
The solution needs improvement in connectivity with big data technologies such as Spark.
The addition of data quality dashboards or measures would also help in profiling data to assess its health before sharing or moving it.
One area that could be improved is performance, as PowerExchange sometimes has less performance compared to native connectors when dealing with a huge volume of data.
Pricing for IBM InfoSphere DataStage is moderate and not much expensive.
The pricing and cost depend heavily on SAP's licensing structure, especially if using SAP integration services.
Informatica PowerExchange is considered cost-efficient due to reduced number of APIs needed.
The failure detection has been very useful for us, as well as the load balancing feature.
As we are a financial organization, security is our main concern, so we prefer enterprise tools.
It also reduces the number of APIs needed for new integrations by offering a unified exchange platform.
The primary advantage of Informatica PowerExchange is being able to extract data from source systems that Informatica does not natively support.
PowerExchange is one of the best software solutions to build integrations with non-Oracle or standard database services, especially for SAP and Hana products.
IBM InfoSphere DataStage is a high-quality data integration tool that aims to design, develop, and run jobs that move and transform data for organizations of different sizes. The product works by integrating data across multiple systems through a high-performance parallel framework. It supports extended metadata management, enterprise connectivity, and integration of all types of data.
The solution is the data integration component of IBM InfoSphere Information Server, providing a graphical framework for moving data from source systems to target systems. IBM InfoSphere DataStage can deliver data to data warehouses, data marts, operational data sources, and other enterprise applications. The tool works with various types of patterns - extract, transform and load (ETL), and extract, load, and transform (ELT). The scalability of the platform is achieved by using parallel processing and enterprise connectivity.
The solution has various versions, catering to different types of companies, which include the Server Edition, the Enterprise Edition, and the MVS Edition. Depending on which version a company has bought, different goals can be achieved. They include the following:
IBM InfoSphere DataStage can be deployed in various ways, including:
IBM InfoSphere DataStage Features
The tool has various features through which users can integrate and utilize their data effectively. The components of IBM InfoSphere DataStage include:
IBM InfoSphere DataStage Benefits
This solution offers many benefits for the companies that utilize it for data integration. Some of these benefits include:
Reviews from Real Users
A data/solution architect at a computer software company says the product is robust, easy to use, has a simple error logging mechanism, and works very well for huge volumes of data.
Tirthankar Roy Chowdhury, team leader at Tata Consultancy Services, feels the tool is user-friendly with a lot of functionalities, and doesn't require much coding because of its drag-and-drop features.
Informatica PowerExchange Connectors provides high performance, out-of-the-box connectivity without having to develop custom data access programs.
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