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IBM InfoSphere MDM vs Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs Microsoft MDS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Featured Reviews

SoumikDolui - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Provides inbuilt data model and good matching engine
It's a tough tool for developers. Right now in the market, I think Informatica MDM is number one and is used a lot. IBM MDM was developed by some other company and IBM developed it more. There are definitely some flaws. The tool is difficult to understand from a customer perspective and for developers. Generally, customers can understand Informatica MDM and its functionality easily. If a developer is facing issues with IBM MDM, then a customer will definitely not understand most of the functionality. That is the main concern. IBM is introducing some Next-Gen MDM, where they are using a lot of current technologies and machine learning. Most of the problems we may be facing right now are probably solved in that version.
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.
reviewer1524357 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Has supported endpoint management while revealing areas where usability and latency can improve
The couple of times we found issues with technical support from Microsoft for Microsoft MDS, they resolved them. The response time and understanding were adequate, though there was always a language barrier between the teams. The teams we worked with were in Korea, and it was sometimes a language issue.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The stability is fine, as it is built for large-scale industrial usage and worked without a problem at Lloyds Bank where we were dealing with 300 million transactions a day."
"There are not really many areas of the product that need improvement because the product stays up-to-date with data management needs."
"The features that are most valuable are the governance, the end-profiling, and the ETL which allows you to see the metadata repositories."
"The ability to standardize and match names using a combination of global name recognition and an MDM server is a valuable feature for us."
"When users update their information on one product, the data is sent to a database. My approach was to maintain a master data record, ensuring that each platform loads the latest updated record. Instead of having three separate records, the system keeps one master data record, storing the historical records for reference."
"The advantage is that the matching engine is very good, so that's why customers generally prefer it, and from the inbuilt data model perspective, IBM MDM is good."
"It is one of the best MDM solutions available on market."
"The features that are most valuable are the governance, the end-profiling and the ETL which allows you to see the metadata repositories."
"Single and consistent view of Customer Data arising from a centralized data set with unique customer records."
"It is very useful for testing purposes and designing mappings for small projects. If you go for IDQ in the mapping itself, you can see the data. You can then correct it, and test it so easily. It is working fine. It is also stable, scalable, and easy to deploy."
"The way that the solution scans is very useful."
"Able to customize data search and data sharing."
"One of the most valuable features is that I don't need to buy a subscription for any functionality. With Informatica Cloud Data Management, I have all the functionality and features available. If I need to make an integration, I can go to that integration service. If I need to mask, provide, or clean some information, I can easily just pick up that feature and use it. It's very simple, and I have all the functions and capabilities I need to work with data."
"Regarding the features, the dashboards related to data quality profiling are the most powerful tool that we are using, and the integration between EDC and the data quality is very important."
"Over the last decade, Informatica has proved to be the best MDM solution that is available in the market."
"I like that Informatica MDM has robust matching technology. Informatica MDM is also porting the external Java applications for validations. I can consider that a must-have. It is also exposed to Rest API calls, and we can engage in real-time integrations with any third-party systems."
"The best thing about it is that it comes with the Microsoft package."
"It has been a long-standing tool in our organization since it was free."
"One of the main features I have found useful is the integration with Azure active directory."
"One of the main features I have found useful is the integration with Azure active directory."
"The beauty with Master Data Services is that it's centralized in one place and the problem with other solutions is that most of them have been created in house."
"Unlike specialized tools, MDS is adaptable for various industries, making it a versatile choice for master data management."
"The tool is easy to use."
"More generic related things can be included in the services."
 

