Overall Satisfaction with Pentaho
We are a consulting company and implement BI and data warehousing solutions for our clients. I have lead and implemented a number of BI and data warehousing solutions in my current as well as previous role.
- The data integration tool is very strong. It is easy to use and very accessible to business users
- The data integration component provides ability to connect to almost any data source as input as well as output - quick and easy
- The data integration component allows quick preview of the data in a pivot view type format which enables data analysis at an early stage of development
- The BI server front end does not seem to be very appealing to the end users. In my experience the end users wish for a prettier display and easier navigation
- Schema workbench is not easy to develop with, I know there were some plans of integrating the tool with the data integration component
- Data integration server does not seem to be as useful. For example, while it provides some source control, the files are only controlled separately one by one. If the developer changes several files at the same time, they cannot commit them all in one go. Often the changes across different files need to be kept in sync.
I have seen several clients choose Pentaho Data Integration over SSIS for its simplicity to learn and use. I would have expected that the cost would also be a driving factor, however, once the company has invested into SQL server, they view SSIS as 'free' addition to the server so the cost factor does not count. The lack of skilled Pentaho resources on the market seems to be another factor that makes clients decide against Pentaho.