Atlan vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Atlan and IBM are both solutions in the Metadata Management category. Atlan is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.3, while IBM is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0. Atlan holds a 4.3% mindshare in MM, compared to IBM’s 2.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Atlan users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Atlan

Read 10 Atlan reviews

3,253 Views
1,399 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM InfoSphere Information ...

Read 9 IBM InfoSphere Information Server reviews

3,238 Views
615 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Atlan

IBM InfoSphere Information ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Atlan and IBM InfoSphere Information Server based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Metadata Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Atlan vs. IBM InfoSphere Information Server Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Atlan vs. IBM InfoSphere Information Server

September 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Atlan

Ranking in Metadata Management

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Governance (13th)

IBM InfoSphere Information ...

Ranking in Metadata Management

8th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Integration (34th)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Metadata Management category, the mindshare of Atlan is 4.3%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM InfoSphere Information Server is 2.6%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Metadata Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Atlan	4.3%
IBM InfoSphere Information Server	2.6%
Other	93.1%

Metadata Management

Featured Reviews

Peter Neumann

IT consultant at Pathfinder

Has struggled to meet business needs but supports technical data exploration and transparency

Atlan can be improved by concentrating more on business data since it is developed from developers for developers, and it needs to be more business relevant. For instance, when re-importing data model diagrams, Atlan provides some diagram automation that is not connected to the business glossary, which I consider a significant fault. Atlan needs to improve by focusing more on the business side of data, not only on technical aspects.If you want to focus on technical considerations, it would be beneficial to have an interface with a real business data modeling tool such as Erwin or other business data tools, since data modeling is not the same as Draw.io. Additionally, Atlan can improve its workflows, which are hard to understand. Working with templates, Excel import, export, and running automations is not self-explanatory, and you always need help from Atlan support team. If business people want to use it and run their own reports, it must be easier to customize for their business needs.

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MOHAMMAD-IQBAL

Senior Data Engineer at Mohammed Mansour Alrumiah

Faced challenges with customer support and documentation but have benefited from reliable data integration over the years

As for utilizing the platform's metadata management feature, I have not worked on that feature yet, but personally, I have done that. To evaluate the effectiveness of IBM InfoSphere Information Server's data integration capabilities, if IBM is providing all the solutions we are using, then it is definitely a helpful thing. Mostly, the other thing is that it is a big area including data governance, data lineage, data management, and metadata, but every customer is not putting that much effort and money on that. They mostly migrate the data, use it, and forget it, but slowly things are changing. I am working in Saudi Arabia, so here also data governance, data management, and those kinds of things are getting attention. Regarding how scalable IBM InfoSphere Information Server is, I need to learn how to tune performance and scalability on the cloud. I am familiar with localized hardware, but on the cloud, I still have to do the work around it. In the beginning, we estimate the load and based on that, we put the hardware, but if there is continuous increase, I believe IBM also faces problems. Scalability needs to be improved because once the demand comes, you should be able to improve it, but for that, documentation on how to add hardware or resources to the software needs to be proper. I do not have much hands-on experience with that.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Atlan is helpful for identifying datasets and discovering PI data, such as the classification levels of datasets (gold, silver, bronze)."

"The AI part is integrated for enriching metadata engagement, making it a comprehensive tool."

"The technical support services are good."

"They also offer automated lineage embedded in the connectors, allowing us to track where the data is coming from and where it's going. We find it very efficient in cataloging data sources. Additionally, the user-friendly interface is a big plus, making it easy for users to familiarize themselves with the solution. These two features, in my opinion, stand out the most."

"Atlan has positively impacted the organization since it helps in discovering already available assets, allowing for reduction of redundant ingestion of external data and reduction of time to market for any project."

"As a senior analytics engineer, Atlan's ability to show end-to-end data lineage is the most important feature for me."

"By switching to Atlan, we have increased our productivity and saved a lot of business time through automation."

"Overall, I rate Atlan a nine out of ten."

More Atlan pros

"Over the years of working with IBM InfoSphere Information Server, I see basically the strength of the tool, capability, and load balancing, which I see is really good."

"The integration with different technologies is the most valuable feature."

"The initial IBM InfoSphere Information Server is straightforward and you can choose what type of installation you want, such as a customized installation, with clear-cut documentation that, if followed, works fine and the installation has not given us issues."

"IBM InfoSphere Information Server is stable."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"Data connections, data partitioning, flexibility, and performance are the most valuable features."

"This solution has reduced the time it takes for ETL. We took an existing Teradata ETL application from three days to eight minutes."

"This solution is extremely flexible and scalable."

More IBM InfoSphere Information Server pros

Cons

"Certain UI changes could make Atlan more user-friendly."

"The product could be improved by offering scheduled email reports for managed assets."

"The challenge is in the lineage, where it requires improvement. Atlas needs to capture areas where organizations use less known applications."

"There are some improvements. There is a feature called Playbooks, which basically allows me to automate certain activities that would otherwise be manual. It's a very interesting feature, but there is room to improve it because, depending on the task you automate, the playbooks seem to have a hard time handling the task. So, it could be improved there. Even though it's a great feature, it can evolve further."