Cons

"The stack architecture seems too complicated as a result of having too many components that needed to be built together."
"If you are a small company, it is more likely overkill."
"The tool is difficult to understand from a customer perspective and for developers."
"The product is really only created for large organizations."
"The tool is difficult to understand from a customer perspective and for developers."
"It's complex because of the poor quality of the documentation."
"It needs a better database."
"However, it needs to mature in several areas including, UI, DAM, lighter out-of-box features, and simplify the currently complex technical footprint."
"Informatica is very expensive."
"Informatica Axon's response times and certain aspects of the admin panel could be enhanced for better usability."
"The vendor should have more training resources: online classes, free tutorial videos, etc."
"The stability and the integration of the solution have room for improvement."
"Informatica should simplify the rules for setting classifications and user access management permissions. It's too complex to define, configure, and make work."
"We have seen stability issues with older versions, particularly 6.x and below."
"Pre-sales technical support is much better than post-sales technical support."
"In general, it is good. We used to face some Java application problems, approximately two issues a month."
"The only drawback is that it does not have the matching, merging, and all true MDM components."
"It would be a better option to have an on-cloud version."
"The only drawback is that it does not have the matching, merging, and all true MDM components. For these, you have to use another competent called Data Quality Services (DQS). You need to plug it in and use it along with MDS for true MDM. Both of these are integrated together, but you have to do them separately, whereas, in Profisee, there are a couple of screens where you can configure the matching process, create matching rules, and other things, and everything is in one product, which is not the case with MDS. In order to implement a true MDM, you need MDS, DQS, and SSIS. You have to use MDS to store your golden records, DQS to configure and standardize all your rules and matching percentages, and SSIS to load the data to DQS and MDS. At the same time, you also need Melissa Data to clean up your addresses to validate and standardize the addresses. That's the main component of true MDM. It would be good if they can create a true matching component inside MDS and merge MDS and DQS."
"Microsoft MDS is outdated and lacks modern capabilities."
"The version that I work with is on-premises and it required an additional virtual machine on the cloud. It would be a better option to have an on-cloud version."
"If one system has reached capacity or has stopped, then the whole system stops and it is quite difficult to solve the problem."
"I do not like using Silverlight and Internet Explorer. The new 2019 version gets rid of that, which is one of the reasons why we are looking to switch."
"More generic related things can be included in the services."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It may be costly for small organizations but adds value for large organizations with demanding workflows."
"I'm not sure about the most recent pricing trends, but I don't believe it's significantly different from PowerCenter. I believe it is nearly the same."
"We got a 50% discount."
"It is cost effective and an easily accessible tool."
"In terms of the licensing for Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services, we had the option of paying based on the number of users and paying based on the volume of data, and we went with the data volume licensing option. Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services isn't as expensive as CIG. The pricing for it is okay, so I'm rating it a four out of five in terms of pricing. We did use the email verification and address validation services which weren't part of the contract, so we had to pay additional fees for those services."
"Informatica MDM's price could be lower."
"The pricing structure is good, but having to pay for extra drivers to be used in an ICS environment makes me a little nervous."
"Informatica Axon is expensive."
"Informatica MDM is very expensive. Apart from licensing fees, they have broken down their products into multiple products, and they charge for each and every product. If the data is huge, they charge for the data. At times, we have to use third party services for data cleaning, and they charge for that as well."
"MDS is a part of the SQL Server enterprise license. I am not aware of any additional costs."
"The solution does require a license and we have enterprise licenses."
"The pricing of this solution is good."
"SAP is more expensive than Microsoft."
"With Microsoft, we buy everything though an agreement, so we purchase volume licensing every year."
"Product licensing is very complicated. It would be helpful to have an online calculator to estimate the cost of a license."
"I would like to see better pricing."
"Microsoft MDS is an expensive solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Healthcare Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
5%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Retailer
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Media Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise153
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about Microsoft MDS?
More generic related things can be included in the services.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft MDS?
Microsoft MDS was pretty affordable. We implemented the solution without a problem.
What needs improvement with Microsoft MDS?
I cannot really give specifics about disadvantages. From what we have seen, speaking to customers, Microsoft MDS was ...
 

Also Known As

InfoSphere MDM, InfoSphere Master Data Management
ActiveVOS, Active Endpoints, Address Verification, Persistent Data Masking
Microsoft Master Data Services, Microsoft MDM, Microsoft SQL Server Master Data Services, MS MDS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

L'Oreal S.A., Kingland Systems, Oncor, Farmaceuticos Maypo, Volkswagen Financial Services
The Travel Company, Carbonite
ETA a.s., Apeejay Surrendra Group, Blue Star Infotech, Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation, The Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, New Belgium Brewing
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Web Services (AWS), Informatica, Salesforce and others in Cloud Data Integration. Updated: March 2026.
891,869 professionals have used our research since 2012.