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reviewer1772286 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Software Engineering at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Feb 3, 2022
Reports on predictions that our product is doing. It would be nice if they could have analytics perform well on large volumes.
Pros and Cons
  • "The way it has improved our product is by giving our users the ability to do ad hoc reports, which is very important to our users. We can do predictive analysis on trends coming in for contracts, which is what our product does. The product helps users decide which way to go based on the predictive analysis done by Pentaho. Pentaho is not doing predictions, but reporting on the predictions that our product is doing. This is a big part of our product."
  • "The performance could be improved. If they could have analytics perform well on large volumes, that would be a big deal for our products."

What is our primary use case?

We started using Pentaho for two purposes:

  1. As an ETL tool to bring data in. 
  2. As an analytics tool. 

As our solution progressed, we dropped the ETL piece of Pentaho. We didn't end up using it. What remains in our product today is the analytics tool.

We do a lot of simulations on our data with Pentaho reports. We use Pentaho's reporting capabilities to tell us how contracts need to be negotiated for optimal results by using the analytics tool within Pentaho.

How has it helped my organization?

This was an OEM solution for our product. The way it has improved our product is by giving our users the ability to do ad hoc reports, which is very important to our users. We can do predictive analysis on trends coming in for contracts, which is what our product does. The product helps users decide which way to go based on the predictive analysis done by Pentaho. Pentaho is not doing predictions, but reporting on the predictions that our product is doing. This is a big part of our product.

What is most valuable?

There is an end-to-end flow, where a user can say, "I am looking at this field and want to slice and dice my data based on these parameters." That flexibility is provided by Pentaho. This minimal manual coding is important to us.

What needs improvement?

The performance could be improved. If they could have analytics perform well on large volumes, that would be a big deal for our products.  

Buyer's Guide
Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics
December 2025
Learn what your peers think about Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
879,371 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We are on-prem. Once the product was installed and up and running, I haven't had issues with the product going down or not being responsive.

We have one technical lead who is responsible for making sure that we keep upgrading the solution so we are not on a version that is not supported anymore. In general, it is low maintenance.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The only complaint that I have with Pentaho has been with scaling. As our data grew, we tested it with millions of records. When we started to implement it, we had clients that went from 80 million to 100 million. I think scale did present a problem with the clients. I know that Pentaho talks about being able to manage big data, which is much more data than what we have. I don't know if it was our architecture versus the product limitations, but we did have issues with scaling.

Our product doesn't deal with big data at large. There are probably 17 million records. With those 17 million records, it performs well when it has been internally cached within Pentaho. However, if you are loading the dataset or querying it for the first time, then it does take awhile. Once it has been cached in Pentaho, the subsequent queries are reasonably fast.

How are customer service and support?

We haven't had a lot of functional issues. We had performance issues, especially early on, as we were trying to spin up this product. The response time from the support group has been a three on a scale of one to five.

We had trouble with the performance and had their engineers come in. We shared our troubles and problems, then those engineers had brainstorming sessions. Their ability to solve problems was really good and I would rate that as four out of five.

A lot of the problems were with the performance and scale of data that we had. It could have been that we didn't have a lot of upfront clean architecture. With the brainstorming sessions, we tried giving two sets of reports to users: 

  1. One was more summary level, which was quick, and that is what 80% of our clients use. 
  2. For 20% of our clients, we provided detailed reports that do take awhile. However, you are then not impacting performance for 80% of your clients. 

This was a good solution or compromise that we reached from both a business and technology perspective. 

Now, I feel like the product is doing well. It is almost like their team helped us with rearchitecting and building product expectations.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

Previously, we used to have something called QlikView, which is almost obsolete now. We had a lot of trouble with QlikView. Anytime processing was done, it would take a long time for those processed results to be loaded into QlikView's memory. This meant that there was a lot of time spent once an operation was done. Before users could see results or reports, it would take a couple of hours. We didn't want that lag. 

Pentaho offered an option not to have that lag. It did not have its own in-memory database, where everything had to be loaded. That was one of the big reasons why we wanted to switch away from QlikView, and Pentaho fit that need.

