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IBM Cognos Analytics vs. IBM DataStage vs. SAS Data Management

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Cognos Analytics

    Score7.7 out of 10
    N/AIBM 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.

    $11.25

    per month per user

    IBM DataStage

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AIBM® 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

    SAS Data Management

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AA suite of solutions for data connectivity, enhanced transformations and robust governance. Solutions provide a unified view of data with access to data across databases, data warehouses and data lakes. Connects with cloud platforms, on-premises systems and multicloud data sources.N/A
    Pricing
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsIBM DataStageSAS Data Management
    Editions & Modules
    On Demand - Standard
    USD 11.25
    per month per user
    On Demand - Premium
    USD 44.90
    per month per user
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsIBM DataStageSAS Data Management
    Free Trial
    YesYesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details———
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsIBM DataStageSAS Data Management
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM DataStage and SAS Data Management
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.7
    140 Ratings
    6% below category average
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    SAS Data Management
    -
    Ratings
    Pixel Perfect reports7.6131 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards8.0138 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.5133 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM DataStage and SAS Data Management
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.9
    140 Ratings
    1% below category average
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    SAS Data Management
    -
    Ratings
    Drill-down analysis7.4138 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities8.3141 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages7.398 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration8.6135 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM DataStage and SAS Data Management
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    9.2
    138 Ratings
    11% above category average
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    SAS Data Management
    -
    Ratings
    Publish to Web9.838 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publish to PDF8.3134 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Versioning9.835 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.2136 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers9.919 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM DataStage and SAS Data Management
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.4
    126 Ratings
    8% below category average
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    SAS Data Management
    -
    Ratings
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.9123 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.0116 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics6.7112 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining6.949 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM DataStage and SAS Data Management
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.8
    132 Ratings
    8% below category average
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    SAS Data Management
    -
    Ratings
    Multi-User Support (named login)7.5131 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model7.5129 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)7.4129 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control8.259 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)8.6113 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM DataStage and SAS Data Management
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    6.3
    110 Ratings
    20% below category average
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    SAS Data Management
    -
    Ratings
    Responsive Design for Web Access6.7105 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Application6.391 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile6.697 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM DataStage and SAS Data Management
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    9.2
    88 Ratings
    17% above category average
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    SAS Data Management
    -
    Ratings
    REST API7.684 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Javascript API7.780 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    iFrames9.913 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Java API9.914 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)9.916 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)9.910 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Source Connection
    Comparison of Data Source Connection features of IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM DataStage and SAS Data Management
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    IBM DataStage
    7.7
    11 Ratings
    8% below category average
    SAS Data Management
    8.3
    10 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Connect to traditional data sources00 Ratings7.811 Ratings8.610 Ratings
    Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL00 Ratings7.610 Ratings8.19 Ratings
    Data Transformations
    Comparison of Data Transformations features of IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM DataStage and SAS Data Management
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    IBM DataStage
    7.6
    11 Ratings
    7% below category average
    SAS Data Management
    6.7
    8 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Simple transformations00 Ratings8.011 Ratings6.18 Ratings
    Complex transformations00 Ratings7.311 Ratings7.48 Ratings
    Data Modeling
    Comparison of Data Modeling features of IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM DataStage and SAS Data Management
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    IBM DataStage
    7.2
    11 Ratings
    10% below category average
    SAS Data Management
    6.7
    8 Ratings
    17% below category average
    Data model creation00 Ratings7.28 Ratings5.56 Ratings
    Metadata management00 Ratings5.010 Ratings7.47 Ratings
    Business rules and workflow00 Ratings7.410 Ratings6.67 Ratings
    Collaboration00 Ratings7.411 Ratings7.07 Ratings
    Testing and debugging00 Ratings6.711 Ratings6.17 Ratings
    Data Governance
    Comparison of Data Governance features of IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM DataStage and SAS Data Management
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    IBM DataStage
    5.3
    10 Ratings
    42% below category average
    SAS Data Management
    7.9
    9 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Integration with data quality tools00 Ratings5.310 Ratings7.69 Ratings
    Integration with MDM tools00 Ratings5.310 Ratings8.27 Ratings
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    User Ratings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsIBM DataStageSAS Data Management
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (160 ratings)
    5.8
    (11 ratings)
    7.6
    (11 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.4
    (31 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (10 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    Availability
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.0
    (9 ratings)
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    7.7
    (6 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.7
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.6
    (40 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sources
    8.3
    (40 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    5.5
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    6.4
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsIBM DataStageSAS Data Management
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    In our environment, we used to use a reporting tool called Crystal Reports and we replaced this tool with Cognos. I would recommend this switch for any one who's using a report tool that can be replaced with Cognos. This eliminates any JDBC or ODBC connections and User setups within any databases which was needed so the users can gain access to the report. Cognos makes logging in and fetching any report much easier.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    DataStage is somewhat outdated for an ETL. I guess that's what makes it a bit lagged behind its competitors. It can be used for data processing, sure, but its performance seems to be lagging behind or quite slow given the server it is running from. I won’t depend on this application if it's handling a lot of mission-critical banking and business data.
