Informatica PowerCenter Reviews

We primarily use the solution for the ETL.

They know what they're doing, and it's a more mature tool compared to Talend. They really think about every scenario. For example, if you want to write a data cleansing algorithm and all that is probably rules. It's just easier. There are a lot of provisions in PowerCenter. In terms of the transformation algorithms and all that, there are a lot of operations. It's great.

The solution is stable.

It's a scalable product.

PowerCenter seems to be a little bit higher side of cost. Customers are thinking about alternatives. Talend seems to be a pure Java-based thing, however, there are some technical hiccups there. There are a few finance companies are probably started using Talend as a competition tool for Informatica. Most of the smaller companies are trying to build open-source-based ETL tools.

It should be more cloud-centric than on-prem-centric. That is where the problem with Informatica.

We've used the solution for a couple of years. 

It's a stable product. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.

The solution is scalable. 

We have three or four clients we are working with in terms of Informatica.

In terms of technical support, there is plenty of information is available online, however, their tech support is okay.

Snowflake is something that is surfacing. Every customer is now started asking about Snowflake. They're thinking of it being a viable option. When it comes to data warehousing, it's the kind of a solution that you want to deal with huge among this data processing. 

Most startups and probably smaller companies thinking of building a custom open-source pipeline. It could be Pulsar-based, or Kafka-based. And that is what they're looking at. In enterprises, they don't want to go with a hundred percent, the open-source solutions. They like Informatica or probably Talend or probably some of the ETL tools that are available.

It's not a simple setup. It requires a bit of a learning curve, no doubt about it. For example, if you want an index, a three or four-year engineer would need to handle that. If you want to make them as a utility engineer, there is a learning curve involved. 

It took us three to four months to deploy the solution. 

We have 12 to 14 people working on the deployment and maintenance of the solution. 

The pricing could be a bit better. 

For example, if you look at Snowflake, companies are thinking of innovative ways of reducing the price and then transferring the benefit to their customers. 

In terms of innovation, creativity is not there in this solution. It is still an on-prem ETL tool. Informatica is one of the best options today and no doubt about it. However, is it cloud-ready? I don't think so. Therefore, I'd rate the solution a five out of ten.

Beyond cloud readiness (or lack thereof), pricing is an issue. It's relatively high compared to other products on the market. We all have to move from IBM thinking. You sell the customer and then penalize them with the pricing, pricing, pricing. That is where IBM has today become a dead man walking underneath, has become two different companies now. This company should learn from IBM. Pricing cannot be the only way of making money and probably comes with innovation, creativity, making it cloud-ready, and then transferring those benefits in order to sell more licenses. 

I'm working for a casino, and we use this solution in our company to replicate different databases, such as from Oracle to Teradata. Most of the time, it is used for replication, but sometimes, it is also used for doing some calculations, additions, or unions for ETL.

It is currently deployed on-premises, but we will be moving to a cloud solution by the end of the year. We are currently doing a proof of concept and evaluating a cloud solution from Informatica.

The support is valuable. There are also open-source ETL products, which work very well, but there is no support. When we face a production problem, being able to get support is valuable, and it brings efficiency. With an open-source solution, we can't engage anyone to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.

Its stability is high, and it is also scalable.

Some of the conversions are done inside the product. We use work tables that are created by the engine itself, but the names of the work tables are very long, and they don't have any meaning, which makes it a bit difficult to understand and follow exactly what is happening inside.

We would like to be able to communicate with our Google Cloud platform. This feature probably exists, but I'm not sure if we tested it. 

It is very stable.

It is scalable. There are no problems. It is only a financial matter. You just need to have more machines. The price changes depending on the number of CPUs that are involved. 

We have 24/7 support because it belongs to the production environment. We just have to open a case, and somebody takes up the case and provides an answer. They also call back, and there is also a knowledge base.

We had Sybase ETL, but it was not exactly for the same use. We also had some homemade solutions between Db2 and Teradata. We switched because to deal with more databases, it was easiest to use a real ETL solution.

It isn't complex. In the beginning, we have to test and try different parameters. Once that is complete, it is done for all the processes. If we have some trouble, we can call support, and most of the time, we can find people to help us in choosing the right parameters from different parameters.

