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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

    Microsoft BI (MSBI)

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft BI is a business intelligence product used for data analysis and generating reports on server-based data. It features unlimited data analysis capacity with its reporting engine, SQL Server Reporting Services alongside ETL, master data management, and data cleansing.

    $14

    per month per user

    Pricing
    IBM DataStageMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Power BI Pro
    $14
    per month per user
    Power BI Premium
    $24
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM DataStageMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM DataStageMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    89%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    15 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    15 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    15 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    13 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    11 Answers
    Features
    IBM DataStageMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
    Data Source Connection
    Comparison of Data Source Connection features of IBM DataStage and Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    7.7
    11 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    -
    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 Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    7.6
    11 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    -
    Ratings
    Simple transformations8.011 Ratings00 Ratings
    Complex transformations7.311 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Modeling
    Comparison of Data Modeling features of IBM DataStage and Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    7.2
    11 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    -
    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 Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    5.3
    10 Ratings
    42% below category average
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    -
    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 Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    9.0
    53 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings8.546 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards00 Ratings9.653 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings8.951 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of IBM DataStage and Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.5
    53 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.548 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities00 Ratings8.253 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings8.342 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.953 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of IBM DataStage and Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.6
    52 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Publish to Web00 Ratings9.348 Ratings
    Publish to PDF00 Ratings9.148 Ratings
    Report Versioning00 Ratings7.444 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.547 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings8.426 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of IBM DataStage and Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.7
    52 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings9.651 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings8.748 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics00 Ratings7.845 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings8.76 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of IBM DataStage and Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    9.3
    53 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings9.449 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings9.347 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.949 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings9.36 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings9.431 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of IBM DataStage and Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.0
    42 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings8.239 Ratings
    Mobile Application00 Ratings8.030 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings7.839 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of IBM DataStage and Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.5
    24 Ratings
    9% above category average
    REST API00 Ratings9.221 Ratings
    Javascript API00 Ratings8.821 Ratings
    iFrames00 Ratings8.820 Ratings
    Java API00 Ratings8.718 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings8.021 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings7.319 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM DataStageMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
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    Score10 out of 10
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    Score4 out of 10
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    Score10 out of 10
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.2 out of 10
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    SolarWinds Task Factory
    Score8.3 out of 10
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    Score7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM DataStageMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    5.9
    (11 ratings)
    8.9
    (77 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (25 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.9
    (19 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    8.9
    (15 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.9
    (3 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.6
    (7 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (42 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.4
    (41 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM DataStageMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
    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
    Microsoft
    Microsoft BI has a lot of features and is a very powerful tool, especially if you have folks on your team that know how to utilize all of its capabilities. To truly unlock all that it can do, it does require people to have a deep understanding of its capabilities. That's where the software really shines. If you are looking for a simpler, more basic reporting tool, there are other programs available that do not require such a steep learning curve.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Comparatively easy to use compared to other data analytics solutions, collaborating with other colleagues on data work is simple.
    • Using Visual Studio for database, ETL, reporting, and analytics development save time and money.
    • Transfer of data from one application to another via Excel and comparison of data attributes between applications
    • Dashboard functionality, as well as Python support, are available, allowing you to add additional charts and graphs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • MSBI designs can work on increasing data processing capabilities enough to handle the huge datasets etc.
    • It would be a lot better if it is a little low on cost.
    • it needs to create opportunities little more than they do regarding customization of some very unique visualization effects
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Microsoft BI is fundamental to our suite of BI applications. That being said, Northcraft Analytics is focused on delighting our customers, so if the underlying factors of our decision change, we would choose to re-write our BI applications on a different stack. Luckily, mathematics are the fundamental IP of our technology... and is portable across all BI platforms for the foreseeable future.
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The Microsoft BI tools have great usability for both developers and end users alike. For developers familiar with Visual Studio, there is little learning curve. For those not, the single Visual Studio IDE means not having to learn separate tools for each component. For end-users, the web interface for SSRS is simple to navigate with intuitive controls. For ad-hoc analysis, Excel can connect directly to SSAS and provide a pivot table like experience which is familiar to many users. For database development, there is beginning to be some confusion, as there are now three tool choices (VS, SSMS, Azure Data Studio) for developers. I would like to see Azure Data Studio become the superset of SSMS and eventually supplant it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    The product has been reliable.
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) can drag at times. We created two report servers and placed them under an F5 load balancer. This configuration has worked well. We have seen sluggish performance at times due to the Windows Firewall.
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    MSBI natively has a site that allows you to vote on user enhancements and bug fixes. This allows the largest nagging issues to float to the top and the development team can prioritize accordingly. As mentioned earlier, the large community base of MSBI developers assist technical resources in handling technical questions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    This training was more directed toward what the product was capable of rather than actual programming.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    I have used on-line training from Microsoft and from Pragmatic Works. I would recommend Pragmatic Works as the best way to get up to speed quickly, and then use the Microsoft on-line training to deep dive into specific features that you need to get depth with.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    We are a consulting firm and as such our best resources are always billing on client projects. Our internal implementation has weaknesses, but that's true for any company like ours. My rating is based on the product's ease of implementation.
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We have used the built in ConnectWise Manager reports and custom reports. The reports provide static data. PowerBI shows us live data we can drill down into and easily adjust parameters. It's much more useful than a static PDF report.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Microsoft
    • As a SaaS provider we see being able to provide self-service BI to our client users as a competitive advantage. In fact the MSSQL enabled BI is a contributing factor to many winning RFPs we have done for prospective client organisations.
    • However MSSQL BI requires extensive knowledge and skills to design and develop data warehouses & data models as a foundation to support business analysts and users to interrogate data effectively and efficiently. Often times we find having strong in-house MSSQL expertise is a bless.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots