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IBM InfoSphere Information Server 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM InfoSphere Information ...
Ranking in Data Integration
30th
Ranking in Metadata Management
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Informatica Intelligent Dat...
Ranking in Data Integration
2nd
Ranking in Metadata Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
214
Ranking in other categories
Data Quality (1st), Business Process Management (BPM) (6th), Business-to-Business Middleware (2nd), 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 (2nd), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (3rd), Test Data Management Services (3rd), Product Information Management (PIM) (1st), Data Observability (2nd), AI Data Analysis (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM InfoSphere Information Server is 1.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is 3.5%, down from 5.3% 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)3.5%
IBM InfoSphere Information Server1.0%
Other95.5%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

MI
Senior Data Engineer at Mohammed Mansour Alrumiah
Faced challenges with customer support and documentation but have benefited from reliable data integration over the years
As for utilizing the platform's metadata management feature, I have not worked on that feature yet, but personally, I have done that. To evaluate the effectiveness of IBM InfoSphere Information Server's data integration capabilities, if IBM is providing all the solutions we are using, then it is definitely a helpful thing. Mostly, the other thing is that it is a big area including data governance, data lineage, data management, and metadata, but every customer is not putting that much effort and money on that. They mostly migrate the data, use it, and forget it, but slowly things are changing. I am working in Saudi Arabia, so here also data governance, data management, and those kinds of things are getting attention. Regarding how scalable IBM InfoSphere Information Server is, I need to learn how to tune performance and scalability on the cloud. I am familiar with localized hardware, but on the cloud, I still have to do the work around it. In the beginning, we estimate the load and based on that, we put the hardware, but if there is continuous increase, I believe IBM also faces problems. Scalability needs to be improved because once the demand comes, you should be able to improve it, but for that, documentation on how to add hardware or resources to the software needs to be proper. I do not have much hands-on experience with that.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Deploying the solution is straightforward for me."
"Over the years of working with IBM InfoSphere Information Server, I see basically the strength of the tool, capability, and load balancing, which I see is really good."
"This solution is extremely flexible and scalable."
"The integration with different technologies is the most valuable feature."
"IBM InfoSphere Information Server is stable."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"I recommend Informatica because anyone with a bit of knowledge, even a beginner or intern, can explore, learn, and accomplish development tasks without much difficulty."
"The metadata management of Informatica is great."
"The valuable features include ease of use and quick response time with Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services; the performance and response time are notably faster."
"The most valuable features of Informatica MDM are the IDQ and RDM data management."
"The tool does give a good ROI."
"The interface is really good."
"The most beneficial feature of Informatica Cloud Data Quality is it's cloud-based."
"Axon has a marketplace that allows you to showcase all the assets the data owner has, so they can request access. That's one feature we use extensively. Axon also offers great visibility and intuitive searchability, allowing you to easily search data assets. You can check the lineage and see the work EDC does. EDC handles all the classification, cataloging, and lineage. It's integrated with Axon, and anyone can see that."
 

Cons

"This solution would benefit from the engine being made more lightweight."
"Their technical support needs improvement."
"IBM InfoSphere Information Server should be more scalable. It should have the option to change the configuration to run on a single, non-multiple node, or multi-threading processing."
"There are certain shortcomings in the cloud side of the solution, where improvements are required."
"We have decided to decrease the usage of metadata management because we did not see any significant advantages."
"Unlike other tools, IBM tools do not provide much help from the internet, so additional support should be available."
"One thing Informatica could improve is the way IPUs are used. Each customer purchases a certain amount of IPUs per month, but you can use more or less than that defined quantity. The only problem is if you don't use the all your IPUs, they don't carry over into the next month. I think customers should have the ability to transfer unused IPUs into the next month or year. This improvement could help give customers more flexibility, especially since cloud solutions need flexibility in how we use and pay for them."
"This service could be more cost-effective."
"Synchronicity is an area for improvement in Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services. For example, when you want real-time or immediate response from the solution when multiple technologies are involved, the integration with Informatica Intelligent Cloud isn't seamless, whether it's the MQ, JMS, or BES service, so the connectivity should be improved a bit. The data governance is good, but what's lacking is a demo. For example, if there's a new feature in Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services, the documentation for that new feature is limited, so if Informatica could give a more complete documentation and more demos, that would be better for the users. Right now, there isn't any issue with any of the features of the solution. It's the new feature awareness or user training, and improved connectivity that I'd like to see in the next version of Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services."
"One area where Informatica Cloud Data Integration could improve is in providing more accelerators for certain functionalities."
"The product could be improved in the area of architecture and technology. All the parts are old."
"The customer servive and support could be faster. There is a slow turnaround."
"There may be some types of limitations with the performance."
"Informatica MDM could improve the interdependency with integration. The solution sometimes becomes a bit difficult to change considering a lot of interdependency with the integration. There can be some improvement in the workflows and they can introduce more artificial intelligence."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing cost of IBM InfoSphere Information Server depends on how many users there are."
"Informatica is very expensive."
"It is cost effective and an easily accessible tool."
"The solution is expensive."
"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."
"It's pretty high for us. It's more on the higher side, like low to middle high."
"The price is neither too high nor too low."
"The solution's pricing model is easy, but it is very expensive."
"Informatica MDM is a costly solution because it comes as a bundle. They are also globally positioning themselves and are definitely working on very upgraded technologies. If someone wanted to do it on the cloud, they have a lot of flexibility because they upgrade themselves according to the current needs. It definitely comes with a lot of features and that's the reason why it's costly. The licensing cost should be approximately one million dollars. It's about four to five times that of other vendors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
19%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Insurance Company
9%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise153
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM InfoSphere Information Server?
As for utilizing the platform's metadata management feature, I have not worked on that feature yet, but personally, I have done that. To evaluate the effectiveness of IBM InfoSphere Information Ser...
What is your primary use case for IBM InfoSphere Information Server?
My usual use case for IBM InfoSphere Information Server is ETL, where we take data from one source to another data warehouse solution.
What advice do you have for others considering IBM InfoSphere Information Server?
Currently, IBM InfoSphere Information Server is deployed on-premises in my organization. Mostly it is on-premises only, but slowly things are changing towards pro-cloud. It will not be a public clo...
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

InfoSphere Information Server, IBM Information Server
ActiveVOS, Active Endpoints, Address Verification, Persistent Data Masking
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Canadian National Railway Company, Chickasaw Nation Division of Commerce, Swedish Armed Forces, BG RCI, Janata Sahakari Bank Ltd., University of Arizona, Biogrid Australia
The Travel Company, Carbonite
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM InfoSphere Information Server vs. Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.