Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) Reviews

It improves the workflow.

In terms of the user experience, it's very Integrated, and the implementation is very fast. You can integrate the platforms for different services to deliver all the banking needs.

It is expensive.

I have been using Informatica Cloud Data Integration for two years.

I rate the solution’s stability a ten out of ten.

The scalability is impressive. Implementing something is easy, and there's no need to wait for licenses or other potential roadblocks. It is a highly efficient and smooth process, which makes it even more appealing.

The main reason for the switch was the cost. IBM solutions are quite expensive, and migrating to the cloud platform is complicated. Another significant expense comes from the database, as IBM typically recommends DB2 when implementing DataStage, and using Db2 can be costly. The company considered moving to a more versatile platform that supports different databases and cloud providers. With IBM, there are limitations, and the cloud strategy is more rigid, which influenced the decision to explore other platforms.

Deployment is straightforward. I have experience implementing the platform for various customers here in Brazil, where I live, and I can confirm that it's quite easy to implement. It takes around six months to deploy.

Data has been migrated from IBM DataStage to Informatica Cloud. In this process, we worked with NextPath MSA, which generated new metadata based on the iDMC platform. After this, the company produced the data, and here at the bank, we are validating the conversion from this process. In some cases, adjustments or parameterization were needed with Informatica to refine the processes. The company is responsible for translating the code and generating the required information for each project. We migrate this to the development environment, then to the test environment for validation, and finally to production, where about sixty percent of the projects are implemented for data integration. The entire process, from creation to production, has taken approximately six months.

We are reviewing all components and executions, and overall, the migration process has been a success, with only minor adjustments. It’s interesting to see how the company has successfully converted the original metadata to the new metadata, showcasing its expertise in the process. We have 40-50 professionals involved.  We have different levels of specialists across various areas involved in this project. For example, we have experts with extensive knowledge of IBM DataStage, others with experience in IBM CA, and some professionals specializing in databases. Each group brings expertise and experience with these solutions, contributing significantly to the project's success.

They do have additional costs in terms of usage.

The bank acquired the platform and utilized almost all its services except MDM. We use APIs, messaging, data governance, and data integration for the enterprise. The platform's full range of services is involved. The combination of data integration with application integration is precious to us. It allows us to acquire information through APIs, treat this information via data integration, and generate files or intermediary databases for future consumption by messaging systems. This type of usage is efficient and straightforward to implement. The implementation and usage are simple and effective for our needs.

In our daily operations, we receive data from external and internal systems for Kuzena and generate information in real-time for various departments within the bank, such as the risk and human resources departments. The platform’s ability to efficiently deliver this information is precious.

When a platform provides data from external systems and other sources, combined with HEP implementation and fast integration, the platform ensures high data quality and the ability to deliver information efficiently. This simplicity allows all departments in the bank to adopt and explore this type of usage easily.

I know of other companies using Informatica Cloud, like Ferrero in Chicago. They used Informatica Cloud for three years but migrated to SAP CPI this year. While I know why they made the switch, it's hard to justify it fully. For context, Ferrara produces candies and is owned by Ferrero Rocher in Italy. The IT team in Italy used SAP CPI for data integration, closing their operations with Informatica products. It's surprising, especially because Ferrero had given us positive feedback about Informatica Cloud regarding usage, implementation, and cost.

Its open platform allows it to connect with everything you need, making it very versatile and efficient for various integrations.

Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

We use Informatica Cloud Data Integration to load data from files to TelSource or Oracle tables. We also apply business rules to transform the data before loading it into the respective targets.

Most of the features are good. The advanced features like task flow and conditional integration are particularly useful. There are multiple transformations we can use in Dashflow, which are beneficial. We don't use features like centralization and data marketing because they aren't relevant to our use case. Our primary focus is on task flow, which allows us to design our jobs and execute them conditionally.

Some features require an additional license, such as Elastic Mappings. Most of the features provided are through Elastic Mappings, not the data integration service which causes restrictions. For example, the recently enabled source partitioning isn't applicable to Salesforce, which we use as our target or source. We primarily seek features that enhance performance for Salesforce and ICS Integration, aiming to reduce job execution time.

We don't have the license for Elastic Mapping, so we can't use that feature. Most of the new features added by Informatica are through Elastic Mapping. It would be helpful to have features like multithreading or partitioning for Salesforce to enhance performance.

I have been using Informatica Cloud Data Integration for five years.

The product is stable.

I rate the solution’s stability a seven out of ten.

20-30 users are using this solution.

