Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) Reviews

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.

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 MDM is a multi-domain product for any master data management. We could use it for customer master data management or supplier data. Given the nature of the business, we can apply Informatica MDM to master the core data entities within an organization.

Informatica MDM has a defined data model we can customize with user and developer options. The solution's user interface allows users to work with the master data model. Another feature I like is that the solution can integrate with various data cleansing engines, such as address cleansing or data quality-related packages or functionalities.

From a data or master data management perspective, the solution is pretty evolved. But from a business process automation workflow standpoint, it could be a bit more intuitive, rather than technically complex, such as in workflow alteration using ActiveVOS. The solution also needs adaptive rules elaborating AI/ML technologies.

I have been working with Informatica MDM for ten years now.

The solution is robust and stable enough.

With master data, we don't usually talk about tons of data. There could be a lot of records, but then it's not that huge. Now that Informatica is shifting towards the cloud as part of their software, they would have considered the scalability perspective, which is not too huge. Like transactional databases, we would expect less data there. The solution is mature enough to cater to a wide range of users.

We have a huge dependency on support all the time. If something is required or unclear or doesn't work, we have to raise a ticket and follow a process to resolve it. The turnaround time is long sometimes.

Even for simpler questions, we still have to be put on hold and wait for someone to pick up and respond. Even if the problem is critical, support does not treat it with the same urgency we would anticipate or expect.

Neutral

One would need professional services from Informatica to get MDM installed, and there has to be a contract with professionals all the time after that to manage the data model and any changes to the data. Moreover, there is a huge dependency on their professional services to work with the product in the long-term perspective.

The setup is not complex for professionals, but people without a technical background would not be able to set up the solution by themselves.

Once the installations are complete, there are two aspects to the solution. One is the back-end, which is the model, then setting up integration to load the data and configuring the MDM system to perform its master data capability. The other part is the front end, which is deploying the user interfaces and ensuring the user roles are defined and set up.

When deploying the solution, the whole project team needs to be around because the developers, the users, and everybody on the project team must come together because once it is deployed, it needs to be tested. Maintenance teams would be separate. They need to focus on any minor enhancements to the solution and provide support with any bugs, issues, or questions users might have with the data.

I have heard from customers that the product comes with a huge license cost. Under contractual terms, Informatica does not let us have full control of our own datasets, but that comes down to how the billing and licensing work. The licensing is a bit complex and expensive.

I have experience working with Informatica MDM. However, I have been comparing it against MS MDS to see how each stands. More from a costing perspective, a licensing standpoint, or any roadmap from a product's perspective, for which MS MDS has no plans to expand or evolve to a newer product with more capabilities. That's something I am checking in the background. Given the current landscape in my organization, both tools coexist, but we are trying to see if we need to replace one with the other.

At the moment, Informatica is the market leader within the MDM space, expanding into the latest data integration and management advancements. I don't see MS MDS in these areas. But then again, MS MDS has been treated as a legacy system within the organization, and we're trying to find a roadmap to replace it with Informatica by understanding what it offers comparatively.

The solution is pretty evolved from an MDM perspective, and it seamlessly integrates with its product suite.

We work with the on-prem version. We have seen the cloud version, but we're not there yet because it takes a long time to onboard all the businesses onto the cloud. The cloud version is still at a proof of concept stage.

Before purchasing the solution, the user must understand the licensing and cost structure, as well as their professional support. All these aspects are important on an ongoing basis. Depending on the wide suite of products they offer, it's best to understand which products would suffice the business needs rather than having to roll out a full-blown MDM solution, which is not the case with all the clients.

I rate the product a seven out of ten.

Test data management is a common use case. When conducting testing in lower environments, we want to avoid exposing sensitive information. To achieve this, we use Data Masking to modify the data. 

For example, we change personally identifiable information, phone numbers, and emails so that they cannot be viewed. The modified data retains the structure and format but doesn't reveal the actual information.

