IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] comparison

IBM and Informatica are both solutions in the Data Integration category. Additionally, 88% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Informatica users who would recommend it.

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Read 15 IBM Cloud Pak for Data reviews

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2,033 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Informatica PowerExchange [...

Read 23 Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] reviews

90% willing to recommend

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Informatica PowerExchange [...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 11, 2025

Informatica PowerExchange and IBM Cloud Pak for Data compete in the data integration and management category. IBM Cloud Pak for Data has the upper hand due to its seamless integration of advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities.

Features: Informatica PowerExchange offers robust standardization and transformation capabilities, praised for its change data capture and real-time integration, with broad connectivity to various data systems. IBM Cloud Pak for Data excels in data virtualization, analytics, and AI with Watson Studio, featuring strong containerization and governance tools for streamlined operations.

Room for Improvement: Informatica PowerExchange faces challenges with pricing, integration, and user experience, needing improvements in real-time enhancements and cloud integration. IBM Cloud Pak for Data requires enhancements in system resource management, setup process simplification, and better integration with external services, along with improved cloud transition.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Informatica PowerExchange focuses on on-premises deployment with reliable support, though response time improvements are suggested. IBM Cloud Pak for Data offers flexible deployment in both public and hybrid cloud environments but faces initial infrastructure challenges, with satisfactory support needing response efficiency improvements.

Pricing and ROI: Informatica PowerExchange's straightforward yet expensive pricing impacts appeal for smaller companies, providing value in robust data integration but with high costs. IBM Cloud Pak for Data is also expensive, targeting larger enterprises, with complex pricing but competitive against similar platforms, offering ROI from operational streamlining despite high setup costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Data Integration Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Data Integration

January 2026

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Helped 881,082 peers since 2012

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

7.9

Informatica PowerExchange boosts decision-making and ROI through streamlined data management and cost-effective integration across data sources.

We have been able to drive responsible, transparent, and explainable AI workflow to operationalize AI and mitigate risk and regulatory compliance easily.

ArchanaSingh

Senior Data Analyst at Wipro

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Cloud Pak for Data report

It is considered cost-efficient because it leads to the re-utilization of channels and platforms, which saves time and money.

Haider-AlAmeed

Sr. IT & Data Governance and Management Consultant & Technical Lead at a government with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] report

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

7.1

Feedback on Informatica PowerExchange support is mixed, with praise for reliability but concern over response times, averaging 7-8/10 ratings.

Cloud Pak is a complicated system, and it's often difficult to find the right resource in IBM to help with specific issues.

Michelle Leslie

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

Customer support should be more responsive and reach and respond on time.

ArchanaSingh

Senior Data Analyst at Wipro

IBM support is very supportive, and I would rate them an eight out of ten based on our long relationship with them.

reviewer2648136

EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Cloud Pak for Data report

Their support aligns with what I have experienced with Informatica data quality teams, and it is quite effective.

reviewer2145525

IT Manager - Data Quality and Migration at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Informatica's technical support team is very supportive and provides help whenever required.

Haider-AlAmeed

Sr. IT & Data Governance and Management Consultant & Technical Lead at a government with 51-200 employees

The support was good enough, and they were able to resolve all the issues I raised in the past.

Xitiz Pugalia

Senior Analyst at North Oil Company

For more quotes and insights, download the Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] report

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

7.0

Informatica PowerExchange is scalable for big data, though some find limitations in flexibility and high availability.

I have not noticed any downtime or lagging, especially when dealing with large data, so it is relatively very scalable.

ArchanaSingh

Senior Data Analyst at Wipro

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Cloud Pak for Data report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] report

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

Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] is reliable but needs improvements in handling high loads, error clarity, and log visibility.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Cloud Pak for Data report

Technical errors sometimes occur, such as network breakages at the source level, which breaks connectivity.

Xitiz Pugalia

Senior Analyst at North Oil Company

For more quotes and insights, download the Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] report

Room For Improvement

IBM Cloud Pak for Data needs better integration, support, features, and pricing to attract small businesses and simplify adoption.

Informatica PowerExchange needs improved integration, user-friendliness, and enhancements in big data, real-time processing, and automation capabilities.

Setting up the hybrid and multi-cloud environments is a long job and it takes time.

ArchanaSingh

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.

Michelle Leslie

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.

reviewer2648136

EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Cloud Pak for Data report

One area that could be improved is performance, as PowerExchange sometimes has less performance compared to native connectors when dealing with a huge volume of data.

Xitiz Pugalia

Senior Analyst at North Oil Company

The addition of data quality dashboards or measures would also help in profiling data to assess its health before sharing or moving it.

Haider-AlAmeed

Sr. IT & Data Governance and Management Consultant & Technical Lead at a government with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] report

Setup Cost

IBM Cloud Pak for Data's high pricing and complexity make it more suitable for large enterprises than smaller companies.

Informatica PowerExchange pricing is capacity-based with moderate to high costs, favored for integration capabilities and cost efficiency.

The setup cost is very expensive.

Michelle Leslie

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.

