Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) Reviews

The primary use case is for data governance, data quality, data lineages, and data cataloging.

It is used by an internal team for data discovery. However, we are not able to provide business area-level access to other users because of data security.

It's a good product, and the features for data quality, data cataloging, and UI are excellent. It has a lot of advantages.

The major points of improvement are stability, integration, and permission to sub-folders or categories of data. If you want to provide access to a particular type of data discovery to a team, it exposes a lot of data points which in turn makes Axon not that useful for them.

Permissions, scalability, and connection with other informatic tools are the main areas that need development. Integration with other tools, such as IDQ, is challenging. The management of data discovery is highly challenging because many data points have identical definitions.

Mostly, this will come under the data security permission level or admin access.

I have been using Axon for a year, but I have been using other solutions from Informatica for five years now. 

I currently use the latest version of Axon.

I would rate the stability a three or four out of ten. It's not loading at all and it keeps on getting down.

I would rate the scalability a six out of ten. There is room for improvement. 

We developed something on IDQ on the data quality side. If there is a huge data or a big workload, it takes a lot of time to run and we don't get the result in Axon. 

There are around 10 to 15 end users using Axon in our organization. 

There is a different team for platform maintenance, management, and deployment. There are around ten people on the team. It's a mix of engineers and developers.

The platform team had some difficulties with admin-level things and keeping Axon up all the time because it's on-premises. 

The solution is expensive.

Not on the governance, but I have used Databricks, Azure Synapse, Oracle, and other services by Azure.

Databricks is my personal favorite because of the scalability and the runtime it takes to load a large amount of data from a data engineering and data science perspective. 

I'll probably look for another solution because it has stability issues. When it's needed, it's usually unavailable.

However, it is a good product the way it's designed. It's a very good product, and it has a lot of features that are required for data governance. It moved all the Excel work to our web page, which can be accessible to everyone. It's a good product, but it needs some improvement.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight 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.

I manage the environment and admin-related tasks.

I have integrated Axon into EDC, PowerCenter, and data quality tools, and I face no difficulty integrating with those tools.

I also handle installation, configuration, and troubleshooting issues, in addition to when users face access issues or need help seeing their DQ technical roles.

With Axon, you can easily call and verify DQ rules. You can also upload your business gallery, and the business team can easily verify your data because it is secure.

Some of Axon's valuable features include creating your business glossaries, importing DQ rules, and creating change management.

They could improve technical support because it is not good enough at the moment.

I am a consultant and have been working with Informatica Axon for three years.

I rate the stability an eight out of ten because I have not yet seen the environment go down.

I rate the scalability of the solution a five out of ten. We have faced some performance issues. We have about five or six Axon business users who are data owners and stewards. They are not very active with the solution.

Personally, for the last month, I have not touched Axon or the servers. There are no plans to expand Informatica Axon's usage at the moment.

I rate the initial setup a seven out of ten. The clients gave us their Linux servers, and I set up the solution on-premises.

I could set up the environment, the installation, and the configuration in one day.

My organization's initial steps required us to get licenses for the installation, and we needed specific kinds of ports opened from our environment. We first needed to install the Axon agent and Axon server on different directories. Once we did that, we needed to update a couple of files to communicate with data quality and other functions.

The solution requires some maintenance. I might have to perform a sync-up or make sure the environment is not down, but that is very rare.

The solution was implemented in-house, with me deploying the solution single-handedly.

I rate the pricing a six or a seven out of ten because the price is neither too high nor too low.

Informatica is a big name in the market and the tools are trustworthy, which is why our client chose Informatica Axon-EDC. I rate the solution an eight 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. 

Axon is a platform that lets everyone see all the data assets, business glossaries, lineage, catalog, classification, etc., but the real activities are being done on EDC.

We have only been using Axon for a short time in my organization, and we are decommissioning it, but I used the solution at my previous organization for data governance projects. Data owners, software developers, and architects all access the solution. In total, we have around 150 to 200 users on it. 

Axon has a marketplace that allows you to showcase all the assets the data owner has, so they can request access. That's one feature we use extensively.  Axon also offers great visibility and intuitive searchability, allowing you to easily search data assets. You can check the lineage and see the work EDC does. EDC handles all the classification, cataloging, and lineage. It's integrated with Axon, and anyone can see that.

Though EDC has maximum coverage, a few things were not available to scan, but I think EDC is evolving to address this issue.

I have been working on Informatica EDC and Axon for nine months.

Axon is stable.

Scaling isn't a problem. It depends on how the implementation is done. Kafka is scalable If the implementation has an image, and it would definitely be scalable on the cloud. We run Axon on our private cloud instead of a Kubernetes cluster. If we wanted to implement it on Kubernetes, we could scale it easily. 

