What is our primary use case?
I am familiar with Informatica solutions, including Siebel and have some experience with Collibra. We use Collibra for creating data products and for data governance, and it is straightforward without requiring extensive configuration. We can categorize policies into multiple categories, which is beneficial in Collibra, and we have multiple connectors to retrieve data from different sources. This is advantageous because we are taking data from Informatica, from other Oracle databases, and we also had a connector for Big Data, which includes NoSQL. I had the opportunity to work on Collibra for around six months, which allowed me to gather all this information.
My focus has shifted, as I am currently working on Stibo and Informatica most of the time. Informatica on-premises is an excellent tool, and I recently understood this because I did not get the opportunity to work extensively on the cloud version. However, whatever I have done on the cloud is now stable because it was not stable earlier. The new AI capabilities they have built for match and merge and getting data verified through multiple data sources are also excellent. Ultimately, I would say Informatica is still leading in the entire MDM space with multiple different users.
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud emerged approximately four to four and a half years ago, but before that, it was exclusively Informatica on-premises, which I primarily worked on.
What is most valuable?
Migration was painful in the past, but nowadays it has been a seamless experience for data migration. There are a couple of challenges where older transformations, logics, and processes have to be replaced, and we have to complete all mappings entirely.
Although not at the moment where I was working, I have seen a couple of clients who really appreciate the match and merge assistance from AI, so those features are quite beneficial.
In real-time operations, I would say they are effective because we use APIs for that, and those are valuable things to have.
What needs improvement?
I would not characterize it as a drawback, but there are a few things which were good at that time but have now become stable. The older transformations that have degraded now have to be changed. I would not say it has to be something that needs to be updated or upgraded, but the bottom line is there needs to be updates for data migration and all that. Multiple companies, including my consulting service firm, have created accelerators for upgrading those things. Ultimately, I would say that it is still stable. If there is nothing to be updated or created, then our job would be done.
I would say it is mixed regarding self-service data preparation features for non-technical users, as it is a tool that has been around for a long time. There is a significant amount of information on the internet to help us out, including many KB articles. However, I would suggest to Informatica that there should be a different approach in providing KB articles and information. The information should be provided in a seamless way for the entire functions, not in bits and pieces across different places. For instance, if I need to create a data model, the entire process flow, including database objects, entity objects, business entities, entity views, and all that should be presented in that particular direction as a project situation, rather than scattered across plain sections.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Informatica on-premises is an excellent tool, and I recently understood this because I did not get the opportunity to work extensively on the cloud version. However, whatever I have done on the cloud is now stable because it was not stable earlier.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support from Informatica is good. If there are any issues, Informatica acknowledges them, saying they recognize the particular problem. They do not gloss over it, but they confirm the issue and provide either a hotfix or explain the way you can temporarily address it so it will not be a problem.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I migrated as well, but there are a couple of clients who are still working on on-premises because that suits them perfectly for multiple reasons. They are able to control everything, and the active support differs because the cloud version has a different workflow system than on-premises. The way of storing the data in on-premises is based on the relational model, or the older way of working, which is relational data models and structured RDBMS. The cloud has taken a non-structured direction. Nowadays, data is not just in one single place but is coming from different sources.
Migration was painful in the past, but nowadays it has been a seamless experience for data migration. There are a couple of challenges where older transformations, logics, and processes have to be replaced, and we have to complete all mappings entirely.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have not been involved in pricing, but I do know that pricing for Informatica is much higher than for any other MDM tools.
What other advice do I have?
There would be one of the clients in the near future who would be taking that metadata-driven approach, but not currently. For Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud in general, as a product and service, I would rate it somewhere between seven to seven point five, particularly for the AI part because it is still new and still needs multiple refinements and efficiencies. My overall review rating for this solution is seven.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
