IBM InfoSphere Information Server vs. TimeXtender vs. Toad Data Point

Information Server is extremely useful to replace manual developments that require a lot of coding effort. It significantly increases the productivity of the initial development and the future maintenance of the processes since it has a visual development environment with self-documentation.

TimeXtender has worked really well with our customers who have different data sources using complex data types in large quantities requiring a DW-like solution that can consolidate all data sources at one-HUB. TimeXtender does this well, and provides automation capabilities, the ability to easily handle slowly changing dimensions, handing data lineage and data security very well. TimeXtender has the ability to be very customizable, allowing the HUB to grow as your business does. TimeXtender's customer support team is super helpful and will work with you throughout your implementation to make sure you reach success with the product. The ROI for timeXtender versus competing products (there aren't many that do what timeXtender does) shows the investment to be worthwhile for the majority of organizations in today's data-rich corporate world.

Incentivized

Appropriate for general querying and some DBA work. It's the universal least-offensive solution for most environments - not best of breed, but not subject to unusual/extensive requirements. It just works. On the other hand, some functionality (e.g. data import/export, snippets) are perfunctory and minimal and seem to be either difficult or impossible to automate. If you need to streamline those operations, you'll be forced to rely on third-party solutions that mostly work on top of (instead of with) TOAD.

Incentivized

• IIS best for ETL ,not ELT , and many and diffrent source systems.
• It also can process big data , unstuctured data
• It is not only DWH , you can use infosphere for analys and see the bigger architecture of your OLTP systems

Incentivized

• It has the ability to create one dynamic 'DW' or source of truth, consolidating all data sources in one HUB.
• Ease of use, with a great UI that is easy to learn and adapt to.
• Ease/speed of complex implementation.

Incentivized

• Export data into excel.
• Export data into excel using a pivot table functionality.
• Navigation between windows is intuitive and easy to understand.
• Good for SQL novices and experts alike.

Incentivized

• I would be nice to have a new web development environment for DataStage.
• Connectivity Packs such as Pack for SAP Application are a little pricey.
• It is confusing for new developers the possibility of developing jobs using different execution engines such as Parallel or Server.

Incentivized

• Product Marketing: As implementers and resellers of this technology, we loved it. But, convincing clients who had not previously heard of TX/Discovery Hub was more difficult than it could have been if the company had a larger marketing force behind it.
• Relatively New to Market: it creates a learning curve for early implementers.
• More information should be published on timeXtender's website about product lines, including testimonials.

Incentivized

• The workflow is a relatively new feature. Quest is adding additional functionality and the workflows are useful now.
• Would be nice if the 'Automate' feature was a bit easier to use.
• Would be nice if some of the SQL Editor features in the traditional interface worked better in the new workflow interface (although, these are being fixed with each release).
• Would be nice if there were fewer releases.

Incentivized

• Scale of implementation
• IBM techsupport

Incentivized

I find Toad Data Point easy to use for both the novice and the experienced business analyst. If all you desire is to access data and create spreadsheets...this is a snap. Toad Data Point actually has cool data analysis features built into it. The newer workflow interface makes automating steps a snap

Incentivized

DataStage is more robust and stable than ODI The ability to perform complex transformations or implement business rules is much more developed in DS

For our clients, timeXtender was a much better solution. It offered a more cost-effective solution, easier integration, and better customer support for our complex client needs. The timeXtender team worked with us throughout the process to make sure we could create a success story that was repeatable for our clients, and they proved great partners.

Incentivized

Although Toad and UltraEdit are both great products, from an SQL standpoint Toad is a much better editor and troubleshooter.

Incentivized

• Productivity of the development of integration processes.
• Better documentation and governance.
• Reduce training costs of various technologies.

• It is the least common denominator - not particularly optimized for our environment or workflows.
• Hangs or slowdowns add anywhere from 5% - 7% for projects utilizing large/complicated data setts. (This could be due to other IT-imposed constraints and not entirely due to TOAD.)
• Trying to perform some operations requires reading documentation and experimenting in order to figure out the TOAD-specific approaches and commands.
• It just works (when we understand it). Updates don't break things and things don't suddenly start behaving differently. Best of all, we don't mysteriously lose functionality.

Incentivized