erwin Data Modeler Reviews

I am using the solution for data modeling. We also use erwin Data Intelligence Suite for data governance.

We like that we can go straight from Data Modeler to Data Intelligence Suite. We can go from the business glossary to the data catalog. It gives us a holistic view. The product lets us import different types of models from various databases. It also allows us to export or implement them within the same databases based on new changes.

The modeling capability is cumbersome. It doesn't allow us to put different types of objects in there. We can only put data objects. It doesn’t allow us to put any class structures and enterprise architecture objects. We can only do data monitoring. We can't do a holistic view. It's quite cumbersome to enter data. We cannot type things into a sheet. We always have to open the object and enter it.

The layout is a very old-style diagram. The product must allow users to put different types of objects and link them to data objects. The tool must provide large data objects under which there can be other data objects. For example, if a customer is a large data object, it must then contain the customer’s name, address, and type. The interface must be improved.

I have been using the solution for more than ten years. I am using the latest version of the solution.

I rate the tool’s stability a seven out of ten. It doesn’t stay up all the time. The stability must be improved.

I rate the tool’s scalability a seven out of ten. We have some issues with performance, but I'm not sure if it's us or the tool. We have 50 to 150 users.

The technical support team is quite helpful. The team members don't always know their stuff. Sometimes, we end up teaching them things, but they do try to be helpful.

Neutral

I have used Rational Rose, Visual Paradigm, and Oracle’s old product. I use Visual Paradigm for my personal use cases. I prefer Visual Paradigm. It has a lot of features that erwin doesn’t. The only problem with Visual Paradigm is that it has many license levels. I only have a cheap license. However, its capabilities are much stronger. It is a lot easier to use than erwin, and it produces much nicer diagrams.

The solution is cloud-based. We use both AWS and Azure as our cloud providers. Maintenance is done automatically by the vendor.

The tool is expensive. It is not worth the price. I rate the pricing a three out of ten.

We are looking for other tools to replace the solution. We're going to do an RFP for data modeling, data catalog, data quality, and marketplace. The vendor is trying to charge for Data Intelligence Suite like it is an enterprise tool, but it's still getting patched together. I have a hard time giving erwin a strong recommendation, but it's a tool that works and does what it says on the box. It could be made a little better. Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.

I use erwin Data Modeler for a metadata project. I don't have thousands of tables to manage or a data warehouse or anything.

erwin Data Modeler helps us reverse engineer and keep track of data before converting from one tool to another. erwin allows us to track data and share it with business analysts.

We can create mappings in erwin and possibly data dictionaries. You can also check in to GitHub or Azure DevOps.

erwin is not as robust as a data warehousing project I've been on in the past. Likewise, the solution is a little pricey.

I recently started using the current version, and I've used the prior version for about four or five years.

When I was on versions 7.1 or 9.0 and had a very large database with hundreds of tables, sometimes the tool would fail. I don't know if that happens on this version or not.

I rate erwin DM's scalability a seven out of ten.

Deployment isn't a problem for me because I've been using the tool for years, but a new person will just have to get their feet wet. We initially had problems installing it because of handshakes between Black Knight and Quest. Black Knight doesn't allow certain things to come through, and we should've known better, so it took a long time to get it installed and figure out what the issue was. It took four to eight hours to get resolved.

The solution is on-prem, but it can be on the cloud, and it has .NET SQL, which is part of the reason we chose erwin. There's a possibility we'll need .NET SQL as well.

To anyone evaluating erwin DM, I advise you to watch the videos and read the documentation. I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use erwin Data Model to create logical and physical data models.

The solution has been very helpful. The logical and physical data models provide visualization for communication across the business, among the data team, and technical team. Without this solution, communication would be difficult.

The ease and quick ability to create the model is valuable. The fitting model is very intuitive. 

The other cool feature is the reverse engineer feature. If we connect to the database, we can reverse engineer from the database itself of the physical model. That gives us the relationship of the data if not much documentation is available.

So far, we have used it in either a workroom version or a standalone version. It does not have a cloud application.

We have licenses for Mac Linux since a lot of our people have Mac laptops, so erwin should work on their cloud application.

I have been using erwin Data Modeler since 2006. 

It is a stable solution. So far, we have not had many problems. Sometimes it freezes because it is a resource-hungry application, so it uses a lot of memory and a lot of processing power while running. But so far, we have not lost any of our work.

We had a concurrent license where multiple people could it. Typically, this is not a tool that you’ll use for hundreds of people. It’s very scalable for ta limited number of people.