How was the initial setup?

I would say the deployment/implementation process was straightforward enough for both data ingestion and analytics.

When we started with the data ingestion, we went with something called Spoon. Then we realized, while it was a Pentaho product, Spoon was open source. We had integrated with the open source version of it, but later found that it didn't work for commercialization. 

For us to integrate Pentaho and get it working, it took a couple of months because we needed to figure out authentication with Pentaho. So, learning and deployment within our environment took a couple of months. This includes the actual implementation and figuring out how to do what we wanted to do.

Because this is a licensed product, the deployment for the client was a small part of the product's deployment. So, on an individual client basis, the deployment is easy and a small piece. 

It gives us the flexibility to deploy it in any environment, which is important to us.

If we went to the cloud version of Pentaho, that would be a big maintenance relief. We wouldn't have to worry about getting the latest version, installing it, and sending it out to our clients.

What about the implementation team?

For the deployment, we had people come in from Pentaho for a week or two. They were there with us through the process.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at Tableau, Pentaho and an IBM solution. In the absence of Pentaho, we would have gone with either Tableau or building our own custom solution. When we were figuring out what third-party tool to use, we did an analysis and a bunch of other tools were compared. Ultimately, we went with Pentaho because it did have a wide variety of features and functionalities within its reports. Though I wasn't involved, there was a cost analysis done and Pentaho did favorably in terms of cost.

For the product that we use Pentaho for, I think we're happy with their decision. There are a few other products in our product suite. Those products ended up using Tableau. I know that there have been discussions about considering Tableau over Pentaho in the future. 

What other advice do I have?

Engage Pentaho's architects early on, so you know what data architecture works best with the product. We built our database and structures, then had performance issues. However, it was too late when we brought in the Pentaho architects, because our data structure was out in the field with multiple clients. Therefore, I think engaging them early on in the data architecture process would be wise.

I am not very familiar with Hitachi's roadmap and what is coming up for them. I know that they are good with sending out newsletters and keeping their customers in the know, but unfortunately, I am unaware of their roadmap.

I feel like this product is doing well. There haven't been complaints and things are moving along. I would rate it as seven out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Lead, Data and BI Architect at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Real User
Jan 13, 2022
We can use the same tool on all our environments. The patching is buggy.
Pros and Cons
  • "Flexible deployment, in any environment, is very important to us. That is the key reason why we ended up with these tools. Because we have a very highly secure environment, we must be able to install it in multiple environments on multiple different servers. The fact that we could use the same tool in all our environments, on-prem and in the cloud, was very important to us."
  • "The testing and quality could really improve. Every time that there is a major release, we are very nervous about what is going to get broken. We have had a lot of experience with that, as even the latest one was broken. Some basic things get broken. That doesn't look good for Hitachi at all. If there is one place I would advise them to spend some money and do some effort, it is with the quality. It is not that hard to start putting in some unit tests so basic things don't get broken when they do a new release. That just looks horrible, especially for an organization like Hitachi."

What is our primary use case?

We run the payment systems for Canada. We use it as a typical ETL tool to transfer and modify data into a data warehouse. We have many different pipelines that we have built with it.

How has it helped my organization?

I love the fact that we haven't come up with a problem yet that we haven't been able to address with this tool. I really appreciate its maturity and the breadth of its capabilities.

If we did not have this tool, we would probably have to use a whole different variety of tools, then our environment would be a lot more complicated.

We develop metadata pipelines and use them.

Flexible deployment, in any environment, is very important to us. That is the key reason why we ended up with these tools. Because we have a very highly secure environment, we must be able to install it in multiple environments on multiple different servers. The fact that we could use the same tool in all our environments, on-prem and in the cloud, was very important to us. 

What is most valuable?

Because it comes from an open-source background, it has so many different plugins. It is just extremely broad in what it can do. I appreciate that it has a very broad, wide spectrum of things that it can connect to and do. It has been around for a while, so it is mature and has a lot of things built into it. That is the biggest thing. 