"One of the main areas for improvement is its governance capabilities. Atlan supports only basic out-of-the-box workflows, and it becomes challenging to customize features like how data owners should approve access to data assets."

"Atlan can be improved by integrating agents that can support users in finding assets of interest."

"In my experience, it might be less suited for collaboration across teams."

"Customer support for Atlan is not so proactive."

More Atlan cons

"We have decided to decrease the usage of metadata management because we did not see any significant advantages."

"This solution would benefit from the engine being made more lightweight."

"Customer Service: It's poor."

"IBM InfoSphere Information Server should be more scalable. It should have the option to change the configuration to run on a single, non-multiple node, or multi-threading processing."

"There are certain shortcomings in the cloud side of the solution, where improvements are required."

"Their technical support needs improvement."

"Heavy use of scratch disk which sometimes leads to failure."

"Unlike other tools, IBM tools do not provide much help from the internet, so additional support should be available."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay per-user license. It's a different classification model than with other solutions, where they usually charge you for resources. So, that was a better model for us. And because of this difference in models or classification, it was cheaper for us to go with Atlan."

"The licensing cost of IBM InfoSphere Information Server depends on how many users there are."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

Energy/Utilities Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Construction Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Atlan?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the licensing cost is a bit flexible but not affordable for smaller organizations. It might be way out of their budget, but it is very ...

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What needs improvement with Atlan?

Atlan can be improved by enhancing their support process by reducing the resolution time. They have really bad and incomplete documentation, so they should work on the documentation as well, especi...

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What is your primary use case for Atlan?

My main use case for Atlan is to define a flexible set of metadata, including measuring the quality of said data. Atlan is also a partner of ours, so we use it to integrate with our own tool. It al...

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What needs improvement with IBM InfoSphere Information Server?

We are using the on-premises version of IBM InfoSphere Information Server, but we feel that all new development is mainly for the cloud. We receive corrections of errors, but we do not see new func...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM InfoSphere Information Server?

My usual use case for IBM InfoSphere Information Server is ETL, where we take data from one source to another data warehouse solution.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering IBM InfoSphere Information Server?

We are about to change our platform from IBM AIX to SUSE Linux, as our whole platform is changing, so everyone should change from IBM to SUSE Linux. It would be very difficult for us to have a diff...

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Comparisons

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Compared 14% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

Collibra Platform vs Atlan

Compared 11% of the time

Dawiso vs Atlan

Compared 8% of the time

illumex vs Atlan

Compared 8% of the time

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Informatica PowerCenter vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server

Compared 9% of the time

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server

Compared 8% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle GoldenGate vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server

Compared 6% of the time

IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog vs IBM InfoSphere Information Server

Compared 5% of the time

More IBM InfoSphere Information Server Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Atlan

September 2026

Download Atlan product report

Buyer's Guide

Data Integration

September 2026

IBM InfoSphere Information Server report

Download IBM InfoSphere Information Server product report

Also Known As

No data available

InfoSphere Information Server, IBM Information Server

Overview

Atlan is a comprehensive data management platform designed to enhance data democratization, governance, and collaboration across departments in organizations. It offers a centralized data catalog, intuitive user interface, and robust governance framework to ensure data security and compliance. Users appreciate its efficiency in streamlining processes, promoting better communication, and providing insightful analytics, which drive organizational growth and success.

Atlan

IBM InfoSphere Information Server integrates seamlessly with both structured and unstructured data environments, offering advanced ETL capabilities and efficient data handling for large-scale enterprise applications.

IBM InfoSphere Information Server is designed for enterprise-level data integration with a focus on efficient ETL processes. It excels in moving data between sources and data warehouses, particularly valuable in sectors such as retail banking. Users leverage its robust Parallel Extender for improved processing efficiency and DataStage administration for comprehensive task management. However, areas like technical support and scalability require growth, especially for cloud-based deployments. While the Cloud Pak for Data enables acceleration on the cloud, the on-premises approach often remains tied to traditional hardware configurations.

What are the crucial features?

Parallel Extender: Enhances data processing efficiency.
DataStage Administration: Facilitates comprehensive management of ETL tasks.
Change Capture: Monitors and tracks data modifications effectively.
Handling Partitioned Databases: Enables efficient data management across partitions.
Metadata Management: Despite limitations, offers basic insights and tracking.

What benefits or ROI should be evaluated?

Cloud Pak for Data: Accelerates data transformation in cloud environments.
ETL Capabilities: Provides robust extraction, transformation, and loading processes.
Versatility: Handles both structured and unstructured data efficiently.
Bulk Loads Parameter Sets: Enhances loading efficiency with bulk operations.

IBM InfoSphere Information Server is widely implemented in industries that require heavy data transformation, such as retail and financial services. Its robust ETL processes are essential for moving critical data between systems, ensuring streamlined data flow and integration across various platforms.

IBM

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Canadian National Railway Company, Chickasaw Nation Division of Commerce, Swedish Armed Forces, BG RCI, Janata Sahakari Bank Ltd., University of Arizona, Biogrid Australia

Buyer's Guide

Atlan vs. IBM InfoSphere Information Server

September 2026

Free Report: Atlan vs. IBM InfoSphere Information Server

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