TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM DataStage

    Score8.3 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

    SolarWinds Task Factory

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AAccording to the vendor, SolarWinds Task Factory saves time managing tedious ELT/ETL tasks with high-performing SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) components that can be used within the Visual Studio environment to connect to nearly any data source. Task Factory’s components and tasks have been optimized to ensure fast performance of data-centric applications, and the user can run Task Factory…N/A
    Pricing
    IBM DataStageSolarWinds Task Factory
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Task Factory
    1,245 (annual subscription license)
    per server
    Task Factory Azure Data Factory
    1,495 (annual subscription license)
    per ADF node
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM DataStageSolarWinds Task Factory
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    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 DataStageSolarWinds Task Factory
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    89%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    IBM DataStageSolarWinds Task Factory
    Data Source Connection
    Comparison of Data Source Connection features of IBM DataStage and SolarWinds Task Factory
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    7.6
    11 Ratings
    10% below category average
    SolarWinds Task Factory
    9.4
    40 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Connect to traditional data sources7.711 Ratings9.440 Ratings
    Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL7.510 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Transformations
    Comparison of Data Transformations features of IBM DataStage and SolarWinds Task Factory
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    7.6
    11 Ratings
    7% below category average
    SolarWinds Task Factory
    9.2
    39 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Simple transformations8.011 Ratings8.739 Ratings
    Complex transformations7.311 Ratings9.635 Ratings
    Data Modeling
    Comparison of Data Modeling features of IBM DataStage and SolarWinds Task Factory
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    7.3
    11 Ratings
    8% below category average
    SolarWinds Task Factory
    -
    Ratings
    Data model creation7.38 Ratings00 Ratings
    Metadata management5.010 Ratings00 Ratings
    Business rules and workflow7.510 Ratings00 Ratings
    Collaboration7.511 Ratings00 Ratings
    Testing and debugging6.811 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Governance
    Comparison of Data Governance features of IBM DataStage and SolarWinds Task Factory
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    5.3
    10 Ratings
    42% below category average
    SolarWinds Task Factory
    9.4
    3 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Integration with data quality tools5.310 Ratings9.22 Ratings
    Integration with MDM tools5.310 Ratings9.63 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM DataStageSolarWinds Task Factory
    Small Businesses
    Skyvia
    Score10 out of 10
    Skyvia
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM InfoSphere Information Server
    Score10 out of 10
    IBM InfoSphere Information Server
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SolarWinds Task Factory
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Astera Data Pipeline Builder (Centerprise)
    Score8.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM DataStageSolarWinds Task Factory
    Likelihood to Recommend
    5.8
    (11 ratings)
    8.1
    (40 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM DataStageSolarWinds Task Factory
    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
    SolarWinds
    Since I started working with this great tool all data analysis programs have been running effectively. Implementation of projects and tasks have been effective and reliable. Data collected from each department gives us working plan on better management of various programs. The Dimension Merge SCD Transform helps us to load large volumes of data within a short period of time.
    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
    SolarWinds
    • The single most beneficial component to Task Factory is the Upsert component. If you're familiar with writing MERGE statements in T-SQL, you'll appreciate the Upsert component. Drag the component into your Data Flow and a few clicks later you have a MERGE without the code complexities.
    • Where some native SSIS components leave you wanting more, Task Factory extends on many of these components as well as support for data sources not native to SSIS components.
    • The number of extra components that come in the Task Factory tool kit will expand your tool belt to do just about anything you need or want to accomplish in SSIS.
    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
    SolarWinds
    • It was built by Pragmatic Works who sold it to SentryOne and now Solar Winds, concerned about future support. SolarWinds is discontinuing support for related products such as BiXpress.
    • Had issues with connecting to certain versions of SQL Server - would fail when deploying one package - had to deploy the entire solutions.
    • Occasional random failures observed with the Filter tranform.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Task Factory has become a key product for our use of doing ETL work in SSIS. Their custom SSIS components allow us to work simply on the data engineering side of things. We can ignore the lower level work needed to connect to disparate data sources. This allows us to work faster and provide more value to the business
    Incentivized
    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
    SolarWinds
    Compared to some of the other transformations I have worked with, it really is pretty simple for the type of functionality you get
    Incentivized
    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
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    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
    SolarWinds
    Overall, the best vendor we currently have on the data side of the house. No issues, issues are resolved very quickly and upgrades go without any issues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Overall it went smoothly. Had a couple of gotchas with licensing and upgrading but nothing that really stopped us.
    Incentivized
    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
    SolarWinds
    ZappySys is an alternative provider that we tested. However, we found the ease of use, set up and installation to be much simplier and quicker using Task Factory. ZappySys has a number of the same connectors but are more difficult to setup and the GUI is not as intuitive and simple to use.
    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
    SolarWinds
    • We were able to support our developers with Task Factory features and reduce the development time by 40%.
    • Recently Task Factory has changed their pricing module and it seems to be pretty costly for our process. Our business team has started to evaluate whether this is worth it going forward.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds Task Factory Screenshots

    Screenshot of Salesforce.com SourceScreenshot of Dimension Merge SCD TransformScreenshot of Upsert DestinationScreenshot of REST Source