Denodo vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data comparison

Denodo and IBM are both solutions in the Data Virtualization category. Denodo is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.9, while IBM is ranked #3 with an average rating of 7.0. Denodo holds a 26.5% mindshare in DV, compared to IBM’s 14.4% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Denodo users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Denodo

Read 37 Denodo reviews

4,368 Views
612 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Read 13 IBM Cloud Pak for Data reviews

2,186 Views
240 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Denodo

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 14, 2024

Denodo and IBM Cloud Pak for Data are two prominent data integration platforms. Denodo generally receives more favorable feedback on its ease of deployment and customer service. IBM Cloud Pak for Data is often highlighted for its comprehensive set of features, making it a preferable choice for many users.

Features: Denodo is highly rated for its data virtualization capabilities, allowing seamless integration of distributed data. IBM Cloud Pak for Data offers a broader suite of tools, including AI and machine learning integrations, which users find valuable. Denodo excels in data connectivity, but IBM's extensive features provide an edge in overall functionality.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest that Denodo could enhance its performance at scale and improve its data cataloging features. IBM Cloud Pak for Data users point out that the platform could benefit from more intuitive administrative tools and better integration with non-IBM systems. Denodo could also work on providing better templating options, while IBM users mention the need for a smoother upgrade process.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Denodo is praised for its straightforward deployment process and responsive customer service. IBM Cloud Pak for Data is also recognized for strong customer support but has a more complex deployment process due to its comprehensive feature set.

Pricing and ROI: Denodo is often seen as offering better initial setup costs and quicker ROI due to its streamlined deployment. IBM Cloud Pak for Data, while perceived as more expensive, justifies the cost with its extensive functionalities and longer-term ROI. Users find Denodo cost-effective in the short term, whereas IBM is considered worthwhile for its long-term benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Denodo vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Data Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Denodo vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Data

September 2025

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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

Denodo

Ranking in Data Integration

9th

Ranking in Data Virtualization

1st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Data Integration (5th)

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Ranking in Data Integration

26th

Ranking in Data Virtualization

3rd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Data Virtualization category, the mindshare of Denodo is 26.5%, down from 39.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 14.4%, down from 16.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Virtualization Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Denodo	26.5%
IBM Cloud Pak for Data	14.4%
Other	59.1%

Data Virtualization

Featured Reviews

Atanu Chatterjee

Principal Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Data virtualization and integration enabled while caching and scalability room for improvement

In terms of improvements for Denodo, regarding performance, in cases where there are multiple virtualizations—such as reading from one Denodo view that is virtualized, and from that view there's also virtualization, and another team is reading from that view—if multiple virtualizations happen with no caching in between, it becomes slow. This occurs because it is cascading; whenever at the top level someone is reading data, that request is getting cascaded to the nth level, causing issues, especially in cases such as Power BI reports. We need to consider implementing some persistent layer in between. The scaling process should improve because many things are getting automated. The scale-out part needs to be automated, though I am uncertain whether Denodo has already implemented that feature.

Read full review

Michelle Leslie

Data asset management engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Starts strong with data management capabilities but needs a demo database

What I would love to see is an end-to-end, almost a training demo database of some sort, where one of the biggest problems with data management is demonstrated. There are so many components to data management, and more often than not, people understand one thing really well. They may understand DataStage and how to move data around, but they do not see the impact of moving data incorrectly. They also do not see the impact of everyone understanding a piece of data in the same way. I would love Cloud Pak to come with a demo database that illustrates the different components of data management in a logical way, so I can see the whole picture instead of just the area I'm specializing in. It would be great if Cloud Pak, from a data modeling point of view, allowed us to import our PDMs, for example. It would be ideal to import and create business terms in Cloud Pak. The PEA would be great to create the technical data. The association between the business and the technical metadata could then be automated by pulling it through from your ACE models. The data modeling component is available in Cloud Pak. Additionally, when it comes to Cloud Pak, even though it has the NextGen DataStage built into it, there is Cloud Pak for data integration as well. Currently, I do not think we have a full enough understanding of how CP4D and CP4I can enhance each other.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The data catalog feature is valuable as it helps define data structures without storing data."