    Read full review
    SAS
    When data is in a system that needs a complex transformation to be usable for an average user. Such tasks as data residing in systems that have very different connection speeds. It can be integrated and used together after passing through the SAS Data Integration Studio removing timing issues from the users' worries. A part that is perhaps less appropriate is getting users who are not familiar with the source data to set up the load processes.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    IBM
    • Enterprise reporting - Create, customise, and run reports on sales trends, consumer sentiment, etc.
    • Dashboard creation and data exploration & analysis - Using drag and drop feature to create ad-hoc visualisation. Additionally, using AI powered natural language query feature for data analysis and dashboard input (formation of pie, bar, line charts). It's useful for no-technical person to put queries around the spreadsheet data to get quick answers.
    • Building insights for accurate decision making - Package reports with data backed insights for stakeholders in pdf, and Excel format to support business ad-hoc cases, forecasting and strategic recommendations on relevant asks.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    • Connect to multiple types of data-sources including Oracle, Teradata, Snowflake, SQl Server.
    • Powerful tool to load large volumes of data.
    • Transformation stages allow us to reduce the amount of code needed to create ETL scripts.
    • Allow us to synchronize and refresh data as much as needed.
    Incentivized
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    SAS
    • SAS/Access is great for manipulating large and complex databases.
    • SAS/Access makes it easy to format reports and graphics from your data.
    • Data Management and data storage using the Hadoop environment in SAS/Access allows for rapid analysis and simple programming language for all your data needs.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    IBM
    • IBM Cognos Analytics enables customer data segmentation, which is essential for marketing, improving and streamlining purchasing behavior and preferences. This helps companies create more targeted and effective marketing campaigns.
    • Our clients Through data analysis, we can identify and observe trends in the behavior of other clients, allowing us to anticipate needs and adjust strategies to avoid consequences.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    • Technical support is a key area IBM should improve for this product. Sometimes our case is assigned to a support engineer and he has no idea of the product or services.
    • Provide custom reports for datastage jobs and performance such as job history reports, warning messages or error messages.
    • Make it fully compatible with Oracle and users can direct use of Oracle ODBC drivers instead of Data Direct driver. Same for SQL server.
    Incentivized
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    SAS
    • Requires third-party drivers to connect to common data sources like SFDC, MS SQL, Postgres.
    • Debugging errors from the logs is a complicated process.
    • E-mail alert system is very primitive and needs customization to make it more modern,
    • Cannot send SMS alerts for jobs.
    Incentivized
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    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
    SAS
    We are happy with the software and its functionality. As a SAS-shop, DataFlux is a logical choice for complex data integration.
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
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    SAS
    The main negative point is the use of a non-standard language for customizations, as well as the poor integration with non-SAS systems. However, there is no doubt that it is a high-performance and powerful product capable of responding optimally to certain requirements.
    Incentivized
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    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
    SAS
    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.
    Incentivized
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    SAS
    It worked as expected.
    Incentivized
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    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.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    IBM offers different levels of support but in my experience being and IBM shop helps to get direct support from more knowledgeable technicians from IBM. Not sure on the cost of having this kind of support, but I know there's also general support and community blogs and websites on the Internet make it easy to troubleshoot issues whenever there's need for that.
    Incentivized
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    SAS
    With SAS, you pay a license fee annually to use this product. Support is incredible. You get what you pay for, whether it's SAS forums on the SAS support site, technical support tickets via email or phone calls, or example documentation. It's not open source. It's documented thoroughly, and it works.
    Incentivized
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    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
    SAS
    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
    SAS
    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
    SAS
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    Power BI is stronger for quick ad-hoc analysis and dashboards, but IBM Cognos Analytics is better when consistency, precision, and mass distribution matter. Tableau is best for interactive analysis, while IBM Cognos Analytics is better for standardized, repeatable enterprise reporting. Sigma shines for customizable dashboards and drill-down analysis while IBM Cognos Analytics holds an edge in data discovery and visualization.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    With effective capabilities and easy to manipulate the features and easy to produce accurate data analytics and the Cloud services Automation, this IBM platform is more reliable and easy to document management. The features on this platform are equipped with excellent big data management and easy to provide accurate data analytics.
    Incentivized
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    SAS
    Because of ease of using SAS DI and data processing speed. There were lots of issues with AWS Redshift on cloud environment in terms of making connections with the data sources and while fetching the data we need to write complex queries.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    IBM
    We rate IBM Cognos Analytics a 9 out of 10 for overall scalability. The platform handles large numbers of users, reports, and analytical workloads very reliably. We have experienced strong performance even in demanding enterprise environments with substantial data volumes. Its architecture provides sufficient flexibility to scale resources according to demand, making it well suited for large, business-critical deployments.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SAS
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • The platform can be pretty pricey.
    • Convoluted contracts and they fine you for any breach during audits.
    • Things are changed between releases without any warning and break.
    • It is second to none at being able to customize list and crosstab type reports.
    • You can easily set up a report to be emailed out every day and even have it export the report to a shared folder.
    • On-prem environments can be scaled up pretty much as much as you would like.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    • It’s hard to say at this point, it delivers, but not quite as I expected. It takes a lot of resources to manage and sort this out (manpower, financial).
    • Definitely, I don’t have the exact numbers, but given the data it processes, it is A LOT. So props to the developer of this application.
    • Again, based on my experience, I’d choose other ETL apps if there is one that's more user-friendly.
    Read full review
    SAS
    • We have more users who can connect to the many different data sources.
    • Our users do have existing SAS programming knowledge and that can carry over.
    • Business functions are starting to rely on SAS Data Integration Studio work product shortly after introduction.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    IBM Cognos Analytics Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot