Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog OverviewUNIXBusinessApplication

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is the #2 ranked solution in top Metadata Management tools. PeerSpot users give Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog an average rating of 8.2 out of 10. Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is most commonly compared to AWS Glue: Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog vs AWS Glue. Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 74% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a financial services firm, accounting for 17% of all views.
Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog Buyer's Guide

Download the Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog Buyer's Guide including reviews and more. Updated: May 2023

What is Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog?

Informatica Enterprise Information Catalog provides a machine-learning-based discovery engine to collect data assets across the enterprise while increasing the understanding of those data assets through a graph-based enterprise information catalog. Powered by Informatica’s unique metadata services engine, Enterprise Information Catalog enables business analysts and data stewards to find all types of data across the enterprise; discover relationships among them; enrich data with business glossary terms and crowdsourced annotations; and understand the provenance, quality, and usage of their data.

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog was previously known as Informatica EDC, Informatica Enterprise Information Catalog, Enterprise Information Catalog.

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog Customers

AIA Singapore, Mattel

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog Video

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog Pricing Advice

What users are saying about Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog pricing:
"I have no idea what the price actually is. It is probably not going to be the cheapest, but it is a pretty stable and robust platform from the backend standpoint."

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog Reviews

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Principal Applications System Analyst at a university with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
An enterprise-scale solution with a pretty robust set of tools for scanning a variety of information sources
Pros and Cons
  • "The capability of the tool to scan and capture the metadata from a variety of sources is one of the capabilities that I find most useful. The central repository into which it is going to put that captured metadata is the best."
  • "The model is somewhat flexible. There are certain aspects of the model that are not as flexible as we would like. It doesn't do certain things to a great level of depth. So, in situations where we want to drill in to do something specific, we have to essentially copy that data into our own structures in order to add that additional layer of flexibility."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it to understand the assets that we have from their technical metadata perspective, but we're also using it to align our business glossaries with the actual physical data location where the data is stored. Using their Claire or AI engine helps facilitate that. We've been doing that for a while.

The other thing we're trying to do is extend that metadata capability to include extended lineage and provenance attributes. We're trying to incorporate those into the existing EDC environment, and hopefully, when we get Axon, we'll try to figure out how we would expose that to the customer. We will figure out whether we're going to expose that directly or whether we're going to have to augment Axon with an additional UI layer.

How has it helped my organization?

From my standpoint, Informatica offers a pretty robust set of scanning tools that can scan a variety of sources of information. It offers a central repository that you can go to for interrogating and finding data. You can find the data that you're looking for based on enhanced metadata.

The other thing that we're working on is extending the existing Informatica data quality capabilities within the EDC so that we have a more robust understanding of not only what the data is and where it is located but also the quality of that data. We are doing this so that when people are looking for data, they see not only where they can find the data, but they also feel confident that the data is going to meet their needs.

What is most valuable?

The capability of the tool to scan and capture the metadata from a variety of sources is one of the capabilities that I find most useful. The central repository into which it is going to put that captured metadata is the best.

What needs improvement?

The model is somewhat flexible. There are certain aspects of the model that are not as flexible as we would like. It doesn't do certain things to a great level of depth. So, in situations where we want to drill in to do something specific, we have to essentially copy that data into our own structures in order to add that additional layer of flexibility.

Robust process management or workflow management, like Bonita, should be incorporated into the Informatica tool stack because it offers very simplistic workflow capabilities. If we had more dynamic and robust workflow capabilities, we could make use of that a lot more. Currently, we have to do a lot of pre-work outside of the Informatica tools before we can get the data loaded and start using it because they're UIs. I haven't dealt with Axon. So, I don't know exactly how that's going to change things, but with the EDC tool, I can't say the user interface is useless, but people don't use it because they find it cumbersome.

Its UI, without considering Axon, is probably their least desirable part. It has some interesting capabilities, but it is not what I would call cutting edge or super. It is not as intuitive as I would've expected. Its UI is probably prior to Axon. It is a little dated, and even Axon has been out there for a while now, but it is a little dated. That's probably why they went out and bought the company that originally made Axon.

Buyer's Guide
Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog
May 2023
Learn what your peers think about Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2023.
706,775 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for five or six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We're using it for our enterprise. We are not the largest enterprise in the world, but we're a pretty good size. We have 20,000 people working here and petabytes of data flowing through various systems. It is less about the people using it directly as opposed to the systems using it. It is really a matter of the system interfaces that are automating. We're trying to automate the metadata as much as possible so that when people are looking at their data, they can also see the associated metadata. Sometimes, we have to pull the metadata out of EDC and feed it into other systems so that as they're using these other systems, they can see the metadata flows with it.

How are customer service and support?

I haven't dealt much with them directly, but I've had colleagues create tickets all the time. Generally, they're pretty good. 

How was the initial setup?

I'm more from the end-user perspective. From a system standpoint, there is a different team that sets things up on the server and establishes various types of configurations. I do work with them, but I'm not actually doing that work. 

They have three people that are actively managing the system, and they are system administrators. There are also various people who might be testing things at any one point in time, and then there are various analysts who might be creating data to feed into the system, such as definitions of business terms. The same people may review the results once it gets into the engine. When it starts to process that data and makes the associations between the terms and the actual metadata where it is linking the two up, somebody has to go in and validate that, especially the exceptions or the ones that don't have a high enough matching score. So, there are probably three or four system admin folks, and those are more technical folks, and then you have maybe 20 people who might be putting in data, validating the data, and so on. Those are still primarily an IT function. They have subject matter expertise, but they're still reporting up through the IT group, and then, we'll eventually get to the point where we have a more robust set of business users who are reviewing and vetting that information.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I have no idea what the price actually is. It is probably not going to be the cheapest, but it is a pretty stable and robust platform from the backend standpoint. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Manager, Data Governance at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
They listen to their customers, so if something is missing or not working, they will put it on their roadmap.
Pros and Cons
  • "I like EDC's self-service capabilities. You can put the catalog on the intranet inside the organization, so users can search for something. People in the research world have specialized systems, and you might find data from various places that sound similar."
  • "Interoperability is one area where EDC has room for improvement. It was challenging when the faculty took over the data world and had specific vendors they wanted to use, and some were not particularly open platforms."

What is our primary use case?

We were trying to publish a compendium of all our various assets using an Oracle-based data warehouse. We also had vendor-based solutions like Epic for electronic medical records on an SQL Server base. We had many research systems on various platforms because it's a cancer research institution. 

We wanted to pull together a comprehensive data catalog to show people all the different assets we had and where they could go to find things. If there were vendor-based definitions of things, we'd pull in the definitions and various attributes. It's a heterogeneous environment data-wise. We get a lot of value from a comprehensive enterprise catalog.

It's available on our intranet through a data governance portal. You could go there for a catalog, quality reports, etc. In a year, there may have been 500 unique visitors. It was my job to publicize it, but I didn't necessarily do a good job. I worked with research groups and clinicians to get their stuff on it, and they would tell other people about it. The nice thing about Informatica is that it was easy to link from our internal web portal to their catalog. I had excellent developers working for me. It didn't require much development, and it took less and less as time went on. 

What is most valuable?

I like EDC's self-service capabilities. You can put the catalog on the intranet inside the organization, so users can search for something. People in the research world have specialized systems, and you might find data from various places that sound similar. 

The purpose of the Enterprise Data Catalog was to build an internally searchable catalog of stuff. You may not have permission to see this data but at least you could find out where it was and contact the person who owns it. 

What needs improvement?

Interoperability is one area where EDC has room for improvement. It was challenging when the faculty took over the data world and had specific vendors they wanted to use, and some were not particularly open platforms. 

It was a challenge to promote data visibility while also jumping through hoops to take some of the proprietary things and make them part of the calling, especially when the vendor doesn't necessarily support interoperability. You need to export things from a vendor program and import them again. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We used Informatica for a lot of the data governance stuff I worked with when I joined the company, including things like cataloging and profiling data. The organization has really changed a lot in the last year and went with Informatica EDC. They're moving from the on-prem version to the cloud.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Informatica is a strong company, and EDC is a solid platform. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is excellent. Informatica really knows what it's doing. They're smart people and great engineers. 

How are customer service and support?

Informatica's customer service and support were decent. They listen to their customers. If something is missing or wasn't working, they will put it on their roadmap. They were listening to customers for roadmap stuff. 

We wound up building a staging database to pull stuff out of the EDC, stage it, and then access that. It was open, so we would often have an intermediary layer at Oracle. If we wanted to show, for example, data quality over time, we would have a weekly quality process that would run. We staged that in an Oracle database, and the portal could access that.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We had to build Informatica pipelines and do some Azure work to feed data to them. With data warehousing, you typically have static data that is timestamped daily or weekly and sometimes monthly or annually.  We were trying to get real-time data, like blood pressure monitoring and stuff like that. That was a lot of work. I didn't do it. The integration team. 

When I joined the company, it was an Oracle-based solution. Then Epic took over, which was SQL Server-based. After that, they went to Azure. Now, all the analytics are supposed to be on this platform, and it's not particularly open. 

How was the initial setup?

