Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) Reviews

What I like best about Informatica MDM is its structured, table-based approach. Unlike Reltio, where data is only visible through the UI and cloud-based, the solution allows access to normalized tables. This means I can directly query and see data in each table. For instance, I can easily get all customer details from the customer table. However, for more complex queries, like seeing all customer interactions with the organization, some SQL knowledge is needed to join different tables and retrieve the details.

The tool could be improved in terms of ease of use, particularly for those without technical expertise. Understanding and extracting data from the table-based structure requires some SQL knowledge and technical skills. Additionally, while Informatica MDM has moved towards a cloud-based MDM with a UI similar to Reltio, I haven't used it, so I can't comment on its effectiveness.

I have been working with the product for six months. 

I haven't had any issues with the tool's stability. 

I'm not entirely sure about scalability, but I've heard that adding custom features can be complicated. We have to go through several steps. First, we need to determine if we're adding a column to an existing Informatica MDM table or creating a new one. Then, we have to contact Informatica with our customization request. They do the customization. After that, we have to check if it's working correctly.

In our organization, we use Informatica MDM in a specific way. It's primarily based on tables; users don't directly log into it. The process works like this: data flows into the MDM tables as an inbound process. Once the master data merge has been completed, the output data flows out as an outbound process.

The tool's support team is good. The product is quite technical, and so is the support team. When we have questions, we reach out to them, and they provide answers. Their response time is also good—we don't have to wait long for replies.

I rate the overall product a seven out of ten. If you don't have the budget for Reltio, then you can go for Informatica MDM. 

I use the solution in my company and have worked with two tools from Informatica, both on on-premises and cloud models. I have experience with Informatica Axon, and I have used the cloud services under Informatica CDGC.

The use case of the tool is basically in the banking sector. It is used to optimize certain areas of a project. In Europe, we have a GDPR implementation. In the Middle East, there is the Central Bank of the UAE and UAE data protection law. Implementing data protection laws and ensuring that all the policies are enforced for financial security is my use case. I have to make sure the bank or financial institution meets the requirements of the Central Bank of the UAE. Data quality is another use case where my company handles corporate and retail customer data, and protecting their information is known as PII. The tool ensures that the system holds the PII data properly.

For data lineage, we look for things at a transformation level and how the data is transforming and managing the ETL mapping. Every tool gives this information about how the data goes, but our company is interested in knowing how the data is transforming and the transformation logic between the two data sources.

There are some tool limitations. Some connectors do not scan the metadata properly. If I want to scan the metadata from the data lineage or the Python code, such areas can get tedious in the tool. To manage such areas, one needs to have a lot of coding knowledge, and you need to know how to apply the code, and only then can you get it fixed. There is no user-friendly enterprise.

There are certain shortcomings even if we opt for subscription-based technical support.

I have been using Informatica Axon for four years. I work as a consultant.

It is a stable solution. Once it is implemented, we will handle everything for the business. Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

It is a highly scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

The tool is meant for enterprise-sized businesses.

I rate the technical support a six out of ten.

Neutral

I have experience with Informatica Data Governance.

If one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the product's initial setup phase an eight out of ten.

The solution is deployed on the cloud, specifically if you have cloud-based virtual machines. If there are compliance issues, and you need to hold the metadata only on-premises models, you can do that, too.

The solution can be deployed in a few days.

It is an expensive solution. I would say it is the most expensive solution in the market.

For the features of the software, the price is justifiable.

Speaking about how the tool enhances data governance tasks, I would say that we have three types of users, consisting of the consumer, who are normally a business user, then we have a developer and finally the admin. Our company onboards the user, and then the user can collaborate, comment, ask questions, give ratings to their assets, publish the data to the marketplace and go for downloads.

One needs to resolve the problem that stems from the fact that different people can have different understandings of the concepts associated with the tool. A database administrator may see an area as a table, but for a business, it may be a person. The tool gives you a common understanding of the business concept. The tool also provides lineage data and how the business data is performing. It provides an interface between organizational policies, the different processes governed by a certain policy, and the different systems governed by which policy. The tool gives you a 360-degree holistic view of the data.

The cloud version of Informatica Axon utilized the AI for the classification purposes, data domain and automatic data tagging. In my company, we use the tool's AI capabilities.

I will recommend the tool to others.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

The solution helps with cataloging and obtaining the data lineage. Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog also helps in identifying vital datasets, including the critical data elements and cataloging them. In our company, we have to manage the life cycle of the critical data elements and maintain the business glossary.

The definitions of the critical data elements, their linkage, lineage, as well as the relationships are managed using the solution. Informatica has been in the industry for decades, so they are one of the top SMB partners. 