The visual nature of its development is a big plus. You don't need to have very strong developers to be able to work with it.

We often have to drop down to JavaScript, but that is fine. I appreciate that it has the capability built-in. When you need to, you can drop down to a scripting language. This is important to us.

What needs improvement?

The documentation is very basic.

The testing and quality could really improve. Every time that there is a major release, we are very nervous about what is going to get broken. We have had a lot of experience with that, as even the latest one was broken. Some basic things get broken. That doesn't look good for Hitachi at all. If there is one place I would advise them to spend some money and do some effort, it is with the quality. It is not that hard to start putting in some unit tests so basic things don't get broken when they do a new release. That just looks horrible, especially for an organization like Hitachi.

For how long have I used the solution?

Overall, I have been using it for about 10 years. At my current organization, I have been using it for about seven years. It was used a little bit at my previous organization as well.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is not great, especially when you start patching it a lot because things get broken. That is not a great look. When you start patching, you are expecting things to get fixed, not new things to get broken.

With modern programming, you build a lot of automated testing around your solution, and it is specifically for that. I changed this piece of code. Well, what else got broken? Obviously they don't have a lot of unit tests built into their code. They need to start doing that because it looks horrible when they change one thing, then two other things get broken. Then, they released that as a commercial product, which is horrible. Last time, somehow they broke the ability to connect with databases. That is something incredibly basic. How could you release this product without even testing for that?

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We don't have a huge amount of data, so I can't really answer how we could scale up to very large solutions.

How are customer service and support?

Lumada’s ability to quickly and effectively solve issues we have brought up is not great. We have a service for the solution with Hitachi. I don't get the sense that Pentaho, and Hitachi still calls it Pentaho, is a huge center of focus for them. 

You kind of get help, but the people from whom you get help aren't necessarily super strong. It often goes around in circles forever. I eventually have to find my own solution. 

I haven't found that the Hitachi support site has a depth of understanding for the solution. They can answer simple questions, but when it gets more in-depth, they have a lot of trouble answering questions. I don't think the support people have the depth of expertise to really deal with difficult questions.

I would rate them as five out of 10. They are responsive and polite. I don't feel ignored or anything like that, just the depth of knowledge isn't there.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

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

It has always been here. There was no solution like it until I got to the company.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex because we had to integrate with SAML. Even though they had some direction on that, it was really a do-it-yourself kind of thing. That was pretty complicated, so if they want to keep this product fresh, I think they have to work on making it integrate more with modern technology, like single sign-on and stuff like that. Every organization has that now and Pentaho doesn't have a good story for that. However, it is the platform that they don't give a lot of love to.

It took us a long time to figure it out, something like two weeks.

What was our ROI?

This has reduced our ETL development time. If it wasn't for this solution, we would be doing custom coding. The reason why we are using the solution is because of its simplicity of development.

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

The cost of these types of solutions are expensive. So, we really appreciate what we get for our money. Though, we don't think of the solution as a top-of-the-line solution or anything like that.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Apache has a project going on called Apache Hop. Because Pentaho was open sourced, people have taken and forged it. They are really modernizing the solution. As far as I know, Hitachi is not involved yet. I would highly advise them to get involved in that open-source project. It will be the next generation of Pentaho. If they get left behind, they're not going to have anything. It would be a very bad move to just ignore it. Hitachi should not ignore Apache Hop.

What other advice do I have?

I really like the data integration tool. However, it is part of a whole platform of tools, and it is obvious the other tools just don't get a lot of love. We are in it for Pentaho Data Integration (PDI) because that is what we want as our ETL tool. We use their reporting platform and stuff like that, but it is obvious that they just don't get a lot of love or concern.

I haven't looked at the roadmap that much. We are also a Google customer using BigQuery, etc. Hitachi is really just a very niche part of what we do. Therefore, we are not generally looking very seriously at what Hitachi is doing with their products nor a big investor in what Hitachi is doing.

