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

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 11, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.5
IBM Cloud Pak for Data helps large enterprises improve data quality, boosting AI processes and enhancing decision-making productivity.
Sentiment score
7.1
Informatica's cloud platform enhances data management efficiency, cost savings, and data security, requiring effective change management for optimal results.
We have been able to drive responsible, transparent, and explainable AI workflow to operationalize AI and mitigate risk and regulatory compliance easily.
Senior Data Analyst at Wipro
Leadership prefers to utilize third-party tools, such as Snowflake, which has both storage and ELT features.
Sr. Consultant cum Assistant Manager & Offshore Lead at Deloitte
The stability and performance remain issues.
consultant at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Compared to Collibra Catalog, where the value is noticeable within six months.
Data and Analytics Manager at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
IBM Cloud Pak for Data's support is responsive and available 24/7, despite some delays due to system complexity.
Sentiment score
6.9
Informatica's customer service is generally rated positively for quick, knowledgeable support, though some report occasional delays and inconsistencies.
Cloud Pak is a complicated system, and it's often difficult to find the right resource in IBM to help with specific issues.
Data asset management engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
I would rate IBM's support at about a seven or eight out of ten because we have good support coverage owing to our long association with IBM.
EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Customer support should be more responsive and reach and respond on time.
Senior Data Analyst at Wipro
Due to the tool's maturity limitations, solutions are not always simple and often require workarounds.
Consulting Principal & Founder at Digital Data Consultancy
Even after going out of service support, they still reached back to me whenever I raised tickets.
IT Manager - Data Quality and Migration at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
We expect more responsive assistance because they have the expertise since Informatica is their tool, but I don't see enough expertise on the Informatica support side.
Sr. Consultant cum Assistant Manager & Offshore Lead at Deloitte
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
IBM Cloud Pak for Data is praised for impressive scalability and compatibility, despite being resource-intensive, with ratings mostly 8-10.
Sentiment score
7.3
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud is praised for scalability and flexibility in handling large datasets, despite pricing concerns.
I have not noticed any downtime or lagging, especially when dealing with large data, so it is relatively very scalable.
Senior Data Analyst at Wipro
I have used the product over multiple systems and was able to write reports for large data sets without any performance issues.
IT Manager - Data Quality and Migration at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
As a SaaS platform, IDMC is quite scalable and provides complete flexibility.
Consulting Principal & Founder at Digital Data Consultancy
There are many options available, and the licensing model is quite good, supporting our needs effectively.
Data Integration Architect at Endeavour Foundation
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
IBM Cloud Pak for Data is generally stable and well-rated, with users emphasizing scalability despite minor tool integration concerns.
Sentiment score
7.7
Users generally find IDMC stable, with occasional challenges after updates, especially in older versions or specific integrations.
Stability is crucial because IDMC holds business-critical data, and it needs to be available all the time for business users.
Consulting Principal & Founder at Digital Data Consultancy
There are substantial stability issues with Informatica Cloud Data Quality on the cloud.
consultant at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees
I find the stability to be good, with occasional restarts required every two to three months due to glitches.
IT Manager - Data Quality and Migration at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

IBM Cloud Pak for Data needs better integration, support, features, and pricing to attract small businesses and simplify adoption.
Informatica IDMC needs UI improvements, better connectivity, streamlined configuration, cheaper pricing, and enhanced support with AI integration.
Setting up the hybrid and multi-cloud environments is a long job and it takes time.
Senior Data Analyst at Wipro
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.
Data asset management engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
I do not know if Cognos has all the features that users are looking for since we provide it as our standard and do not maintain infrastructure for other tools.
EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
The tool needs to mature in terms of category-specific attributes or dynamic attributes.
Consulting Principal & Founder at Digital Data Consultancy
The current solution requires code-writing and tweaking, while other solutions offer material-level matches.
IT Manager - Data Quality and Migration at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
If the development interface could be optimized to have fewer modules, it would be greatly beneficial.
Data Integration Architect at Endeavour Foundation
 

