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Informatica PowerCenter vs SSIS vs WhereScape RED comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
8.1
Informatica PowerCenter is valued for its flexibility, stability, and effectiveness in handling diverse and complex data for reports.
Sentiment score
7.3
SSIS offers cost-effective data management with no extra fees, but some users prefer alternatives with a larger budget.
Sentiment score
7.0
WhereScape RED offers varied returns, with some users experiencing quick ROI, efficient development, and substantial gains.
Using SSIS has proven cost-effective as there are no additional fees outside the SQL Server license, and it significantly enhances data management efficiency.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Customer service and technical support receive mixed reviews, highlighting varying levels of responsiveness, resource availability, and user experiences.
Sentiment score
6.0
Users find SSIS support mixed; many prefer online solutions and community forums over Microsoft’s challenging and costly support.
Sentiment score
8.3
Customer service is often excellent and prompt, although some feel support wanes post-purchase and seems money-driven.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.8
Informatica PowerCenter excels in scalability and versatility for data management, though costs and setup complexity are concerns.
Sentiment score
6.8
SSIS is scalable for various enterprises, requiring proper configuration for optimal performance, but may lack compared to alternatives.
Sentiment score
6.6
WhereScape RED efficiently scales with large data, improves ETL processing, and enhances speeds using ELT and SQL features.
For scalability, I would rate Informatica PowerCenter between eight to nine.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Informatica PowerCenter is highly rated for stability, with few issues, mostly resolved by hotfixes, ensuring reliable performance.
Sentiment score
7.5
SSIS is stable and reliable, though occasional performance issues are noted; proper infrastructure enhances its effectiveness.
Sentiment score
6.6
WhereScape RED's stability varies; it's praised for maturity and speed, yet some report resource and debugging challenges.
Informatica PowerCenter is stable and can scale well.
It processes large volumes of data quickly.
 

Room For Improvement

Informatica PowerCenter users seek improved affordability, a modern interface, better integration, and scalability for enhanced efficiency and user-friendliness.
SSIS needs user interface, performance, compatibility, integration, error logging, scalability improvements, and better real-time, security, and API support.
WhereScape RED suffers from scalability issues, lacking performance efficiency, enhanced documentation, better GUI, and improved support for multi-database environments.
With Informatica PowerCenter, I am looking for an AI interface that looks at the underlying data model of the databases and the metadata of the tables, allowing the developer to provide instructions on what data sources to connect to and how to apply or create Transformations.
Utilizing more stored procedures from Oracle databases in an easy way would significantly boost performance.
Within the South African context, if you are getting your enterprise agreement from First Technology, they don't provide support.
SSIS has a difficult learning curve when dealing with complex transformations.
 

Setup Cost

Informatica PowerCenter, although costly, is valued by large enterprises for its comprehensive features and effective complex data handling.
SSIS is economical for SQL Server users, offering value without extra setup costs compared to pricier ETL tools.
WhereScape RED's flexible developer-based licensing and native SQL code provide cost-effective, vendor-independent data warehousing solutions with quick ROI potential.
The price of Informatica PowerCenter is high, especially for small and medium-sized businesses.
I find that the pricing and licensing for Informatica PowerCenter align with its quality.
Utilizing SSIS involves no extra charges beyond the SQL Server license.
 

