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IBM InfoSphere Information Server vs SAP Data Services comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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
33rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Metadata Management (7th)
SAP Data Services
Ranking in Data Integration
17th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
Data Quality (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM InfoSphere Information Server is 0.9%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Data Services is 1.5%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP Data Services1.5%
IBM InfoSphere Information Server0.9%
Other97.6%
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.
Ramesh Pampana - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, SAP Practice at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Has consistently provided impressive data handling capabilities and robust security features
Some of the most valuable features of SAP Data Services include data extraction where SAP is the best in that perspective, but when it comes to analytics or the reporting tool, I prefer to connect with Microsoft Power BI, which is a fantastic tool. Typically, from an end-user perspective, SAP has a huge amount of data, in terms of terabytes of data, but when you analyze that, the best form of visualization is always through Microsoft Power BI. SAP Data Services provides a best-in-class return on investment, as SAP's vision and forecast are absolutely amazing. They are ahead of technology, building an ecosystem that meets the standards of the fast-changing digital economy. SAP is indeed good at all this now, with so many components such as SAP Signavio, SAP EINS, SAP Work Zone, SAP ALM, Cloud ALM, SAP public cloud, SAP private cloud, and BTP, all of which are essential to meet the latest cutting-edge technologies.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Data connections, data partitioning, flexibility, and performance are the most valuable features."
"This solution is extremely flexible and scalable."
"This solution has reduced the time it takes for ETL. We took an existing Teradata ETL application from three days to eight minutes."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The initial IBM InfoSphere Information Server is straightforward and you can choose what type of installation you want, such as a customized installation, with clear-cut documentation that, if followed, works fine and the installation has not given us issues."
"The integration with different technologies is the most valuable feature."
"IBM InfoSphere Information Server is stable."
"Reduces the loading and development time for Datawarehouse ETL."
"From my point of view, Dataservices is a good ETL choice if there are SAP systems in the sources or the targets (it can help to make BW transformations much easier)."
"The fact that it's built on SQL, it makes it easy to write code. The database and the connection are quite smooth."
"SAP Data Services is a very general tool for SAP as a source and SAP as a destination, and it can also connect to any source and any destination, which is a very valuable aspect of the solution."
"The reporting on the data, even from third-party software, is very good."
"The solution is easy to use since it's a graphical tool. It also requires only low-level coding."
"It helps our organization and our clients achieve its goals and objectives by having the right information at the right time and at the right people."
"SAP is a very powerful system and definitely first class for big companies."
"The initial setup is not complex."
 

Cons

"This solution would benefit from the engine being made more lightweight."
"Heavy use of scratch disk which sometimes leads to failure."
"There are certain shortcomings in the cloud side of the solution, where improvements are required."
"Customer Service: It's poor."
"We have decided to decrease the usage of metadata management because we did not see any significant advantages."
"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."
"Unlike other tools, IBM tools do not provide much help from the internet, so additional support should be available."
"Newer feature integration is lagging behind the company acquisitions and the product could do more to service a broader range of devices."
"Dealing with the REST API is not easy with Data Services. It is mandatory to have a WADL file and it is difficult to find this file and set it up."
"Technical Support: Not good enough."
"Regarding the pricing for SAP Data Services, I think it's on the higher side. Now, they are coming up with many pricing options, which is tricky; they offer one thing for free, but charge for nine others."
"It's an ETL that is very good with relational databases but not as good with files and semi-structured files."
"Some of the jobs that are built within Data Services require local files, and during initial deployment, those local files cannot be transported between machines simply because of security issues."
"When working with custom functions, many times it fails to execute (from 4.0 onwards) because of the data types mismatch errors."
"An area for improvement in SAP Data Services could involve making the product more accessible to non-technical end-users."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing cost of IBM InfoSphere Information Server depends on how many users there are."
"Pricing is good, there is no problem."
"I rate the product price as one or two on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"The product’s on-premise version is expensive for a medium-sized company."
"At the entry level, if you're using it only for data integration, it is a little bit cheap. However, for large organizations it can be expensive. There are additional costs apart from the license."
"The price is very reasonable."
"Speaking about prices, Oracle and SAP are market leaders. So, the prices are more."
"The price of SAP Data Services is a little high when compared to other solutions. Due to the pricing and capabilities, many clients are switching to other solutions."
"There is a one time purchase fee plus annual maintenance."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Construction Company
7%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise36
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM InfoSphere Information Server?
We are using the on-premises version of IBM InfoSphere Information Server, but we feel that all new development is mainly for the cloud. We receive corrections of errors, but we do not see new func...
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?
We are about to change our platform from IBM AIX to SUSE Linux, as our whole platform is changing, so everyone should change from IBM to SUSE Linux. It would be very difficult for us to have a diff...
How do you evaluate the ratio of price to quality for SAP Data Services?
I believe the license for the product is fair, even though some competitors offer similar services at lower prices. The difference between the Edge edition and the next one up is significant in pr...
Would you recommend SAP Data Services to complete beginners?
I think after some preparation, a beginner will be able to use SAP Data Services, however, if you are completely unprepared, you may have some issues. I think that in particular you will need a mo...
How has SAP Data Services helped your organization?
SAP Data Services has helped our whole staff understand the data across various sources and systems within the company. Not everyone who works at my organization is an IT expert - most just have av...
 

Also Known As

InfoSphere Information Server, IBM Information Server
SAP BusinessObjects Data Services, SAP BusinessObjects Data Integrator, BusinessObjects Data Integrator
 

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
EMC Corporation, LivePerson, Eldorado, Mozzart, The VELUX Group, AOK Bundesverband, Hilti Group, Nissha Printing Company Ltd., Asian Paints, Aareal Bank Group, Migros Group
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM InfoSphere Information Server vs. SAP Data Services and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.