erwin Data Modeler by Quest Reviews

We usually use it to design new databases as well as reverse engineer some databases from third-party products, e.g., ERPs or monetary software.

The most valuable features are the ability to reverse engineer and do model comparison. With the reverse engineering, I can understand the databases from third-party products. With the model comparison, I can track the differences between two versions of the same database.

Because I can graphically see the Modeler database, that is very helpful for my job as it helps me understand the database. It is very different from SQL and DML scripts, which are very hard to understand with just sentences. When we have a graphic, that is very helpful. We can save time understanding that database.

I like the synchronization ability a lot because it can tell me to apply some level of governance to my models. I can be sure that the model in my documentation or development environment matches with the database that is working in our production environment. It is accurate. Though, it is not always fast when we have dozens of tables, but it works. I wait about an hour in order to have a big database synchronized.

The solution’s code generation ensures accurate engineering of data sources. It avoids rework.

I would like to have more data sources from other, different vendors. In recent years, the vendor has reduced the number of data sources, and I would like to have more data sources for every brand. For example, with Oracle, I would like to have compatibility for many versions, including old ones, not just the most recent. 

The technical support could be better. They could give faster solutions.

I have been using this solution since 1995.

It is stable.

Only when the database is too big, then we could have some trouble. We are talking about maybe 12,000 tables, then it starts to have some problems.

With erwin, we just need to add memory to the computer in order to work with bigger databases. However, it would be good to have erwin for other platforms, e.g., Linux and Macintosh, not just Windows. 

The technical support is good. They are highly skilled. 

Before erwin, I was manually using Notebook for my databases. Before erwin, I was designing databases and analyzing them manually all the time.

We chose erwin because it was the only solution which could help us design a database on the computer.

It saves a lot of development time. I think we are saving from two weeks to one month annually. It depends on the size and complexity of the database.

The solution’s automation of reusable design rules and standards is good compared to basic drawing tools. It saves time and keeps us from errors, which are very costly in the database. Therefore, we can get back our money very quickly.

The accuracy and speed of the solution in transforming complex designs into well-aligned data sources makes the cost of the tool worth it.

erwin is expensive compared to other solutions. We are paying almost $6,000 per seat a month.

I have used different solutions along the way, but then I moved back to erwin. Besides erwin, I have tried IDERA Embarcadero, but I think erwin is more usable and has helped me to do my job better.

I rate this solution as nine out of 10.

My previous employer's use case was around data warehousing. We used it to house our models and data dictionaries. We didn't do anything with BPM, etc. The company that I left prior to coming to my current company had just bought erwin EDGE. Therefore, I was helping to see how we could leverage the integration between erwin Mapping Manager and erwin Data Modeler, so we could forward engineer our models and source port mappings, then mapping our data dictionary into our business definitions.

We didn't use it to capture our sources. It was more target specific. We would just model and forward engineer our targets, then we used DM to manage source targets in Excel. Only when the company first got erwin EDGE did we start to look at leveraging erwin Mapping Manager to manage source targets, but that was still a POC. 

As far as early DM source specific, we didn't do anything with that. It was always targeted. 

It improved the way we were able to manage our models. I come from a corporate background, working for some big banks. We had a team of about 10 architects who were spread out, but we were able to collaborate very well with the tool.

It was a good way to socialize the data warehouse model within our own team and to our end users. 

It helped manage some of the data dictionary stuff, which we could extract out to end users. It provided a repository of the data warehouse models, centralizing them. It also was able to manage the metadata and have the dictionary all within one place, socializing that out from our repository as well.

Typically, for an engineer designing and producing the DDL out of erwin, we will execute it into the database, then they have a target that they can start coding towards. 

• Being able to manage the domains.
• Ability to standardize our data types and some common attributes, which was pretty powerful. 
• The Bulk Editor: I could extract the metadata into Excel (or something) and be able to make some mass changes, then upload it back.