I would recommend this specific Hitachi product to a friend or colleague, depending on their use case and need. If they have a very similar need, I would recommend it. I wouldn't be saying, "Oh, this is the best thing next to sliced bread," but say, "Hey, if this is what you need, this works well for us."

On a scale of one to 10 for recommending the product, I would rate it as seven out of 10. Overall, I would also rate it as seven out of 10.

We really appreciated the breadth of its capabilities. It is not the top-of-the-line solution, but you really get a lot for what you pay for.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

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

Google
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics
December 2025
Learn what your peers think about Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
879,371 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Anton Abrarov - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Leader at a mining and metals company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Jun 8, 2022
Fastens the data flow processes and has a user-friendly interface
Pros and Cons
  • "It has a really friendly user interface, which is its main feature. The process of automating or combining SQL code with some databases and doing the automation is great and really convenient."
  • "As far as I remember, not all connectors worked very well. They can add more connectors and more drivers to the process to integrate with more flows."

What is our primary use case?

The company where I was working previously was using this product. We were using it for ETL process management. It was like a data flow automatization.

In terms of deployment, we were using an on-premise model because we had sensitive data, and there were some restrictions related to information security.

How has it helped my organization?

Our data flow processes became faster with this solution.

What is most valuable?

It has a really friendly user interface, which is its main feature. The process of automating or combining SQL code with some databases and doing the automation is great and really convenient.

What needs improvement?

As far as I remember, not all connectors worked very well. They can add more connectors and more drivers to the process to integrate with more flows.

The last time I saw this product, the onboarding instructions were not clear. If the process of onboarding this product is made more clear, it will take the product to the next level. There is a possibility that the onboarding process has already improved, and I haven't seen it. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for two or three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We didn't have to scale too much. So, I can't evaluate it properly in terms of scalability.

In terms of its users, only our team was using it. There were approximately 20 users. It was not for the whole company.

How are customer service and support?

We didn't use too much customer support. We were using the open-source resources through Google Search. So, we were just using text search. There were some helpful forums where we were able to find the answers to our questions.

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

I didn't use any other solution previously. This was the only one.

How was the initial setup?

I wasn't a part of its deployment. In terms of maintenance, as far as I know, it didn't require much maintenance.

What was our ROI?

We absolutely saw an ROI. It was hard to calculate, but we felt it in terms of
the speed of our processes. After using this product, we could do some of the things much faster than before.

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

I mostly used the open-source version. I didn't work with a license.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I did not evaluate other options.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend using this product for data engineering and Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) processes.

I would rate it an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1872000 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Data Analyst at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Jun 8, 2022
We're able to query large data sets without affecting performance
Pros and Cons
  • "One of the most valuable features is the ability to create many API integrations. I'm always working with advertising agents and using Facebook and Instagram to do campaigns. We use Pentaho to get the results from these campaigns and to create dashboards to analyze the results."
  • "Parallel execution could be better in Pentaho. It's very simple but I don't think it works well."

What is our primary use case?

I use it for ETL. We receive data from our clients and we join the most important information and do many segmentations to help with communication between our product and our clients.

How has it helped my organization?

Before we used Pentaho, our processes were in Microsoft Excel and the updates from databases had to be done manually. Now all our routines are done automatically and we have more time to do other jobs. It saves us four or five hours daily.

In terms of ETL development time, it depends on the complexity of the job, but if the job is simple it saves two or three hours.

What is most valuable?

One of the most valuable features is the ability to create many API integrations. I'm always working with advertising agents and using Facebook and Instagram to do campaigns. We use Pentaho to get the results from these campaigns and to create dashboards to analyze the results.

I'm working with large data sets. One of the clients I'm working with is a large credit card company and the database from this client is very large. Pentaho allows me to query large data sets without affecting its performance.

I use Pentaho with Jenkins to schedule the jobs. I'm using the jobs and transformations in Pentaho to create many links. 

I always find ways to have minimal code and create the processes with many parameters. I am able to reuse processes that I have created before. 

