What is our primary use case?
I've actually worked for European clients as a developer. I cover different industries, including automotive, insurance, and healthcare. It's actually based on the different internal stakeholders as well as the external stakeholders. I interact with and work on solutions based on the requirements.
Information Governance Catalog is the data integration that we did from a different data catalog tool which was a SharePoint Data Catalog tool.
We actually did a migration to this IBM tool that's live MITC. We're using the integration RESTt APA function section, which comes built-in with the IGC tool.
What is most valuable?
Working on the roles, actually, is the most valuable aspect. Working on the roles, different analyses, and also the data source tool, the metadata asset manager tool, helps in considering the different data sources. You can deal with multiple data sources, both the native data source connectors and as well as the ODBC-JDBC connectors.
We can find reliable relevant connectors and IBM keeps on updating those connectors. It supports almost all the current trending data sources, actually, which could be used in the organization as per the requirements. It helps as being just the dedicated tool, IMAM, an IMM metadata manager, and we can integrate very easily between the IMM and the IGC, and also for the business process management, BPM. We can also integrate with IGC.
What needs improvement?
They need to improve asset management. Sometimes it depends on the stakeholders or the organization. Employees actually have their own unique requirements in terms of creating the assets and mapping to the terms. That area maybe needs to be simplified. We have a scenario that actually created some problems with the product itself. When we approached IBM they actually didn't have any solution for that. It's not a major thing, however, creating the assets, and indexing the assets, needs some improvement. They could come up with some patching which would definitely help. Sometimes, we have to initiate the requirement with IBM and they have to come up with the development scheme.
The solution could offer more native connectors. For example, you can also connect an Oracle database using the ODBC-JDBC connector and there will be a native connector called the Oracle connector itself, so two different connectors will be there. You can connect Oracle databases using ODBC also, and also through the Oracle connector itself. They probably need to improve or increase the number of connectors. Currently, a lot of trending data sources are coming up. One example I would say is Kafka, which has big data-related connectors. Those kinds of things they have to improve and bring inside the metadata asset management tool.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for the last five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability is a concern, actually. There are a lot of competitive data governance tools coming up and already in the market, however, when compared to the other lighter tools, like Collibra, Alation, or Informatica (which are considered to be light data governance tools), IGC is a heavy tool. As a heavy tool, it always has some performance-related issues, and there are some cases that have a constraint on the stability. Obviously, IBM is there to help out. We have to follow the default measures or default configuration parameters. Those need to be enabled.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I don't have much experience with scalability. It is a microservices tool, which runs on Kubernetes. I've not worked on multiple nodes for the horizontal scalability setup. That said, it is my understanding that IBM provides such a feature, and allows for reliable scalability.
I'm working for a US-based eCommerce and offshore development center from India. It's a small team. We are growing and expanding. I don't have much scope in IGC in the current company that I'm working with, however, I'm working on some of the POCs to present to the company stakeholders. I would say the number of uses would be a total of 300 members when we actually begin to use this InfoSphere Information server and IGC.
IGC is something we are now working on it to bring into my current company. In my previous company I worked with a while ago, we extensively worked on is IGC tool and it was a larger team.
How are customer service and support?
All the IBM tools or IBM technologies always follow the same template or format of support. The hierarchy of support is always quite on the slower side. Eventually, we'll get the solution, however, it won't be immediate. It's based on the severity, however, we have to we to hang on and wait to get to the solution. We need to be patient and go through the templated process.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
IBM tools always get inherent trust from companies. You can always trust the support. It is not transferring when we talk about the other tools. You cannot completely rely on them for technical support. Nothing compares to IBM. Even my previous company chose IBM's IGC in terms of data production and data security features as well. It is more on the higher side of capabilities, actually, compared to other tools.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is a bit complex when you use the microservices tool which actually helps for the enterprise search. In order to search the assets, you have to configure or install the microservices tool as well. Actually, even without the microservices tool, it is complex. We are able to use and install the IGC tool just fine, however, information can be managed from the enterprise search option, which is very complex in setting up. It is not a straightforward area. We needed some assistance to set up the complete tool.
Therefore, if you just wanted to use the layer of IGC, you can easily set it up, however, when it comes to the microservices tool, it is complex.
Without any hiccups, a deployment can take between four and five hours. However, it also depends on the hardware resources. That might take three to four hours.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not really sure of the exact licensing cost. The calculation will be done based on the number of PVs. We have to get the complete tool. It is not broken into separate components, and IDP is not a separate component. It comes with the InfoSphere Information Server. We have to get the complete tool. It is not like we have to purchase a separate license for IGC.
What other advice do I have?
While we are on-premises right now, we are working towards moving to the cloud.
I'd recommend new users to go for it. You'll get a great brand value. It's popular. Everyone knows IBM tools and the features they provide. I would definitely advise companies to try it. On the pricing side, it is slightly higher, however, it could be pretty reasonable with the features you get.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. There's a lot of up-and-coming competition on the horizon. There's Informatica, Collibra, and Alation, for example. AWS also has some data governance too. I'd rate this product highly due to the brand value and the popularity and the kind of support they provide for the tool, for the product, they own. However, there are lots of solutions to choose from now.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises