Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

IBM B2B Integrator vs Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 27, 2025

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

IBM B2B Integrator
Ranking in Business-to-Business Middleware
7th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Informatica Intelligent Dat...
Ranking in Business-to-Business Middleware
4th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
182
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (3rd), Data Quality (1st), Business Process Management (BPM) (13th), API Management (8th), Cloud Data Integration (3rd), Data Governance (2nd), Test Data Management (3rd), Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) Solutions (1st), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (1st), Data Masking (2nd), Metadata Management (1st), Test Data Management Services (3rd), Product Information Management (PIM) (1st), Data Observability (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Business-to-Business Middleware category, the mindshare of IBM B2B Integrator is 6.5%, up from 6.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is 4.3%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business-to-Business Middleware
 

Featured Reviews

Nagasaikiran Kesana - PeerSpot reviewer
Fast, easy to use, and useful for integration purposes
In the initial stage, I used only business processes to build code. As I used the product more and more, I learned that we could monitor, perform support activities, and install and upgrade servers. We can learn how to manage the clients to get business. We must get into a call with customers and get their requirements. We must pass all the test cases, both positive and negative. We need to manage our team as well. We use various protocols for data security, like SFTP, FTP, and HTTP. We follow the security levels based on the customer’s requirements. We encrypt the file, and the customers decrypt it using the public and private keys we provide. Customers who need high security opt for HTTP certificates and AS2. I have also worked on AWS and Azure to pass files to the buckets. I also work on single sign-on authentication. External users can access our dashboard with a few details. For example, if our customers need to see whether a file is transferred from our end, they can easily log in to the details and monitor it. They can also perform health checks. I will recommend the tool to others. People who want to use the tool must not do anything blindly. They must analyze, learn the concept, and understand the purpose of the tool. There are other products in the market, like MuleSoft, that have the same functionality. We must understand why we are using IBM B2B Integrator. We must gather some information. I take some introductory classes for the new joiners in my organization. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Raj Sethupathi - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers profiling and address standardization but can be complicated
Informatica Data Quality has its data warehouse, primarily using Oracle and some SQL databases. You need a database to host the data. The cleansed version of the data is stored in the data warehouse. It integrates with PowerCenter and other Informatica tools. The integration details can be complex, but a regional setup is involved in this process. Profiling smaller datasets, such as 10,000-50,000 records, worked fine. However, unexpected issues could arise with larger datasets, such as thousands of records or more, especially with tables containing many columns. Handling tables with fifty or more columns can be challenging, even in Excel. A mismatch in data types could cause the entire system to crash. Continual enhancements are being made to address these issues, which can be unique to specific industries like finance and healthcare.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It can scale horizontally as well as vertically as a cluster."
"There are also different tabs where we can check the status of file transfers and business processes, and we can monitor adapters and services in the link."
"I find the codeless communications, SFTP or FTP, valuable."
"The most valuable feature of IBM B2B Integrator is its security and flexibility."
"IBM B2B Integrator is a great tool, robust, reliable, low-maintenance, and ideal solution."
"This solution allows for easy integration with heterogeneous applications."
"The most valuable features are the flexibility and the range of EDI standards that IBM Sterling can handle."
"B2B provides a secure communication channel."
"The application integration will give you more flexibility when dealing with APIs."
"Some of Axon's valuable features include creating your business glossaries, importing DQ rules, and creating change management."
"It has a more UI-based tool, and the scripting is good."
"Its data cleansing capabilities are very valuable. The match and merge and the audit trail functionalities are very good."
"The fuzzy matching capability is a great feature."
"It allows the creation of identical tasks that can be applied across multiple tables, ranging from 100 to even 1,000 tables."
"It's helpful in integration, and it can be moved around in SharePoint. So, from the SharePoint View, data integration and reporting, it help a lot in that way."
"We use it for various use cases, including data provisioning, data validation, continuous monitoring of data quality, and data standardization."
 

