We use it for collecting audit data for additional change detection. Another use case is related to prototyping data sets for reporting. Clover is quite often used for cheap prototyping for data sets for candidate reports. It can be used to find out how the report should look like and what data to be used within a BI process.
Simple, stable, and allows us to handle data from various sources, but needs enterprise features for logging, recoverability, and monitoring
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
It enables us to collect the data from various sources in one place.
What is most valuable?
Its simplicity and the way it handles graphs are the most valuable features.
What needs improvement?
If I could give any advice to the guys who are developing it, I would suggest them to really look at the enterprise features, such as being able to log what's going on, being able to capture the current state of processing, and being able to recover from error situations. So, there should be a focus on logging, recoverability, and monitoring. We should be able to monitor what's going on, and in case of any issues, we should be able to recover and restart processing and other things.
For scalability and performance, I would probably suggest the Pushdown feature so that you can do the transformation directly on the data source. You do not need to do that calculation within the ETL server. For this, you should be aware of the type of data because each database or kind of storage, such as Hadoop, has its own ANSI standard or language, such as SQL. Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM have their own language.
Based on the feedback that I have got, its initial setup takes some time. It could perhaps be simpler.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It has been working fine so far. It has been stable. We had some issues with data sources, but they were not related to CloverDX.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We didn't have a need to scale it. In terms of the number of users, we have three or four data analysts.
How are customer service and technical support?
I am not aware of any issues related to their technical support.
How was the initial setup?
I didn't set it up, but based on the feedback that I have got, it takes some time. It could perhaps be more straightforward or simpler. The compatibility and the ease of upgrading a solution are really appreciated in the enterprise environment. The existing features should be guaranteed to be working so that you don't need to do any complicated testing for what is already implemented.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its price and value for money would be okay for our purpose if there were some additional features.
What other advice do I have?
I would just recommend others to spend a couple of hours getting familiar with the concept of the system. You need to understand the way it is designed and supposed to be used.
I would rate CloverDX Designer a seven out of ten.