Valuable Features

Informatica PowerCenter provides robust, scalable ETL solutions with user-friendly design, supporting extensive databases and seamless data integration.
SSIS is popular for its ease of use, scalability, integration, cost-effectiveness, and powerful ETL capabilities with Microsoft products.
WhereScape RED streamlines data warehousing with automation, agile support, user-friendly interface, and compatibility with leading methodologies.
The system supports real-time integration, which is essential for many of my tasks.
The functions in Informatica PowerCenter that I have found most valuable are the way it manages the volume of data, the push down optimization, and the performance aspects of it, mostly related to parallelism techniques.
One of the best aspects of SSIS is that it is built into Microsoft SQL Server, so there are no additional costs involved.
SSAS is included in the base installation of SQL Server.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Informatica PowerCenter is 8.1%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SSIS is 7.4%, down from 7.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhereScape RED is 1.1%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Deepak Shiv - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides multiple transformations in one toolset and helpful when extracting data from multiple sources
Error handling capability is quite good in Informatica PowerCenter because it provides a very detailed session log, which is really helpful to identify errors. In addition, there are KB articles published by Informatica that are really helpful. So, error handling and the KB articles provided by Informatica are very helpful. Even if you face any issues or errors, we can usually resolve them. If the error cannot be solved with Informatica PowerCenter, we can raise a case with Informatica, and their support team will help us address that issue. If it cannot be solved with that particular version, they will consider it and try to solve it with the next patch or hotfix. AI Initiatives: Our company also has organizational AI or machine learning initiatives. However, Informatica PowerCenter doesn't fit into AI-related things because it's an on-premise tool. It doesn't have a significant role in the field. It is just a small ETL on-premises tool. So basically, in the AI field, Informatica PowerCenter is not going to be that impactful. Informatica has launched IICS and IDMC (Informatica Data Management Cloud and Informatica Cloud), where their AI comes into the picture. But for Informatica PowerCenter, AI does not come into the picture at all.
Sean Achim - PeerSpot reviewer
Building impactful organizational KPIs with ease and precision
Stability is rated at 10. One other important aspect I appreciate is that SSAS is included in the base installation of SQL Server. Obviously, it requires installation, but it is readily available, which is a major strength. It's all about setting it up, configuring it, and then using it. If there are additional costs associated with it or separating it as a second product, that would be a disadvantage. The area of improvement is really in education. Microsoft is trying to push everything as a Power BI solution or trying to get people to solve the problems which are solved with SSAS in another space in Power BI, or in Power Pivot, is not enough. There's not enough marketing, conversation, and support around that space. As a result, we end up with people not understanding that you need to build your models correctly, and then they try to model everything inside of Power BI, or another visualization tool, without first building the data model. That leads people to consider alternate solutions because SAP and others argue that their whole thing is in memory, and they disseminate misleading information. Additionally, what would be very helpful is local user group developments, so getting people around the table and teaching them how to use it. That is the biggest problem; it's not the technology itself. The challenge lies in Microsoft withdrawing a lot of the qualifications and watering down its emphasis, leading to a perception that this is supposed to be an elite product.
reviewer1618884 - PeerSpot reviewer
Quick to set up, flexible, and stable
The scheduling part I don't like due to the fact that it allows you to schedule as a parent and child and other things, however, the error trackability has to be a little more user-friendly. It's also not user-friendly in the sense that it loads all the jobs and there are not enough filters so that it doesn't need to load everything. If the job fails, you don't get any type of alert or email. It would be ideal if there was some sort of automated alert message. Technical support isn't the best. It would be ideal if we understood how to do it in a card exception regarding exclusion, where the card is captured separately rather than filling the whole process on the data inbound side. Certain workloads like this are organized in such a way where you seem to be doubling the work as opposed to streamlining the process.
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Comparison Review

it_user90069 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 20, 2014
Informatica PowerCenter vs. Microsoft SSIS - each technology has its advantages but also have similarities
Technology has made it easier for businesses to organize and manipulate data to get a clearer picture of what’s going on with their business. Notably, ETL tools have made managing huge amounts of data significantly easier and faster, boosting many organizations’ business intelligence operations…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Insurance Company
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica PowerCenter?
Azure Data Factory is flexible, modular, and works well. In terms of cost, it is not too pricey. It offers the stabil...
Which is better - SSIS or Informatica PowerCenter?
SSIS PowerPack is a group of drag and drop connectors for Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services, commonly called ...
Which Informatica product would you choose - PowerCenter or Cloud Data Integration?
Complex transformations can easily be achieved using PowerCenter, which has all the features and tools to establish a...
What do you like most about SSIS?
The product's deployment phase is easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SSIS?
Utilizing SSIS involves no extra charges beyond the SQL Server license. It's an economical choice for my clients.
What needs improvement with SSIS?
There's no support for it at all. If you haven't undergone the qualifications, you wouldn't even know you should phon...
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Also Known As

PowerCenter
SQL Server Integration Services
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, LexisNexis, Rabobank
1. Amazon.com 2. Bank of America 3. Capital One 4. Coca-Cola 5. Dell 6. E*TRADE 7. FedEx 8. Ford Motor Company 9. Google 10. Home Depot 11. IBM 12. Intel 13. JPMorgan Chase 14. Kraft Foods 15. Lockheed Martin 16. McDonald's 17. Microsoft 18. Morgan Stanley 19. Nike 20. Oracle 21. PepsiCo 22. Procter & Gamble 23. Prudential Financial 24. RBC Capital Markets 25. SAP 26. Siemens 27. Sony 28. Toyota 29. UnitedHealth Group 30. Visa 31. Walmart 32. Wells Fargo
British American Tobacco, Cornell University, Allianz Benelux, Finnair, Solarwinds and many more.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Informatica, Talend and others in Data Integration. Updated: August 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.