Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) Reviews

It is a clever integration tool to extract data from every possible source, and it can transform the source data to a format the targets can handle. It is suitable for data warehouses and data migrations.

We replaced many manual actions and tasks with mappings in Oracle Data Integrator, and created schedules, and then used SOA Suite services to automatically transfer large data amounts between different systems.

The integration between the Oracle Repository and versioning tools like TortoiseSVN.

We’ve used 11G for four years, and 12.1.3 for two years.

One of the benefits of it is the usage of the principle ‘write once, execute anywhere’. You set up the architecture in the topology within Oracle Data Integrator.

We've experienced no issues with performance.

We haven't needed to scale it yet.

We haven't needed to use it yet.

Previously we used Oracle Warehouse builder, and custom made PL/SQL data warehouses. We’ve chosen Oracle Data integrator over other solutions because it is the successor of Oracle Warehouse builder, and Oracle Data Integrator provides a more structured working-method, and the data warehouse is easier to maintain.

The installation is rather straightforward, with the available documentation it must be possible to do the installation by yourself. You must have sufficient knowledge of Oracle Data Integrator to make the correct decisions during the creation of the architectural setup.

We used an in-house team but hired interim experts, and created a team with combined knowledge levels, from rooky to expert. The initial setup is rather complex, and needs an experienced architect to make the correct decisions. The change of success is highly depending on the decisions that are made during the setup.

I have no info on the ROI or the licensing, but I know the license costs are high, so Oracle Data Integrator is only suitable for the larger companies.

To benefit the most of Oracle Data Integrator it is important to assemble a team with the experience to make the project a success.

The possibilities provided by using knowledge modules and the integration with other Oracle products.

The old fashion PL/SQL codes have been translated into ODI, improving the way of maintenance. Several developers can work on the same project easily.

The software is developed on Java so it is very hardware dependent. You will need enough hardware to run the software otherwise you will struggle with it.

I've been using it for the last four years.

There were no issues with the deployment.

When developing on huge internal repositories, the performance is often quite poor.

It's been able to scale for our needs.

I have managed to solve my questions/issues via OTN or forums.

I haven't used any other products.

The first time might look a bit complex but using the right documentation it should be easy to handle.

It was already implemented on the projects where I have worked.

I didn't look at any other similar products.

The ability to build integrations that process large amounts of data (in GBs), be it file transfers ,DB operations, and web service calls, etc.

ODI has made it possible for our organization to rapidly build robust integrations that process large data. The learning curve of this technology is also very smooth and can be picked up by any one with minimal programming experience.

ODI's "in-memory RDBMS" is still a black box for programmers as there are no tools/dashboards to monitor/administrate this in-memory database. As a result, inconsistent data processing issues generally force us to restart the ODI server.

There were no issues with the deployment.

We've experienced no issues with performance.

It's been able to scale for our needs.

The product may not be as evolved as Informatica, but still has a lot to offer in the Fusion Middleware Product Suite. Keeps all the promises of an ETL/ELT tool, but when it comes to Administration and maintenance the product still leaves a lot to be desired.

It can do so much more than just load data. It can basically automate any task that you can think of, such a executing scripts for servers outside of your Oracle environment, executing any task that the IT team wishes to execute can be done via ODI. I created a button on a user’s machine once, this button executed only her job in ODI regardless of all the other jobs that were created. I love working with ODI because it tests your thought limits and creativity and the possibilities are endless when it comes to innovative tasks.

I work in a consulting role but I believe that by implementing it a lot of organizations’ manual processes have been automated

With ODI there is a lot of manual work to be done with the initial setup.

I've been using it for four years.

There were no issues with the deployment.

We've experienced no issues with performance.

It's been able to scale for our needs.

99% of the time we do our own trouble shooting.

I started with this product.

The initial setup was rather complex but I knew what I needed to do to achieve the end result. There are also allot of reading material on these products if you get stuck

We used an in-house team. My advice would be to know what you want to achieve with the tool because it is very flexible.

In my opinion the notable difference between ODI 10 and ODI 11 is the possibility to keep multiple interfaces open at the same time. This makes it very comfortable to work with. Another technical feature that I like, is the possibility to create a dataset. This is the Oracle set operator inside the interfaces such as UNION, INTERSECT, MINUS. It has a friendly interface where you can see all tools very clearly because the designer tab shows the operator, topology and security workflow together and you can access them at the same time without any problems.