Creating jobs and putting them into production, as well as the visibility that Pentaho gives, are both very simple.

What needs improvement?

Parallel execution could be better in Pentaho. It's very simple but I don't think it works well.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with Pentaho for four or five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable.

How are customer service and support?

I find help on the forums.

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

I used SQL Server Integration Services, but I have much more experience with Pentaho. I have also worked with Apache NiFi but it is more focused on single data processes but I'm always working with batch processes and large data sets.

How was the initial setup?

The first deployment was very complex because we didn't have experience with the solution, but the next deployment was simpler.

We create jobs weekly in Pentaho. The development time takes, on average, one week and the deployment takes just one day or so.

We just put it on Git and pull a server and schedule the execution.

We use it on-premises while the infrastructure is Amazon and Azure.

What other advice do I have?

I always recommend Pentaho for working with automated processes and to do API integrations.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Aqeel UR Rehman - PeerSpot reviewer
BI Analyst at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 10
May 19, 2022
Simple to use, supports custom transformations, and the open-source version can be used free of charge
Pros and Cons
  • "This solution allows us to create pipelines using a minimal amount of custom coding."
  • "I have been facing some difficulties when working with large datasets. It seems that when there is a large amount of data, I experience memory errors."

What is our primary use case?

I have used this ETL tool for working with data in projects across several different domains. My use cases include tasks such as transforming data that has been taken from an API like PayPal, extracting data from different sources such as Magenta or other databases, and transforming all of the information.

Once the transformation is complete, we load the data into data warehouses such as Amazon Redshift.

How has it helped my organization?

There are a lot of different benefits we receive from using this solution. For example, we can easily accept data from an API and create JSON files. The integration is also very good.

I have created many data pipelines and after they are created, they can be reused on different levels.

What is most valuable?

The best feature is that it's simple to use. There are simple data transformation steps available, such as trimming data or performing different types of replacement.

This solution allows us to create pipelines using a minimal amount of custom coding. Anyone in the company can do so, and it's just a simple step. If any coding is required then we can use JavaScript.

What needs improvement?

I have been facing some difficulties when working with large datasets. It seems that when there is a large amount of data, I experience memory errors. If there is a large amount of data then there is definitely a lag.

I would like to see a cloud-based deployment because it will allow us to easily handle a large amount of data.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Hitachi Lumada Data Integration for almost three years, across two different organizations.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There is definitely some lag but with a little improvement, it will be a good fit.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a good product for an enterprise-level company.

We use this solution for all of our data integration jobs. It handles the transformation. As our business grows and the demand for data integration increases, our usage of this tool will also increase.

Between versions, they have added a lot of plugins.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support does not reply in a timely manner. I have filled out the support request form, one or two times, asking about different things, but I have not received a reply.

The support they have in place does not work very well. I would rate them one or two out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Negative

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

In this business, they initially began with this product and did not use another one beforehand. I have also worked on the cloud-level integration tool. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup and deployment are straightforward.

I have deployed it on different servers and on average, it takes an hour to complete. I have not read any documentation regarding installation. With my experience, we were able to set everything up.

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

I primarily work on the Community Version, which is available to use free of charge. I have asked for pricing information but have not yet received a response.

What other advice do I have?

We are currently using version 8.3 but version 9 is available. More features to support big data are available in the newest release.

My advice for anybody who is considering this product is if they're looking for any kind of custom transformation, or they're gleaning data from multiple sources and sending it to multiple destinations, I definitely recommend this tool.

Overall, this is a good product and I recommend it.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
CDE & BI Delivery Manager at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Consultant
May 10, 2022
Connects to different databases, origins of data, files, and SFTP
Pros and Cons
  • "I can create faster instructions than writing with SQL or code. Also, I am able to do some background control of the data process with this tool. Therefore, I use it as an ELT tool. I have a station area where I can work with all the information that I have in my production databases, then I can work with the data that I created."
  • "I work with different databases. I would like to work with more connectors to new databases, e.g., DynamoDB and MariaDB, and new cloud solutions, e.g., AWS, Azure, and GCP. If they had these connectors, that would be great. They could improve by building new connectors. If you have native connections to different databases, then you can make instructions more efficient and in a more natural way. You don't have to write any scripts to use that connector."