The technical support team is pretty prompt. The tier-one support is pretty prompt. We contacted them a couple of times for a security patch and a few times for transferring the license to a different user. Their support was good.

Positive

I have tried Lucidchart, PCO, and ER Studio.

erwin and ER Studio are very comparable. I personally think both are more or less the same. However, erwin has richer features, and productivity is boosted. Once I have a model in mind, putting that in the tool is very quick, followed by generating the DDL, creating the table, and integrating it with the data explorer. The bulk editor feature is also very useful. 

The initial setup is straightforward for someone who understands the data.

For the workgroup version, you need to set up a database and then connect to the database. After installation, you have to maintain those connections. For someone who is well-converged with a database, it’s simple. If someone has not worked with web databases, they might find it a little complex. The deployment was done within a couple of hours by three to four people.

The deployment was done in-house.

There is either a one-year or three-year license. It is not a pay-as-you-go license like a SaaS solution. It’s more of a traditional licensing. They are a little bit on the pricier side.

However, there are tools that are less pricey, and some of them are open source and free as well.

From a pricing perspective, it is not very competitive in the current market.

I would rate the erwin Data Modeler an eight out of ten.

They have small videos that explain how to use the tool and they are very useful. If you know the principles of data modeling, erwin will be very easy to learn. If you are new to data modeling, then I’d recommend getting a course on data modeling first.

The easiest way of exposing or sharing the model to all the users at the enterprise level is the feature I found to be valuable in the solution.

They should merge all those products because apart from the Mark Server, they have the Web Portal, which requires a separate installation and license. And it's not easy to maintain, but very easy to use. So you need additional resources such as memory, unlike if they merge those Web Portal and Mark Server, which would be a great solution.

I think they should be more open to or ready to be agnostic to any databases, such as MongoDB. Any database available in the market should be ready in their drivers because I don't think they can be ready. So all the popular databases like Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft, and SQL Server, but I haven't seen any connector in Cosmos DB SQL, so it should be in the big data or cloud solution.

I have been using erwin Data Modeler for a year.

It is not a very stable solution. I rate the stability five out of ten.

It is a scalable solution. Around 20 users are using the solution presently. I rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

The technical support team is fine.

Previously, we used SAP PowerDesigner. One of the primary reasons we switched to Data Modeler is that we need to expose our models so that the user can access them very efficiently and time-bound. If I develop a model and if it's a room, I can easily push that model into a web portal. The users can study and use it from there, unlike in the previous SAP PowerDesigner. You need to export an image or picture file or JPEG or PNG; then you have to share on SharePoint and upload it in Confluence of this. That is a very tedious way of sharing the model. The stability of the solution needs improvement.

The initial setup is straightforward. The solution is deployed through the desktop version available for Data Artifacts. There is also a repository, the data node, and a web portal which is the application or web application for data analysis and other users interested in starting the model. I did all the deployment.

The pricing of the solution is cheap. I rate the pricing a five out of ten.

SAP solution is more stable compared to Data Modeler and fits our requirements as an enterprise team.

I rate the overall solution a seven out of ten.

Our primary use is for doing database designs on just about any platform. The main users are dedicated data architects, while we also have development team staff using the tools to review models. Additionally, our database admins access the solution for implementing the Data Definition Language (DDL).

The solution is excellent in providing a visual representation of a database and can generate DDL for implementing changes. We use DDL for logical purposes to review with business people, ensuring they have the required fields for processing. We also use it as a data dictionary for the physical data model to understand all the purposes of the terms. This helps us map the logical and physical terms with the business definition to understand our data.

Data Modeler is straightforward to use and fulfills all our requirements. 

Although Quest Software has made tremendous strides in recent years, they need to evolve more in the big data arena; erwin Data Modeler could use a little more work when it comes to big database designs.

We've been using the solution since the 90s. 

The product is very stable. 

The platform is highly scalable; we use it for our entire enterprise data architecture. 

The tech support is pretty good, but there's always room for improvement, so I rate them eight out of ten.

Positive

Our initial setup was over 20 years ago, but I know it to be almost effortless; it's a basic software installation that takes about five minutes.

Regarding maintenance, there are occasionally new versions and releases, and we have dedicated data architect teams that coordinate so every team upgrades simultaneously.

We've continued to use the product for many years and compared it with others on the market. The pricing is reasonable considering what the solution offers and what we pay. There are cheaper tools, but they may not be as robust and easy to use, so it's worth the money.

I rate the solution nine out of ten.

