Informatica PowerCenter Reviews

We primarily use the solution for data integration.

The performance and design of Informatica have been very valuable. I find the performance faster than, Oracle Data Integrator or DataStage.

As a connector to big data, it is not well developed. We've had problems connecting Informatica with Hadoop. The functionality to connect Informatica with Hadoop is not good. Right now, we use Informatica to connect with the tools of big data. We have been able to connect Informatica with Teradata. I use Informatica to integrate the data of Teradata. Although we have a lot of functionality in Teradata, when you use Informatica as a connector, the compatibility with Teradata and Informatica it's not sufficient.

In future releases, they need to have a good version of the cloud.

We run the solution on our servers, not the cloud.

I would rate this solution seven out of ten.

The solution has the best user interface and it's the most user-friendly of all data integration tools.

Now they are migrating to a new version, and they have something that is called Informatica Developer. Previously, they just had PowerCenter. Now, when they move everything to Informatica Developer it's not as good or stable like it was when it was PowerCenter, though it has some nice features. 

I would like the solution to offer better metadata management. 

The solution is really stable. 

For scalability, all you have to do is buy licenses for more cores, so it's about licensing. If you want to add more CPU cores you have to pay more licensing. All of the providers of ETL tools have different licensing models, and it's something that is typical. So, if you have to process more data then you have to pay for more licenses. That's natural. 

We have about 50 users and they're developers and consultants.

Technical support is great. It's one of the reasons we really like them. When you compare support from IBM and support from Informatica. Informatica is much better.

Initial setup is very easy. It's straightforward. They have really good manuals. They have a great installation manual. They have user manuals as well, so you just have to follow instructions. Everything is fine.

Usually, we have system administrators do the implementation.

Price-wise, it's more expensive than SSIS, but it's a better tool, so it has more features. Licensing is on a yearly basis.

We looked at IBM DataStage, Microsoft SSIS, and Oracle Data Integrator.

We have some projects on call. I work for a professional services company, so we have different clients that have different types of infrastructure. For us in our region, most of the clients have an on-premise infrastructure. Usually, we have on-premise deployments.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I would rate this solution nine out of ten. It's almost perfect.

Our primary use case is to process semi-structured and structured files using business rules to create CSV files for data warehouse loading and reporting.

This solution has allowed my client to see the real benefits of dynamically reading the profile to verify the file structures.

The most valuable features are the dynamic reading of the file metadata profile, and the ability to define business rules that are used to verify and validate the uploaded files.

The developer tool documentation can be enhanced with a more clear explanation of each utility, accompanied by relevant examples, so that developers are able to create programs with ease.

Our primary use is to implement our data warehouse, including moving data between FTP, flat file and relational databases, and Domain/Integrated Service designs.

Informatica PowerCenter has been implementing mapping design, data flow, and workflow execution for years. Informatica administrators are in the scope of daily operations.

• Import from PowerCenter
• Copy Text between Excel and the Developer Tool
• Logical Data Object Read and Write Mapping Editing
• DDL Query
• Profiles

• XML processing
• Scheduler
• Non-limit SQL qualifier embedded (right now 32K limitation)

The Integrated Reporting service should be more smoothly transitioned from view to function to be in sync with the main design.

We use it for data integration. It's a great tool.

It reduces a lot of legacy coding.

It works with any multi-database, so it works with Sybase, SQL Server. Also, the performance is really good and it is easy to use.

It has everything we want. We were looking for a feature but they have already it in Informatica 10. We are using Informatica 9.6.1 but they added the feature we were thinking about in 10.1.

The stability is great.

Scalability, durability, everything. It is the leader in the market.

We are using technical support every year, it's part of like maintenance we get from Informatica. Year by year they are improving. They're up to the mark.

The initial setup is not straightforward. You need expertise to do it.

Licensing is a one time cost. But maintenance costs depend on what you want, how long you need it. Maintenance is a kind of insurance. With health insurance, you don't know whether you will get sick or need to go to hospital or not but you have to have insurance. It's the same thing with support.

If you have that expertise in resolving issues, if you have enough experience in your IT department, I would say you don't need the support. But in practice, they recommend you go with the support. If you want support you have to pay for it.

When you want to convert all your company products into Microsoft, the equivalent to the Informatica product in Microsoft is SSAS. That's where the decision was made to go with the SSAS as the primary option, going forward.

If you are a small company it depends on how much data integration you need. I cannot blindly say you should always go with Informatica because it depends what your needs are and whether you can afford Informatica or not.

I would give Informatica a 10-plus out of 10 because it satisfies all our requirements, it is robust and scalable.

Data Integration: Integrates heterogeneous source platforms data into the unified data warehouse.

Easy, scalable, robust platform to integrate heterogeneous source platform's data into the unified data warehouse.

Data Integration. The UI-based ability to create data mapping. Also, reusable definition of data sources and the out-of-the-box availability of a large number maplets for common transformation functions.

Cost! 

Also, BI features. While Informatica is great for data-integration, it does not have any analytics features. Thus, organizations have to always look for another product for their BI needs.

We are trying to implement both Finance and Operations modernization with the help of Informatica. This tool is mainly used in data ingestion, where we bring different sources into a Hadoop environment.

• Big Data connectivity, Data Integration solutions, and Data Quality solutions. 
• Easy to code and understand solutions in Informatica.

Yes, we had stability issues, mostly with JVM size.

Yes, there can be scalability issues. Huge amounts of data ingestion will impact performance.

I rate tech support seven out of 10.

Straightforward.

There are a lot of other data integration tools available in the market. Based on our needs we have to choose which is applicable: Talend, SSIS, Ab Initio, DataStage, ODI (Oracle Data Integrator).

Good product if you are trying implement data quality, data integration, and data management projects.

We have a good relationship with the vendor. We get notifications related to new products for user validation and beta release. We have given user experience feedback for Operational Insights tool.

We are using it to source data from Sybase database and flat files so as to load to the target Greenplum Database. The facility to do parallel load on Greenplum using gpload feature is valuable for us. Also, the ability to scale through partitions helped us to improve the performance.

We used Informatica PowerCenter for a re-platforming project where the earlier application was using an in-house Java-based ETL, that suffered in terms of the performance and scalability issues. With Informatica PowerCenter, we were able to overcome all the performance bottlenecks and we were able to standardize the ETL layer. The re-platformed application was able to complete the high volume batch data load in minutes, compared to the long hours it took in the old application. In addition, the year-end volume spikes are easily handled by Informatica.

In our implementation, for the initial conversion, we had to take on a large volume of data from the legacy Sybase system. This was taking a very long time, i.e., more than a day. We were trying to improve it with partitions to gpload, but we were told that we can't go more than four partitions. This was a limitation then and I am not sure if this has already been improved.

I have used this solution for four years.

Not many stability issues were experienced.

Not many scalability issues were experienced.

Technical support is good; also, we had engaged professional services during the application development.

The legacy solution was using an in-house Java-based ETL, that had huge problems in scaling for high volume batches. As part of the re-platforming exercise, we switched to Informatica so as to get a more stable and standard solution.

With knowledgable developers, the setup was not complex.

We evaluated the Pentaho solution.

It is a good, scalable solution, provided the infrastructure is taken care of.