What is our primary use case?

I just use it as an ETL. It is a tool that helps me work with data so I can solve any of my production problems. I work with a lot of databases. Therefore, I use this tool to keep information organized. 

I work with a virtual private cloud (VPC) and VPN. If I work in the cloud, I use VPC. If I work on-premises, I work with VPNs.

How has it helped my organization?

I can create faster instructions than writing with SQL or code. Also, I am able to do some background control of the data process with this tool. Therefore, I use it as an ELT tool. I have a station area where I can work with all the information that I have in my production databases, then I can work with the data that I created.

Right now, I am working in the business intelligence area. However, we use BI in all our companies. So, it is not only in one area. So, I create different data parts for different business units, e.g., HR, IT, sales, and marketing.

What is most valuable?

A valuable feature is the number of connectors that I have. So, I can connect to different databases, origins of data, files, and SFTP. With SQL and NoSQL databases, I can connect, put it in my instructions, send it to my staging area, and create the format. Thus, I can format all my data in just one process.

What needs improvement?

I work with different databases. I would like to work with more connectors to new databases, e.g., DynamoDB and MariaDB, and new cloud solutions, e.g., AWS, Azure, and GCP. If they had these connectors, that would be great. They could improve by building new connectors. If you have native connections to different databases, then you can make instructions more efficient and in a more natural way. You don't have to write any scripts to use that connector.

Hitachi can make a lot of improvements in the tool, e.g., in performance or latency or putting more emphasis on cloud solutions or NoSQL databases. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have more than 15 years of experience working with it.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability depends on the version. At the beginning, it was more focused on stability. As of now, some things have been deprecated. I really don't know why. However, I have been pretty happy with the tool. It is a very good tool. Obviously, there are better tools, but Pentaho is fast and pretty easy to use. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

Their support team will receive a ticket on any failures that you might have. We have a log file that lets us review our errors, both in Windows and Unix. So, we are able to check both operating systems.

If you don't pay any license, you are not allowed to use their support at all. While I have used it a couple of times, that was more than 10 years ago. Now, I just go to their community and any Pentaho forums. I don't use the support.

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

I have used a lot of ETL data integrators, such as DataStage, Informatica, Talend, Matillion, Python, and even SQL. MicroStrategy, Qlik, and Tableau have instructional features, and I try to use a lot of tools to do instructions. 

How was the initial setup?

I have built the solution. It does not change for cloud or on-premise developments. 

You create in your development environments, then you move to test. After that, you do the volume and integrity testing, then you go to UAT. Finally, you move to production. It does depend on the customer. You can thoroughly create the entire product structure as well as all the files that you need. Once you put it in production, it should work. You should have the same structure in development, test, and production.

What was our ROI?

It is free. I don't spend money on it.

It will reduce a lot of the time that you work with data.

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

I use it because it is free. I download from their page for free. I don't have to pay for a license. With other tools, I have to pay for the licenses. That is why I use Pentaho.

I used to work with the complete suite of Pentaho, not only Data Integration. I used to build some solutions from scratch. I used to work with the Community version and Enterprise versions. With the Enterprise version, it is more than building cubes. I am building a BI solution that I can explore. Every time that I use Pentaho Data Integration, I never spend any money because it comes free with the tool. If you pay for the Enterprise license, Pentaho Data Integration is included. If you don't pay for it and use the Community version, Data Integration is included for free. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I used to work with a reseller of Pentaho. That is why I started working with it. Also, I did some training for Pentaho at the company that I used to work for in Argentina, where we were a Platinum reseller. 

Pentaho is easy to use. You don't need to install anything. You can just open the script and start working on it. That is why I chose it. With Informatica, you need to do a server installation, but some companies might not allow some installation in their production or normal environment.

