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Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs SAP Information Steward comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 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

Informatica Intelligent Dat...
Ranking in Data Quality
1st
Ranking in Metadata Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
215
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (1st), Business Process Management (BPM) (6th), Business-to-Business Middleware (2nd), API Management (7th), Cloud Data Integration (3rd), Data Governance (3rd), Test Data Management (2nd), 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)
SAP Information Steward
Ranking in Data Quality
18th
Ranking in Metadata Management
12th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Data Quality category, the mindshare of Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is 9.7%, down from 18.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Information Steward is 2.9%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Quality Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)9.7%
SAP Information Steward2.9%
Other87.4%
Data Quality
 

Featured Reviews

RC
Contractor at Sanlam
Cloud data catalog has streamlined lineage and quality while leaving more automation to improve
I have not explored IDMC's automation capabilities driven by AI and metadata too much at the moment, but it is on the cards. We are basically creating the foundation, as the whole migration has taken place recently and it is still early days. I think Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is evolving, and as the vendors move forward, they pick up new concepts from each other. I have seen that products leapfrog each other, and from my experience over the years, the big players tend to copy features or add enhancements based on industry trends. I feel whatever the tool does not have now, there is a feedback loop allowing us to request new features, and we continually ask for different ways to do things as we have a pipeline into the product management team. It is difficult to say what additional features I would prefer to see in the next release of IDMC. I would appreciate more automation on the lineage front, with more AI to seamlessly join independent sources and create seamless lineage between different technologies, such as from file into database A into a different database and landing up in a reporting system such as Cognos, Qlik, Qlik Sense, QlikView, or Power BI.
FranciscoSantos - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at Pixel Studio PTY
Provides accurate data that is validated against a personalized reference tool
For most SAP customers, Information Steward is enough because it is able to build quality data rules to detect issues in the source systems like SAP HANA, Business Warehouse, or other systems. A business user can first organize their data into several data domains. For example, procurement, human resources, and logistics setup. The domains can build data quality dimensions where you can describe the kind of rule that you are going to use. The user then can immediately see if something is wrong with their data using traffic lights. Another great feature of SAP Information Steward is the accuracy that the content is followed by validating against the reference tool. With the solution, you are creating data quality dimensions. Within these dimensions, you are creating business data quality rules that are looking for specific fields. From these rules, you can create a scorecard. The scorecard will highlight the percentage of good data and ensure the user can feel confident that the data is accurate within predetermined limits. SAP tables have field names that are very cryptic, making them hard to understand the meaning of the fields. Metapedia helps describe these fields in business terms.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The valuable features include ease of use and quick response time with Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services; the performance and response time are notably faster."
"Informatica is good for integrating data and cloud applications. We have connectors for integrating cloud applications like Salesforce. You can quickly integrate anything with an exposed API or a REST API. The industry is increasingly shifting to the cloud, so we need more products that can connect to cloud-based applications. The integration is seamless and works in real time. It's also secure because you don't need to expose databases or tables."
"It comes with lot of features and is a one-stop-shop solution for integration, data modeling, and data governance."
"The user-friendliness and performance of Informatica is quite impressive."
"The out-of-the-box features and standard profiling options provide quick visibility of the data within minutes, which facilitates discussions with the business."
"The best thing about Informatica Axon is that it integrates with the Electronic Data Capture and the Axon system."
"This solution is stable, and we haven't had any issues."
"We use it for various use cases, including data provisioning, data validation, continuous monitoring of data quality, and data standardization."
"The product has improved company efficiency because we're able to categorize the need for user access at the folder level across storage enterprise wide."
"The data profiling was excellent, as was the ease of generating the dashboards."
"Initial setup was straightforward."
"The solution is very fast, very stable, and very easy to use and straightforward."
"The solution is very fast."
"The ability to analyze the data even before we start the transformation of it, and generating the user-friendly interface, giving analytical reports, and helping create the transformation rules before we proceed with the data migration part was the most helpful part of the solution for our company."
"Data integration is much easier with Information Steward - irrespective of the data sources, integration is very smooth and easy."
"Data insight is the most valuable feature."
 

Cons

"The on-prem solution is harder to learn than the cloud-based versions."
"The customer servive and support could be faster. There is a slow turnaround."
"With limited data it's fine, but with a large volume the scalability is questionable, the threshold of data transaction is different."
"The tool should provide a unified user interface to manage the data objects."
"While my company operates on the cloud, we have seen that Informatica Cloud Data Integration has some performance issues causing it to lag."
"This service could be more cost-effective."
"In terms of what could be improved, they need to create a rules repository. Business rules for the attributes that you have, keeping them in that central repository, and governance of them is something which Axon is lacking a bit. The Informatica Data Quality tool actually caters to that, so that's probably why they have not built that up in the Axon, but it is definitely something that can be built in to this product, as well."
"Don't know yet. In a trial now. There is much to find out, first and foremost, its performance level when compared with on-prem."
"A problem with the solution is that it does not allow us to review the results of Information Stewards for other analogies."
"Performance could be improved."
"The solution could improve by incorporating other applications, such as Power BI to show more visualization. More interaction with other solutions would be a good benefit."
"The user experience of metapedia could be improved."
"In some cases they have given extraneous or erroneous information, which is completely useless."
"Granularity could be reduced from an application level to the object level."
"SAP is a bit pricey, and better tools are available for a lower price."
"SAP Information Steward could be improved by offering a cloud version of the product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is not very pocket-friendly for small and medium-sized businesses, and it is understandable because of the kind of features the tool gives."
"We have licenses, and we are provided with certain particular services in the solution."
"Pricing is determined by the number of licensed users as well as the number of Core CPUs."
"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."
"Informatica Cloud Data Integration is famously known for its high price. The vendor targets large enterprises, and not medium or small companies. These large companies, and organizations, handle large amounts of data. If you go into any large bank, such as American or Canadian banks, these banks use this solution because it is more reliable, secure, and has more functionality."
"I rate the product's pricing a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is the lowest price and ten is the highest price."
"So, there are plans for licensing. There are subscription-based and usage-based licenses. Also, there are licenses for exceptional analytics, etc. In short, there are different models of licensing for every enterprise."
"We are quite happy with the licensing model."
"I do not know if there were additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees."
"SAP Information Steward is an expensive solution compared to others."
"Smaller-sized organizations may not be able to invest in SAP Information Steward because of the cost."
"A bit pricey, and better tools are available for a lower price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
19%
Government
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise155
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

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 ...
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Also Known As

ActiveVOS, Active Endpoints, Address Verification, Persistent Data Masking
Information Steward, SAP Data Insight
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

The Travel Company, Carbonite
American Water, Graphic Packaging International, OSRAM Licht AG, Maxim Integrated
Find out what your peers are saying about Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs. SAP Information Steward and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.