At our company, along with the solution, we also use Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services REST API for app and system integrations in the packaging industry. Of our total portfolio, we integrated applications for about 20%, but we did not have any cloud presence; only a setup application was in the cloud. But for all the on-prem projects, the key components of the customer's product were integrated and governed by using Informatica. 

Data lineage is a valuable feature when, at our company, we design the physical elements and the logical components and need to identify the relation between them. 

The duplicate identification feature for two tickets, synonymous fields, or attributes is another vital aspect of Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog. The categorization of whether data is critical or not in the business glossary is another vital feature of the tool.  

The product is difficult for an untrained professional to operate. Specialized skills need to be acquired by learning the tool and executing it for data operations. Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog needs to be more user friendly, the UI is extremely complex.

For instance, if I have to view the tool, the first deterrent is that it gets highly technical. Thus, a limited number of professionals can understand the tool processes. Unless you are a data professional, it's very difficult to use Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog. The tool operates with Power BI sometimes.  

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

At our company, we haven't faced any downtime or business issues with the solution. The solution allows a limited number of users, so it's easier for the vendor to manage stability. 

I believe the solution is scalable and integrates satisfactorily. Our company was successful with scalability because, for the majority of our applications, where the key data was being hosted, we could integrate the apps quite easily with the cloud.

If Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is being used, scaling the data up or down shouldn't be a problem. The solution's cloud integrations make scalability easier, unlike the on-prem version, which requires implementing complex security protocols. 

I would rate the customer support a nine out of ten. The product's support team has been highly responsive while solving the issues faced by our organization. 

Positive

At our company, during the product deployment, we had to asses our applications and APIs that would be connected, whether they were available out of the box or not. But the capabilities of customer connections are available with similar tools.

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog offers custom connectivity. Therefore, the deployment process has been troublesome for our organization except for the mainframe. But as we kept using the tool we realized the integrations could be smoothly completed. At our company, we implement the product if customers are convinced to integrate the tool and make it their central, single source of data management for integrators and technicians. 

The deployment of the solution took more than a year in our organization, which included upgrades, contract renewals, and demonstrations similar to IDMC, provided by the same vendor. For deploying the on-prem version of Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog, a team of five engineers was needed in our company to manage the whole deployment and support process.

A couple of business analysts are needed to gather the users' requirements. Our organization has about ten members who provide on-call support on Informatica for its customers, comprising developers, business analysts, and testers. 

In our organization, we were able to derive about 70% of the critical data lineage. 

It's a costly solution. I would rate the pricing of Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog as six out of ten. 

The automated data lineage feature utilization depends upon the integration, which is why, in our organization, we had all our key applications integrated that derived automated lineages. But there were unknown applications as well, which, due to the lack of integrations, needed to be manually plugged in.

The mainframe integration with Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is highly complex. At our organization, due to the aforementioned complexity, we had to import all the data of the mainframe into Informatica. If you are able to integrate the tool with your core applications and systems, then the data lineage duration is pretty simple and this structure is the same for competitor tools as well. 

In our company, we might explore in the near future how Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog can assist with AI capabilities. I would overall rate the solution as eight out of ten. To anyone looking to use Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog, I would say if they are willing to understand the company data, then the professional should gather sufficient technical knowledge about the product or take assistance from an Informatica expert because it's not a straightforward tool. 

We use the tool to implement customer, product, and entity masters. We also use TDM to generate synthetic data, but not in real-time scenarios.

It's a multi-domain master data management system. The solution is easier to use compared to the other solutions. The security is good. The governance model is good. All the elements that I expect are available in the product.

The user interface can be a bit more functionality-aligned.

I have been using the solution for the last 15 years.

I rate the stability a nine out of ten.

The product is scalable.

The support team does not provide much support.

Negative

The initial setup was okay. I rate the ease of setup a five out of ten. The tool can be deployed in a minimum of eight to ten months. The implementation requires at least a team of five members. Maintenance depends on the customer's requirements. If the customer's requirements keep changing, we need a team to maintain the tool. Otherwise, one or two Informatica developers are sufficient to maintain the product.

The price is comparable.

All the tools have similar capabilities. There is nothing superior in Informatica. I'm a software integrator. I work for an IT company. I'm not the consumer. I will recommend the product to others, but it depends on the customers’ needs.

If an organization needs a good customer master, product master, or partner master, Informatica MDM will be a good choice. The solution has been in the industry for quite a long time. It has all the elements I look for in a master data management system except for customer support. All other things are fine.

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

We had proof of concepts where certain test cases were given to improve the functionality of the vendor regarding the supply chain.

So, it was a proof of concept. It was not applied in production.

It was just illustrating the capabilities of the platform, and we were comparing it with other platforms.

If we use it comprehensively, we can improve the data quality metrics or KPIs. 

So use as much data as you process, and have a solid strategy in place. If you don't have a comprehensive approach, then you don't draw any benefits or value from such a complicated platform. So, you have to have the objectives very well set up and be part of your daily activities in order to benefit from such a platform.

I like the connectivity and richness of features for the technical team, the maturity of the product, and that it had a cloud version. There is Informatica Cloud, and it is part of the Informatica Cloud platform.

It also has integration with other data governance tools from Infromatic, which is also good. 

It offers integration with some of the latest data platforms, streaming platforms like Kafka, for example. And the setup of the platform is very challenging.

Regarding the cloud, it is deployed in the private cloud of the vendor, so it poses challenges regarding the security of the data and the confidentiality of the data. There was no offering of a cloud version deployable in the client's tenant where all the data would reside.

I used it for a couple of months because it was only demoed for the client.

It is a stable product. 

The customer servive and support could be faster. There is a slow turnaround. 

Neutral

We just compared the data profiling features or data quality features between the tools. There was a rich functionality available in the system, but we did not draw any conclusions regarding how it improved or may have improved.

It was set up by the vendor for the demo. To deploy the Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog, you need at least two admins and architects. 

It enables business processes by providing trusted data that can be integrated into many processes around data.

It's very expensive. It's subscription-based. There are several levels of subscription.

The price is high, but the competitors are even higher and more experienced, like Collibra.

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

I would recommend it due to the consistency of vision and very good integration between different products of Informatica. It offers wide coverage, the widest coverage of technologies from the major players.

We use the product to store data. We have established a structured system where we store all relevant information, including donor details, images, and series, ensuring easy accessibility for users.

The product's most valuable feature is the ability to select the data flow and lineage.

Informatica Axon's response times and certain aspects of the admin panel could be enhanced for better usability.

We have been using Informatica Axon for more than one year.

I rate the platform's stability as seven out of ten.

We have around 400 Informatica Axon users in our organization. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten.

The technical support services at the moment are impeccable. The support team has answers for everything. They have maintained this level of quality as we progress. There aren't many issues currently, although we're awaiting the migration to the cloud.

Positive

The implementation process could be simplified.

The platform has a premium cost. I rate the pricing as seven out of ten.

The product needs to be adequately supported in the current setup. I advise others to conduct a proof of concept (POC) and assess how it progresses. The learning curve can be steep, but with sufficient time investment, they can also impart knowledge to the users, which is crucial for effective change management.

I recommend it to others and rate it an eight out of ten.

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.

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.

We utilize it for two tasks. The first involves collaborating with our business team to identify specific data quality issues, and this part of the process runs smoothly. However, the second task is focused on using Informatica to investigate data issues that aren't entirely clear. This aspect doesn't yield satisfactory results, and we struggle to effectively pinpoint the problems using the tool.

When discussing data quality within IDMC (Informatica Data Management Cloud), it involves several modules, including CDI (Cloud Data Integration), CDP (Cloud Data Profiling), and Cloud Data Governance. Initially, we focused on Cloud Data Integration, which was the aspect we were already familiar with. We encountered challenges when trying to explore data quality issues using Informatica. We primarily used Cloud Data Profiling to connect with Cloud Data Governance, a tool also used by Teva. This integration allowed users to access data quality results within the data governance catalog.

We are currently working on improving the user interface for our end users. At the moment, our end users do not frequently connect to Informatica for data quality because they have trouble locating the results within the platform. The remediation processes are not adequately supported within it, and we cannot easily assign data quality issues to specific individuals, nor can we send the entire results to anyone via email. While we can send reports via email, we lack the capability to attach the actual results or provide links to them. We have been suggesting these improvements to Informatica, but as of now, we have not seen any significant progress. If given the opportunity, I would like to address these concerns, particularly with regard to enhancing the end-user experience. Also, there were initial architectural misalignments with the product. We believed that Informatica could directly connect to the source systems, but while it is technically possible, doing so would significantly impact the performance of the source systems. As a result, we did not receive approval to connect directly to them, and we did not plan to maintain copies of these systems.

I have been working with it for one year.

I would rate the stability of the platform seven out of ten. We have faced a recurring issue after each quarterly upgrade or new release in their cloud platform. This problem involves the functionality that used to work correctly no longer operating as expected.

I would rate its scalability capabilities six out of ten.

Overall, I would rate it six out of ten.