I feel pretty comfortable using the solution. I have tried to use other tools, but I always come back to Pentaho because it is easier. 

Pentaho is open source. While Informatica is a very good tool, it is pretty expensive. That is one of the biggest cons for the data team because you don't want to pay money for tools that just only help you to work.  

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution as eight out of 10. One of the best things about the solution is that it is free.

I used to sell Pentaho. It has a lot of pros and cons. From my side, there are more pros than cons. There isn't one tool that can do everything that you need, but this tool is one of those tools that helps you to complete your tasks and it is pretty integrable with other tools. So, you can switch Pentaho on and off from different tools and operating systems. You can use it in Unix, Linux, Windows, and Mac.

If you know how to develop different things and are very good at Java, you can create your own connectors. You can create a lot of things. 

It is a very good tool if you need to work with data. There isn't a database that you can't manage with this tool. You can work with it and manage all the data that you want to manage.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Michel Philippenko - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Apr 4, 2022
Forums are helpful, and creating ETL jobs is simpler than in other solutions
Pros and Cons
    • "I was not happy with the Pentaho Report Designer because of the way it was set up. There was a zone and, under it, another zone, and under that another one, and under that another one. There were a lot of levels and places inside the report, and it was a little bit complicated. You have to search all these different places using a mouse, clicking everywhere... each report is coded in a binary file... You cannot search with a text search tool..."

    What is our primary use case?

    I was working with Pentaho for a client. I had to implement complicated data flows and extraction. I had to take data from several sources in a PostgreSQL database by reading many tables in several databases, as well as from Excel files. I created some complex jobs. I also had to implement business reports with the Pentaho Report Designer.

    The client I was working for had Pentaho on virtual machines.

    What is most valuable?

    The ETL feature was the most valuable to me. I like it very much. It was very good.

    What needs improvement?

    I was not happy with the Pentaho Report Designer because of the way it was set up. There was a zone and, under it, another zone, and under that another one, and under that another one. There were a lot of levels and places inside the report, and it was a little bit complicated. You had to search all these different places using a mouse, clicking everywhere. The interface does not enable you to find things and manage all that. I don't know if other tools are better for end-users when it comes to the graphical interface, but this was a bit complicated. In the end, we were able to do everything with Pentaho.

    And when you want to improve the appearance of your report, Pentaho Report Designer has complicated menus. It is not very user-friendly. The result is beautiful, but it takes time.

    Also, each report is coded in a binary file, so you cannot read it. Maybe that's what the community or the developers want, but it is inconvenient because when you want to search for information, you need to open the graphical interface and click everywhere. You cannot search with a text search tool because the reports are coded in binary. When you have a lot of reports and you want to find where a precise part of one of your reports is, you cannot do it easily.

    The way you specify parameters in Pentaho Report Designer is a little bit complex. There are two interfaces. The job creators use the PDI which provides the ETL interface, and it's okay. Creating the jobs for extract/transform/load is simpler than in other solutions. But there is another interface for the end-users of Pentaho and you have to understand how they relate to each other, so it's a little bit complex. You have to go into XML files, which is not so simple.

    Also, using the solution overall is a little bit difficult. You need to be an engineer and somebody with a technical background. It's not absolutely easy, it's a technical tool. I didn't immediately understand it and had to search for information and to think about it.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I used Hitachi Lumada Data Integration, Pentaho, for approximately two years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability was perfect.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    I didn't scale the solution. I had to migrate from an old Pentaho to a new Pentaho. I had quite a big set of data, but I didn't add new data. I worked with the same volume of data all the time so I didn't test the scaling.

    In the company I consulted for, there were about 15 people who input the data and worked with the technical part of Pentaho. There were a lot of end-users, who were the people interested in the reports; on the order of several thousand end-users. 

    How are customer service and support?

