Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) Reviews

I use the solution for preparing the data according to the data quality rules.

The mapping and mapplet features are valuable. The product improves data quality. The processes are running smoothly. The interface is good. Data integration is easy.

I use the solution to integrate on-premise and cloud products. There are issues with connectors to cloud applications. The integration process is not easy. The customer experience must be improved. When we implemented it, we did it with the help of Informatica professionals. I would not recommend them as an implementer. They didn't have any experience. It was very hard. The customer experience was not good. It's hard to understand the new features of the HR list. The tool must have more options for connectors. It is hard to connect to some of the applications. The remediation process is not straightforward.

I have been using the solution for one and a half years.

I rate the tool’s stability an eight out of ten.

I rate the tool’s scalability a six out of ten. It is a bit complex to scale. We have 20 users.

The technical support is not good. The support team must improve the quality of support.

The product is cloud-based.

We got a 50% discount.

We couldn’t deliver the full project. I will not recommend the product to others. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

I use Informatica Cloud Data Quality in my company, as most of our customers have data from different systems and just want to standardize and enrich that data. If you have data like cell phone numbers, it is important to ensure that there is a consistent format to adhere to, like the area code, IDs, or social security numbers. The tool also helps users check email addresses because sometimes a user may find that their data has an incorrect email address. A lot of the use cases related to the tool involve understanding the data from all of the systems and starting the journey to unify some of those data fields, having some consistency in how the data is being captured, and helping look at the completeness of the data. In short, the use cases are to understand the data from different systems and different sources generally. Data could come from the CSV, a web service, or out of the database, but Informatica Cloud Data Quality allows you to extract from all those sources to give you a unified interface to decide how you want to customize and standardize the data.

The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that the product's integration capabilities are easy to work with, along with another feature, the name of which I forgot, but I know that it helps users to compare the quality of results from two different points in time just to see if there have been any improvements.

I think Informatica Cloud Data Quality is one of the more mature cloud products, so I can't think of any areas where improvements are required. Informatica Cloud Data Quality is a product that is very similar to what Informatica offers for data quality on-premises, so there aren't too many gaps compared to the others, and I can't really think of any area requiring improvements.

I would like Informatica Cloud Data Quality to offer more integration capabilities with different platforms. I need to consider the fact that Informatica Cloud Data Quality supports a lot of the standard protocols for which most platforms use endpoints. In short, integration is not really an issue with the product.

The high price of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required.

I have been using Informatica Cloud Data Quality for a year and a half to two years.

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

It is a cloud-native microservices-based product that can manage a lot of data. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Though at the moment we are not currently using the product in our company, a while ago, around 15 employees used to use the product.

The solution's technical support was good. There were no issues with the solution's technical support.

I have experience with Informatica Intelligent Cloud Integration Services.

The product's initial setup phase was easy.

To get the product running, you just need to switch it on, so I don't think it takes more than a day. After deciding the sources from where your data would come from, you can decide if the cloud needs Informatica Cloud Data Quality while ensuring that nothing gets installed on the server, but the only thing you might need is a secure agent on your machine and that is really quick to set up on a virtual machine, which I feel won't take more than a day.

The solution is deployed on the cloud.

I can't remember the deployment process of the product since I am currently working in a different space.

The product's deployment was carried out with the help of a consultant, an integrator, and our company's in-house team. A consultant would be useful to guide a customer, but typically, customers tend to want some hand-holding and someone who can look towards them. Once someone shows the customers of the product how to do the deployment process, then they can do it themselves.

I have seen some benefits from the use of the solution in my organization.

It is a tool that is easy to trust with your data. The tool's service provider also ensures customer experience satisfaction from the use of the product. In one of the use cases, the tool helped the user identify which systems would be decommissioned because of the outdated data that the user had, and now that the user has updated everything, it should be much easier to cut down on those systems that they don't need to use.

The licensing costs attached to the solution are pretty high, but then, with the cloud model, the prices depend on what it provides for the value of money, which I feel was very high.

Those who plan to use the solution should conduct a pilot or proof of concept before choosing the product to understand the tool and also present the facts of the business because it will be much easier for a normal user to understand the purpose and the value that the product provides in an actual or real case scenario.

I rate the overall tool a nine out of ten.

The solution is used for data quality implementation. We handle the whole life cycle of data quality from end to end, including rule specification and exception handling.