"The most valuable feature is the performance. Denodo is very useful, especially in this huge pharma environment. I've found that older SAP solutions were very tightly coupled to each other, which resulted in data restrictions. Getting data from different sources was tough and tedious. Compared to these old solutions, Denodo is very easy to work with for the analytical team. Now that we've implemented this virtualization layer, we are capable of getting the data very smoothly. We implemented a very small unit, but the performance and integration have been very good."

"The most valuable feature of Denodo is its uniformity of self-site data access types, which allows it to connect to almost any storage technology and feed it transparently."

"The performance and the speed to market are the most valuable features of this solution."

"The most valuable features are data lineage and the concept of a semantic layer."

"Denodo provides high reliability, with features like vertical scaling, horizontal scaling, and failover nodes."

"Denodo makes it easy to export data as a service or data link to other services."

"Data mining is one of the valuable features. We're able to connect all of the data sources with the installed driver, so that is a good advantage in Denodo. Being able to join the tables and view them is also valuable."

More Denodo pros

"What I found most helpful in IBM Cloud Pak for Data is containerization, which means it's easy to shift and leave in terms of moving to other clouds. That's an advantage of IBM Cloud Pak for Data."

"One of Cloud Pak's best features is the Watson Knowledge Catalog, which helps you implement data governance."

"Cloud Pak's most valuable features are IBM MQ, IBM App Connect, IBM API Connect, and ISPF."

"I love the way that I can start at a very basic level with my data management journey by capturing my policies, justifying my data, and putting them into different categories to say this is data relating to individuals, for example, or data relating to geography."

"It is a scalable solution, and we have had no issues with its scalability in our company. I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten."

"You can model the data there, connect the data models with the business processes and create data lineage processes."

"IBM Watson Catalog and data pipelines are the most valuable features of the solution."

"The most valuable feature of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is the Modeler flows. The ability to develop models using a graphical approach and the capability to connect to various sources, as well as the data virtualization capabilities, allow me to easily access and utilize data that is dispersed across different sources."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data pros

Cons

"Denodo shows stability concerns due to its dependency on external environments, such as JVM."

"We would like this solution to be more universally user-friendly. At present it is really only aimed at IT specialists."

"The cache configuration is more complicated."

"It would be beneficial to make sure that the team that will be using Denodo has some kind of training on how to use the product at least a month beforehand, and there could even be some kind of feedback or Q&A sessions to go along with the training. If Denodo were able to provide this kind of training, it would be very helpful to users in insurance and banking companies because the staff are typically older and not always technically-minded."

"We occasionally have some integration issues that we need to work through."

"It would be good if the solution provided a much-needed cellular platform."

"Denodo can improve usage management-related aspects. If you deal with the mini views, it gets stuck. The performance is very slow when we go with a large number of views and high volume."

"I would like it if we could pull the data model or export the data model because Denodo has, based on how you build, something called associations. The data model gets very confusing when you go look at it. It depends on how you define it, but it's really huge. I wish there was a way to export it into Visio. It could be that they already have a way to do it, and I don't know, but it would be much easier for the architects and even for the developers to look at it than scrunching it into the screen and expanding every small portion of it. If there was an easy way to export the Denodo model into another modeling tool and view it, it would be great."

More Denodo cons

"What I would love to see is an end-to-end, almost a training demo database of some sort, where one of the biggest problems with data management is demonstrated."

"There is a solution that is part of IBM Cloud Pak for Data called Watson OpenScale. It is used to monitor the deployed models for the quality and fairness of the results. This is one area that needs a lot of improvement."