    The technical support was okay. I used the open-source version of Pentaho and I used the forum. I found what I needed. And, the one or two times when I didn't find something, I asked a question in the forum and I received an answer very quickly. I appreciated that a lot. I had an answer one or two hours later. It's very good that somebody from Pentaho Enterprise responds so rapidly.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup was complex, but I'm an engineer and it's my job to deal with complex systems. It's not the most complex that I have dealt with, but it was still somewhat complex. The procedure was explained on the Pentaho website in the documentation. You had to understand which module does what. It was quite complex.

    It took quite a long time because I had to troubleshoot, to understand what was wrong, and I had to do it several times before it worked.

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

    I didn't purchase Pentaho. There is a business version but I used only the open source. I was fully satisfied and very happy with it. It's a very good open-source solution. The communication channels, the updates, the patches, et cetera are all good.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would fully recommend Pentaho. I have already recommended it to some colleagues. It's a good product with good performance.

    Overall, I was very happy with it. It was complicated, but that is part of my job. I was happy with the result and the stability. The Data Integration product is simpler than the Report Designer. I would rate the Data Integration at 10 out of 10 and the Report Designer at nine, because of the graphical interface.

    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. System integrator
    PeerSpot user
    Analytics Team Leader at a healthcare company with 11-50 employees
    Real User
    Jan 3, 2022
    Enables us to manage our workload and generate a high volume of reporting
    Pros and Cons
    • "We're using the PDI and the repository function, and they give us the ability to easily generate reporting and output, and to access data. We also like the ability to schedule."
    • "Since Hitachi took over, I don't feel that the documentation is as good within the solution. It used to have very good help built right in."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use it to connect to multiple databases and generate reporting. We also have ETL processes running on it.

    Portions of it are in AWS, but we also have desktop access.

    How has it helped my organization?

    The solution has allowed us to automate reporting by automating its scheduling. 

    It is also important to us that the solution enables you to leverage metadata to automate data pipeline templates and reuse them. It allows us to generate reports with fewer resources.

    If we didn't have this solution, we wouldn't be able to manage our workload or generate the volume of reporting that we currently do. It's very important for us that it provides a single, end-to-end data management experience from ingestion to insights. We are a high-volume department and without those features, we wouldn't be able to manage the current workload.

    What is most valuable?

    We're using the PDI and the repository function, and they give us the ability to easily generate reporting and output, and to access data. We also like the ability to schedule.

    What needs improvement?

    Since Hitachi took over, I don't feel that the documentation is as good within the solution. It used to have very good help built right in. There's good documentation when you go to the site but the help function within the solution hasn't been as good since Hitachi took over.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been using Lumada Data Integration since 2016, but the company has been using it much longer.

    We are currently on version 8.3, but we're going to be doing an upgrade to 9.2 next month.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability is good. We haven't had any issues related to Pentaho.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Its scalability is very good. We use it with multiple, large databases. We've added to it over time and it scales.

    We have about 10 users of the solution including a data quality manager, clinical analyst, healthcare informatics analysts, senior healthcare informatics analyst, and an analytics team leader. It's used very extensively by all of those job roles in their day-to-day work. When we add additional staff members, they routinely get access to and are trained on the solution.

    How are customer service and support?

    Their ability to quickly and effectively solve issues we have brought up is very good. They have a ticketing system and they're very responsive to any tickets we enter. And that's true not only for issues but if we have questions about functionality.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    How was the initial setup?

    The solution is very flexible. It's pretty easy to set up connections within the solution.

    Maintenance isn't required day-to-day. Our technical staff does the upgrades. They also, on occasion, have to do things like restarting the services, but that's typically related to server issues, not Pentaho itself.

    What other advice do I have?

    My advice would be to take advantage of the training that's offered.

    The query performance of Lumada on large data sets is good, but the query performance is really only as good as the server.

    In terms of Hitachi's roadmap, we haven't seen it in a little while. We did have a concern that they're going to be going away from Pentaho and rolling it into another product and we're not quite sure what the result of that is going to be. We don't have a good understanding of what's going to change. That's the concern.

    We currently only use Pentaho. We don't have other Hitachi products but we're satisfied with it. We would recommend Pentaho.

    Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
    PeerSpot user
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    Updated: December 2025
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