I rate Informatica support eight out of 10. 

We tried an open-source solution, but we stopped it midway through the project and adopted EDC and Axon. We also started using Atlas and Ranger.

Setting up Axon wasn't too complicated. One to three people were involved. It took about three months to implement the solution and onboard various data assets. It was a continuous process, which means we were onboarding new assets as soon as we got them. After deployment, we only need one person for maintenance. They handle this in addition to some other responsibilities.

I can't give an ROI measured in dollars, but we see qualitative benefits. You gain the confidence of our customers because they know their data is secure and only accessible to those with authorization. Data quality is improving. We are gaining our customers' confidence, and they rely on us for data classification.  

EDC comes with an Enterprise Licensing Agreement, whereas Axon is a yearly subscription. That is an expensive affair. I don't know the exact cost because the asset management team handles that. We only tell them how many licenses to get.  The administrator who manages the platform distributes the licenses, and we provide them to data owners who are making policy changes.

Axon is sold separately, and it's subscription-based. Usually, EDC is included in a big data package as an enterprise license. It would be nice if EDC and Axon could be bundled in one enterprise license.

Every tool is evolving. New technology platforms and applications are coming out all the time, like Databricks, Scala, IBM Db2, z/OS, etc. 

I rate Informatica Axon eight out of 10. It's a leading solution in the data governance segment. If you're looking for a quick and easy implementation, I recommend Informatica EDC and Axon.

We utilize Intelligent Cloud Services for various transformations during mapping, applied logic, and data manipulation. We use it to complete tasks such as using joiner, filter, and expression transformation to load data into the target table. It can integrate with any cloud system.

There are two things regarding synchronization: one synchronizes the source to the target, which can be incremental, and the other is non-incremental. This functionality keeps the data updated with the latest information.

In terms of data volume processing, Intelligent Cloud Services does not match the efficiency of Power Center. The processing speed is slower for large volumes of data. I'm not sure if there have been improvements in the latest versions as my experience is from six or seven months ago. Additionally, not all transformations available in Power Center are present in Intelligent Cloud Services, like the XML parser and normalizer.

I have been working with Intelligent Cloud Services for around three years.

Stability is quite good. I've faced no significant difficulties or downtime issues. The services were always available for my projects.

I rate the scalability of Intelligent Cloud Services as quite high. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate it as nine.

Customer service and technical support are excellent. Whenever I raised tickets, I received solutions promptly. I would rate them ten out of ten.

Positive

The setup is very simple. The administration is not involved with Intelligent Cloud Services. Informatica handles the setup since it's hosted by them.

Pricing is moderate. I do not recall the exact numbers for the license cost at the moment.

I recommend Intelligent Cloud Services for companies of all sizes, including small and medium enterprises, as administration costs can be saved, and the service offers cloud connectivity and plugins.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

They could improve the product support for the Arabic language. Currently, there are limitations in processing and the interface itself regarding Arabic language support.

We have been using Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog for two years.

I rate the platform's stability a nine out of ten.

Our organization has 12 Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog users. I rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

We encountered a delayed response from the technical support team.

Neutral

We also use the Erwin Data Catalog, depending on the customer's requirements.

The initial setup process is easy. It takes around two days to complete.

We get help from third-party vendors for product implementation.

The ROI from using Informatica EGC (Enterprise Data Catalog) can be substantial, as it helps everyone, from novices to experts and stakeholders, maximize their data's potential. It enables thorough understanding, insightful analysis, and seamless sharing of data assets. Features like adding business terms enhance data quality and governance, benefiting businesses across various sectors. Many customers have truly benefited from these options.

For 12 users, the platform's estimated annual cost is around $160,000.

Our data management processes primarily use Informatica to connect to data sources, scan metadata to obtain physical data and perform data classification. Subsequently, we create business terms to establish a business glossary repository within the platform.

The features that have been most effective in improving our data governance include auto-classification and the ease of exploration and navigation within the tool. It can automatically connect or associate business terms with various options, providing flexibility beyond general capabilities.

The AI-driven discovery capability has significantly enhanced our data cataloging processes. Utilizing AI for auto-classification and discovery has been particularly beneficial. However, there is room for improvement in certain areas for understanding the data.

It has adapted well to changes in our data landscape, seamlessly accommodating new types of data sources. It offers flexibility in adding new data sources and supporting multiple data connectors.

Looking ahead to the future of Informatica Data Catalog, data lineage will be a significant trend influencing the product. These features are currently available, but there is potential for further enhancement and detail. It will enable organizations to comprehensively understand their data and its relationships with business processes and regulatory requirements.

I highly recommend it to others and rate it a nine 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.