IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs Oracle GoldenGate comparison

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:

• Designing data flows to extract information from multiple sources, transform the data, and deliver it to target databases or applications.
  
  
• Delivery of relevant and accurate data through direct connections to enterprise applications.
  
  
• Reduction of development time and improvement of consistency through prebuilt functions.
  
  
• Utilization of InfoSphere Information Server tools for accelerating the project delivery cycle.

IBM InfoSphere DataStage can be deployed in various ways, including:

• As a service: The tool can be accessed from a subscription model, where its capabilities are a part of IBM DataStage on IBM Cloud Park for Data as a Service. This option offers full management on IBM Cloud.
  
  
• On premises or in any cloud: The two editions - IBM DataStage Enterprise and IBM DataStage Enterprise Plus - can run workloads on premises or in any cloud when added to IBM DataStage on IBM Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.
  
  
• On premises: The basic jobs of the tool can be run on premises using IBM DataStage.

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:

• AI services: The tool offers services such as data science, event messaging, data warehousing, and data virtualization. It accelerates processes through artificial intelligence (AI) and offers a connection with IBM Cloud Paks - the cloud-native insight platform of the solution.
  
  
• Parallel engine: Through this feature, ETL performance can be optimized to process data at scale. This is achieved through parallel engine and load balancing, which maximizes throughput.
  
  
• Metadata support: This feature of the product uses the IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog to protect companies' sensitive data and monitor who can access it and at what levels.
  
  
• Automated delivery pipelines: IBM InfoSphere DataStage reduces costs by automating continuous integration and delivery of pipelines.
  
  
• Prebuilt connectors: The feature for prebuilt connectivity and stages allows users to move data between multiple cloud sources and data warehouses, including IBM native products.
  
  
• IBM DataStage Flow Designer: This feature offers assistance through machine learning design. The product offers its clients a user-friendly interface which facilitates the work process.
  
  
• IBM InfoSphere QualityStage: The tool provides a feature that automatically resolves data quality issues and increases the reliability of the delivered data.
  
  
• Automated failure detection: Through this feature, companies can reduce infrastructure management efforts, relying on the automated detection that the tool offers.
  
  
• Distributed data processing: Cloud runtimes can be executed remotely through this feature while maintaining its sovereignty and decreasing costs.

IBM InfoSphere DataStage Benefits

This solution offers many benefits for the companies that utilize it for data integration. Some of these benefits include:

• Increased speed of workload execution due to better balancing and a parallel engine.
  
  
• Reduction of data movement costs through integrations and seamless design of jobs.
  
  
• Modernization of data integration by extending the capabilities of companies' data.
  
  
• Delivery of reliable data through IBM Cloud Pak for Data.
  
  
• Utilization of a drag-and-drop interface which assists in the delivery of data without the need for code.
  
  
• Effective data manipulation allows data to be merged before being mapped and transformed.
  
  
• Creating easier access of users to their data by providing visual maps of the process and the delivered data.

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.

Oracle GoldenGate is a real-time data integration and database replication solution. It can detect data events and route them across networks at very low latencies and integrates well with 100s of combinations of non-Oracle databases, data stores, and clouds.

Oracle GoldenGate Features

Oracle GoldenGate has many valuable key features, including:

• Simple to use web interface
• Fast and easy installation or provisioning
• Command line access via AdminClient that can run anywhere
• RESTful APIs for DevOps
• Offers built-in monitoring but also can be easily adapted to roll your own monitoring
• APIs are protected by Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) authentication.

Oracle GoldenGate Benefits

Some of the benefits of using Oracle GoldenGate include:

• Oracle GoldenGate is deeply integrated with the Oracle Database (logging, redo, backup and recovery layer, security, administration, data guard, data vault, autonomous database etc.).
  
  
• It is the most stable, performant, and reliable CDC / replication solution for Oracle.
  
  
• High performance: Oracle GoldenGate is capable of sub-second latency for data movement. featuring low impact capture, routing, transformation, and delivery of transactional data.
  
  
• GoldenGate is the only CDC / replication tool that keeps pace with new and emerging innovations (security, features, data types, etc) in the core Oracle Database.
  
  
• The solution supports a wide range of use cases, from conventional OLTP data replication and high availability to data lake ingestion or multi-cloud ingestion, SaaS application replication, and messaging replication.
• GoldenGate is the only CDC / replication technology certified for Exadata, Exadata Cloud Service, and Exadata Cloud at Customer.
  
  
• For fault-tolerance, GoldenGate has its own mechanism to keep track of how much work is completed and how much is pending. This mechanism is independent of any database and ensures, with the help of automatic gap-resolution, that no data loss occurs.
  
  
• GoldenGate uses its own proprietary format files for keeping the committed data coming from the source database, making it independently functional irrespective of the database in use.
  
  
• To maintain the performance and consistency, only committed data is sent. Uncommitted data is captured by GoldenGate, but is discarded after receiving a Rollback.
  
  
• With GoldenGate, data sending is in “near real time,” which reduces the possibility of latency.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Oracle GoldenGate users.

PeerSpot user Steve-J., Cloud Migration Software Consultant - UK & EMEA at 1PLACE, says, "What I have found the most valuable about GoldenGate is that it does real-time and no-downtime migrations. Its migrations are fast. There are not many tools like it on the marketplace."

Pinak S., Senior Manager of System and Database at ESL, mentions, “We like how in GoldenGate the heterogeneous database is supported. Sometimes the client actually needs a schedule and needs to ensure the state of databases for reporting purposes. With that in mind, we have been able to configure GoldenGate for certain schema. The solution is quite stable. They've recently improved the ease of implementation.”

A Database Administrator at a manufacturing company explains, "It moves the data as you set it up, and it works. I am also very impressed with its stability and scalability. It is not super feature-rich, but the new releases have more functionality. It recently had more native integrations with Oracle Database. If you are using it against an Oracle database, it has a lot more functionality."

An Oracle ERP DBA Consultant - Oracle Super Cluster T5-8 Admin at a government comments, "GoldenGate can connect and collect data from multiple sources, such as SQL Server."