The complete implementation—which includes doing the proof of concept, understanding how it works and what work has to be done, migrating all existing workflows—took over six months.

We implemented it ourselves.

I would rate it an eight out of 10. It works.

Our company has requirements to move from legacy systems to new cloud systems. This helps migrate the data. We have complex logic and integrations on some of the systems, and Informatica makes migrations possible.

The cloud version is very useful.

The features provided are great.

It is stable and reliable.

Technical support is quite helpful.

The setup is very simple. 

There are a lot of cloud connectors missing on the on-premises. These do exist on the cloud, however.

We'd like better integrations with ServiceNow and Splunk. It's not so integrated with the infrastructure. We need more compatibility and more detailed information on operational insights. 

The solution does not scale.

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

The stability is great. There are no bugs or glitches. I'd rate it nine out of ten. It is extremely reliable. 

PowerCenter is not scalable, however, the cloud is very scalable. 

We have 100 developers on the solution. 

Technical support is very helpful. We are very satisfied with the assistance we get.

Positive

I have previously used several other tools. However, PowerCenter is very stable. 

PowerCenter is very easy to install. I'm not sure about the cloud deployment, however. 

The deployment and configuration might take about three hours. 

If the environment is small, you only need one or two people for deployment and maintenance; however, if the environment is bigger, you likely will need more. 

We did not need any help from a third party. We have teams that can install the solution in-house. 

I'm not sure about the details of licensing, however, we pay for the license yearly. 

I am a customer and end-user.

I'm not sure if I would recommend PoerCenter. However, I would definitely recommend the cloud.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. Unfortunately, it doesn't scale and lacks some cloud connectivity.

We use the solution primarily as an ETL.

It helps with the automation process. We have a lot of requests from the user to create for them data alerts. We have had some success using Informatica. 

It is an excellent tool. It covers our needs. 

The solution is used mostly to handle our daily data loads in our data warehouse. We've been successful so far using it. 

It provides monitoring and we can therefore be aware of what is happening when we are handling jobs. 

The ETL and monitoring tools are the most useful for us.

The transformations we need to do, to comply with user requests, is very easy with this product.

The solution is stable.

It can scale. 

We also have a data integrator, and if we were to compare the software together, the one thing Informatica doesn't have is the ability to create the script inside the solution. We need to rely on Unix or Windows. We can't do the scripting in Informatica itself. We need better integration potential. 

The FTP tools that the solution has are limited. 

If you want to transfer a ZIP file, it is a pain. You need to use Command-Line. Sometimes we just want to transfer a file. It should be easy to move them from A to B.

I want to eliminate interdependencies on the script. If Informatica could do everything, it would be a more powerful tool.

We'd like to have all of the capabilities available in the cloud available also on PowerCenter.

The solution is expensive. 

I've been using the solution for four years. 

Sometimes we have problems, however, the problems are in the database, not Informatica. The solution is very stable. It's reliable. I'd rate it ten out of ten. 

We're in the process of moving to the cloud. 

PowerCenter itself can scale. 

I've never contacted technical support. Typically, I will Google an answer to my questions. It's easy to find what I need on their website or online. 

I did not use a different solution. This is my first experience working with a data center. I did use the ETL from Microsoft that came with the SQL server. 

I didn't handle the installation. I did practice installing on my workstation to practice, and it was easy. However, for the entire company, it was handled by a third party. 

While it is on-premises right now, we have plans to move everything to the cloud in the short term. We are working on that right now.

The installation process is done by a third party.

I don't deal with licensing and have never seen an invoice. I am aware it is expensive, however. It's as expensive as Oracle. When you want to use the best brands, you have to pay.

I did not evaluate other solutions. By the time I came to the company, this solution was already in use.

When I was in another bank, we selected Informatica which was a recommendation of a consultant. Informatica at that time was one of the best ETL tools, even though it was expensive. 

I'm an end-user.

The solution is very popular. I'd rate it ten out of ten. It is an excellent tool.

PowerCenter performs well during data transformation and optimization. 

PowerCenter could integrate better with cloud applications. We had to do a lot of configuration work using API integrations to connect with cloud applications. Informatica Cloud Data Integration has a generic connector that you can use directly, so it's much easier. 