We use the macros with naming standards patterns, domains, datatypes, and some common attributes. As far as other automations, a feature of the Bulk Editor is mass updates. When it sees something is nonstandard or inaccurate, it will export the better data out. Then, I can easily see which entities and attributes are not inline or standard. I can easily make changes to what was uploaded to the Bulk Editor. When taking on a new project, it can save you about a half a day on a big project across an entire team.

The Bulk Editor needs improvement. If you had something that was a local model to your local machine, you could connect to the API, then it would write directly into the repository. However, when you have something that is on the centralized server, that functionality did not work. Then, you had to export out to a CSV and upload up to the repository. It would have been nice to be able to do the direct API without having that whole download and upload thing. Maybe I didn't figure it out, but I'm pretty sure that didn't work when it was a model that sat on a centralized repository.

I have been using erwin since about 2010. I used it last about a year ago at my previous employer. My current employer does not have it.

We only had one guy who would keep up with it. Outside of the server, as far as adding and removing users and doing an upgrade which I would help with sometimes, there were typically only two people on our side maintaining it.

There are about 10 users in our organization.

There were a couple of little things that you had to remember to do. We ran into a couple of issues more than once when we did an upgrade or install. It wasn't anything major, but It was something that you really had to remember how you have to do it. I

t takes probably a few hours If you do everything correctly, then everything is ready to go.

There were two people from our side who deployed it, a DBA and myself. 

We didn't go directly through erwin to purchase the solution. We used Sandhill Consulting, who provided someone for the setup. We had used them since purchasing erwin. They used to put on workshops, tips and tricks, etc. They're pretty good.

Once you start to get into using all the features, it is definitely worth the cost.

With erwin Mapping Manager, which I have PoC'd a few times, it was something that I'd always get to produce ETL code. I have also used WhereScape for several years as well, and that type of functionality is very useful when producing ETLs from your model. It provides a lot of saving. When you're not dealing with something extremely complex, but just has a lot of repeatable type stuff, then you get a pretty standard, robust model. That's a huge saving to be able to do that with ETL code.

The ability to compare and synchronize data sources with data models in terms of accuracy and speed for keeping them in sync is pretty powerful. However, I have never actually used the models as something that associates source. It is something I would be interested in trying to learn how to use and get involved with that type of feature. It would be nice to be able to have everything tied in from start to finish.

I am now working with cloud and Snowflake. Therefore, I definitely see some very good use cases and benefits for modeling the cloud with erwin. For example, there is so much more erwin can offer for doing something automated with SqlDBM. 

I would rate this solution as an eight out of 10.

I use the solution for reverse engineering as well as forward engineering. I do logical and physical modeling, and some of what I'm doing right now is reverse engineering from actual databases because they have no diagrams. The solution helps me diagram the current and help me design the future.

Forward engineering, DDL generation, reverse engineering, and reporting are the most valuable features of the solution.

The solution's model mark could be better because it crashes sometimes.

I have been using erwin Data Modeler by Quest for many years.

erwin Data Modeler by Quest is a stable solution.

I rate erwin Data Modeler by Quest a nine out of ten for stability.

To add users, you have to start using the model mark, which is not great. I rate erwin Data Modeler by Quest a seven out of ten for scalability.

The solution’s technical support is good.

Positive

I have previously used IDERA ER.

The solution’s initial setup is easy.

I have seen a return on investment with the solution because I can't do my work for my company without it.

erwin Data Modeler by Quest is an expensive solution.

Before choosing erwin Data Modeler by Quest, I evaluated PowerDesigner. I chose erwin Data Modeler by Quest because it has the most features I might need in the future, and the report writing is really good.

I am using the latest version of erwin Data Modeler by Quest. I recently built a data model for integration with another software product that we're going to purchase. I did it really fast with erwin Data Modeler by Quest. If I didn't have the solution, I couldn't have done that, and I couldn't have shared the results.

I would recommend the solution to other users.

Overall, I rate erwin Data Modeler by Quest ten out of ten.

I use the solution for entity relationship data modeling to build the databases.

Drag-and-drop data modeling and reverse engineering out of databases are the most valuable features of erwin Data Modeler by Quest.

