Informatica PowerCenter Reviews

Our company uses Informatica PowerCenter as an ETL tool for data warehouse purposes.

Informatica PowerCenter has good user feedback. The developers can easily make mappings in the solution.

Informatica PowerCenter can improve its unstructured data handling part. Unstructured data handling is an important area with a shortcoming that needs improvement in the solution.

I have been using Informatica PowerCenter for fourteen years. Also, I am using the solution's latest version. My company has a partnership with Informatica.

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution around an eight out of ten.

In my team, around 15 people, that includes engineers and developers, use the solution.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution around a seven out of ten.

Informatica PowerCenter's technical support is responsive. I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

I have previously used Datastage, an IBM product, the support for which was not proper. Informatica had the provision for moving to the cloud.

The solution is deployed on the public cloud by Azure.

The solution does not require any installation to be done at my end.

Since the solution's cost is higher, I rate the pricing as a five out of ten.

There are no extra expenses in addition to licensing costs.

Currently, we moved to IICS.

Two engineers are needed for the maintenance of the solution.

I would recommend the solution to those planning to use it.

Nowadays, better products are coming into the market. If you ask something from five years ago, I would say it was fine back then. Better products are available at a cheaper cost, so the competition is high for Informatica.

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

We are using the on-premises version and are working towards moving into the cloud. I design ETL workflows.

I'm pretty focused on narrow processes, including realizing business requirements connected to particular workflows. 

The solution has been issue-free overall. 

The traceability has been extremely useful. You can see all of the workflows, and you can trace the data transformation very easily. Each column in the target can be easily traceable, and you easily can see all that data transformation on the path from the source to the target.

The setup is straightforward. 

It's stable.

The solution can scale a bit. 

Technical support is helpful. 

This product is not on the cloud yet. We need to move to the cloud. While on-premises is a better product, we really need to move to the cloud and need the cloud to be as robust as this product.

We'd like to see improved lookups in the future. This is a transformation feature that helps us find rows in the database. It would help if this were easier. 

I've used the solution for about one year. 

The stability is great. I'd rate it nine out of ten in terms of reliability. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. 

The scalability is okay. I'd rate the ability to extend seven out of ten. We have had problems with large volumes of data.

This is a very popular tool and is used quite extensively. I'm not sure if we plan to expand usage in the future. It would depend on the future development of Azure Data Factory. 

Technical support is helpful and responsive.

I previously used SSIS. I used that at another organization and switched jobs. This company uses Informatica.

We have found the initial setup to be very straightforward. I'd rate it eight out of ten in terms of ease of deployment. 

The future migration to the cloud will be a long process, and we're expecting the migration from on-premises to the cloud to take about half a year. 

I don't deal with pricing or licensing. It's not in my scope of work. 

I'm an end-user. 

The product is a very popular ETL tool. 

There are good courses available to help people learn the product, and it is a valuable tool to get to know. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten overall. It is easy to use and stable and offers good support. However, I'm not sure if it is ideal for smaller companies. Some of the hardware requirements may be difficult to fulfill. 

I am using Informatica PowerCenter as a data integration tool, and for standardization and validations.

The most valuable feature of Informatica PowerCenter is data transformation and user-friendliness.

Informatica PowerCenter could improve the data threshold for large sets of data. Additionally, they should add real-time integration.

I have been using Informatica PowerCenter for approximately 11 years.

The stability of Informatica PowerCenter is good.

Informatica PowerCenter application can scale very well.

We have more than 100 users using this solution which includes a mixed variety of work titles or disciplines in the company.

I have used the support from Informatica PowerCenter.

I rate the support from Informatica PowerCenter an eight out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup of Informatica PowerCenter is easy. The full deployments can take approximately seven hours.

Informatica PowerCenter is worth the money to use for its benefits.

We are using an annual license for Informatica PowerCenter.

We did evaluate other options before choosing Informatica PowerCenter. We selected Informatica PowerCenter because it fits the feature requirements of our customers. Additionally, the customization and integrations are easy compared to any other tool.

My advice to others is for them to get used to using the tool and make sure near real-time integrations are less. If they want to keep the configurations and use batch mode data they can do so.

I rate Informatica PowerCenter an eight out of ten.

Informatica PowerCenter is a data extraction and data loading tool. We extract data from some sources and we load data to different source systems.

Improved the data integrity, data flow and data managment with consummption too made easy and ustainanble and scalable.

