Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) Reviews

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.

Informatica Cloud Data Integration is being used to transform data. Primarily, it is for creating data pipelines.

Informatica Cloud Data Integration is being used to transform data. Primarily, it is for creating data pipelines.

Integration is a valuable feature. Currently, the integration makes our security more robust, especially when compared to IICS, where we would need to make arrangements through native or other ways to handle that, and here using sum up makes our lives easier.

With the solution, we had some issues, and we have every day, and we used to open a ticket. Sometimes, there are data issues and transformation issues. So things are not very mature. They need to improve in the aforementioned areas. We are hoping that it will be sorted out in some time, and we will get to experience a hassle-free life.

My company does business with Informatica. We are using their product. I have been using Informatica Cloud Data Integration for four to five years. I am an end user of the solution. Also, I am using the solution's latest version.

I think they are working. Their engineers are still working on some transformations and some features. It is not as stable as they are thinking, but in the last two years, we have seen good progress. So, we are hoping for a similar thing in the future as well. So it is scalable. But, stability-wise, I think that a more stable version is going to come.

I think it is a scalable product. Around a hundred users are using the solution in my company.

The support is very good. On a scale of one to ten, I rate the technical support between eight and ten.

Positive

So we've got many solutions. Not before going to Informatica, but we were evaluating and working with other sets of tools as well. So, on AWS, it is EMR and Glue. We quite frequently use Glue for data pipelines. We also use SAP S/4HANA for delegation. I like IPC and IICS because I have experience in them for the last fifteen years, and I'm working using the same tools. So, I mean, it is my biased opinion. Otherwise, since I have not caught exposure to the other tools in the market that the people in my company are using in different teams, I don't have much exposure to them. Had I gone through those experiences, I would probably have recommended some other tools as well. Currently, I'm in this industry using this tool only, so I recommend it only for that reason. 

The initial setup was very easy. Currently, we are in a deployment process. We've not yet orchestrated that part, but we are in the process of creating the deployment pipelines.

I have deployed the solution on the cloud. Also, there is no maintenance required for the solution.

Cost-wise, I think it is on the higher side, and that is why we are looking for some better options. Licensing costs are huge compared to other players in the market and for my company.

It's a good tool to start with in the beginning.

The product is maturing and has not matured yet. If I look at the market, there are other tools that are providing this stable solution. I rate the overall solution between five to six out of ten.

We use Informatica as our one-stop cloud integration solution. We are connecting two different data systems like SAP or Salesforce, integrating on-site financial data with some applications that process financial information like an ERP to plan budgets and forecast revenue. I'm creating a data warehouse and using that with tools like Power BI to create reports and dashboards.

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. 

There is room for improvement at the highest level in terms of useability and connectors for various types of new applications. The row processing performance could be better because you experience some latency dealing with high volumes of data. Most organizations will be dealing with multiple cloud applications, so you could see performance issues moving from one system to another. 

I have worked with Informatica products for about seven or eight years.

I rate Cloud Data Integration seven out of 10 for stability. Even though Informatica is based in the cloud, it still depends on a secure agent deployed on-prem. The performance of the individual machine where you install the gateway can affect the stability. 

I rate Cloud Data Integration eight out of 10 for scalability. 

I rate Informatica support eight out of 10. They have a dedicated customer success portal where you can search a lot of knowledge base articles that tell you how to use Informatica in various scenarios. You can also use the portal to raise a support ticket describing your scenario, what you hope to achieve, and where you're having problems. The technical support responsiveness and dedicated customer support are decent enough. 

Positive

I have some experience with Azure Data Factory, and I worked with another Informatica product called PowerCenter. I switched to Informatica Cloud Data Integration because my customers' needs changed. More companies began prioritizing clouds. As developers, we also needed to scale up our services.

I'm not aware of the exact licensing cost because the senior management handles that, but I know that products like Azure Data Factory are less expensive than Informatica. At the same time, Informatica gives you more options and connectors. Everything is possible, whether you want to do API-based integration, traditional data integration, etc. 

Azure Data Factory is more useful for connecting with the Azure cloud. You can also play around with the native data integration tools that other cloud providers offer, like GCP or AWS.

I rate Informatica Cloud Data Integration eight out of 10. I recommend Informatica as an integration tool for large and medium-sized enterprises migrating to the cloud. Cost is something to keep in mind because Informatica might be too pricey for smaller companies. Large and medium-sized companies can easily afford it if they plan to use it as a one-stop solution for all their cloud integration and management needs.

If you need a middle layer to build your pipeline, that can be achieved using Azure Data Factory or any other data integration tool. Still, Informatica has some advantages in terms of connectors and help desk resources. When you contact the Informatica help desk, you can speak with engineers who helped develop the Informatica platform, so they have rich experience with integration technologies. The product itself is highly reliable and suitable for your integration needs. 

Azure Data Factory has almost 80 percent of the same features, and it might work for you if you have a Microsoft ecosystem. Using Data Factory is cheaper. However, if you're a large or medium-sized organization or a reseller and your data is more valuable, it might make more sense to use Informatica at that scale. You'll be interacting with many more types of applications and might need to integrate the applications in various ways.

We primarily use the solution for data integration as well as application integration.

Currently, we have a multiple-source system. With Oracle ERP, it's very hard to pull data from Oracle ERP, since it's API based. Therefore we have to make use of Informatica Application Integration to pull data from Oracle ERP.

We are pulling our supplier information, customer data, and data for projects related to information.

It's a beautiful tool. It eliminates the use of a third party or some other tool as it provides beautiful functionality.

In an earlier version, when we are working with an on-premise tool, it was hard since we had to concentrate on the configuration, et cetera. However, now, when we are working with the cloud, most of the time it's very easy to handle.

Data integration happens seamlessly and is pretty fast.

The application integration will give you more flexibility when dealing with APIs.

Every week, we seem to get notifications of new features and updates. They are always trying to improve the product. 

When we're dealing with huge amounts of data, we need to reach out to Informatica. There are some kinds of API records that we need to modify configurations for. 

Application integration, as compared to data, is a bit slow, and it can't handle millions of records.

There could be a lot more application integration. Like data integration, we find there are a lot of places where we can go ahead and improve performance. When it comes to application integration as a developer, we don't have that much flexibility. We have constraints. Our hands are tied, and we can't do anything. We need to speak with either the target system or the core system and say, "Okay, do this thing." 

I've been working with the solution for more than two years. 

It is a stable, reliable product. Sometimes there is a bug or a cache issue. We might get an error when connecting and when that happens, we reach out to support. We find it's a pretty common issue. It might be a glitch. 

It is very scalable. We have some challenges around application integration, and that requires speaking with support. We tell them we need to change a configuration to a specific size. They can assist us when that happens. That's only for application integration, not data integration. With the cloud, we can easily handle millions of records of data.

A variety of people use the solution in our company. There are 50 to 500 users, approximately. 

Technical support seems to take their time in responding. We'd like a faster reaction time. Sometimes it takes one to two days to get a response.

Positive

We did not previously use a different solution. Currently, we're working with data and application integration with Informatica only.

We've mostly dealt with on-premises deployments. As a developer, most of the time, we face a lot of challenges, which are overcome when it comes to Informatica Cloud. Informatica Cloud is much more convenient, as well as fast, and gives good performance as well. With the cloud, we don't have to install software and there aren't any dependencies. It's much more convenient and easy with Informatica Cloud.

The deployment hardly takes more than a few minutes. 

When it comes to the cloud, there is no maintenance necessary. Informatica takes care of any support tasks. They do the updating, et cetera, as well. 

We handled the initial setup in-house. There were no third parties involved in the deployment process. 

We have not looked at ROI.

The solution is subscription-based. Users are charged based on how many resources are used.

The pricing is pretty good. I'd rate it 8.5 to nine out of ten. 

We did not evaluate any other solutions previously. Our client already had this as a pre-existing tool and did not want to switch. 

I'm working with the latest version of the solution. 

Informatica is a stable, easy tool. New users should go and explore it. There is improvement required in Informatica Application Integration; not the cloud.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. We're quite happy with the product. 

We use MDM to get more data quality. We are partners with Informatica and I'm a senior technical lead and practice architect.

The fuzzy matching capability is a great feature as is the network hierarchy which is the new concept code. 

I think the UI could be improved. We're also currently facing issues with real-time integration and if Informatica had their own it would be helpful. They need to look into the user mechanism and the security access mechanism in the data governance process. One of the major features is access control and access data management and they need to work on that because I have observed some data glitches.

I've been using this solution for six years. 

The solution is stable.  

The solution is scalable. There is room for improvement in terms of scalability with the MDM SaaS. With limited data it's fine, but with a large volume the scalability is questionable, the threshold of data transaction is different. We are a service-based company, so there are limited users within the company. From the customer side, there are multiple users. 

We sometimes have technical issues and the customer support responds in a timely manner and is quite good.

The initial setup is easy. Deployment takes around 15 minutes and we have 22 internal users in our company. 