With ODI 11, I have spent time developing different interfaces at the same time instead of developing them one by one. ODI doesn't have an interpretable language in its architecture, so if you know Oracle you can write mapping SQL statements that you need for getting the data. This allows you me to have a greater adaptability.

I would like more different tools of transformation. In the current version I have only worked with lookup and filter, and sometimes is not good enough for what I use it for.

I've been using it for seven months.

There were no issues with the deployment.

We had issues with the early versions but lately the product is performing well.

It's been able to scale for our needs.

Oracle provides good support for this tool.

The initial implementation was simple, and there are no issues to report.

I tried PowerCenter a few months before Oracle Data Integrator. I wanted to try the Oracle ETL to compare it with the tools of PowerCenter.

ODI is a great ETL tool that you can use for implementation. It’s not complicated to use, and with knowledge of SQL and PLSQL you can customize it a lot.

The product separates business logic (data mapping) from how data moves from source to target. A Knowledge Module defines the steps to move data from an Oracle DB to SQL Server for example, leaving only the transformation logic for the developer to define. This results in an ability develop transformations more rapidly than say Informatica.

We spend much less time developing integrations because all we need to focus on is the business logic.

The user interface is a little slow. When compared to Informatica, the UI is more intuitive, but because it is Java based, it does hang at times. This can be tuned, but it is something that could be streamlined.

I've been using it for over five years.

There were no issues with the deployment.

We have had no issues with the stability.

It's been able to scale for our needs.

It is adequate.

It is adequate.

I have used a number of ETL tools. I like this one because it is part of Oracle Business Intelligence applications which is my primary focus. I would choose it over Informatica because you can develop more rapidly.

It was straightforward as the installation is fairly easy and well documented.

As with all software, read the installation guide cover to cover before you start.

The most value feature of this product are the Knowledge Modules. Oracle Data Integrator comes with a comprehensive library of Knowledge Modules that helps automate the data flow, reduce the learning curve, and shorten the implementation time.

The use of this product has helped identify data quality issues in upstream source systems. As a result, data quality rules have been implemented in order to capture them during data entry.

I would like to see in the next version/release the ability to scale a package workflow or data flow process during the execution at run time. Once a workflow is developed, a snapshot of the code is taken and a scenario is created. It is the scenario that is executed during run time. In order to add a step to the package workflow, you must modify it and re-create another scenario. Thus, making such changes to package workflow can impact other packages that are dependent.

I have used this product for more than 13 years. I was first exposed to this product back in 2003. Before Oracle Corporation purchased the product, it was formerly known as Sunopsis. I learned to develop workflow packages with version 3.

We experienced no issues with the deployment.

It’s a perfectly stable product and we’ve not experienced any issues.

We have been able to scale it for our needs.

Oracle technical support for this product is excellent.

Although the initial setup was straightforward, you must decide if you will create one schema for the master and work repository or separate schemas. However, the product provides a step-by-step menu-driven UI, which makes the installation a breeze.

The implementation was done by both a vendor and internal resources. In addition, name standards for objects (e.g., packages, scenarios, procedures) should be considered and each package should be design independently from other packages (e.g., Modular Programming).

MS SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) was considered. However, the internally-preferred vendor company was Oracle. The availability of a license and expertise in product usage helped in the decision-making process.

The most important decision is the deployment strategy of the Master and Work Repositories that is the use of Single or Multiple Master Repositories. The company’s internal policy will determine which strategy can be used. However, the most common implementation I have seen is multiple master and work repositories. It performs and works as advertised.

The most valuable features of ODI are the relatively comprehensive ELT features (i.e. execution of data transformation and validation processes), with scheduling.

In our experience with ODI, we've found that the best use of it was with the development of our data warehouse.

There are a couple areas for improvement. First, it needs better error handling (i.e. messages, debugging). Second, it also needs the ability to perform more complex interfaces (i.e. multiple sources to targets).

I've used it for over a year.

There have been no issues with the deployment.

We have had no issues with the stability.

There have been no issues scaling it for our need.

In our experience, technical support is just average.

It is relatively complex for a first-time setup. There is a need to set up separately the RCU configuration of agents, and there's definitely a learning curve to this.

We implemented with our in-house team.