The tool is mainly valuable for testing teams, as it helps protect sensitive data during testing. It can also be used to mask production data for different users, ensuring that only authorized individuals can access sensitive information. These are the main reasons why we use this tool.

I think there's only one area that could be improved. Currently, when we apply the Data Masking rate, we don't have a way to view the masked data. It would be helpful if there was a feature to allow us to see the actual information.

Once the data is masked, it cannot be reversed. Having the ability to revert it back to the actual value would be beneficial, especially if we need to see the original information. Although our enrollment has decreased, it would still be helpful to have that feature.

I have used Data Masking as part of my work.

Stability is good. It's definitely reliable.

Scalability is good. It's definitely scalable to handle higher volumes across different platforms as well. It performs well in terms of scalability. 

Additionally, when it comes to implementing more source systems, there haven't been any issues.

Our experience with customer service from Informatica has been excellent. They are always available and responsive.

Positive

The initial setup is generally straightforward. However, there can be some challenges during the on-prem installation process, even though we have the steps and prerequisites. Dealing with installation issues is quite common, but overall, it's not excessively complex to set up.

The need for maintenance depends on the team. Sometimes, the solution you configure in the tool determines the level of maintenance required. However, overall, maintenance hasn't been a significant issue.

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

We used the solution for data storage, and data cleaning to improve data quality. The solution also served as a data lake for reporting purposes.

The solution has made it easier for us to retrieve and maintain the data as well as saves us time.

The ability to clean out data and improve the data quality is the best feature.

The solution is user-friendly and easy to navigate.

The cost of Informatica MDM is expensive and has room for improvement. Although the solution is good, it is not worth the high cost.

I have been using the solution for five months.

I give the stability a ten out of ten.

I give the scalability a ten out of ten.

We had ten people using the solution in our organization.

We previously used EXAScaler and switched because we were moving to the cloud.

I give the initial setup a nine out of ten. The deployment took us one month. We prepared the environment and the deployment was completed by the Informatica engineer.

The implementation was completed by an Informatica engineer.

The solution is very expensive. I give the cost a three out of ten.

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

The solution is good and I recommend it as long as the pricing fits the organization's budget.

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is being used for recording enterprise assets, such as customers' products and vehicles. 

We a consulting service that provides information on how to enter the catalog or forms to collect the data catalog and enter them into Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog.

The most valuable feature of Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog is it provides clients with a full view of the enterprise data assets. For example, how many data assets they have and who owns them.

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog could improve by having a much better user interface. It is not user-friendly.

In a new release of Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog, it would be beneficial to have some new features including data sharing.

I have been using Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog for approximately three months.

The solution is stable. There are some issues that can arise with Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog, but the vendor can resolve them.

We have 10 people that use the solution.

Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog sends support to our clients if they are having problems.

The initial setup of the Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog can be difficult. It can take approximately one week to install all the components, such as metadata.

There are vendors to do the installation and it can cost a lot of money over the week that it takes.

I recommend this solution to others. There is a large market in China for Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog.

I rate Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog a seven out of ten.

We use Informatica Cloud Data Integration because we have multiple sources for data integration, and we transform that data and load it into the database or QuickBooks.

There are fewer than 10 people using this solution in my organization.

I'm an integrator. I'm working with the latest version. 

It's deployed on cloud.

Data integration is the most valuable feature. The ability to connect to any of the sources and enterprise applications makes our lives easier.

We would like to have accessibility to the repository. We had that feature in Informatica PowerCenter, and we were able to have access to the repository query, which helped us build some tools, audit tools, and review tools. In Informatica Cloud, accessing the repository query is a challenge.

I have used this solution for about six years.

It's very stable.

It's scalable. 

We reach out to technical support frequently. We've had good experiences with them.

We previously used PowerCenter, DataStage, and Oracle Data Integrator.

I prefer Informatica Cloud Data Integration because of the ease of connecting to various connectors and various enterprise applications. The UI is also a valuable feature.