Setup Cost

IBM Cloud Pak for Data's high pricing and complexity make it more suitable for large enterprises than smaller companies.
Informatica IDMC provides a robust but expensive pricing model with complex licensing and potential negotiation discounts for enterprises.
The setup cost is very expensive.
Data asset management engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Regarding my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing, for a small organization, the price might be relatively high, but for huge enterprises such as ours, the price is relatively affordable.
Senior Data Analyst at Wipro
It ranges from a quarter million to a couple of million a year.
Consulting Principal & Founder at Digital Data Consultancy
Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services is affordable for my specific use cases, with the pricing being rated three or four on a scale where one is very cheap.
Data Integration Architect at Endeavour Foundation
Regarding pricing, compared to other tools I have worked with, Informatica offers competitive pricing, which I find not high in terms of starting strategy.
Sr. Consultant cum Assistant Manager & Offshore Lead at Deloitte
 

Valuable Features

IBM Cloud Pak for Data excels with data virtualization, low-code navigation, robust security, and efficient data integration and collaboration.
Informatica IDMC offers seamless data integration, AI-enhanced features, and efficient governance, enhancing user experience and operational efficiency.
From there, I can work my way into a more granular level, applying all of that information on top of my actual data to understand what my data looks like, where it came from, and where it went wrong, managing it throughout the cycle.
Data asset management engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The benefits of choosing IBM Cognos, in addition to saving on cost, include having institutional knowledge about maintaining this infrastructure and enough people who have developed on Cognos in the past, which creates comfort in its use.
EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
We have been able to save approximately 80 percent of our time. We are not doing data analysis manually, so this relieves our data department of dealing with data.
Senior Data Analyst at Wipro
The platform's ability to pull in data from other platforms without the need for an additional integration tool enhances its appeal.
Consulting Principal & Founder at Digital Data Consultancy
The connectors serve as the main functionality, making data integration processes more efficient by saving time and effort.
Data Integration Architect at Endeavour Foundation
We could run data quality rules as part of Service Bus, which ensured the integrity of customer information before it was entered into our database.
Data and Analytics Manager at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Cloud Pak for Data
Ranking in Data Integration
23rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (3rd)
Informatica Intelligent Dat...
Ranking in Data Integration
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
214
Ranking in other categories
Data Quality (1st), Business Process Management (BPM) (7th), Business-to-Business Middleware (3rd), API Management (6th), Cloud Data Integration (3rd), Data Governance (3rd), Test Data Management (3rd), Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) (1st), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (2nd), Data Masking (1st), Metadata Management (1st), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (3rd), Test Data Management Services (3rd), Product Information Management (PIM) (1st), Data Observability (1st), AI Data Analysis (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 1.3%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is 3.7%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)3.7%
IBM Cloud Pak for Data1.3%
Other95.0%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Michelle Leslie - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Divya-Raj - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Consultant cum Assistant Manager & Offshore Lead at Deloitte
Handles large data volumes effectively and offers competitive pricing
There is a lot of improvement required, as we still face some cache issues most of the time, which is a challenge that we expect to see resolved in the future. Additionally, there is some limitation when we are working with a tool, especially regarding In and Out parameters, and I feel that this aspect should be improved going ahead. We face issues with the API side, as Cloud Application Integration cannot handle large volumes; according to the API page, there is a limitation of 500 records or 500 MB. The AI integrated into the Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services solution is called Application Integration, where we still face challenges when dealing with huge volumes, as previously explained.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
26%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
4%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise153
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
The pricing and setup cost are handled by a different procurement team. Our IT procurement team is centralized, so licensing and the actual cost of the software are taken care of by a different tea...
What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
I do not know if Cognos has all the features that users are looking for since we provide it as our standard and do not maintain infrastructure for other tools.
What is your primary use case for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
The main use case for IBM Cognos is for business intelligence and reporting.
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

Cloud Pak for Data
ActiveVOS, Active Endpoints, Address Verification, Persistent Data Masking
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival
The Travel Company, Carbonite
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.