Informatica PowerCenter Reviews

Data Integration: Integrates heterogeneous source platforms data into the unified data warehouse.

Easy, scalable, robust platform to integrate heterogeneous source platform's data into the unified data warehouse.

Data Integration. The UI-based ability to create data mapping. Also, reusable definition of data sources and the out-of-the-box availability of a large number maplets for common transformation functions.

Cost! 

Also, BI features. While Informatica is great for data-integration, it does not have any analytics features. Thus, organizations have to always look for another product for their BI needs.

More than five years.

We are trying to implement both Finance and Operations modernization with the help of Informatica. This tool is mainly used in data ingestion, where we bring different sources into a Hadoop environment.

• Big Data connectivity, Data Integration solutions, and Data Quality solutions. 
• Easy to code and understand solutions in Informatica.

More than five years.

Yes, we had stability issues, mostly with JVM size.

Yes, there can be scalability issues. Huge amounts of data ingestion will impact performance.

I rate tech support seven out of 10.

Straightforward.

There are a lot of other data integration tools available in the market. Based on our needs we have to choose which is applicable: Talend, SSIS, Ab Initio, DataStage, ODI (Oracle Data Integrator).

Good product if you are trying implement data quality, data integration, and data management projects.

We have a good relationship with the vendor. We get notifications related to new products for user validation and beta release. We have given user experience feedback for Operational Insights tool.

We are using it to source data from Sybase database and flat files so as to load to the target Greenplum Database. The facility to do parallel load on Greenplum using gpload feature is valuable for us. Also, the ability to scale through partitions helped us to improve the performance.

We used Informatica PowerCenter for a re-platforming project where the earlier application was using an in-house Java-based ETL, that suffered in terms of the performance and scalability issues. With Informatica PowerCenter, we were able to overcome all the performance bottlenecks and we were able to standardize the ETL layer. The re-platformed application was able to complete the high volume batch data load in minutes, compared to the long hours it took in the old application. In addition, the year-end volume spikes are easily handled by Informatica.

In our implementation, for the initial conversion, we had to take on a large volume of data from the legacy Sybase system. This was taking a very long time, i.e., more than a day. We were trying to improve it with partitions to gpload, but we were told that we can't go more than four partitions. This was a limitation then and I am not sure if this has already been improved.

I have used this solution for four years.

Not many stability issues were experienced.

Not many scalability issues were experienced.

Technical support is good; also, we had engaged professional services during the application development.

The legacy solution was using an in-house Java-based ETL, that had huge problems in scaling for high volume batches. As part of the re-platforming exercise, we switched to Informatica so as to get a more stable and standard solution.

With knowledgable developers, the setup was not complex.

We evaluated the Pentaho solution.

It is a good, scalable solution, provided the infrastructure is taken care of.

Once you figure it out, it is a powerful and simple ETL tool. Its stability has been very satisfactory.

Like any other ETL tool, it collects business information for centralized reporting and analytics.

The UI is outdated and old-fashioned, at least in our current version. Also, we have experienced some stability issues with the Workflow Monitor application.

Our company has used it since 2002, I started using it in 2009.

The integration service itself is very stable. The applications suffer from minor stability problems.

The product scales very well, beyond our needs.

The technical support team is eager to help but the problems that we have faced were usually too complex. However, there has always been a workaround.

Our company has always used this solution.

I was personally not involved with the initial setup, but from what I have heard, it was fairly straightforward.

We have found the pricing very cost-effective. The licensing is CPU and data source-based.

In the new version, it is supposed to allow a variety of data sources with the standard license.

I was not involved with choosing the product.

Choose the right tool for the right job.

For the purpose that this product was designed, I believe it is still the best in the market.

• Able to access heterogeneous databases: It can work with any kind of database available in the market. In fact, it can be applied to NoSQL databases as well.
• SQL override allows users to write simple to complex queries inside mapping for performance tuning the load process, pre and post SQL can help control the load process to get desired outputs.
• Error handling techniques: Informatica provide a suite of options to handle errors. From logging error in database tables to e-mail notifications with log files, to decision/assignment tasks for data control, it can handle error at every stage of workflow. Restart options for batched work-flows.
• Debugging, is one other feature I found extremely useful. Before running a full load, you can run a subset of data from source-target and check for values generated from logic at every transformation.
• While in debugger mode Target tables do not load any physical data. The best part of debugging in Informatica is that, in the debugger mode, you can alter logic in expression transformation and check for the value generated from the logic. This will allow you to change logic if it's needed later.
• Transformations - the types of transformations (SQL Logics) provided are unmatched to any other ETL tool out there. When it comes to using transformations, even a beginner can understand with minimal effort, how to use them or what the expected output will be using that particular transformation. Most of them are self-explanatory, and provide the desired output. Especially Expression Transformation (which is the heart of any mapping).
• Can be used to build any type of logic with flexibility giving the number of logical functions (date/time/string etc...). Functions have a syntax that is very easy to understand.
• Informatica provides all the functions indexed in a proper fashion in expressions editor with syntax to allow users to build logic with ease.
• Version control, as check-in and check-out are easy and allow space for adding comments. These comments can come in handy during deployment when writing queries.

Our organization had to import data from AS400, implement a sales cost analysis and load data into Data Mart, which was further consumed by QlikView. This was done with data from five different countries in different time zones. From the point of developing mapping, replicating them for other countries given their respective databases to loading the data, everything was automated and scheduled with notification about the loads. It changed the way we did business. Customers orders, modification, and tracking was all smooth. Every morning, we would receive one e-mail with consolidated load statistics and it all starts with one e-mail.