Initial setup isn't straightforward or complex. It's about medium difficulty. 

Deployment took about one week. It's not difficult to maintain.

Deployment was done in-house.

From the usage perspective, there is minimum ROI.

The pricing is high compared to other tools on the market.

We chose Informatica Cloud because we have Salesforce. If you're using Data Integration, App Integration, and many other features like operational insights, then the price is worth it. If you're only using the solution for data integration, then the price definitely isn't worth it.

We export APIs, and anyone can seek those APIs to have the data for target use cases. We hit the APIs that are exposed by external systems, and we get the data from them and process it.

We're using the latest version. It's deployed on cloud.

There are about five people who are using this solution in my organization.

We chose Cloud API Integration to connect to Salesforce.

The OAuth feature is the most valuable for authentication.

Recently, we're trying to connect to the Amazon API. There's no direct way to connect to Amazon APIs from Informatica Cloud. From Postman, there's a signature site called AWS Signature, which would actually generate the signatures for us with AWS APIs. In Informatica Cloud, we have to build the logic, and then we can generate the signature and hit the AWS APIs. Instead of generating that signature, it would be better if we could have the same connector in Informatica Cloud.

Sometimes when I open the processes or any service connectors, the labels are not properly displayed. The backend names are displayed rather than the front end label. I usually log out and log back in, and sometimes it disappears, and sometimes it doesn't.

I have used this solution for six years.

It's pretty stable. We don't have any concerns.

It's scalable.

I would rate technical support as six out of ten.

Setup is straightforward. It takes a week to do the installation and configuration.

It's not difficult to maintain.

I would rate this solution as eight out of ten. 

I would recommend this tool to other users.

I'm a freelance consultant, so I work for a few different clients on different projects. Sometimes I do system integrations, and sometimes it's more of the deployment of the tool itself. 

Informatica Axon is mainly used for master data management because it's quite a powerful tool. Lots of clients are struggling because Collibra is not an MDM tool. Azure has some possibilities in the data factory for MDM, but in the end, it doesn't have the engine that Informatica has. I see quite a few clients bring Informatica into the architecture for ETL processes. They use it to extract, transfer, and load data, in addition to MDM, since they're a bit restricted with other tools.

I think definitely what my clients find strong about the solution is all of the processes that it can do. You can extract and transfer your data as you wish it to be consumed later. I definitely hear that this adds value to the tool. 

Another thing I hear clients say is that you can use the MDM modeling functionality as a kind of engine to do data cleansing before you consume the data.

Also, for example, Collibra works closely together with Azure, which works closely together with Informatica and Google because the clients have needs that can't be fulfilled all by one platform. Solutions needs to fit into that architecture, and Informatica can fit in there, and that's appreciated in the market.

There is always room for improvement in making the look and feel more user-friendly. There are also some technical issues sometimes with integrations because clients have a lot of different types of data sources.

One thing I miss with Informatica is the sandbox environment. I do freelance consulting, meaning I give trainings, and sometimes clients ask me to give a training in my own environment, my sandbox environment. 

I have an environment that Collibra provides me with for certifications of training, so I can use a kind of sandbox to actually show a few things to clients.  I have the same thing with Microsoft. With Informatica, it's a bit more difficult. They're not that willing to provide the sandbox to an individual consultant, so I'm just on my own. That's a bit of a pity because sometimes if a client has something that is not configured, I can quickly configure it in my own environment and then show it in a demo. I don't have that opportunity with Informatica. I have to work on the client's system, which then sometimes causes security problems.

I don't have complaints about the stability, and I don't see it as a big issue coming up with my clients. The app sometimes had issues for some clients but it was not business critical or actually impacting them.

I think it is scalable, but that is not really the focus of my work. There are a lot of reasons I can give that the scalability might be affected, but they are actually not really related to the tool itself, but just how you build it in.

If I have a problem with the client and I'm a bit stuck, the support is really good. I can fall back on the people from support and they're quite willing to help. 

It can also help the client because I do a project for six or twelve months, and then I'm gone. If the client has a question after that, they can talk to the support and it's really good. 

From what I have experienced, I would give the technical support an eight out of ten. 

Positive

I think the setup is quite easy if you are data-minded. If you don't have any clue about data management or don't have that background, you're not going to be able to do it. You need to have a bit of technical understanding to do it in the correct way. If you're completely new and you don't have that background of experience, then it's a bit harder, and you'll need to follow a step-by-step plan.

I see clients starting to set it up from scratch and it takes three years. If a client says they want to deploy it within their whole organization, then, in general, you need to count about three years because it's not only the tool. You also need to set up your governance and your organization on it. All of your processes need to be aligned with the tool, so it's a three-year program in general.

Both for the business end users and for the technical people, the maintenance is more on the technical side. For example, for the API connections, the batch processes, and the real-time processes, it's not always easy. One of the things that I always say to my clients is that they need to document everything, and that helps. I tell them to build into their project a documentation pillar where they document everything that they do, like their MDM and rules. It's easier if they have good documentation, but it's still a challenge. Without documentation, it's hard.

I think definitely starting it up gradually, meaning don't buy the tool and then start trying to put everything in from the beginning. First, think about: What do I want to bring into the tool? Which sources do I want to go integrate with the tool? Which data, which business areas do I want to cover with that? You need to do a modeling exercise. You need to do some preparation work first and take it slow. Start small, take a specific business unit or data domain, and then show the value for your business. Then the budget will come, and you can do more with the tool. 

I rate this solution as an eight out of ten.

The most valuable features are data quality, data integrate transformations, match-merge, and a few MDM solutions we build into data quality transformation. 

One area that could use improvement is the speed of the web interfaces. At present, they are very slow. I think it is essential that we are original and robust on-premises.  

I have worked with Informatica Data Quality for the past four and a half years.

You have excellent stability in the market in comparison to other data solutions.

We find that scalability is not an issue and have installed it on fourteen servers.

I have a lot of issues with their customer support and not getting the required technical information, which we actually need unless you can do a call with their senior technicians. Most of the cases that you raise are assigned to a junior technician. 

Positive

The initial setup is simple for a person who knows the company. If you already have one of their products you will find yourself comfortable doing the deployment. If you do not have experience with the company it is medium in relationship to complexity. 

I would continue to encourage the upgrades that are taking place every other one in order to release the new and relevant features. I would rate Informatica Data Quality an eight out of ten.

It comes with lot of features and is a one-stop-shop solution for integration, data modeling, and data governance. Everything can be built under one particular umbrella. If any issues come up, then there won't be any blame game saying that it could be an integration issue or an MDM hub issue because it's wholly owned by Informatica. That's the biggest advantage of Informatica MDM over that of any other tools that are available on the market.

It has given us a lot of flexibility in terms of solutions.

This is a costly solution. We have several customers who evaluate it but then look for other solutions because of the cost.

At present, Informatica MDM comes as an on-premises or cloud-based solution. I would like to see them offer a SaaS-based MDM model. I think they are working on it.

I've worked with Informatica MDM for close to a year.

We have not had any performance issues.

It is a scalable solution.

The technical support is good depending on the SLA. Sometimes, they do have a busy schedule. When I contacted them for issues, someone joined the call if he/she was ready. Otherwise, we have had to wait for a day or two.

Informatica MDM is a costly solution because it comes as a bundle. They are also globally positioning themselves and are definitely working on very upgraded technologies. If someone wanted to do it on the cloud, they have a lot of flexibility because they upgrade themselves according to the current needs. It definitely comes with a lot of features and that's the reason why it's costly.

The licensing cost should be approximately one million dollars. It's about four to five times that of other vendors.

Take a look at your budget first and then proceed with this solution.

On a scale from one to ten, I give Informatica MDM a nine.