I used Informatica PowerCenter for around five years.

PowerCenter is stable. 

I rate Informatica PowerCenter 7.5 out of 10 for scalability. It has limited options for connecting with real-time applications, such as IBM and cloud applications. 

Setting up PowerCenter isn't easy. It requires some in-depth knowledge and specialists who know how to deploy the solution. Deployment takes a couple of days. We did everything in-house with one or two people. 

Informatica is beneficial if your data is advanced, structured, and optimized and if you are generating reports to use in decision-making.

The license is baased on the number of users and connectors. A medium-sized organization has few applications and connectors, whereas a massive organization needs many more licenses. It needs to connect all the enterprise business applications, like Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, etc. 

I rate Informatica PowerCenter seven out of 10. It's a good product that many organizations in banking continue to use because it isn't easy to migrate to something else. 

I am using Informatica PowerCenter to upskill and learn to use new tools.

I found the map links, work links, and workflows valuable. They are important features.

It would be better if I could do all the work within a single window. If I'm working on any mapping and if I have to switch to sessions, I have to open a new window altogether. If I have to get into workflows, I have to open a new window. It was also very expensive. In the next release, I would like it to be more user-friendly.

I have been using Informatica PowerCenter for over two years. 

Informatica PowerCenter is a stable solution.

Informatica PowerCenter is a scalable solution. Expanding is easy, and we can execute multiple workflows based on events. I don't see any constraints, and it looks pretty good. We have approximately 50 or more people supporting or developing applications for various clients.

I have experience with SSIS, and I compared the features. They are different, especially on the navigation front and the user interface. The SQL server integration service is always handy in Azure. Most of the time, you'll be using Microsoft products, so their interface is very user-friendly. But in Informatica, it'll be completely different, especially on the mapping side. When you map from the first to the next target, you have to know how to connect the source and targets. But in SSIS, it's easy for a layperson to understand how the data flows.

The price could be better. It's very expensive.

On a scale from one to five, I would give Informatica PowerCenter's price a one.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Informatica PowerCenter a nine.

We are using Informatica PowerCenter to process the data of the files in the landing zone. These files contain a huge amount of data, and Informatica PowerCenter is the source for us to push the data to Azure Synapse. We are using its latest version.

Using Informatica PowerCenter, we can create workflows, tasks, and more. Performance is improved while developing ETL solutions and mappings can be done easily because of the UI features.

Informatica PowerCenter is very good for integrating a huge amount of data in a very short duration, such as a minute.

It is also very easy to use. After you provide the source and the target, mappings are automatically done, which makes it easy to use for the development team.

Its scalability can be improved. It is not scalable.

I have been using this solution for one year.

We have not experienced any technical challenges with this solution.

It is not scalable. Currently, we have three users of this solution.

We have not experienced any technical challenges with this solution.

Positive

I have used the Microsoft Business intelligence for developing SSIS packages for ETL development and Azure has more advantages where ETL development reporting and analysis can be done in a single  environment using synapse analytics 

There is no installation. After they provide the URL, you just log in. You just need the server details, and you can just log in with your Windows credentials.

Our client has purchased the license, and we are using it.

I've only used Informatica PowerCenter.

I would recommend this solution to others. I would rate Informatica PowerCenter an eight out of ten.

I like the completeness of the way I can build ETL workflows. It's not one feature that stands out. Rather, it's the way everything is working together.

On the matter of data lineage and data catalog and metadata, in particular, several new developments are embedded as options you could use or could buy. The modular structure is very helpful.

What is not that clear, is the usability in the cloud, for example. That's a little bit fuzzy.

The reputation of Informatica is that it is expensive. There are some things which could improve for the customer so that they have the perception that they get more for their money.

I would say that the transparency towards the cloud is a big area for improvement. For example, Microsoft and Oracle, make it easy since they create a cloud and then integrate all the stuff that way that you always have the possibility to work to optimize with. Informatica is a little bit different.  

On-premise should not be eradicated.

I've used the solution for 20 years. 

The solution is expensive.

I'm a developer and architect. I'm not reselling the product.

I'd rate the product eight out of ten.