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Informatica PowerExchange vs SAP Data Services 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.9
Informatica PowerExchange enables smarter decisions, streamlines data pipelines, and saves costs, showing ROI within weeks for digital transformation.
Sentiment score
7.2
SAP Data Services provides high returns, cost savings, efficiency, and satisfaction, despite challenges in directly quantifying ROI benefits.
It is considered cost-efficient because it leads to the re-utilization of channels and platforms, which saves time and money.
SAP is indeed good at all this now, with so many components such as SAP Signavio, SAP EINS, SAP Work Zone, SAP ALM, Cloud ALM, SAP public cloud, SAP private cloud, and BTP, all of which are essential to meet the latest cutting-edge technologies.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Informatica PowerExchange support is seen as knowledgeable but receives mixed reviews due to varying response times and availability.
Sentiment score
6.6
SAP Data Services support receives mixed reviews, praised for expert help but criticized for slow, complex processes and prioritization issues.
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.
If you keep a high priority issue, such as a production impact, they certainly come and address it in no time.
Unlike level one where they basically search for the notes and provide responses, level two and level three are much better.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Informatica PowerExchange offers robust scalability for diverse sources and transformations, suitable for medium to large data environments.
Sentiment score
7.6
SAP Data Services excels in scalability, accommodating expansion and multi-server use, praised for flexibility and enterprise suitability.
If I were to rate it from one to 10, I would say it has a nine to 10 for scalability.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Informatica PowerExchange is praised for stability despite some issues with resource load, visibility, and log maintenance in newer versions.
Sentiment score
7.6
SAP Data Services is considered stable with occasional issues, mostly due to configurations, earning an average rating of eight.
Technical errors sometimes occur, such as network breakages at the source level, which breaks connectivity.
 

Room For Improvement

Informatica PowerExchange needs better integration, user-friendliness, real-time processing, cloud features, and affordability while addressing performance and support challenges.
SAP Data Services needs improvements in user management, integration, usability, compatibility, and advanced features like AI and machine learning.
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.
Now, they are coming up with many pricing options, which is tricky; they offer one thing for free, but charge for nine others.
The documentation is not up to the mark.
 

Setup Cost

Informatica PowerExchange pricing depends on capacity, with variable costs based on usage, but offers moderate cost-efficiency.
SAP Data Services is costlier, favoring large enterprises, but recent pricing adjustments may offer better cost-effectiveness compared to competitors.
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.
 

Valuable Features

Informatica PowerExchange is lauded for versatile data integration, real-time capabilities, scalability, and support for diverse data sources and formats.
SAP Data Services offers migration, integration, scalability, and user-friendly ETL tools with strong data quality, connectivity, and trackability features.
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.
SAP is indeed good at all this now, with so many components such as SAP Signavio, SAP EINS, SAP Work Zone, SAP ALM, Cloud ALM, SAP public cloud, SAP private cloud, and BTP, all of which are essential to meet the latest cutting-edge technologies.
SAP Data Services is mainly used for extraction of data, and it works with all databases.
 

Categories and Ranking

Informatica PowerExchange
Ranking in Data Integration
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP Data Services
Ranking in Data Integration
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
Data Quality (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Informatica PowerExchange is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Data Services is 2.3%, down from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Mohammad Faizan Ahmad - PeerSpot reviewer
Helpful in handling areas like complex data sources and data processing but needs improved support services
The major challenge with the tool stems from the fact that if you are implementing it in the cloud, then it has to be within the framework. Another challenge is the large volume of data. Informatica PowerExchange is a product through which we enable connectivity, so it is not an application product or a stand-alone tool, but Informatica's core systems or IICS uses it to connect to multiple systems. The major challenge associated with the tool is on the infrastructure side. The tool's features could be something faster with more connectors. A number of connectors can help connect to a wide variety of applications. The tool should focus on reducing the resilient time, like, if any network disconnectivity happens, then auto-reconnection and the retry method should be more robust so that manual intervention is not required. We communicate with the tool's support team as we need to raise our issues with them. I have already worked with Informatica and have a total experience of around eight to nine years; the one problem with the tool is its support team since they take a lot of time to address a particular issue. If one time you schedule a call and explain the situation to them about the issue, the support team will raise tickets and take notes. They will ask you to share the logs or screenshots of the errors, and you will get no resolution. The support team will randomly give you some documents and expect you to go through them, and if you get back to them with questions, a new person will be allocated, and you will have to start explaining everything again. I would not say it is a pleasant experience.
Ramesh Pampana - PeerSpot reviewer
Has consistently provided impressive data handling capabilities and robust security features
Some of the most valuable features of SAP Data Services ( /products/sap-data-services-reviews ) include data extraction where SAP is the best in that perspective, but when it comes to analytics or the reporting tool, I prefer to connect with Microsoft Power BI ( /products/microsoft-power-bi-reviews ), which is a fantastic tool. Typically, from an end-user perspective, SAP has a huge amount of data, in terms of terabytes of data, but when you analyze that, the best form of visualization is always through Microsoft Power BI ( /products/microsoft-power-bi-reviews ). SAP Data Services provides a best-in-class return on investment, as SAP's vision and forecast are absolutely amazing. They are ahead of technology, building an ecosystem that meets the standards of the fast-changing digital economy. SAP is indeed good at all this now, with so many components such as SAP Signavio, SAP EINS, SAP Work Zone, SAP ALM ( /categories/application-lifecycle-management-alm-suites ), Cloud ALM ( /categories/application-lifecycle-management-alm-suites ), SAP public cloud, SAP private cloud, and BTP, all of which are essential to meet the latest cutting-edge technologies.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
27%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
7%
Insurance Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Informatica PowerExchange?
Informatica PowerExchange is considered cost-efficient due to reduced number of APIs needed, enabling re-utilization of existing channels, cutting down on development and training costs.
What needs improvement with Informatica PowerExchange?
It would be helpful to have more metadata provided, which is useful for engaging more users in data exchange. The addition of data quality dashboards or measures would also help in profiling data t...
How do you evaluate the ratio of price to quality for SAP Data Services?
I believe the license for the product is fair, even though some competitors offer similar services at lower prices. The difference between the Edge edition and the next one up is significant in pr...
Would you recommend SAP Data Services to complete beginners?
I think after some preparation, a beginner will be able to use SAP Data Services, however, if you are completely unprepared, you may have some issues. I think that in particular you will need a mo...
How has SAP Data Services helped your organization?
SAP Data Services has helped our whole staff understand the data across various sources and systems within the company. Not everyone who works at my organization is an IT expert - most just have av...
 

Also Known As

PowerExchange, Connectors
SAP BusinessObjects Data Services, SAP BusinessObjects Data Integrator, BusinessObjects Data Integrator
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ACH Food, BNSF Railway Company, Illinois State University
EMC Corporation, LivePerson, Eldorado, Mozzart, The VELUX Group, AOK Bundesverband, Hilti Group, Nissha Printing Company Ltd., Asian Paints, Aareal Bank Group, Migros Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Informatica PowerExchange vs. SAP Data Services and other solutions. Updated: May 2025.
859,579 professionals have used our research since 2012.