IBM InfoSphere Optim vs IDERA ER/Studio comparison

IBM and IDERA are both solutions in the Database Development and Management category. IBM is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.0, while IDERA is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.6. IBM holds a 2.4% mindshare in DDM, compared to IDERA’s 2.9% mindshare. Additionally, 75% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of IDERA users who would recommend it.

IBM InfoSphere Optim

Read 4 IBM InfoSphere Optim reviews

646 Views
568 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

IDERA ER/Studio

Read 38 IDERA ER/Studio reviews

1,753 Views
508 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

IBM InfoSphere Optim

IDERA ER/Studio

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

IDERA ER/Studio and IBM InfoSphere Optim are competing products in data management and modeling. IBM's feature-rich suite may justify its higher cost due to its focus on data governance.

Features: IDERA ER/Studio offers strong data modeling with robust diagramming and design, seamless integration with various data sources, and high collaboration through model sharing. IBM InfoSphere Optim provides strong data lifecycle management, effective archiving, and supports data privacy and compliance, focusing on data governance.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IDERA ER/Studio is straightforward to deploy with intuitive tools for rapid implementation and accessible customer service. IBM InfoSphere Optim, with its extensive capabilities and enterprise focus, requires a more complex deployment and a steeper learning curve, but offers resourceful customer support.

Pricing and ROI: IDERA ER/Studio generally provides a cost-effective setup suitable for businesses seeking quick ROI with scalable pricing. IBM InfoSphere Optim involves higher initial costs but offers long-term ROI through enhanced data governance and risk management.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM InfoSphere Optim vs. IDERA ER/Studio Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM InfoSphere Optim vs. IDERA ER/Studio

September 2025

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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 Optim

Ranking in Database Development and Management

16th

Average Rating

6.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

IDERA ER/Studio

Ranking in Database Development and Management

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Architecture Management (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of IBM InfoSphere Optim is 2.4%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IDERA ER/Studio is 2.9%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database Development and Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IDERA ER/Studio	2.9%
IBM InfoSphere Optim	2.4%
Other	94.7%

Database Development and Management

Featured Reviews

Kenneth Estanislao

Solutions Designer at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

Backups become efficient while cost concerns remain

I am still working with IBM and we are transitioning to other tools rather than using IBM InfoSphere Optim. We use other tools, but I cannot recall the name because I am not the one currently handling it. It has transitioned to other architects. For IBM InfoSphere Optim, we are still currently using it, but we have transitioned to the newer version, the latest one with support for AWS S3. I cannot identify a main competitor for IBM InfoSphere Optim because we have transitioned to other architects, and they are the ones looking for other tools. The last comparison I did was almost 4 years ago. I am not using any AI technology with IBM InfoSphere Optim. I rate IBM InfoSphere Optim a seven out of ten. The tool is good, but the price is not favorable as it is the most expensive part. I can recommend IBM InfoSphere Optim for enterprises.

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Aaron Cutshall

Enterprise Data Architect & Senior Manager at Health First Inc.

Used for data modeling and has a scripting language to write your own scripts

The solution has streamlined our data modeling processes quite a bit. It's a central focus in our data modeling and data cataloging efforts. The tool's reverse engineering capability to bring in existing database structures and create models from them has benefitted our data architecture needs. With the tool's data dictionary capability, we're able to maintain consistency in our models, name use, and actual data domains. The solution's reverse engineering helps with understanding legacy databases. In fact, I've been asked to reverse-engineer several more legacy databases so that we can have them modeled and cataloged. The solution is deployed on the cloud server, but it’s only within our network. The solution has a lot of capabilities. I like the fact that it has a scripting language that allows you to automate and write your own scripts. I think that's been a big bonus for us. I highly recommend the solution because of its capability for logical models, where you can put your business definitions and logic. While less expensive, some other tools can't do that. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We like that we can easily restore the database with just a few clicks. The database is linked as well."

"I feel the solution to be a bit faster than the traditional methods, which makes it easy to customize."

"The compression feature is valuable because it achieves around 80% compression."

"It's much easier to develop the database structure and change it on the fly, rather than doing it manually in SQL Server itself. That saves time."

"We can track changes to our data models and tie those changes back to specific tasks or efforts that we identify."

"It does the job."

"IDERA keeps up with the versions of Oracle and SQL Server that I'm using. I mostly use SQL Server and when there are new features, a new type of index, for example, IDERA also includes them in upgrades of the data modeling tool."

"We have been able to quickly create models for our enterprise-wide databases, even when some of them are third-party databases."

"Straightforward setup."

"ER/Studio is excellent for large teams; it scales well to teams of over one hundred plus people."

"I set up this tool and found it to be very simple."

More IDERA ER/Studio pros

Cons

"While the solution is very supportive of Db2, it is not so friendly when it comes to IMS databases."

"The potential room for improvement for IBM InfoSphere Optim is usually its cost, as it is too expensive."

"We're looking for a solution that can be implemented on AWS. IBM InfoSphere Optim can be implemented on AWS, but it costs more than double what we're currently paying. So, it's not really of good value for us."