"One challenge I'm facing with IBM Cloud Pak for Data is native features have been decommissioned, such as XML input and output. Too many changes have been made, and my company has around one hundred thousand mappings, so my team has been putting more effort into alternative ways to do things. Another area for improvement in IBM Cloud Pak for Data is that it's more complicated to shift from on-premise to the cloud. Other vendors provide secure agents that easily connect with your existing setup. Still, with IBM Cloud Pak for Data, you have to perform connection migration steps, upgrade to the latest version, etc., which makes it more complicated, especially as my company has XML-based mappings. Still, the XML input and output capabilities of IBM Cloud Pak for Data have been discontinued, so I'd like IBM to bring that back."

"The solution's user experience is an area that has room for improvement."

"Cloud Pak would be improved with integration with cloud service providers like Cloudera."

"The solution could have more connectors."

"One thing that bugs me is how much infrastructure Cloud Pak requires for the initial deployment. It doesn't allow you to start small. The smallest permitted deployment is too big. It's a huge problem that prevents us from implementing the solution in many scenarios."

"The interface could improve because sometimes it becomes slow. Sometimes there is a delay between clicks when using the software, which can make the development process slow. It can take a few seconds to complete one action, and then a few more seconds to do the next one."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is pretty good, and I would rate it at four out of five."

"Cost wise, on a scale from one to five, with one being the cheapest and five being the most expensive, Denodo would be at three. We get all the features in a bundle."

"Denodo provides a lightweight 30-day free trial, but when we do courses on top of it, it costs $150 for each person."

"The licensing should be improved, as the cost per connector is quite expensive."

"Depending on the size of the client you want to work with, it can be prohibitively expensive at times."

"There is an express edition and a licensed enterprise edition."

"Talking with my manager and others, nobody has complained about the pricing so far which is a positive sign."

"The licensing charges for this solution are payable annually."

More Denodo pricing and cost advice

"The solution's pricing is competitive with that of other vendors."

"I don't have the exact licensing cost for IBM Cloud Pak for Data, as my company is still finalizing requirements, including monthly, yearly, and three-year licensing fees. Still, on a scale of one to five, I'd rate it a three because, compared to other vendors, it's more complicated."

"For the licensing of the solution, there is a yearly payment that needs to be made. Also, since it is expensive, cost-wise, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten."

"Cloud Pak's cost is a little high."

"It's quite expensive."

"I think that this product is too expensive for smaller companies."

"The solution is expensive."

"IBM Cloud Pak for Data is expensive. If we include the training time and the machine learning, it's expensive. The cost of the execution is more reasonable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

23%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

29%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	19

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

Does Denodo provide useful data virtualization education? Is it useful to attend their training?

If you are a Denodo user, it makes sense to undergo their training. Different types of professionals can benefit from it, including administrators, developers, and architects. If you are keen on i...

See all answers

In experience, what might Denodo be lacking or need improvement on?

I like Denodo a lot. It offers quick and easy web service deployment within minutes. There are not any flaws that I think make the product less good or effective. The only thing I can point out is...

See all answers

Which industries can benefit from Denodo the most?

Denodo is suitable for pretty much all sectors that deal with: Big data Cloud solutions Data governance Logical data fabric Master data management In my opinion, organizations in different fields...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

The setup cost is very expensive. The cost depends on the pieces of the solution I'm using, how much data I have, and whether it's on the cloud or on-prem.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

My primary use case for Cloud Pak is that I am the reference Data steward for the Africa regions in the banks where I work. My main objective is to capture the reference data in Caltech or Data and...

See all answers

Comparisons

Azure Data Factory vs Denodo

Compared 9% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs Denodo

Compared 8% of the time

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform vs Denodo

Compared 6% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs Denodo

Compared 6% of the time

Perforce Delphix vs Denodo

Compared 5% of the time

More Denodo Competitors

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 45% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 11% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 9% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 8% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Denodo

September 2025

Download Denodo product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

September 2025

Download IBM Cloud Pak for Data product report

Also Known As

No data available

Cloud Pak for Data

Overview

Denodo is a leading data integration, management, and delivery platform that uses a logical approach to enable data science, hybrid and multi-cloud data integration, self-service BI, and enterprise data services. Organizations of different sizes across various industries utilize the product to get above the data silos. The solution offers organizations the freedom to migrate data to the cloud, or logically unify data warehouses and data lakes, without affecting business. This can ultimately result in the evolution of data strategies.