There are three areas where they can make a significant improvement:

1. Live feeds, where if a database object changes then object definitions should automatically get refreshed as well. This would avoid re-import of objects. Auto refresh will effect all the short-cut objects, but ultimately if the object in the database has changed, then the mapping will fail or provide incorrect data given the position of the column or name of the column doesn't exist anymore.
2. The GUI Interface. Instead of having to open a separate window for Designer, WF Manager and WF Monitor. If these three windows could be merged into three separate tabs or built into the hierarchy of building sub-tasks, for example, workflow opens a session, and the session opens a mapping unlike opening only mapping properties currently, that would be nice. SAP BODS has that structure and I would like to see something along those lines, where I don't have to refresh the mapping and session every time something changes
3. Version rollback, where version control is a blessing and boon. While the version control is a good feature, sometimes it becomes a huge burden of the database and the Repository should have a way to rollback keeping most current object and purge all other versions.

Starting with version 7.1, I have been using Informatica for 7+ years.

Deployment can get complicated depending on Queries. Adding proper labels and comments during version control can make Deployment very smooth. I did not come across any technical issues using deployment. Rollback feature adds a lot of value to deployment. With a single click, you can rollback all the objects if you notice any discrepancy with objects between environments.

Informatica is very stable tool. Only a few times, where Informatica server is remotely based, connectivity can be slow at times. I have had a few instances when expression editors gets grayed out when using RDP or Docking Laptop but editing "regedit" file resolved this issue. Otherwise this is a very stable, powerful and robust tool.

Informatica can handle extremely large volumes of data very well. With features like CDC, Incremental Load, Mapping Parameters and variables, dynamic look-up, pre and post SQL, Informatica provides flexibility in handling huge volumes of data with ease. Certainly a lot depends on optimized mappings and work-flows (batching and performance tuning).

Customer Service:

We've only had to contact customer service twice in 6+ years, and they were very good with their responses and were very professional.

Technical Support:

I would say 9/10. For what I needed, technical support was able to resolve it in timely fashion. I also appreciate their follow-ups.

We were using a conventional RPG programming tool to do analysis, but every time you add more tables for data analysis, profiling, quality, manipulation, it was turning into pages and pages of code. A user friendly GUI interface like Informatica solution, provided the right kind of solution and was easy to migrate from programming to Informatica.

The initial setup was a conventional data warehouse pattern. Later on, when we started implementing CRM, SCM and ERP it started getting a bit complex. However breaking down projects into multiple data models and organizing

We had a boot-camp training and an Informatica expert onsite for a few months. Later, we picked up a fair amount of technology and started implementing it in-house.

Informatica is 100% value for money. The kind of flexibility and stability it offers in dealing with heterogeneous data is amazing.

It is not an economical software, but if you are planing for a long term robust end-to-end enterprise level tool that can handle any kind of data, and any type of task relating to BI or data warehousing, it does not require a lot of thinking. You can bank on Informatica for your solutions.

• Data Stage

• Ab Initio

• MicroStrategy

Informatica is a great product. If you can spend a good amount of time researching what you want,have a proper SDLC in place, and work with the technicality of Informatica, I am sure most of the projects can roll out into production in a timely fashion and produce results. In my experience, not having proper road-map in place, and not auditing change requests, business analysts will struggle with their requirements. This causes more bottlenecks and rework than an actual development. Having said that, no project is a walk in the park, but Informatica can be the icing on the cake if the foundation is good.

With this product, we managed to implement all of our ETL, including those with many sources, and complex transformations.

With this product we can centralize all our ETL needs in one technology. One unique team with the right expertise is responsible for developing, implementing, and tuning it. We eliminated the variety of different solutions and different technologies. This means that the knowledge and skills are not spread-out.

One area for improvement is with huge ETLs, where the product has to extract large amounts of information. That's because some sources wait for others inside the map to finish, and only afterwards do they continue extracting data from other sources in the database.

I've used it for six years.

No issues encountered.

No, but after some errors, the cache directory, where we keep the temp files, fills up, and you have to drop them in manually or have a process to delete unused files periodically.

A fast SSD disk is needed for better performance to locate the temp files.

Customer Service:

3/10.

Technical Support:

3/10.

We previously used Oracle Warehouse Builder. We switched because Warehouse Builder generated PL/SQL code and the transformation resided inside the database. With PWC, the transformation is on a different server.

The initial setup was complex. There were many performance problems and some migrations took a long time to be implemented. After many meetings with different experts both problems were solved.

We used a vendor team, who were 4/10.

We also looked at ODI (Oracle data integration).

Be persistent in trying to implement all kinds of transformations with Power Center, you will be happy with the final result.

• The possibility to create a data profiling mapping automatically from any imported source.
• The client installation includes a macro that can be imported into Excel. This will contains standard documents for technical design and documentation in general. The technical design developed in Excel can be directly imported into Powercenter using Powercenter Repository Manager and the corresponding mapping is automatically created. This can save a lot of development time for simple or not very complex mappings. This feature is called Mapping Analyst for Excel.
• The default error handling, automatically created, is quite good for those architectures that don't have a proper one or a budget for a custom one.

As all ETL tools in general, it does not include a good data reporting feature. Another one is the component called "Union" which includes some bugs:

• Adding new groups, the field-names are lost
• Adding new fields, the field type should be reset for all fields in the "Union" or the mapping validation will fail.

There is no possibility of handle non matching records in a "joiner" as in DataStage.

4-5 years, different versions.

No

No

No

I used other tools like IBM DataStage. The final decision is made by my clients but what I see is that clients using DB2 prefer to use DataStage over Informatica as both (DB2 and DataStage) are IBM products.

Very straightforward.

In-house