Setting up Informatica EDC is usually pretty straightforward. The challenge is working with vendors like Oracle and Microsoft, which have APIs for integrating things. You can query what they have. They want it to play well with other vendors because they know customers don't only have one brand of product. In some cases, you get vendors in there that are, "No, we're not going to do that because we're so special." It was a challenge. The platform of choice for data initiatives at the cancer research institution is Palantir. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We didn't look for an alternative, but Azure has its own catalog.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog nine out of 10. It's a great solution, and I was happy with it. It did everything I wanted, and Informatica dramatically increased the integration points over time. When we started, it was like Oracle and SQL Server, but now they're adding NoSQL databases and others.

Informatica has user groups and listens to user input. One of the people that worked for me hosts an annual Informatica user group in Houston. You can try to build your own Oracle-based or SQL-based solution. They listened to the market, and they're working on improving the interoperability. Maybe it works better with Palantir since I left, but they work across all platforms. They're making it Cloud-based. I didn't know anything about them before I got here. I was dropped into a department where Informatica had been for at least five or six years, and it was a good choice.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog
May 2023
Learn what your peers think about Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2023.
706,775 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Practice Director - Digital & Analytics Practice at HCL Technologies
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Great metadata management with more visibility and great technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "The metadata management of Informatica is great."
  • "It is not easy to set up and configure the tool."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution for enterprise-wide data discovery and traceability, providing business context to data and collaboration between different stakeholders of data.

My organization, being a service provider, uses the product to develop domain PoCs, customer PoCs, develop data management and governance use cases, etc. The major issue with enterprises are the ability to quickly develop an MVP and showcase it to business and other data users for greater buy-in. This is important as these are new technologies - and hence, users might not easily adopt.

How has it helped my organization?

Our organization is a service provider as compared to an end-user. We have helped multiple organizations onboard onto data management using these technologies. 

It has improved different areas for different enterprises, including the improvement in overall business outcome and business experience, imbibing a data-driven culture, having easy availability of the right and relevant data, allowing for better compliance to regulations, and providing greater data quality and privacy management.

It has also improved overall time to service data requests such as DSAR requests.

What is most valuable?

The metadata management of Informatica is great. When an organization uses developer for data integration, IDQ for Data Quality, EDC for Data Catalog, Axon for Business Glossary, DPM for data privacy management etc., Informatica tools integrate metadata from all these tools seamlessly. The advantage is getting a complete view of your enterprise data through business and data lineage - as it not only provides you with pure data lineage but also associates related data quality measures, data protection levels, etc.

What needs improvement?

Additional metadata harvesters from different major tools can be an added advantage. Informatica provides some smart connectors for harvesting metadata from some of the industry tools. That said, this can be improved a lot more.

Overall, the toolsets are really good.

Installation and configuration can be another area where Informatica can improvise a bit. It is not easy to set up and configure the tool. A proper step by step guide to ensure this process goes smooth can be a huge advantage for end customers.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for more than six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is excellent.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is excellent.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Most of our customers were using excel and email-based communication for data access. These new-age solutions improve efficiency ten times or more.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was not very straightforward. This is an area of improvement.

What about the implementation team?

We, being a service provider, have implemented and configured the setup on our own.

What was our ROI?

ROI depends on the buy-in from businesses and overall adoption rates. There is a huge amount of change management and change strategy that needs to be in place to ensure users are adopting the new tools/technology.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Informatica has good pricing options and a good professional services team who can help with setup/configuration.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

There are other competing good products such as Collibra, Azure Purview, Erwin, IBM CP4D, and more. All have their strengths and weaknesses.

What other advice do I have?

If you are an Informatica shop, there is no need to think twice to opt for an Informatica-based Data Management product suit.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Lead Data Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Excellent for extracting technical metadata, but tricky to scale
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is its ability to extract metadata from various sources- be it an old SaaS application or the latest cloud application."
  • "The scalability is tough."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case of this solution is to extract technical metadata, tag the data dictionary, and profiling. We also use it for lineage and relationship aspects.

How has it helped my organization?

I recommend Informatica to my clients based in the finance and banking sectors. It has been very helpful.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is its ability to extract metadata from various sources- be it an old SaaS application or the latest cloud application. They have a custom resource that allows us to customize no matter which source system we have, and we can customize it to extract the technical metadata.

What needs improvement?

They are moving from on-premises to the cloud. I expect all the on-premises features in the cloud version as well.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product since 2019.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a perfectly stable solution and a leader in data governance tools in the current market.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is tough. For example, if you want to increase the scalability in the middle of the project, it would be a challenging process, but it is doable. As consultants, we analyze the requirements from the client end and, based on that, suggest the infrastructure for scalability.