My advice to those considering the solution is to use dedicated data architects; when you give this type of product to development teams, there can be issues around creating and following standards, which is essential for data model integration. You don't want different teams defining the same types of columns with varying lengths, like dollar amounts. If the entire company agrees that the dollar amount field is 18 digits long and two digits to the right of the decimal place, then you're consistent. If different teams disagree, data can't be transferred from one database to another without truncation. Having a centralized team that enforces standards is critical.

We use the solution for data modeling.

We believe that the solution would help provide some structure to our data modeling and data design practices.

The product allows us to reuse entities and attributes. Whether we're working on a conceptual or logical model, once we have defined them, we can reuse them rather than defining them all over again. It's a clever feature and helps with our work.

We can only get licenses through partners. We cannot purchase directly from Quest. The partners end up charging a big margin on top of the actual price even though they are not providing any service. It was a letdown.

I have been using the solution for four months.

I rate the tool’s stability an eight out of ten. The tool has crashed a couple of times. The stability must be improved.

I am the only person using the tool in my organization. We plan to increase the usage, but it is currently not being used much.

The support personnel are a bit slow in responding. The vendor talks about providing 24/7 support, but it could take 24 to 36 hours to get a response. The communication is just via email. It slows down the whole troubleshooting process.

Neutral

The initial setup was easy. I rate the ease of setup a ten out of ten. It took me five minutes to deploy the product. To deploy it, I downloaded the software, ran the executable, and it installed itself. I did the deployment myself.

The solution is expensive. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten. The price is not fixed. The product does not have a clear pricing model.

We evaluated ER/Studio but did not like its pricing structure. They have different versions which require multiple licenses for the applications we use. It was not easy to use. We preferred the pricing model of erwin Data Modeler.

The amount of data the tool works with is minimal, so scalability is irrelevant to the tool. It just uses metadata. People looking to use the solution must compare it with other tools like ER/Studio. ER/Studio and erwin Data Modeler are quite similar in the functionality they offer. It all comes down to what works for us in terms of pricing. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I use the solution for reverse engineering as well as forward engineering. I do logical and physical modeling, and some of what I'm doing right now is reverse engineering from actual databases because they have no diagrams. The solution helps me diagram the current and help me design the future.

Forward engineering, DDL generation, reverse engineering, and reporting are the most valuable features of the solution.

The solution's model mark could be better because it crashes sometimes.

I have been using erwin Data Modeler by Quest for many years.

erwin Data Modeler by Quest is a stable solution.

I rate erwin Data Modeler by Quest a nine out of ten for stability.

To add users, you have to start using the model mark, which is not great. I rate erwin Data Modeler by Quest a seven out of ten for scalability.

The solution’s technical support is good.

Positive

I have previously used IDERA ER.

The solution’s initial setup is easy.

I have seen a return on investment with the solution because I can't do my work for my company without it.

erwin Data Modeler by Quest is an expensive solution.

Before choosing erwin Data Modeler by Quest, I evaluated PowerDesigner. I chose erwin Data Modeler by Quest because it has the most features I might need in the future, and the report writing is really good.

I am using the latest version of erwin Data Modeler by Quest. I recently built a data model for integration with another software product that we're going to purchase. I did it really fast with erwin Data Modeler by Quest. If I didn't have the solution, I couldn't have done that, and I couldn't have shared the results.

I would recommend the solution to other users.

Overall, I rate erwin Data Modeler by Quest ten out of ten.

I use the solution for entity relationship data modeling to build the databases.

Drag-and-drop data modeling and reverse engineering out of databases are the most valuable features of erwin Data Modeler by Quest.

I would like the solution to be less rigid in terms of its theory. It supports the theory very well, but it's too rigid. It's focused on database design and theoretic database design. I'd like it to be able to do better extractions.

I have worked with erwin Data Modeler by Quest for 20 years.

The solution is too rigid in terms of usability. The other thing is you can do things to make it crash, and when it crashes, the models created with it become read-only. To be honest, I prefer using Visual Paradigm.

I rate erwin Data Modeler by Quest a seven out of ten for stability.

It took some coordination to get the license transferred to me. Otherwise, the solution's initial setup is straightforward.

I've probably spent half a day not running the installation but waiting for emails back from the vendor.

It's a good enough solution if the whole purpose of your data modeling is to generate databases. I also use data modeling for other purposes, and that's why I prefer Visual Paradigm. It allows me to do data modeling that's not so much focused on databases.

Overall, I rate erwin Data Modeler by Quest a seven out of ten.