IBM DataStage vs. Informatica PowerCenter

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM DataStage
Score 8.6 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
Informatica PowerCenter
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Informatica PowerCenter is a metadata driven data integration technology designed to form the foundation for data integration initiatives, including analytics and data warehousing, application migration, or consolidation and data governance.N/A
Pricing
IBM DataStageInformatica PowerCenter
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM DataStageInformatica PowerCenter
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM DataStageInformatica PowerCenter
Considered Both Products
IBM DataStage

No answer on this topic

Informatica PowerCenter
Chose Informatica PowerCenter
SSIS is a good entry into ETL, for smaller organizations or Microsoft-centric companies. It's strengths lie in its ease-of-use, quick turnaround, and simplicity. Its weaknesses lie in scalability and re-usability (you can achieve re-usability, however segmentation is at the …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
IBM DataStageInformatica PowerCenter
Data Source Connection
Comparison of Data Source Connection features of Product A and Product B
IBM DataStage
9.1
9 Ratings
10% above category average
Informatica PowerCenter
8.5
18 Ratings
3% above category average
Connect to traditional data sources9.59 Ratings9.018 Ratings
Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL8.88 Ratings8.014 Ratings
Data Transformations
Comparison of Data Transformations features of Product A and Product B
IBM DataStage
9.5
9 Ratings
13% above category average
Informatica PowerCenter
7.5
18 Ratings
11% below category average
Simple transformations9.89 Ratings8.018 Ratings
Complex transformations9.39 Ratings7.018 Ratings
Data Modeling
Comparison of Data Modeling features of Product A and Product B
IBM DataStage
9.0
9 Ratings
10% above category average
Informatica PowerCenter
8.2
18 Ratings
1% above category average
Data model creation9.46 Ratings9.015 Ratings
Metadata management8.78 Ratings8.016 Ratings
Business rules and workflow8.18 Ratings9.018 Ratings
Collaboration9.09 Ratings6.116 Ratings
Testing and debugging9.59 Ratings9.017 Ratings
Data Governance
Comparison of Data Governance features of Product A and Product B
IBM DataStage
8.9
8 Ratings
8% above category average
Informatica PowerCenter
9.0
15 Ratings
9% above category average
Integration with data quality tools8.88 Ratings9.015 Ratings
Integration with MDM tools9.08 Ratings9.013 Ratings
Best Alternatives
IBM DataStageInformatica PowerCenter
Small Businesses
Skyvia
Skyvia
Score 9.6 out of 10
Skyvia
Skyvia
Score 9.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Score 8.1 out of 10
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Score 8.1 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Score 8.1 out of 10
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Score 8.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IBM DataStageInformatica PowerCenter
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(9 ratings)
8.0
(21 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(2 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.4
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(3 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM DataStageInformatica PowerCenter
Likelihood to Recommend
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
Informatica
1.- Scenaries with poor sources of data is not recomended (Very bad ROI). The solution is for medium-big enterprises with a lot of sources of data and users. 2.- Bank and finance enviroment to integrate differente data form trading, Regulatory reports, decisions makers, fraud and financial crimes because in this kind of scenary the quality of data is the base of the business. 3.- Departments of development and test of applications in enterprises because you can design enviroments, out of the production systems, to development and test the new API's or updateds made.
Read full review
Pros
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
Informatica
  • Informatica Powercenter is an innovative software that works with ETL-type data integration. Connectivity to almost all the database systems.
  • Great documentation and customer support.
  • It has a various solution to address data quality issues. data masking, data virtualization. It has various supporting tools or MDM, IDQ, Analyst, BigData which can be used to analyze data and correct it.
Read full review
Cons
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
Informatica
  • There are too many ways to perform the same or similar functions which in turn makes it challenging to trace what a workflow is doing and at which point (ex. sessions can be designed as static or re-usable and the override can occur at the session or workflow, or both which can be counter productive and confusing when troubleshooting).
  • The power in structured design is a double edged sword. Simple tasks for a POC can become cumbersome. Ex. if you want to move some data to test a process, you first have to create your sources by importing them which means an ODBC connection or similar will need to be configured, you in turn have to develop your targets and all of the essential building blocks before being able to begin actual development. While I am on sources and targets, I think of a table definition as just that and find it counter intuitive to have to design a table as both a source and target and manage them as different objects. It would be more intuitive to have a table definition and its source/target properties defined by where you drag and drop it in the mapping.
  • There are no checkpoints or data viewer type functions without designing an entire mapping and workflow. If you would like to simply run a job up to a point and check the throughput, an entire mapping needs to be completed and you would workaround this by creating a flat file target.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
IBM
No answers on this topic
Informatica
Our team enjoys using Informatica and feels that it is one of the best ETL tools on the market.
Read full review
Usability
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
Informatica
Positives; - Multi User Development Environment - Speed of transformation - Seamless integration between other Informatica products. Negatives; - There should be less windows to maintain developers' focus while using. You probably need 2 big monitors when you start development with Informatica Power Center. - Oracle Analytical functions should be natively used. - E-LT support as well as ETL support.
Read full review
Performance
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
Informatica
PowerCenter is robust and fast, and it does a great job meeting all the needs, not just the most commercially vocal needs. In the hands of an expert power user, you can accomplish almost anything with your data. It is not for new users or intermittent users-- for that the Cloud version is a better fit. Be prepared for costly connectors (priced differently for each source or destination you are working with), and just be planful of your projects so you are not paying for connectors you no longer need or want
Read full review
Support Rating
IBM
I believe that IBM generally has one of the worst and most complex assistance systems (physical and online) that exists.
Read full review
Informatica
Informatica power center is a leader of the pack of ETL tools and has some great abilities that make it stand out from other ETL tools. It has been a great partner to its clients over a long time so it's definitely dependable. With all the great things about Informatica, it has a bit of tech burden that should be addressed to make it more nimble, reduce the learning curve for new developers, provide better connectivity with visualization tools.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
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
Informatica
While Talend offers a much more comfortable interface to work with, Informatica's forte is performance. And on that front, Informatica Enterprise Data Integration certainly leaves Talend in the dust. For a more back-end-centric use case, Informatica is certainly the ETL tool of choice. On the other hand, if business users would be using the tool, then Talend would be the preferred tool.
Read full review
Return on Investment
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
Informatica
  • The data pipeline automation capability of Informatica means that few resources are needed to pre-process the data that ultimately resides in a Data Warehouse. Once a workflow is implemented, manual intervention is not needed.
  • PowerCenter did require more resources and time for installation and configuration than was expected/planned for.
  • The lack of or minimal support of unstructured data means that newer sources of dynamic/changing data cannot be easily processed/transformed through PowerCenter workflows.
Read full review
ScreenShots