We pay an annual license. Mobile players are unable to afford the product. Different MDMs have different pricing approaches but there needs to be room for mobile players.

We went with Informatica because we have functional and non-functional requirements with respect to the market data management of our customers and Informatica is a suitable product for their needs.

This is a good solution although it's expensive and even though we are integrated with Oracle DB2, we're unable to integrate with multiple things. The market is changing and there are many more options so we have to think about the integrations of multiple databases. 

There are some additions or improvements that could be made so I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

We are currently working on a project with the Oracle Fusion system, so we have multiple use cases and often need to pool data in different source systems. In the project, we have multiple sources and target systems. Based on the requirements, clients, and what they propose, we need to make decisions or check the technical feasibility of whether it is possible to complete the integration.

Product-wise, compared to other on-premise tools, Informatica Cloud Data Integration can be deployed on-premises and cloud. So when we were working on-premises, there were a lot of challenges with the hardware. For example, there were memory space issues, but once we switched to cloud, there were no more issues. 

There are challenges when we use Cloud Application Integration (CAI). We want add-ons when we complete data integration and merge images. The current features are a bit complicated, and we need to write big scripts and test.

We have been using this solution for more than six years. We are using a cloud version and the most recent version, 10.4. We have also used versions 8.6, 9 and 10, and we have observed that there isn't that much of a difference between versions, just additional features added. We do not have private or public cloud for Informatica Cloud Data Integration, just cloud.

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable. We have more than 20 people using this solution.

We hardly raise an SR for this solution. But, whenever we require technical support, we do not get a satisfactory response. This is because their knowledge base may not be developed.

We used this same tool but on-premises in the past. We have also worked with AWS Snowflake, an ELT tool similar to Informatica Cloud Data Integration but with a different architectural approach. If we had to rank them, Informatica Cloud Data Integration would be the best, followed by Snowflake, then AWS.

Informatica Cloud Data Integration has some advantages over the others. It has a more UI-based tool, and the scripting is good. AWS also has an ETL tool called Glue, but it does not have everything we need to write in a script. We still need to write a script if we want to perform a small task. AWS is also challenging to teach. Informatica Cloud Data Integration and Snowflake are easier to use.

The initial setup is easier for cloud compared to on-premises. Deployment does not take much time and takes about 20 to 30 minutes.

The pricing of Informatica Cloud Data Integration and other solutions are almost the same but with slight differences. It differs from project to project, their use case, source and target. Unfortunately, I do not have information on precise licensing costs.

I rate this solution a nine out of ten. Regarding advice, it is a great solution, but users should understand their source and target system. For example, we also deal with Oracle Fusion, and it's a bit challenging to push data because Oracle has multiple models, financial supply chain and HR. Hence, it is difficult for a developer. Therefore, it is difficult to push data.

They should decide whether they are comfortable using Informatica Cloud Data Integration as their middleware tool or whether they want to use Oracle or OCI. OCI is a different middleware tool owned by Oracle.

Regarding additional features in the next release, Informatica Cloud Data Integration doesn't have image merging transformation or capability. We can do it without the solution, but it is a lengthy process. So, it would be helpful if they added the transformation to play with images and deal with invoices and financial data. We sometimes need to add 200 out of 800 invoices, and it's a bit challenging without the additional features.

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.

Informatica MDM is used for our customers' master data management journey. The solution meets our client's requirements for their customer-supplier or any other entities.

The solution's most valuable features are its data quality, match-merge engine, and CLAIRE AI engine, which helps with AI automation.

Compared to other tools in the market, Informatica MDM is costly.

I have been using Informatica MDM for 13 years.

Informatica MDM is highly stable compared to any other tool in the market.

Informatica MDM is a highly scalable solution. Our clients for Informatica MDM are mostly medium and enterprise businesses.

I rate the solution eight and a half out of ten for scalability.

Technical support refuses to support us if we customize the tool. We customize the product based on the customer's needs, and we expect Informatica to provide support during that time as well.

Positive

On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup an eight out of ten for on-premises and nine out of ten for the cloud version. Setting up the tool in the cloud via IDMC doesn't take much time.

The solution can be deployed within a few hours.

Our customers have seen a return on investment with the solution.

Informatica MDM is an expensive solution. On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing nine and a half out of ten.

I would recommend the solution to other users because of its reliability and stability. Compared to other product vendors, Informatica MDM always has additional features. Informatica MDM has a CLAIRE AI engine, which helps with AI automation.

Overall, I rate the solution eight and a half out of ten.