ArchanaSingh

Senior Data Analyst at Wipro

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Cloud Pak for Data report

Informatica PowerExchange is considered cost-efficient due to reduced number of APIs needed.

Haider-AlAmeed

Sr. IT & Data Governance and Management Consultant & Technical Lead at a government with 51-200 employees

The pricing and cost depend heavily on SAP's licensing structure, especially if using SAP integration services.

reviewer2145525

IT Manager - Data Quality and Migration at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] report

Valuable Features

IBM Cloud Pak for Data excels with data virtualization, low-code navigation, robust security, and efficient data integration and collaboration.

Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] excels in data transformation, connectivity, and integration, efficiently handling large data volumes with flexibility.

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.

ArchanaSingh

Senior Data Analyst at Wipro

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.

reviewer2648136

EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

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.

Michelle Leslie

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

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Cloud Pak for Data report

It also reduces the number of APIs needed for new integrations by offering a unified exchange platform.

Haider-AlAmeed

Sr. IT & Data Governance and Management Consultant & Technical Lead at a government with 51-200 employees

The primary advantage of Informatica PowerExchange is being able to extract data from source systems that Informatica does not natively support.

Xitiz Pugalia

Senior Analyst at North Oil Company

PowerExchange is one of the best software solutions to build integrations with non-Oracle or standard database services, especially for SAP and Hana products.

reviewer2145525

IT Manager - Data Quality and Migration at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] report

Categories and Ranking

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Integration (23rd), Data Virtualization (3rd)

Informatica PowerExchange [...

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

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

Haider-AlAmeed

Sr. IT & Data Governance and Management Consultant & Technical Lead at a government with 51-200 employees

Facilitates seamless data exchange for Middle Eastern government entities while reducing costs and simplifying integration processes

Informatica PowerExchange is important for services and common services implementations. This allows workflow communication between different entities, providing proper services. The tool's governance features include HA rules, responsibilities, and policies which are highly valued. It also reduces the number of APIs needed for new integrations by offering a unified exchange platform that facilitates easy-to-use services without the need for coding.

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

26%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

23%

Government

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	12

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...

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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.

See all answers

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.

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What do you like most about Informatica PowerExchange?

The product’s flexibility is valuable.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Informatica PowerExchange?

Informatica PowerExchange is considered cost-efficient due to reduced number of APIs needed, enabling re-utilization of existing channels, cutting down on development and training costs.

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What needs improvement with Informatica PowerExchange?

It would be helpful to have more metadata provided, which is useful for engaging more users in data exchange. The addition of data quality dashboards or measures would also help in profiling data t...

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 39% of the time

Denodo vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 12% of the time

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

Compared 8% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 7% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data Competitors

Informatica PowerCenter vs Informatica PowerExchange [EOL]

Compared 31% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs Informatica PowerExchange [EOL]

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle GoldenGate vs Informatica PowerExchange [EOL]

Compared 8% of the time

SharePlex vs Informatica PowerExchange [EOL]

Compared 6% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs Informatica PowerExchange [EOL]

Compared 4% of the time

More Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

January 2026

Download IBM Cloud Pak for Data product report

Buyer's Guide

Informatica PowerExchange [EOL]

January 2026

Download Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] product report

Also Known As

Cloud Pak for Data

PowerExchange, Connectors

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 PowerExchange [EOL] offers advanced data integration capabilities, emphasizing data transformation, real-time integration, and connectivity to diverse data sources, ensuring seamless access and management of big data in complex environments.

Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] is a robust tool for managing data integration and transformation processes. It supports connectivity to numerous sources, enabling real-time data capture and transformation. With native connectors and APIs, it allows seamless integration, ensuring data mapping across data formats. While strong at data handling and integration, improvements in pricing, real-time processing, and enhanced technical support are necessary. Expanded cloud integration and improved high availability will further bolster its efficiency in managing extensive datasets, supporting ETL, and integrating systems like SAP.

What are the most important features of Informatica PowerExchange?

Data Transformation: Facilitates complex data mappings across formats.
Diverse Connectivity: Connects to multiple data sources, including non-native systems.
Real-Time Integration: Offers real-time data capture and processing capabilities.
Pushdown Optimization: Enhances performance by leveraging native database capabilities.
Change Data Capture: Supports incremental data updates, improving data freshness.

What benefits should be considered?

Scalability: Handles big data volumes efficiently, allowing for future growth.
Workflow Communication: Governance features streamline workflows and reduce API dependence.
Integration Flexibility: Supports integration with SAP and Hana, improving data management.
Fast Updates: Provides timely updates to integrated systems, enhancing decision-making.

Informatica PowerExchange [EOL] is implemented widely in sectors requiring robust data integration solutions. It serves industries such as finance, healthcare, and retail, facilitating the creation of data warehouses and lakes. Used for ETL processes and operational analytics, it integrates systems like Hadoop, Oracle, and legacy environments, driving efficient communication and information sharing.

Informatica

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival

ACH Food, BNSF Railway Company, Illinois State University

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