"I would like to upload, a database with about 3,000 tables. It takes so much time and, finally, it freezes the whole solution so that I actually cannot work with that environment. For the data warehouse, it's fine because I have 20 or 30 tables. It works fine. But, when I reverse-engineer the database with 3,000 tables, it freezes and it's hard to upload and reverse-engineer such environments in ER/Studio."

"They allow functionalities to be released before the full tests for catching and correcting errors are completed."

"The visual presentation is a little too colorful and seems that it is dumbed down."

"What needs the most improvement are semantic lineage and usability."

"We did have a big issue when we upgraded to the 2016 version. The Team Server portion never did quite install correctly, and/or the database was corrupted, and we never figured it out."

"Sometimes our version is a little unstable. But I think this problem occurs because our version is old."

"The model diagram because very clumsy when you save it on the team server and the models are very big."

"when there are some links to the external databases, if this database is not structured it is not uploaded. It gives me errors and I cannot see the view that was created on this structure and I cannot change those views, even manually. It skips the views. I have to ignore those views. I cannot re-upload them because it gives me an error."

More IDERA ER/Studio cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM InfoSphere Optim is a very expensive solution. Actually, it's the most expensive archiving solution that we have."

"The product is pricey."

"Pricing is expensive and on the higher-end."

"At my previous company using ER/Studio, a database compare took four hours before using the product and 15 minutes after using the product."

"I feel the product's pricing is a good value."

"Pricing is on point, but do your due diligence - not every developer needs the tool."

"The solution’s pricing is high."

"The price of this product is okay."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is bad and ten is good, I would rate the licensing cost as a seven or eight. It's not too expensive for us."

More IDERA ER/Studio pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

28%

Insurance Company

Healthcare Company

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

14%

Energy/Utilities Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	25

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM InfoSphere Optim?

The potential room for improvement for IBM InfoSphere Optim is usually its cost, as it is too expensive. Currently, there are no issues with IBM InfoSphere Optim; the only problem is the cost, whic...

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What is your primary use case for IBM InfoSphere Optim?

My current use case for IBM InfoSphere Optim is just for doing backups. We are using IBM InfoSphere Optim specifically for backup purposes.

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What advice do you have for others considering IBM InfoSphere Optim?

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IDERA ER Studio?

In terms of pricing, ER/Studio is slightly more expensive compared to Erwin, by about five to ten percent.

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What is your primary use case for IDERA ER Studio?

I have been working with data modeling tools. Personally, I have been working with Erwin for many years now. ER/Studio is something I am currently trying to evaluate for acquiring it for our organi...

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What advice do you have for others considering IDERA ER Studio?

I would strongly recommend ER/Studio for large teams. Erwin is a very stable product, but for smaller teams, it's okay. If I had to rate ER/Studio, I would give it nine out of ten because the absen...

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Comparisons

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Compared 51% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs IDERA ER/Studio

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Database Development and Management

September 2025

Download IBM InfoSphere Optim product report

Buyer's Guide

IDERA ER/Studio

September 2025

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Also Known As

IBM Optim, Optim

IDERA ER Studio, ER/Studio, ER/Studio Enterprise Team Edition

Overview

IBM Optim solutions manage data from requirements to retirement. They boost performance, empower collaboration, and improve governance across applications, databases and platforms. By managing data properly over its lifetime, organisations are better equipped to support business goals with less risk.

IBM

IDERA ER/Studio is a powerful suite for business-driven data modeling that enables companies to create an enterprise architecture foundation for data governance. With round-trip support for multiple database platforms, data architects have the power to reverse-engineer, analyze, and optimize existing databases easily from diverse platforms. Data professionals can easily capture and share models, metadata, data sources, and glossaries across the organization for improved alignment between the organization and Information Technology. Organizational stakeholders can take part in the metadata definition workflow and access information on models and metadata at the right level for their needs.

Unlike its competition, it provides the broadest range of data platform support, industry-leading enterprise-level capabilities, visual data lineage and flow modeling, full dimensional modeling for data warehousing and business intelligence, and business data objects to bridge the gap between developers and data architects. It also provides a complete solution for enterprise architecture and data governance, extensive model change management, unique incorporation of true enterprise data dictionaries, unique linking of constructs across models, integrated visual data lineage import, and integrated data and business process modeling.

IDERA

Sample Customers

Durham Police Department, Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., Continental, KCE Electronics Public Company Limited, The University of Adelaide, Migros Zurich, COPROB

Newmont Mining, Entrust, Accolade, TalkTalk, Catalina, Protective Life, NTT Data, dir systèmes, Microsoft; American Express, Astellas Pharma, AstraZeneca, Coriant, Fedex, GlaxoSmithKline, PepsiCo, Prudential, Wells Fargo

Buyer's Guide

IBM InfoSphere Optim vs. IDERA ER/Studio

September 2025

Free Report: IBM InfoSphere Optim vs. IDERA ER/Studio

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