Cons

"The dashboard is not integrated and should be bundled by the product vendor."
"The user interface is outdated. B2B Integrator was developed in the United States in the nineties, and the graphical user interface hasn't improved since. It's tough because you have to program the software in XML. Nowadays, other methods are easier to work with."
"They do not have a solid partner ecosystem, and they do not have a clear roadmap for down the line; they're missing that clear roadmap."
"We often need to change property files for accounts, and I don't always have access to them. For core mapping, we need to install JDK"
"The initial setup is complex."
"The mapping, visibility, deployment, and the dashboard could be improved and updated. The communication logs are very poor. They are not easily understood, and we need to navigate to many places for many reasons. You can't just pull the information; it's very tough."
"It supports many of our use cases but falls short in some areas as technology evolves"
"There are also some features in the solution that are not user-friendly, like code lists with no search options. So, we must navigate hundreds of pages to check for one entry."
"If I compare it with other MDM solutions in the market, one thing that can definitely be improved is automation to help with the configuration. Currently, when we are creating any staging of base object tables, all the columns have to be configured manually in the Informatica Hub Console. A lot of tables and different kinds of business columns have to be configured manually. There should be an automated process for this, especially in the Dev environment. When people are creating tables and columns from scratch, if there is a backend automated process for that, it would be really helpful. In Stibo, a similar feature is there wherein you can tag attributes to certain objects. It would be helpful if Informatica also provides a similar option. It would reduce the manual effort. It could be that such a feature is already there, but I am not aware of it."
"I have received feedback from certain teams and there is a steep learning curve to use this solution."
"The integration with other data management tools can be enhanced. For instance, there is no integration with tools like Collibra or Hubview."
"The product isn't mature enough to provide suitable connectors to various data engines."
"It could be a bit more intuitive, rather than technically complex."
"The data discovery isn't that good yet for Salesforce. We have another tool that we use for this. It may be a problem because Salesforce on the cloud."
"There are a small number of UI bugs that occur on occasion."
"User/group administration could use improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is based on how many cores are used and the type of cores."
"The solution is priced at $20,000 to $30,000 per year with no extra costs."
"We pay an annual fee based on the number of VPUs. It's fairly reasonable. We're in the middle of analyzing other products, and they're all pretty much in the same range."
"Licensing depends upon the package you opt for within the solution. The solution is a bit costly compared to the other integration tools in the market."
"The price of IBM B2B Integrator is too high. However, IBM may be willing to give a discount if there are negotiations. If they see that there is a good opportunity for them they can provide a discount."
"The product costs more than 40K."
"We switched to Informatica PIM because it was cheaper than the Oracle solution. It is cheaper initially, but they will bundle it later. This is what happens in the industry."
"The pricing is high compared to other tools on the market."
"I rate the product's pricing a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is high price."
"I rate the product's price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is the cheapest and ten is the most expensive. The product is a bit expensive."
"Informatica MDM's pricetag should come down. They have to cut some costs."
"It is expensive. That's probably the biggest drawback. The business has heartache paying the license, but that's mainly because they don't realize what value it brings. The key thing about the MDM solution is that it is in the backend, and no one sees what it is actually doing. You don't know it is a problem until it is not there."
"Informatica MDM's price could be lower."
"We saw an ROI. We have been able to get data from various sources and consolidate it into a data lake, which is helping us in data analytics."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Business-to-Business Middleware solutions are best for your needs.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM B2B Integrator?
IBM B2B Integrator is a great tool, robust, reliable, low-maintenance, and ideal solution.
What needs improvement with IBM B2B Integrator?
It supports many of our use cases but falls short in some areas as technology evolves, especially with data transfer between edge locations and the cloud or on-premise systems. The solution doesn’t...
How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica Cloud Data Integration?
Azure Data Factory is a solid product offering many transformation functions; It has pre-load and post-load transformations, allowing users to apply transformations either in code by using Power Q...
Which Informatica product would you choose - PowerCenter or Cloud Data Integration?
Complex transformations can easily be achieved using PowerCenter, which has all the features and tools to establish a real data governance strategy. Additionally, PowerCenter is able to manage huge...
What are the biggest benefits of using Informatica Cloud Data Integration?
When it comes to cloud data integration, this solution can provide you with multiple benefits, including: Overhead reduction by integrating data on any cloud in various ways Effective integration ...
 

Also Known As

IBM Sterling B2B Integrator, Sterling Gentran Integration Suite
ActiveVOS, Active Endpoints, BPM, Address Verification, Persistent Data Masking, Cloud Test Data Management, PIM, , Enterprise Data Catalog, Data Integration Hub, Cloud Data Integration, Data Quality, Cloud API and App Integration
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bonnie Plants, Toshiba Europe, Florida Hospital
The Travel Company, Carbonite
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM B2B Integrator vs. Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.