The most valuable feature of Informatica PowerCenter is the flow designer functionally. It is the best out of any ETL tool. Additionally, the solution is reliable and trustable in dealing with large data sources anytime. When we're using billions of data transactions, it's smooth. 

Informatica PowerCenter could improve on the documentation for the implementation. The documents provided are not very good for a new user.

In a future release of Informatica PowerCenter, they should add more flexibility on re-usability options. Reusing any setup developed on Informatica PowerCenter, more options to make it reusable, exporting the setup, or importing the setup to any project folder or anywhere in Informatica PowerCenter so that we can use it as a plug-and-play option.

I have used Informatica PowerCenter within the last 12 months.

Informatica PowerCenter is stable. We did not have any downtime.

Informatica PowerCenter could improve its re-usage strategies. There is a scope of improvement in the re-usability of their applications. They could make it more user-friendly for re-usage so that we can create plug-and-play options for different setups.

We have more than 100 people using this solution in my organization.

I have not used the support from Informatica PowerCenter.

Oracle data integrator to Informatica because of reliability and cloud benefits.

The initial setup of Informatica PowerCenter is of a moderate level of difficulty. The full implementation took approximately one day.

When evaluating other solutions we found Informatica PowerCenter to be the most stable.

We had a major banking client, and Informatica PowerCenter is the go-to option when we are dealing with any kind of banking client. It provides the stability and very trustability factor for any kind of banking client's requirements.

This solution has provided me with all functions that I need. I recommend others to use Informatica PowerCenter if they have a decent knowledge of how data migration and data integration works. If they have good knowledge about it and if they have used any other ETL tools previously, they will find it easier to use Informatica PowerCenter. 

If it is for a beginner, I would suggest they learn something about the basics of how data migration works, and then they can start using it.

I rate Informatica PowerCenter a nine out of ten.

We use the solution to extract and transform data from various sources into databases. Further, it helps us optimize data using Tableau dashboard to make business decisions.

The solution has proved to be an excellent ETL tool for our organization. It is also easier for our higher management to get an overview of the backend activity.

The solution's most valuable feature is its support service. The support team efficiently resolves any technical issues.

They should release new versions for the solution's on-premises setup. It is challenging for us to switch to on-cloud immediately.

We have been using the solution for more than eight years.

It is a very stable solution. We haven't come across any significant stability-related issues with it.

It is a scalable solution. But its licenses are costlier compared to cloud infrastructure.

The solution's support service is excellent.

The solution is straightforward to install and configure. The duration of the deployment depends on the project. In some cases, it takes time to procure machines. Once we get the devices, developing the required environment takes another three to four days. In scenarios where we have to build the solution in labs, installation takes around six to seven hours. Also, it requires maintenance at a repository level.

The teams required for deployment depend upon the use cases and specific requirements. We need multiple vendor teams to complete the process if we have various sources and databases to work with.

The solution's licensing is expensive in terms of scaling.

I advise others to consider the licensing part of the solution before making the purchase decision. If they have no cost-related issues, then it is the best tool. I rate it as a nine.

Informatica PowerCenter is purely an ETL tool used for data integration.

Informatica PowerCenter has many features compared to Talend, DataStage, and Airflow. Among all the solutions I have used, I found Informatica PowerCenter to be much more stable in terms of application. Also, one won't face issues related to bugs when using Informatica PowerCenter.

Compared to solutions offering similar functionalities, Informatica PowerCenter is not very flexible regarding customized integrations. It's not a very customizable solution.

I have been using Informatica PowerCenter for approximately nine years. So, I work for different consulting companies, and their customers use it. My job role is of a consultant and architect.

Since one does not have to face sudden issues while using the solution, I would say that it is a stable solution compared to similar solutions in the market.

It is not a very scalable solution. It is usually used in enterprise-sized organizations.

The solution is easy to deploy and manage. I also usually help my customers to implement and configure the product. The time taken for the implementation process depends upon how big of an implementation process has to be carried out. So, for a single customer, it took around three days to deploy the solution. However, three months were required for the customization part. The solution gets deployed on-premises and on the private cloud.

I rate the overall product a seven out of ten.

The solution is basically used for anything and everything that we process, for example, from the SQL Server, from other application sources like Oracle, from Flatfiles, or loading into these kinds of sources. We use it for pretty much everything.

It's the best ETL tool that one can have.

The initial setup is easy.

It's stable.

We can scale the product.

Support has been helpful in the past.