We're seeing more productivity. The tool provides accelerated libraries that we can use instead of building things from scratch. It's looking very promising from a productivity perspective.

The profiling features are much better than the on-premise version.

We have complex datasets. Logical views are a little bit behind in comparison to the on-premise version.

I have been using the solution for less than three months. I am using the latest version of the solution.

The product is very solid.

I rate the product’s scalability a nine out of ten.

The technical support is very good.

Positive

We have used the on-premise and SaaS versions of the solution. All our on-premise infrastructure is in Informatica. It was a natural move to Informatica Cloud Data Quality. It was easy.

The initial setup is quite straightforward.

The pilot is not in production. It's in a lower environment. We are not at the stage of doing performance testing until the new year. We are not fully utilizing our on-premise infrastructure. Moving to the cloud could save us some money.

People wanting to implement the solution must consider it like launching a new data management program from scratch. Rather than just thinking about migration from on-premise to the cloud, try to adjust your mindset to use the solution as a completely new tool. If you just migrate from the on-premises to the cloud, if you have any technical debt in the on-premise version, you'll just replicate that into the cloud.

Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

I use Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services since it is a platform that offers cloud data governance or cloud governance policy, making it applicable to what you need. For customers who just want to understand the data better, make better decisions, provide better service, and avoid any sort of legal issues during the vacation period of its users, The product keeps up with some of the standards to adhere to some of the use cases.

The most valuable feature of the product is that, as a platform, it helps with data quality, and everything is sort of one console. The on-prem version of the product has different applications and different user interfaces, offering users consistency in the look and feel, which I like about the product.

The product's pricing is definitely an area where a bit of improvement is needed. Improvement in the product's pricing can help Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services gain more customers, especially in small and medium enterprises where there is a need to upgrade the solution.

Certain improvements are needed in the product, considering from a feature parity point of view. There needs to be some improvements in the product's upgrade options since it can allow users to see all of the on-premises features from other products that are a part of Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services.

The product's price is an area of concern and needs to be reduced, especially in Africa, where it is considered a huge investment, even if it is used in banks.

I have been using Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services for a year.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I rate the solution's scalability a ten out of ten.

Between 100 to 200 people in our organization use the solution.

The solution is extensively used in our company.

I haven't worked with any solutions similar to Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services since I come from a background where I had to deal with workflow and VPN sort of background and robotics, specifically software robotics.

The product's initial setup phase was a bit straightforward.

The solution is deployed on the cloud.

The deployment phase did not take a long time since the product is a cloud-native solution. Once you have your environment set up by the team to access the product with the signed permissions, the deployment phase doesn't take more than a day to be done, but ultimately it depends on the organization. After considering a lot of things required during the deployment phase, the complete deployment process won't take more than a week to be completed.

A team of technical personnel would be useful to take care of the deployment and maintenance phases of the product, as it is a broad platform.

The product's installation phase was carried out in our company with the help of Informatica's partner. Informatica's partner, who helped our company with the installation phase, works in the same industry as our company's customers, which proved to be extremely beneficial, especially from the resources point of view, since the availability of skilled resources and trained people were made available to help our company's customers on time.

Personally, I have not experienced any return on investment from the use of the solution. I have seen and heard about some use cases that fetch some return on investment for the users from the use of the solution. I haven't worked with the solution long enough on any project to see the return on investment that the product can offer.

The solution is expensive.

There is a need to make annual payments towards the license costs attached to the solution, but it is usage-based.

I would ask those who plan to use the solution to go ahead with the proof of concept stage initially and choose a scenario that they want to know more about so that they get a better understanding of the tool.

I rate the overall tool an eight out of ten.

Data quality is missing enterprise-wide in our bank. We use the solution for all the customer data to judge the metrics of software data quality from the source systems.

Server maintenance, server hosting, backup, restoration, and DB capabilities are not needed in the cloud. There is no crashing of the servers. The admin part is very seamless in the cloud, while administration is a big task for the on-premises version.

The on-premises version is very mature, but many of the on-premises features are missing in the cloud. It is still in the development stage and has not yet matured in the cloud. The tool has a lot of product errors that need to be fixed. We face a lot of internal product errors while doing the configuration and quality checks.

The on-premises version has many use case transformations, but they are missing in the cloud. The cloud version has only four to five types of use case transformations. You cannot import the data discovery rules you create in the solution to the Cloud Data Governance and Catalog (CDGC).

I have been using Informatica Cloud Data Quality for six months.

We face many glitches during the configuration because it is a new product. It will take another year to mature.

The solution's scalability is seamless in the cloud. You can scale the solution within one or two hours.

The solution's customer support is wonderful, but they are not up to the mark knowledge-wise.

Positive

The solution can be implemented in one or two days. There are steps available to deploy the tool. One person is enough to procure the VM or the server.

Informatica Cloud Data Quality is a costly solution.

The solution's competitors include Oracle Data Quality, Collibra, and Azure Purview.

The solution provides data standardization capabilities. Since Informatica Cloud Data Quality is a SaaS solution, it does not require any maintenance. Since it is a cloud product, many connectors have configuration issues. They have to add some other parameters in the tool levels. We face such challenges in the cloud, not on-premises.

Overall, I 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 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.

Informatica Axon is typically used for data governance, where we establish policies and business glossaries.

Users can benefit from Axon's business lineage. Axon has something called Overlay, which can be used to extend the technical lineage. You can also extend it to stakeholders, all the compliance policies, and all the overlaying business rules. All of these can be seen in the same lineage.

I want to get a deeper understanding of the logic that is being used in the ETL. Informatica Axon does not provide complete transparency about the level of detailing you need and the logic used in ETL. I cannot use Google Fusion for ETL because I don't have a connector within Informatica Axon. I am stuck if I don't have a connector with an ETL tool.

One of the biggest disadvantages of Informatica is that it's very expensive. Many clients don't want to go with Informatica Axon because of its cost structure. You have to buy every component separately. If a customer wants governance, they obviously would need cataloging and lineage also.

Other tools like Collibra have cataloging, lineage, and governance in the same package. You don't need to buy them separately. With Informatica, you have to buy Axon for governance and EDC for cataloging and lineage. So, it becomes difficult for customers to pay for every component.

I have been using Informatica Axon for seven years.

We haven’t faced any stability issues with Informatica Axon.

Scalability is not really a factor in data governance because the volume and storage of metadata is not more than a couple of gigabytes.

The solution provides good technical support.

Positive

The solution's initial setup is easy, but you typically need Informatica support to run some of the preliminary tests. I've heard that the solution will be available on the cloud. Once it is available as software as a service (SaaS), you don't need to install it; you only need to configure it.

Typically, it takes around two days for the solution's installation and integration with the entire Active Directory and EDC. Then, it may take another day for testing. One engineer is enough to do all this work.

Only using Axon will not give you all the benefits, but you will see benefits when Axon, EDC, and IDQ are all plugged in together. It is difficult to get benefits from Axon as a standalone solution.

The solution's pricing model is easy, but it is very expensive.

Informatica Axon has a Marketplace that comes at an additional cost. Other tools like Collibra have built-in collaboration features, and you don't need to buy them separately. Collaboration features like collaborating on data sets, tagging them, and making a request are available in the Informatica Axon Marketplace.

It's not difficult to maintain the tool as long as someone has been trained in administration because Axon has many components. You need to understand how to change the logo of your screen size and how to change the dashboard wizard.

You also need to understand the product's configurations with other tools, personalize your dashboard, customize it, and add roles. There is a learning curve there. You need to train a person to be an administrator, and once they are trained, they can do the role better.

There is an NLP enabled with the solution, but it is not really that great. There is still room for growth in Informatica Axon's AI space.

Although expensive, Informatica Axon is very easy to learn, and you don't need to customize it much. Once you have the tool, you start uploading things. The solution is very easy to use because it has proper documentation and user guides.

If you want to set up business rules, Informatica Axon will give you a readymade template and ask you to start filling it out. You will be told about the mandatory and non-mandatory fields, and as long as you understand what the fields are required for, it's very easy to start filling out. Someone new to governance can get the hang of it and easily start filling in the details. You can have Axon implemented very quickly.

I am more involved with governance, cataloging lineage, EDC, and IDQ. I am getting a little bit into master data management and data security.

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

I use Informatica Data Quality to consolidate master data across our organization, ensuring consistent and high-quality data. Combining MDM and data quality features, we address issues like customer data inaccuracies. Additionally, we document business terms in our data catalog for a unified view across the company.

The profiling feature in Informatica Data Quality is incredibly effective for data governance. It helps identify data types and potential duplicates, streamlining the detection process. It also suggests matches with predefined fields in our catalog.

There is room for improvement in the Data Marketplace aspect. Specifically, we found some basic functionalities lacking, like transparent integration of quality indicators. Customizability and additional features in the Data Marketplace would be welcomed in future updates. 

I have been working with Informatica Data Quality for three years.

I would rate the stability of the solution as an eight out of ten.

Scalability with Informatica had some initial challenges, especially when ingesting metadata into the data catalog due to the large volume of source systems and data. While it eventually worked, it took considerable time. Overall, I would rate it a six out of ten for scalability at the moment.

Initially, a few hundred users were using Informatica, but now it is a few thousand. 

The technical support is good. I would rate them at a seven out of ten.

Neutral

Maintenance and troubleshooting are handled solely by the vendor.

Informatica's licensing cost is among the highest in the market. I would rate it as a five out of ten in terms of costliness. With Informatica, we have a single bundled agreement covering the entire solution based on total capacity rather than specific modules. 

Before choosing Informatica, we evaluated various vendors, including IBM and Microsoft. Initially, we considered a best-of-breed approach, but Informatica emerged as the preferred choice for three out of four key areas: MDM, data quality, and data marketplace. While there were some limitations in certain tools like the data marketplace and data catalog, we opted for Informatica's complete suite to avoid additional integration efforts and to capitalize on its strengths in critical areas.

The rule-based strategies feature in Informatica Data Quality has greatly benefited our data quality initiatives. With predefined rules in place, it provides a solid framework for assessing data quality. While data quality ultimately depends on source system updates, these rules give valuable insights and are heavily used alongside automatic profiling for effective data management.

Informatica Data Quality works within our IT setup for analyzing and reporting on data quality. It doesn't directly integrate with other tools, but it gives us clear insights. Data flows from sources to Informatica for analysis, and then to data stewards for updates, but there is no integration back to the original applications yet.

Navigating between modules within Informatica isn't always seamless. For instance, actions in the catalog might not be visible in the data marketplace.

Overall, I would rate Informatica Data Quality as an eight out of ten.

We use Informatica Axon to make sure our data is in good shape across different apps. It helps us work with clients to set rules for data and keep things organized. For a bank, it makes sure customer info, like contact details, is correct and follows privacy rules. Axon also made it easy for our team to check and trust the data we were using. It is like a tool that brings everyone together and helps us find and use data better.

The most valuable feature of Informatica Axon has been the data marketplace. It has been a favorite because it not only boosts user engagement but also fosters collaboration. Implementing it was straightforward, and it seamlessly became a part of our organizational culture, making it easy for people to work together and share information.

One area I would like to see improvement in Informatica Axon is achieving feature parity between the on-premise and cloud versions. It would be great if the cloud version could match the full range of capabilities available on-premise. This would ensure a seamless experience and allow users to leverage all of Axon's features regardless of their deployment environment.

I have been using Informatica Axon for almost two years.

I would rate Informatica Axon at eight out of ten for stability. The main thing to improve is making the features and interface consistent between the on-premise and cloud versions. The cloud interface looks modern with DDGC, but the on-premise one is a bit outdated. Aligning them would be a big plus.

It is quite scalable. We had approximately 500 end users.

The standard support is good – they usually get back within the agreed time. If you have a higher-level support contract, like gold, silver, or platinum, you get a faster response, but the support team is generally effective and helpful.

Setting up Informatica Axon varies, but it generally depends on having a good grasp of data concepts. If you understand data well, the setup becomes more straightforward. Deploying and maintaining Informatica Axon depends on the use case, but I would say not too many people are needed. I would recommend at least two people per department or business unit to start with. It is good to have a mix, like an admin or engineer and a developer. One person could handle the technical side, while the other, who understands data and processes well, can provide expertise.

The licensing for Informatica Axon is expensive, but it provides value for the investment. With the new cloud platform, they have introduced a consumption-based license model, where you only pay for what you use. This change has made it more affordable and easier for users.

For those looking to start using Informatica Axon, my advice is to do thorough research, especially on available solutions, as integration with other software plays a big role. With the Informatica cloud solution, you have the flexibility to choose features that suit your needs. Starting with data quality is usually a good move before diving into more complex tasks. Consider exploring tools like robotics for repetitive or tedious tasks. Having someone experienced with data is a significant advantage, as these projects often have long cycles. Experienced individuals can guide you, help set realistic expectations, and emphasize the need for patience, as data governance projects take time to show results. Overall, I would rate the solution as an eight out of ten.