The platform accelerates data provisioning through reduced data replication, provides business users the freedom to select their preferred applications, and enables consistent security and governance across multiple systems. The solution offers one of the leading logical data fabric solutions by initiating data virtualization and eliminating the complexity and exposing the data in business-friendly formats.

Denodo also offers modern data integration and management for hybrid and multi-cloud environments for Denodo Platform for Cloud. This service can be purchased through the bring-your-own-license (BYOL) option. Users seeking faster deployment can license the product to popular cloud providers, including Amazon AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. The solution integrates, manages, and delivers data in complex environments with high performance, governance, and security. It also offers additional solutions, such as the Denodo Platform for Cloud Modernization, the Denodo Platform for Cloud Data Integration, and the Denodo Platform for Cloud Analytics, which overcome common cloud data challenges.

Denodo Features

At the beginning of 2022, version 8.0 of Denodo introduced several new key features of the platform. These include:

Scalability: Denodo can scale from departmental or project to enterprise-wide with geographically distributed nodes. It can also handle large transactional loads of users, sources, and transactions as well as analytical loads of data volumes.
Query optimizers: This feature offers advanced cost-based and source constraint-based query optimization that includes query rewrite, query delegations, data movements, and join optimization.
Intelligent caching: This feature makes full, portal, and time-based caching possible.
Fine-grained security model: This Denodo feature makes integration with external systems possible.
Monitoring and auditing: Denodo offers enterprise-grade monitoring and auditing, which allows for integration with system management products, including Tivoli, Unicenter, and HP BTO.
Development and deployment support: The product offers full lifecycle support for the development and deployment of applications, providing users with all required tools.

Denodo Benefits

Denodo offers various benefits for its users through its services. Some of the greatest advantages of using this platform include:

The solution accelerates time to market for all types of business data through its services.
Denodo provides IT agility, which helps companies respond to business-changing demands in a timely manner.
Users can decide how much data replication they want to reduce through Denodo and use the product in full control.
The solution meets the industry's security and privacy requirements by providing high-grade protection for users' data.
Users can benefit from centralized control of data query executions for complete governance and full security.
Denodo offers legacy replacement, multi-cloud deployments, and cloud migrations with minimal disruptions and a fair price.
The solution utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to unlock data potential for customers.

Reviews from Real Users

Naresh M., a senior application developer at a financial services firm, appreciates Denodo because it offers quick and simple web services creation.

Alisson M., a senior BigData DevOps engineer at Schaeffler, says that Denodo is great for queries and scouting data.

Denodo

IBM Cloud Pak® for Data is a fully-integrated data and AI platform that modernizes how businesses collect, organize and analyze data to infuse AI throughout their organizations. Cloud-native by design, the platform unifies market-leading services spanning the entire analytics lifecycle. From data management, DataOps, governance, business analytics and automated AI, IBM Cloud Pak for Data helps eliminate the need for costly, and often competing, point solutions while providing the information architecture you need to implement AI successfully.

Building on the streamlined hybrid-cloud foundation of Red Hat® OpenShift®, IBM Cloud Pak for Data takes advantage of the underlying resource and infrastructure optimization and management. The solution fully supports multicloud environments such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud™ and private cloud deployments. Find out how IBM Cloud Pak for Data can lower your total cost of ownership and accelerate innovation.

IBM

Sample Customers

Autodesk, VHA, AAA, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Caterpillar, European Chemical Agency, Seagate, Nationwide, Time Warner Cable, Pantex, Inditex, BNSF Railways, Vodafone, CIT Group, Jazztel, Wolters Kluwer, Telefonica, TransAlta

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival

Buyer's Guide

Denodo vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Data

September 2025

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