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

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

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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

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Ranking in Data Integration

26th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Virtualization (3rd)

Informatica Intelligent Dat...

Ranking in Data Integration

3rd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

185

Ranking in other categories

Data Quality (1st), Business Process Management (BPM) (10th), Business-to-Business Middleware (5th), API Management (7th), Cloud Data Integration (3rd), Data Governance (2nd), Test Data Management (3rd), Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) Solutions (1st), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (2nd), Data Masking (1st), Metadata Management (1st), Test Data Management Services (3rd), Product Information Management (PIM) (1st), Data Observability (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 1.8%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is 3.6%, down from 5.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Integration Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)	3.6%
IBM Cloud Pak for Data	1.8%
Other	94.6%

Data Integration

Featured Reviews

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

SaurabhGaonshindhe

Principle Cloud Engineer at Sector 125

Modular structure and AI features stream new reporting processes

One of my clients has a requirement; they want to integrate metadata into the process, which means, for example, if I just want to implement a new field into my database, that field needs to be reflected throughout, let's say, 200 mappings. This highlights the need for a data-driven approach. My experience with technical support from Informatica is quite interesting; I would rate it as nine out of ten for Informatica PowerCenter kind of products or the Informatica integration products, because my team can do some hands-on using their free licenses or one-month kind of products. However, for products Master Data Management or related to MDM or Data Governance, there is no way by which we can directly practice, and my team struggles at that point.

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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

"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."

"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."

"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten."

"DataStage allows me to connect to different data sources."

"The most valuable features are data virtualization and reporting."

"The most valuable features of IBM Cloud Pak for Data are the Watson Studio, where we can initiate more groups and write code. Additionally, Watson Machine Learning is available with many other services, such as APIs which you can plug the machine learning models."

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

"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."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data pros

"The tool manually checks on applying business rules and helps to implement them."

"The match and merge functionality is invaluable for discovering golden master data records."

"We can see all our information on a single screen."

"It's got a reputation in the industry as one of the best solutions for master data management. So, it's what we see in the Gartner top right quadrant as the best product in that space."

"The most valuable feature of Informatica Axon is that it is flexible and user-friendly."

"Informatica Data Quality is a product that is worth the money."

"Informatica MDM stands out as a tool that can give you the flexibility needed for doing channel-specific data quality or business validation."

"The scalability is very high."

More Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) pros

Cons

"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."

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

"The tool depends on the control plane, an OpenShift container platform utilized as an orchestration layer...So, we have communicated this issue to IBM and asked if it is feasible to adapt the solution to work on a Kubernetes platform that we support."

"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 product is trying to be more maturity in terms of connectors. That, I believe, is an area where Cloud Pak can improve."

"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."

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

"The solution's catalog searching or map search needs to be improved."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data cons

"Their UI needs improvement. Their scorecards and reporting also need improvement. Their data quality reporting, especially their dashboards and scorecards, is lackluster at best. Its reporting capabilities are limited. If you want to do anything beyond its limited reporting capabilities, then you're going to have to use an external reporting tool such as Power BI or something like that."

"This is a costly solution. We have several customers who evaluate it but then look for other solutions because of the cost. At present, Informatica MDM comes as an on-premises or cloud-based solution. I would like to see them offer a SaaS-based MDM model. I think they are working on it."

"We haven't had many technical issues. We don't use all of the components of the tool that are more complex and error-prone."

"Informatica's issue is the licensing. Right now, there are a lot of new gen MDMs that are offering a lot in a single licensing model."

"I have received feedback from certain teams and there is a steep learning curve to use this solution."

"We promote our code changes from a lower to a higher environment, which is highly complex when working with a multi-domain MDM like Informatica. This is the biggest obstacle for Informatica MDM, and I think they should change it because that's very time consuming."

"The on-prem version's functionalities may not be available on the cloud version."

"The cloud version could be better in terms of pricing."

More Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."

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

"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."

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

"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."

"It's quite expensive."

"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."

"We got a 50% discount."

"We are quite happy with the licensing model."

"It is cost effective and an easily accessible tool."

"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."

"It's pretty high for us. It's more on the higher side, like low to middle high."

"It's offers value for money. They're more competitive with respect to pricing and offerings."

"Informatica MDM recently changed its pricing model. It's usage-based but I don't have much insight into the current pricing."

"A yearly subscription is paid based on the number of people using the solution. Price-wise, it falls under the medium range since it is neither very costly nor too cheap."

More Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

29%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	42
Midsize Enterprise	24
Large Enterprise	134

Questions from the Community

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.

What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

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...

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 ...

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

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Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Download IBM Cloud Pak for Data product report

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)

Download Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) product report

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) report

Also Known As

Cloud Pak for Data

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

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

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) integrates data quality, governance, and integration with flexible architecture. It supports multiple domains and a data models repository, delivering AI-enhanced data management across cloud-native platforms.

IDMC provides seamless integration and governance capabilities that support diverse data environments. Its comprehensive suite includes customizable workflows, data profiling, and metadata management. AI features, a data marketplace, and performance scalability enhance data management. While its interface poses challenges, its robust matching and cloud-native integration facilities are essential for complex data ecosystems. Users employ IDMC for connecting systems, ensuring data quality, and supporting data compliance but seek better pre-built rules, services, and improved connectivity, especially with platforms like Salesforce. Licensing, cost, and added AI functionalities are areas for potential refinement.

What are the key features of IDMC?

Data Quality and Integration: Seamless integration ensures data accuracy across platforms.
Metadata Management: Comprehensive metadata management supports data governance.
AI Capabilities: AI features enhance automation and decision-making processes.
Data Marketplace: Facilitates easy access to data across the organization.
Performance Scalability: Scales performance efficiently to meet growing data demands.

What benefits should be expected from IDMC?

Enhanced Data Management: Offers robust tools for data governance and quality.
Improved Integration: Connects disparate systems seamlessly, reducing data silos.
Cost Efficiency: Streamlines data processes, potentially reducing operational costs.
Data Compliance: Supports compliance with data privacy regulations.
Agility and Scalability: Adapts quickly to changing data environments.

IDMC is implemented across industries for data integration, metadata management, and governance. Organizations use it to connect systems, migrate data to cloud environments, and maintain data quality. They manage master data and automate business processes, facilitating data lineage and ensuring compliance with privacy regulations.

Informatica

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival

The Travel Company, Carbonite

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