How are customer service and support?

Customer service is a piece of cake if you are a premium member. You need to raise a ticket, and they will immediately respond. For example, they will let you know if it is a limitation; if it is a bug, they will provide you with emergency bug fixes.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy. If we compare version 10.4 and version 10.5, they had a major architectural change in terms of infrastructure. The setup for version 10.5 became easier.

What about the implementation team?

The deployment was straightforward, and it took 10-15 minutes to deploy the solution, including migrating technical metadata (importing and exporting).

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend that rather than implementing it on a complete whole enterprise project, start with some small system or a small project first. And from there on, you can move on one step at a time.

I would rate the product an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner and consultant
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PeerSpot user
ArturKowalczyk - PeerSpot reviewer
Technology Innovation Leader at Netrix S.A.
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Reliable, has good support and offers a wide coverage of technologies
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution scales well."
  • "The solution is quite expensive."

What is our primary use case?

The product is used for data governance. It's a tool for data governance, a technical metadata dictionary, and a data lineage repository.

What is most valuable?

So far, we have been pleased with its capabilities. 

It has a wide coverage of technologies. 

The solution scales well.

It is stable and reliable. 

The technical support has been helpful.

What needs improvement?

The initial setup is very, very difficult. 

The solution is quite expensive. 

I would like them to extend the coverage to other technologies like web services and programming languages.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for six months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable, and it is reliable. The performance is good. We haven't dealt with bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We can scale the product.

We have about 50 users on the solution right now. It's not used too extensively just yet. It will be in the future, however. We do also have plans to increase usage. 

How are customer service and support?

We've used technical support previously and found them to be quite good. We are satisfied with the level of support we can get. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not previously use a different solution. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not straightforward. We found it to be quite difficult. It took us about two weeks to deploy it.

We have ten people that can handle deployment and maintenance tasks, including a team leader and project manager. 

What about the implementation team?

The implementation can be done in-house with a lot of effort.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I'm not sure of the exact cost, however, the range is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's very expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

I'm not an experienced user of it. I used it in workshops, and I use other Informatica products, so I have some relevant knowledge.

I deal with the latest version of the solution. 

I'd rate the product nine out of ten and can recommend it to others to use. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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PeerSpot user
Carlos Souza - PeerSpot reviewer
Global IT Security Program Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Easily scalable data catalog with good data profiling and data domain discovery features, but its ease of use and set up needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "Multifeatured and easily scalable data catalog, with good data domain discovery and data profiling features."
  • "This solution is hard to set up and its interface is not user-friendly. It's also not as stable, and the technical support takes a lot of time to solve simple problems."

What is our primary use case?

I use Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog for searching for PII data, tagging different kinds of data, and for data lineage.

What is most valuable?

These are the features I found useful in Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog: one is its data profiling is good. The data lineage is also okay, though it had a few issues to be solved. The data domain discovery for the solution is good, though it was hard to implement.

What needs improvement?

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is hard to set up, so this is an area for improvement, e.g. it would be good if they make it easier to set up, because the project was made 80% of the time of the setup. Another area for improvement is its ease of use, because the interface is not as user-friendly.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog for the last three years, and the last time I used it was three days ago.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is not as stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is an easily scalable solution.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support for Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is not so good, because it took a lot of time for them to solve simple problems.

How was the initial setup?

The set up for this solution was not easy.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to other people who want to implement Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is that they need to be sure that it can deliver the expectations they have about the data catalog, because after our implementation, we weren't able to use it a lot.

I'm rating Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Liu, Scott Wen - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivery Manager at Deloitte
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Full data asset view, good support, but interface could improve
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is it provides clients with a full view of the enterprise data assets. For example, how many data assets they have and who owns them."
  • "Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog could improve by having a much better user interface. It is not user-friendly."

What is our primary use case?

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is being used for recording enterprise assets, such as customers' products and vehicles. 

We a consulting service that provides information on how to enter the catalog or forms to collect the data catalog and enter them into Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is it provides clients with a full view of the enterprise data assets. For example, how many data assets they have and who owns them.

What needs improvement?

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog could improve by having a much better user interface. It is not user-friendly.

In a new release of Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog, it would be beneficial to have some new features including data sharing.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog for approximately three months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. There are some issues that can arise with Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog, but the vendor can resolve them.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have 10 people that use the solution.

How are customer service and support?

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog sends support to our clients if they are having problems.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of the Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog can be difficult. It can take approximately one week to install all the components, such as metadata.

What about the implementation team?

There are vendors to do the installation and it can cost a lot of money over the week that it takes.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this solution to others. There is a large market in China for Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog.

I rate Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2023
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.