I rate the solution’s scalability a five out of ten.

Support is good.

Positive

The initial setup is very easy. When I first started using it, I installed a 30-day trial version. I personally explored it during that period, and it was good.

It takes 30-40 minutes depending on the jobs.

I rate the initial setup a ten out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.

The team is very user-friendly, meeting our expectations much like PowerPoint does.

It supports integration with most cloud sources, including AWS, and has various cloud connectors. So, It's a good choice for anyone.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

So my use case was on migration.  I've been using these products for migration activities. And providing any QA solution for the integration to other platforms like Databricks.

There are newer technologies in the market that offer better solutions compared to traditional ETL operations. For example, if we use Spark on Databricks, it's more optimized and runs much faster due to its backend capabilities. Whereas Informatica Inc.'s Cloud Services provide cloud-based solutions. The ETL works on the Informatica engine, which is comparatively slow. But the compatibility of data and other integration and data warehouse works well for IICS.

The interface is really good. Another valuable feature is that it is user-friendly.

There are a few improvements which can be done. So those are on data governance and making an image of each object that is being created on top of Informatica, I mean, on top of applications. So those need areas to be improved.

The logging methods are really traditional. So logging, in order to track any operations happening on this interface, will catch a log file. That needs to be more precise.

In future releases as well, I would like to see additional features. So there is no platform where code conversion can happen easily. For example, if you want to move Informatica jobs in various areas, it's quite easy and straightforward. But still, you require some manual intervention for code changes that need to be done throughout the platform. So these things need to be improved. 

And other things are the compatibility of other services. For example, if you have a running Spark code and you want to run the Spark code into Informatica IICS, which is not compatible, so you need to rewrite the whole syntax to make it compatible. So those are the areas that really need improvement.

I have been using Informatica for three years. We currently use the version Informatica Cloud IICS.

Stability is good. I would rate it a seven out of ten. 

Scalability is good since from on-prem to cloud, there's a huge performance boost. So on a scale from one to ten, I would rate it eight.

The setup is complex. Because it's not about the data; it's about the complexity of the pipeline, the complexity of models which have been designed for data engineering. And it's not something straightforward, and the migration cost goes higher on this aspect for this reason.

We have multiple platforms with it. Some of them are running on-prem, and some of them are running on the cloud.

There is definitely an ROI because many companies are preferring to put data in the cloud, and they want to reduce the migration cost. So without any major efforts or challenges in the migration activities, if that's the case, then moving from Informatica on-prem to IICS is a better choice.

Comparatively, other services are providing a lower price, but since moving from Informatica on-prem to IICS, the pricing factor is much better. So when we compare two platforms of the same vendor, it's a good price.

On the evaluation, I have personally evaluated the migration work that I have done. So it is really easy for Informatica users who have been using the same on-prem product. For them, there won't be any challenges in learning any technical aspects of the cloud. So it is almost straightforward. And there are good services provided by Informatica, like integrated things and driver compatibility. So, everything looks much better when it is in the cloud.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use the solution for ETL.

It's a powerful tool to create data warehouse solutions for our clients. We take unstructured data and use Informatica Cloud to structure it in various ways, making it usable on a reporting front end. This enables clients to make informed business decisions based on the data.

It's the accessibility and the range of features that stand out. Before using Informatica Cloud, we were working with Informatica PowerCenter. The transition from PowerCenter to Cloud wasn't entirely effortless, but it was seamless enough for our developers to adapt and continue their work smoothly.

Our main issue is transitioning from on-premise to cloud data storage. As many clients move their data to cloud platforms like Azure, Snowflake, and AWS, we're encountering problems with Informatica. Errors that were straightforward and clear with on-premise databases now appear ambiguous in cloud environments. Our developers spend significant time reducing these generic errors, often simple issues like a column not accepting null values. This lack of clarity is causing unnecessary delays as they have to sift through logs or contact support to diagnose problems that would have been more easily identified in an on-premise setup.

I have been using Informatica Cloud Data Integration as a financial partner for over five years.

We have about seven developers. It is a scalable solution.

When errors arise, contacting support can be frustrating. Sometimes, the technician can't solve the issue and transfers us to someone else. This makes us less confident that the person helping us is truly equipped to resolve the problem.

Neutral

The initial setup is simple and depends on the task. However, it usually takes a couple of hours if development is complete and we're moving from the development environment to production.

ROI is strong because we have a structured portal that ensures development is done correctly. It is shareable, scalable, and equipped with enough monitoring tools to quickly address any issues. Ultimately, the client doesn't care what tools we use. They just want problems resolved quickly. Informatica provides the necessary tools and features to help us do that effectively.