I would like the solution to be less rigid in terms of its theory. It supports the theory very well, but it's too rigid. It's focused on database design and theoretic database design. I'd like it to be able to do better extractions.

I have worked with erwin Data Modeler by Quest for 20 years.

The solution is too rigid in terms of usability. The other thing is you can do things to make it crash, and when it crashes, the models created with it become read-only. To be honest, I prefer using Visual Paradigm.

I rate erwin Data Modeler by Quest a seven out of ten for stability.

It took some coordination to get the license transferred to me. Otherwise, the solution's initial setup is straightforward.

I've probably spent half a day not running the installation but waiting for emails back from the vendor.

It's a good enough solution if the whole purpose of your data modeling is to generate databases. I also use data modeling for other purposes, and that's why I prefer Visual Paradigm. It allows me to do data modeling that's not so much focused on databases.

Overall, I rate erwin Data Modeler by Quest a seven out of ten.

Our primary use is for doing database designs on just about any platform. The main users are dedicated data architects, while we also have development team staff using the tools to review models. Additionally, our database admins access the solution for implementing the Data Definition Language (DDL).

The solution is excellent in providing a visual representation of a database and can generate DDL for implementing changes. We use DDL for logical purposes to review with business people, ensuring they have the required fields for processing. We also use it as a data dictionary for the physical data model to understand all the purposes of the terms. This helps us map the logical and physical terms with the business definition to understand our data.

Data Modeler is straightforward to use and fulfills all our requirements. 

Although Quest Software has made tremendous strides in recent years, they need to evolve more in the big data arena; erwin Data Modeler could use a little more work when it comes to big database designs.

We've been using the solution since the 90s. 

The product is very stable. 

The platform is highly scalable; we use it for our entire enterprise data architecture. 

The tech support is pretty good, but there's always room for improvement, so I rate them eight out of ten.

Positive

Our initial setup was over 20 years ago, but I know it to be almost effortless; it's a basic software installation that takes about five minutes.

Regarding maintenance, there are occasionally new versions and releases, and we have dedicated data architect teams that coordinate so every team upgrades simultaneously.

We've continued to use the product for many years and compared it with others on the market. The pricing is reasonable considering what the solution offers and what we pay. There are cheaper tools, but they may not be as robust and easy to use, so it's worth the money.

I rate the solution nine out of ten.

My advice to those considering the solution is to use dedicated data architects; when you give this type of product to development teams, there can be issues around creating and following standards, which is essential for data model integration. You don't want different teams defining the same types of columns with varying lengths, like dollar amounts. If the entire company agrees that the dollar amount field is 18 digits long and two digits to the right of the decimal place, then you're consistent. If different teams disagree, data can't be transferred from one database to another without truncation. Having a centralized team that enforces standards is critical.

We use it in order to create models, do some reverse engineering in the case of existing databases, and for comparing models, e.g., what is in the design vs reality.

It provides us a visual of the database, which helps me with the complexity of the models. We can know if someone made changes to anything, which is very important from a development perspective. It helps us maintain control of the work.

We had some data integration projects, where we needed to integrate it for about 100 databases. Doing that manually is crazy; we can't do that. With erwin, it was much easier to identify which tables and columns could be used for the integration. That means a lot in terms of time and effort as well as my image to the customer, because they can see that we are providing value in a very short time.

The solution's code generation ensures accurate engineering of data sources. This accuracy affects our development time a lot. It is very easy to go into the graphical model to change something, e.g., generate scripts. It now takes minutes (less than an hour).

The ability to collaborate between different members across the organization is the most valuable feature. It gives us the ability to work on the same model, regardless of where we are physically.

I like the accuracy. It is very precise.

I am not so happy with its speed. Sometimes, it can have problems with connections.

erwin's automation of reusable design rules and standards is good, but it could be better.

About 30 years.

It is pretty good. I haven't had any problems with crashes, etc.

We have a consultant who is responsible for the maintenance.

The solution's scalability is good. However, there isn't a clear explanation of how to go from 10 to 20 users, which is something that customers ask us.

In my company, there are currently five data managers who use erwin.

I like their technical support. They try very hard to solve the problem.

They are not supporting old versions of some databases anymore, so I don't always have the tools that I need. I would like them to keep the support for the older versions.

The standard edition is quite straightforward to set up. It is just clicking, "Next, Next, Next." This takes less than an hour to set up.

It gets complicated when we set up the group edition. We need to start a database. Sometimes, erwin support is needed for the setup. The setup for the group edition can take two days to a week, depending on the database.

We also sell erwin to some of our customers. Usually, we create some sort of implementation steps to ensure that it will work.

We have seen ROI in terms of time, e.g., consulting time and the ability to answer customers faster. This has improved the image of the company.

The solution’s ability to generate database code from a model for a wide array of data sources cuts development time from two weeks to one day or even hours. This is one of the features that I like.

The price should be lower in order to be on the same level as its competitors.

I have worked with Toad, Sparx, and the free version of Oracle Data Modeler. erwin DM's competitors are cheaper, but the look and feel of erwin is more user-friendly, professional, mature, and enterprise level.

I recommend using erwin Data Modeler. You should have a good business case to convince the finance team, as the price is high for Latin America.

I would rate this solution as nine out of 10.

The solution is primarily used for banking data models.

I have worked with erwin Data Modeler for quite some time and familiarity is its most valuable feature. 

The reverse engineering in Oracle Databases needs improvement, as there are issues. 

I have been using erwin Data Modeler for twelve years.

It is a stable solution. I rate the stability an eight out of ten. 

The solution's scalability depends on the device that you use it on. 

The technical support team is good. I rate the support an eight out of ten.

Positive

Previously, I used SAP PowerDesigner.

The initial setup is straightforward. The deployment takes a few minutes when entering the license and installing it. 

It is not a very expensive solution. Only the licensing and maintenance fee needs to be paid. 

I recommend erwin Data Modeller because it is a good data modeling solution in comparison to others available in the market.

I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.

I'm an application developer with a fair amount of database background so I mostly use the tool to do physical modeling to support our application development. I'm a firm believer in not just adding columns to a table but to actually think about it, put together an Erwin model, and look at the relationships. I used to like to generate the model and generate changes all through the tool but being honest, one of my biggest frustrations with Erwin is that it's very difficult to forward engineer and keep things in sync. It used to be so easy and now it's very difficult. It's very frustrating to use this tool for that.

We use it for data modeling but they also do a lot of logical modeling and architecture, and we also use the naming standards capability to force corporate standards across the models.

It has improved my organization because using a data modeling tool is forcing us to come up with better models.

Its code generation ensures accurate engineering of data sources. It should generate correct code, so I can't say it cuts development time just because it's doing what it's supposed to be doing correctly.

I think the ability to depict the model in a graphical fashion, think about it, and keep things consistent is what's valuable about it. It's too easy when you're using other methods to not have naming consistent standards and column consistent definitions, et cetera.

This isn't specific to Erwin, it's specific to any data modeling tool but we also like:

• The ability to graphically depict how the relationships occur and the relationship lines.
• The fact that it migrates your foreign keys for you.
• The general principles of what a data modeling tool does. 

Erwin does a lot of things well. It's just very frustrating in some areas that really should not be frustrating.

The people who don't use a data modeling tool but rather use spreadsheets or wing it typically have pretty poor data models. If you use a data modeling tool, the graphical nature of the data modeling tool forces you to think about relationships. It forces you to ask questions that you wouldn't ask if you were just creating tables and doing it off the top of your head. That's number one, in my opinion, from my own experience. The number one benefit of using a tool like Erwin, is that visual representation forces you to come up with a better model.

Its ability to generate database code from a model for a wide array of data sources is useful but we're 99% SQL Server, so the fact that it generates 60 other databases doesn't really help me too much. It doesn't support Postgres or Redshift which are the two other systems that we're using. 

I find the UI very clunky and very difficult to use. The whole workflow of adding columns to a table could be so much easier. I get frustrated using it. Resizing dialog boxes, changing fonts, printing, scrolling around in the UI, etc is very clunky.

