IBM Cognos Analytics vs. IBM DataStage

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM Cognos Analytics
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
IBM Cognos is a full-featured business intelligence suite by IBM, designed for larger deployments. It comprises Query Studio, Reporting Studio, Analysis Studio and Event Studio, and Cognos Administration along with tools for Microsoft Office integration, full-text search, and dashboards.
$10
per month per user
IBM DataStage
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
IBM® DataStage® is a data integration tool that helps users to design, develop and run jobs that move and transform data. At its core, the DataStage tool supports extract, transform and load (ETL) and extract, load and transform (ELT) patterns. A basic version of the software is available for on-premises deployment, and the cloud-based DataStage for IBM Cloud Pak® for Data offers automated integration capabilities in a hybrid or multicloud environment.N/A
Pricing
IBM Cognos AnalyticsIBM DataStage
Editions & Modules
On Demand - Standard
$10.00
per month per user
On Demand - Standard
$10.60
per month per user
On Demand - Premium
$42.40
per month per user
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM Cognos AnalyticsIBM DataStage
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM Cognos AnalyticsIBM DataStage
Considered Both Products
IBM Cognos Analytics
IBM DataStage
Chose IBM DataStage
It's obvious since they both are from the same vendors and it makes it easier and can get better rates for licensing. Also, sales rapes are very helpful in case of escalations and critical issues.
Chose IBM DataStage
DataStage offers better integration capabilities without the need to write code manually. It also has a native ETL engine whereas MSIS requires a SQL Server. It has better integration capabilities with data quality, data profiling and data governance tools. The main drawback of …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
IBM Cognos AnalyticsIBM DataStage
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.2
108 Ratings
12% below category average
IBM DataStage
-
Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports7.498 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards7.4106 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates6.8103 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.4
110 Ratings
8% below category average
IBM DataStage
-
Ratings
Drill-down analysis7.2108 Ratings00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities7.2109 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.476 Ratings00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration7.8105 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.9
109 Ratings
5% below category average
IBM DataStage
-
Ratings
Publish to Web8.327 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to PDF7.5103 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Versioning8.626 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling7.1106 Ratings00 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers8.112 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.2
100 Ratings
9% below category average
IBM DataStage
-
Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.495 Ratings00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.691 Ratings00 Ratings
Predictive Analytics6.888 Ratings00 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining6.926 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.9
105 Ratings
7% below category average
IBM DataStage
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)8.1102 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.1101 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)7.2101 Ratings00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control7.830 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.184 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
6.9
86 Ratings
13% below category average
IBM DataStage
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access7.380 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application6.870 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile7.876 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.5
67 Ratings
3% below category average
IBM DataStage
-
Ratings
REST API7.064 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API7.862 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames8.39 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API6.911 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)7.110 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)7.87 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Source Connection
Comparison of Data Source Connection features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
-
Ratings
IBM DataStage
9.5
10 Ratings
13% above category average
Connect to traditional data sources00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
Data Transformations
Comparison of Data Transformations features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
-
Ratings
IBM DataStage
8.0
10 Ratings
2% below category average
Simple transformations00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
Complex transformations00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
Data Modeling
Comparison of Data Modeling features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
-
Ratings
IBM DataStage
6.3
10 Ratings
22% below category average
Data model creation00 Ratings5.17 Ratings
Metadata management00 Ratings5.19 Ratings
Business rules and workflow00 Ratings6.19 Ratings
Collaboration00 Ratings6.110 Ratings
Testing and debugging00 Ratings6.110 Ratings
Data Governance
Comparison of Data Governance features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
-
Ratings
IBM DataStage
6.1
9 Ratings
29% below category average
Integration with data quality tools00 Ratings6.19 Ratings
Integration with MDM tools00 Ratings6.19 Ratings
Best Alternatives
IBM Cognos AnalyticsIBM DataStage
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
Skyvia
Skyvia
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Score 8.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IBM Cognos AnalyticsIBM DataStage
Likelihood to Recommend
7.4
(133 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.4
(27 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(8 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Availability
8.6
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(5 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(8 ratings)
9.6
(3 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.0
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
7.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.2
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM Cognos AnalyticsIBM DataStage
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM
IBM Cognos Analytics has advanced analytics capabilities and good reporting tools. Also, though it is better on demand for on-premises than cloud it does offer both. The system also supports various data management requirement needs. It is also pretty user friendly offering many dashboard and visualization options. The platform also integrates well with other business tools.
Read full review
IBM
Excellent Cloud data mapping tool and easy creating multiple project data analytics in real-time and the report distribution are excellent via this IBM product. Easy tool to provide data visualization and the integration is effective and helpful to migrating huge amounts of data across other platforms and different websites insights gathering.
Read full review
Pros
IBM
  • Data Visualization: Plenty of options exist for multiple use cases, and dashboards are easy to implement and customize.
  • Integration with IBM Watson: makes it easy to use Watson AI features (NLP etc.) on your data.
  • Its advanced analytics functionalities with powerful pattern detection/prediction models.
Read full review
IBM
  • Data movement
  • Seamless integration of scripts and etl jobs
  • Descriptive logging
  • Ability to work with myriad of data assets
  • Direct integration for Governance catalog
Read full review
Cons
IBM
  • API integration is not upto the mark with very limited options.
  • Laptops get overheated when the tool is used from moderate to heavy use. Also, there is a lag in the tool times.
  • Licensing & Maintenance can go from cheap to expensive depending on the scope.
  • Lot of scope to improve the customer support & its not upto the industry standards.
Read full review
IBM
  • Connector Stages to Snowflake on the cloud. We had some issues initially but since then had been corrected.
  • Accessing tool from a browser (zero foot-print). Currently we need to either install locally or connect to a server to do ETL work.
  • Diversify ways of authenticating users.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
IBM
For an existing solution, renewing licenses does provide a good return on investment. Additionally, while rolling out scorecards and dashboards with little adhoc capabilities, to end users, cognos is very easily scalable. It also allows to create a solution that has a mix of OLAP and relational data-sources, which is a limitation with other tools. Synchronizing with existing security setup is easy too.
Read full review
IBM
No answers on this topic
Usability
IBM
We have a strong user base (3500 users) that are highly utilizing this tool. Basic users are able to consume content within the applied security model. We have a set of advanced users that really push the limits of Cognos with Report and Query Studio. These users have created a lot of personal content and stored it in 'My Reports'. Users enjoy this flexibility.
Read full review
IBM
Because it is robust, and it is being continuously improved. DS is one of the most used and recognized tools in the market. Large companies have implemented it in the first instance to develop their DW, but finding the advantages it has, they could use it for other types of projects such as migrations, application feeding, etc.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
IBM
Reports can typically be viewed through any browser that can access the server, so the availability is ultimately up to what the company utilizing it is comfortable with allowing, though report development tends to be more picky about browsers and settings as mentioned above. It also has an optional iPad app and general mobile browsing support, but dashboards lack the mobile compatibility. What keeps it from getting a higher score is the desktop tools that are vital to the development process. The compatibility with only Windows when the server has a wide range of compatibility can be a real sore point for a company that outfits its employees exclusively with Mac or Linux machines. Of course, if they are planning on outsourcing the development anyways, it's a rather moot point
Read full review
IBM
No answers on this topic
Performance
IBM
Overall no major complaints but it doesn't handle DMR (Dimensionally Modeled for Relational) very well. DMR modelling is a capability that IBM Cognos Framework Manager provides allowing you to specify dimensional information for relational metadata and allows for OLAP-style queries. However, the capability is not very efficient and, for example, if I'm using only 2 columns on a 20-column model, the software is not smart enough to exclude 18 columns and the query side gets progressively larger and larger until it's effectively unusable.
Read full review
IBM
It could load thousands of records in seconds. But in the Parallel version, you need to understand how to particionate the data. If you use the algorithms erroneously, or the functionalities that it gives for the parsing of data, the performance can fall drastically, even with few records. It is necessary to have people with experience to be able to determine which algorithm to use and understand why.
Read full review
Support Rating
IBM
Why is their web application not working as fast as you think it should? They never know, and it is always a a bunch of shots in the dark to find out. Trying to download software from them is like trying to find a book at the library before computers were invented.
Read full review
IBM
I believe that IBM generally has one of the worst and most complex assistance systems (physical and online) that exists.
Read full review
In-Person Training
IBM
Onsite training provided by IBM Cognos was effective and as expected. They did not perform training with our data which was a bit difficult for our end-users.
Read full review
IBM
No answers on this topic
Online Training
IBM
The online courses they offer are thorough and presented in such a way that someone who isn't already familiar with the general design methodologies used in this field will be capable of making a good design. The training environments are provided as a fully self contained virtual machine with everything needed already to create the environments. We've had some persisting issues with the environments becoming unavailable, but support has been responsive when these issues arise and straightening them out for us
Read full review
IBM
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
IBM
Make sure that any custom tables that you have, are built into your metadata packages. You can still access them via SQL queries in Cognos, but it is much easier to have them as a part of the available metadata packages.
Read full review
IBM
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
IBM
My company selected IBM Congos Analytics because of its advanced features and data representation for data analysis. Its row and column features are very effective for creating dashboards and reports to visualize data. It's chart representation and view format are very attractive and useful for representation.
Read full review
IBM
It's obvious since they both are from the same vendors and it makes it easier and can get better rates for licensing. Also, sales rapes are very helpful in case of escalations and critical issues.
Read full review
Scalability
IBM
The Cognos architecture is well suited for scalability. However, the architecture must be designed with scalability in mind from day one of the implementation. We recently upgraded from 10.1 to 10.2.1 and took the opportunity to revamp our architecture. It is now poised for future growth and scalability.
Read full review
IBM
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
IBM
  • Positive: It provides collaboration and sharing of knowledge with other users which provides centralized access to data and reports.
  • Positive: It helps organization to save time and be efficient as it provides self service analytics and automated workflows.
  • Positive: With its powerful analytics and reporting capabilities it enables user to explore and analyze their data, identify the trends and make decisions based on those insights.
  • Negative: Implementing Cognos Analytics will take investments on licensing cost, training and infrastructure.
  • Negative: As it provides many features and capabilities, it is an issue with organization having limited IT support configure and maintain the platform.
Read full review
IBM
  • Reduce development time by 65% compared with hand coding.
  • Reduces ETL process maintenance times.
  • Better data governance for technical and non-technical people.
  • Improve time to market for initiatives that require data integration.
Read full review
ScreenShots

IBM Cognos Analytics Screenshots

Screenshot of a natural language query, used in IBM Cognos Analytics to get AI-powered insights from data.Screenshot of AI-generated insights and forecasts that can be added with just a click of a button.Screenshot of a dashboard that can be generated automatically using IBM Cognos Analytics by uploading or selecting data.Screenshot of an AI-generated dashboard from a spreadsheet that was just uploaded. This offers a great starting point for the creative process.Screenshot of where to import data to IBM Cognos Analytics from CSV files and spreadsheets. Users can connect to cloud or on-premises data sources, including SQL databases, Google BigQuery, Amazon, and Redshift.Screenshot of a sample operational dashboard of a coffee shop created using IBM Cognos Analytics.