It has premium pricing. Depending on what we're working on and which features we're using within Informatica, there can be additional costs. It's mostly data integration, but you might need to upgrade your license to include other aspects of Informatica. Certain connectors require a license upgrade to access.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use the solution for data cataloging and lineage.

The valuable feature is metadata management. If you want to trace sensitive data, you can auto-classify them. You can search for sensitive information through EDC. Using Discovery, you can identify if there is any type of data set.

EDC is only used for cataloging and meetings. Currently, not many different databases are integrated with it. The ETL logic should be visible within the tool. If EDC is integrated with Axon, you will see the data lineage and catalog because of EDC. If EDC is removed, you cannot see any lineage or catalog.

We need EDC on the application level. Currently, it is only at a system level. It can be shown as an application layer between policies or regulations. This kind of feature can be enabled.

The integration with other data management tools can be enhanced. For instance, there is no integration with tools like Collibra or Hubview.

I have been using Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog for seven years.

The solution is stable.

EDC needs many ports to run. Therefore, to improve performance, you need to increase the number of cores.

The initial setup is easy and takes two weeks to complete. One person is enough to deploy it.

EDC gives you a better understanding of architecture and the system used. You cannot use EDC completely unless you have access.

The product is expensive.

EDC is a standalone application, so it doesn’t really make much sense. It doesn’t give you a lot of features that way; it’s primarily for cataloging and classification. Nobody would buy EDC as a standalone application. When people are buying EDC, it’s always with Axon.

I recommend buying the solution altogether with Axon.

Overall, I rate the solution as seven out of ten.

It is used for our SharePoint data, and it is used for our financial data, so we prepare some kind of data lakes about data. And for a lot of financial things. For example, when somebody has to put the user, like, what we have in your organization. You have a user, and some joint venture partners are there. So, we use it for multiple financial master data. Basically, financial master data, we use it.

We are basically partners, IT partners because a lot of data is being used in multiple applications for Informatica. So, basically, we have partners. It's like Shell. So, it's an end user, but as well as a partner.

It's helpful in integration, and it can be moved around in SharePoint.  So, from the SharePoint View, data integration and reporting, it help a lot in that way.

The speed with which the data should be moved could be improved because of the firewall. It's becoming quite slow. And the integration with Teams or with Microsoft is not so smooth. So these are the areas of improvement. 

So, probably, they might even look for some upgrades or some changes over there. But these are the two key areas that we are facing issues with. One is the data moves a bit slow, and the integration within Microsoft products.

Maintenance is another issue that takes a lot of time and money. It can be a challenge in the long term.

I have been using this solution for six to seven years. 

It is stable, I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. 

I would rate the scalability a seven out of ten. Because of the maintenance issue, we want to scale it up, but we're not able to do so because of the maintenance issue and delayed response.

It breaks down quite often, and it takes time and money to get the issue fixed. These are challenges that need to be addressed from a global perspective, not just from my process.

The support from IBM might not be good, or the IBM people might have to contact Informatica for the solution. That could be a reason. But the resolution takes longer than expected.

There is room for improvement in the support. The response time could be faster. 

Neutral

It is easy to install because our laptops come pre-configured. There were no issues. However, it is not easy to maintain. 

We have a team that IBM handles for maintenance work. If there are issues, we raise a ticket, and they get sorted out, but it takes too long. It is not quick enough. The resolution takes more time than expected. 

We saw an ROI. We have been able to get data from various sources and consolidate it into a data lake, which is helping us in data analytics. This aligns with our company's initiative to implement a data lake strategy and drive digital transformation.

Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. 

In my company, we use Informatica Cloud Data Integration because I work in the insurance sector, where we use the tool for data migration from one environment to another. We also use Informatica Cloud Data Integration in scenarios where the clients switch from their legacy system to Informatica Cloud using Azure Synapse, because of which we have to migrate all the data to Azure Synapse.

The most valuable features of the solution are pushdown, optimization, and partitioning, which can be used for frequent data loading, especially when we have a huge data volume in our company.

While my company operates on the cloud, we have seen that Informatica Cloud Data Integration has some performance issues causing it to lag. I feel that Informatica is still in the process of improving its cloud. Sometimes, there are connectivity shoes in the product causing it to have multiple issues, because of which the solution hangs or lags. The product may have issues because they are new to the market and are trying to improve their services.

I have been using Informatica Cloud Data Integration for two years. 

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a six out of ten.