I've tried other tools. I've tried to get off of Erwin a few times. I always come back to it because every other tool has its own set of problems, and it seems like if I have to pick my poison, I stay with Erwin. But so many things that are clunky with it. 

My biggest frustrations with the product is forward engineering and keeping things in sync. A lot of times I need to change a column definition and all I want to do forward engineer it over to the database, it used to be so easy to do that, way back in the early days with Erwin before CA bought it, and now it's almost impossible. It's very frustrating to do. I've spoken to Erwin about this in the past, and I can understand why they're doing some of the things they're doing, but I'm more of a casual user than a power user, and for me, it's so clunky. It's so much easier using Embarcadero to forward engineer changes to a database than it is using Erwin.

This product has been on the market for years and I'm amazed at some of the quirky things that I still have to deal with in this product. I wish rather than adding new features, Erwin would fix some of these usability issues.

I have been using erwin Data Modeler for around ten years before it was owned by CA.

Other than the bugs, it doesn't crash on me, so I guess the stability is good. 

We have somewhere around 20 uses. I use it as a developer and the data architects use it as well. 

We use the Mart model, we break them out into areas, and there are many models in each area. So we have around a couple hundred models.

I haven't used their support in quite a while, so I'll say neutral.

We previously used Toad and Embarcadero.

I've been using Erwin since it first came out, a long time ago. Back then it was a lot simpler to use and it was just so much easier. I think they tried to make it do everything for everybody and now it's very difficult to do some of the simplest tasks. It's very frustrating, and there are a lot of issues.

The forward engineering frustration I experience with Erwin is a thousand times easier in Embarcadero. If I want to just make a quick change to a column and forward engineer it to my database, it's a lot easier in other tools.

Some of the other tools were a lot better in the ease of use and stability of the UI but they also had their share of problems that are deal-breakers. For example, models won't print on one page.  I keep coming back to Erwin. It was the lesser of the two evils. No product is perfect but I think Erwin tries to be everything to everybody, and sometimes when you do that, it's no good to anybody.

I don't use all the features, it's nice that they're there, but I wish the stuff that I did use was better usability-tested. 

I was not involved in the installation of this particular version. When we first started using erwin, we used to install it on our local machines, but now we're using the Mart model and it's installed on servers, so we have a group that maintains it. For years and years, it used to be that we all just installed it on our local machines and ran it that way. 

It's a licensing thing. We have a concurrent license so by having it on a server, it's in one place, which is nice. That way, everyone's running the same version. Then, because we have concurrent licensing, if you have 30 people that need to use it, but people like me only use it once in a while, you don't have to buy me an expensive, dedicated license, so it's a lot cheaper to have a concurrent license for our company.

It's not necessarily erwin-specific, but by using a data modeling tool, it forces a better product, better application development, and better applications at our company. Using a tool like that is a must-have. 

I like the concurrent licensing. That's phenomenal. I think that was a big win for us.

Sometimes you have an initial idea for a data model and when you try to design it in Erwin you realize that you were wrong in how you approached it. Erwin enforces consistency and accuracy. Quite often I learn something by looking at the generated code. It's not like I create table statements all day long. I don't do that generally. So when I use the tool, it generates the correct code in scripts for me which we will then hand off to the DBAs who run them. 

I would rate it a six out of ten. It's frustrating. It could be so much better. 

The problem is mostly usability. It has little quirks about the way the screen refreshes, things move around, and the workflow when you're creating columns and tables could be so much better. 

I have a love-hate relationship. I've used this product for years. I've actually gone to training on it at Erwin, so I know what I'm doing with it. I wish they would make it easier to use. I would think if Microsoft bought it, this would be a totally different product.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft has tried to come out with data modeling tools a few times, and they are all bad. They're basically toys. You can't use them for anything real, which is surprising to me. You would have thought that they would have had a tool that could compete.

There are only a couple of big players out there that Erwin competes with. I looked at just about all of them, and I keep coming back to Erwin, but I hate it nonetheless. There's nothing better. There are certain tools that are better in certain areas but far worse in others, and so you pick your poison.