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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    Looker

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/ALooker is a BI application with an analytics-oriented application server that sits on top of relational data stores. It includes an end-user interface for exploring data, a reusable development paradigm for data discovery, and an API for supporting data in other systems.N/A
    Pricing
    IBM DataStageLooker
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM DataStageLooker
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
    Additional Details—Must contact sales team for pricing.
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    IBM DataStageLooker
    Data Source Connection
    Comparison of Data Source Connection features of IBM DataStage and Looker
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    7.7
    11 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Looker
    -
    Ratings
    Connect to traditional data sources7.911 Ratings00 Ratings
    Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL7.610 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Transformations
    Comparison of Data Transformations features of IBM DataStage and Looker
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    7.6
    11 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Looker
    -
    Ratings
    Simple transformations8.011 Ratings00 Ratings
    Complex transformations7.311 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Modeling
    Comparison of Data Modeling features of IBM DataStage and Looker
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    7.2
    11 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Looker
    -
    Ratings
    Data model creation7.18 Ratings00 Ratings
    Metadata management5.010 Ratings00 Ratings
    Business rules and workflow7.410 Ratings00 Ratings
    Collaboration7.411 Ratings00 Ratings
    Testing and debugging6.711 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Governance
    Comparison of Data Governance features of IBM DataStage and Looker
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    5.3
    10 Ratings
    42% below category average
    Looker
    -
    Ratings
    Integration with data quality tools5.310 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with MDM tools5.310 Ratings00 Ratings
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of IBM DataStage and Looker
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Looker
    7.4
    134 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings6.5110 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.2133 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings7.5115 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of IBM DataStage and Looker
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Looker
    6.8
    132 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Drill-down analysis00 Ratings6.3128 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities00 Ratings6.6130 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings5.655 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.8131 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of IBM DataStage and Looker
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Looker
    7.9
    128 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Publish to Web00 Ratings7.7105 Ratings
    Publish to PDF00 Ratings7.8113 Ratings
    Report Versioning00 Ratings7.984 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.2110 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of IBM DataStage and Looker
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Looker
    6.6
    128 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings7.7124 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings7.5110 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics00 Ratings4.66 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of IBM DataStage and Looker
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Looker
    7.3
    128 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings7.5120 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings7.2105 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings7.2122 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings7.360 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of IBM DataStage and Looker
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Looker
    5.2
    95 Ratings
    39% below category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings4.991 Ratings
    Mobile Application00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings5.885 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM DataStageLooker
    Small Businesses
    Skyvia
    Score10 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM InfoSphere Information Server
    Score10 out of 10
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SolarWinds Task Factory
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM DataStageLooker
    Likelihood to Recommend
    5.9
    (11 ratings)
    8.0
    (134 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.2
    (8 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.8
    (12 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    8.8
    (14 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (51 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (51 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM DataStageLooker
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    Google
    When data drives potential for new orders, Looker earns its place in our tech stack. If, on the other hand, we are hoping for pipeline generation, Looker is useful if you are willing to repeatedly go check customer utilizations .... it is not appropriate if you are hoping to automate data analysis for this purpose.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    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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    Google
    • Show visited pages - sessions, pageviews - which programs are viewed the most.
    • Displays session source/medium views to see where users are coming from.
    • It shows the video titles, URLs, and event counts so we can monitor the performance of our videos.
    • It gives a graphic face to the numbers, such as using bar charts, pie graphs, and other charts to show user trends or which channels are driving engagement.
    • Our clients like to see the top pages visited for a month.
    • I like the drop-and-drag approach, and building charts is a little easier than it was before.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    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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    Google
    • Documentation is scarce, and very difficult to find when you need it.
    • Pricing is unclear, particularly as you look to scale your reports across the business.
    • Data from other sources is not represented in the system as well as first party Google services.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    I give it this rating because it deems as effective, I am able to complete majority of my tasks using this app. It is very helpful when analyzing the data provided and shown in the app and it's just overall a great app for Operational use, despite the small hiccups it has (live data).
    Incentivized
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    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.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    Looker is relatively easy to use, even as it is set up. The customers for the front-end only have issues with the initial setup for looker ml creations. Other "looks" are relatively easy to set up, depending on the ETL and the data which is coming into Looker on a regular basis.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    No objections
    Incentivized
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    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.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    Somehow resources heavy, both on server and client. I recommned at least 50Mbs data rate and high performance desktop comouter to be abke to run comolex tasks and configure larger amount of data. On the other hand, the client does not need to worry when viewing, the performance is usually ok
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    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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    Google
    Never had to work with support for issues. Any questions we had, they would respond promptly and clearly. The one-time setup was easy, by reading documentation. If the feature is not supported, they will add a feature request. In this case, LDAP support was requested over OKTA. They are looking into it.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    Very satisfied, easy to implement
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    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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    Google
    Looker Studio, you can easily report on data from various sources without programming. Looker Studio is available at no charge for creators and report viewers. Enterprise customers who upgrade to Looker Studio Pro will receive support and expanded administrative features, including team content management. So it's good.
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    Perfect price to performance
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    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
    Google
    • Looker has a poignant impact on our business's ROI objectives. As an advertising exchange we have specific goals for daily requests and fill, and having premade Looks to monitor this is an integral piece of our operational capability
    • To facilitate an efficient monthly billing cycle in our organization, Looker is essential to track estimated revenue and impression delivery by publisher. Without the Looks we have set up, we would spend considerably more time and effort segmenting revenue by vertical.
    • Looker's unique value proposition is making analytical tools more digestible to people without conventional analytical experience. Other competing tools like Tableau require considerably more training and context to successfully use, and the ability to easily plot different visualizations is one of its greatest selling points.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Looker Screenshots

    Screenshot of a Looker dashboard with a geo chart.