The solution can be easily scaled up since we just need to take the aid of some PIM processor and increase the data volume as per what we want.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

The solution's technical support is good. I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

I have an experience of more than ten years with Informatica PowerCenter.

Informatica Cloud Data Integration's on-premises version is very good, considering the faster performance and efficiency it provides. Informatica Cloud Data Integration's cloud version is also getting enhanced since Informatica has been regularly doing some patching to increase the product's performance. Considering the current scenario, Informatica PowerCenter is a good product, especially its on-premises version.

The deployment doesn't take much time, and only a few minutes are needed to deploy the solution.

I rate the product's price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is the cheapest and ten is the most expensive. The product is a bit expensive.

In the cloud, Informatica has migrated to a different environment in a single platform named IDMC, on which one can have cloud data migration, cloud application integration, data quality, and data governance, making everything combined with a single platform. Earlier in our company, we had to rely on different software or platforms for each functionality, but now we can use a single URL and work on a single platform.

I would like to speak about Informatica Cloud Data Integration's performance, which is too slow but works overall as a tool. To those planning to use Informatica Cloud, I would say that it is the second-best product in the marketplace, and soon it will become the leading product.

On a daily basis, the product has been increasing their overall availability and performance .On a weekly basis, the product gives out some new updates while fixing its old defects. It will be a good product in the coming years. Improvements in the current product will continue for some time.

I rate the overall product a seven out of ten.

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog was used by our company as proof of concept for projects related to comprehensive data governance. 

The solution has multiple valuable features for metadata collection from multiple data sources or technologies. The solution manages data and acts as a central hub for setting up data governance processes. 

The automated scanning of metadata from data sources is one of the most vital features of Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog. The solution comprises attribute features and AI capabilities for automatic relationship discovery between different datasets.

Another powerful feature of Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is data lineage. The whole path of data transformation from one location to another using certain technologies is represented in Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog. The solution integrates seamlessly with other products from the vendor and allows the creation of comprehensive data governance processes.

The aforementioned integrations facilitate the coverage of semantic layers in addition to the technical data. There is another business glossary product from Informatica that easily integrates with Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog to consume data harvested by Data Catalog, which makes a powerful combination. 

The user interface of the product needs to be improved. Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog captures huge amounts of data and along with this data, the interface becomes comprehensible only for users with advanced technical knowledge. Even for advanced users, it becomes challenging to move around vast amounts of data collected by the solution. 

Some competitors of Informatica are trying to implement some brilliant ideas, but they lack the coverage provided by Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog. The data lineage feature can also be further improved.

While using the solution, the data is being transmitted outside the client's network to the Informatica cloud, which can be a security concern; the vendor can solve this by enabling the product as part of a public cloud like Azure, AWS, or Google. The aforementioned scenario can be a concern for institutions like banks where there are legal restrictions and data needs to be fully under control. 

I have been using Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog for a year. It was used in two different projects in our company, each of them concluded in six months. 

I would rate the stability of the product as seven out of ten. 

The customer support is satisfying, but the turnaround or response time is quite long as the vendor needs to support a huge number of customers daily. At our company, we have noticed that there are experts in the support team who can provide effective solutions. 

The tool's initial setup is complex. I had experience with the on-prem deployment of Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog, but I believe the cloud version is easier to set up. The solution's deployment takes around three to six months.

About four to five professionals are required, including technical administrators and data governance experts, for the on-prem deployment of the solution; for cloud deployment, three professionals might be enough. 

It's a very expensive solution. 

Informatica covers the widest area of technologies in comparison to other vendors and they also have a network of partners who develop add-ons for extending functionalities or data source technologies which could be integrated with Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog. The solution provider has a wide partner ecosystem to provide features on APIs and special custom formats that could be imported or integrated into varying processes. 

The solution's features can be extended and the vendor provides useful documentation and training on it. Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is a reliable platform due to its extensibility and cooperation with other partners. I would overall rate the product an eight out of ten. I would definitely recommend others to use the solution, given that there isn't a requirement for in-depth analysis. 

The critical data lineage feature acts as a link between every aspect of data governance, including an explanation of the data journey and its history which reflects the business growth. The powerful AI capabilities of the solution allow you to automate the management of massive amounts of data, especially the aspect of associating technical metadata with business terms.

When dealing with millions of data attributes its not possible to manage data manually, therefore Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is needed to automate 60 to 80 percent of data association between business terms and harvested technical terms.

If the Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog deployment is carried out efficiently, it can greatly impact your organization and enable business capabilities to further improve business processes.