If we could have the option of performance improvement within Informatica, and if it could have more features, that would be ideal. For example, we have a DTM buffer, and sometimes we face issues where we are creating the cache in Informatica, and it keeps on adding onto that particular directory. Even though we deploy code to remove that cache, somehow Informatica DTM does not remove the cache, and it keeps on piling up, filling up the whole server unless we manually remove that.

There are some functionalities in Informatica, however, after some time, they stopped working. That has been an issue that has added up to operational costs. If we could have the consistent working of all the functionalities that Informatica offers, not just during the start of the project or for around six months, that would be ideal. We find that it stops working due to some issue, due to some process not getting started or getting in a hung state.  

From 10.1, to 10.1.1, to 10.5.1, there is a feature in the expression transformation where users have the option to evaluate the expression. It works only when you do not have variables in that, yet only some values (hard-coded values). For example, if you have column one and column two and put in column three, then when you evaluate the expression, and you only get column one plus column two, and it even does not work. It says you can't pass the variables, pass the values, and then that feature that was introduced is of no use. 

I've used the solution for almost 14 years. 

The solution is stable and reliable. I'd rate it 9.5 out of ten in terms of stability. There are no bugs or glitches.

The solution is scalable. However, it depends on the server. 

You can scale unless the server on which it is hosted does not have enough resources to handle the additional load.

In our organization, most developers are on the product. There are around 50 people at least using it. 

I have not used technical support yet in this organization. That said, in my prior organizations, I have. When we had a new tool, for example, we had OneConnect for an SAP Field Glass Connector and we were not sure how to connect to it. Therefore, we had some connectivity-related questions that we were not able to explore on our own since there wasn't much online expertise available. We had to reach out. All questions were addressed and answered by Informatica.

The level of assistance we received was as expected. We were happy with their response time and their answers provided solutions to our questions.

The initial setup takes time sometimes. It can take around two days if you have a prior code. That said, if you are starting it from scratch, then more than four hours, so it is easy - if someone has experience in it, of course, and the proper manual to follow.

I don't recall the exact cost o the solution. That said, it is one of the costliest products that one can have. They are costly ETL products. When it comes to Oracle, we have cheaper options since Oracle provides its ODI fee of cost if someone buys any of their modules for business intelligence. That is something that Informatica does not have.

Still, if you have large data volumes and you do not want to be at risk for your daily loads, then it is worth the money.

I'm an end-user.

I'd advise new users to go through proper training and get at least one to two years of proper work experience in it before they actually go to customers to suggest its implementation - especially if they will be the primary point of contact.

I would rate the solution nine out of ten.

The product is primarily used for building the data warehouse as an ETL tool for our hospital.

In general, it is a great tool. 

The initial setup is not very complex. 

There are many features available. It has very rich transformation tools. You can have union integration. There are many kinds of set operators, aggregators, and plate operators. 

Graphically you can define a lot, and you can also inject variables too. If you define one transformation, you can replicate it with several sources. 

It has very good monitoring and process monitoring. 

There is an excellent scheduler. 

The integration capabilities are pretty good. 

We've found the solution to be very stable. 

It's a product that scales well.

It doesn't have the change data capture feature. That's why we have been exploring some alternatives.

The licensing is difficult. It prevents us from accessing all of the features.

Since I haven't used the latest version, it's hard to comment on what needs to be added. 

I've been using the solution for more than ten years. 

It's a stable product. I'd rate the stability at five out of five. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

You can easily scale the solution if you need to.

I'd rate the ability to scale 4.5 out of five. 

We have around 100 or more sources using the solution. 

We don't really use technical support. However, we did initially find it quite good. 

We did not previously use another solution. 

The solution is pretty straightforward to set up. It is not complex.

We got some training on the transformations and the ETL process itself; however, the implementation of the things was done by then. The strategy was to have teamwork on the building and accumulating data from the hospitals and then build a data warehouse around it. 

The full deployment took two months for us. We had two engineers working on the implementation. 

Our team handles the maintenance. One or two people are handling it. Other than running some interim tasks, everything is scheduled, and then some operational monitoring is required. Otherwise, there are no other maintenance jobs to worry about.

The deployment was handled in-house. We did not need any installation help from integrators or consultants. 

Licensing is frustrating as you have to pay for some additional features. It would be ideal if it were all under one cost.

We usually have a license that lasts a year or two.

We do not pay for technical support. You have to pay for it separately every year.

At the time, around ten years ago, we compared the product with the Oracle Data Warehouse builder, however, PowerCenter was a much better tool.

Many of its current competitors came into the picture after we installed this tool.

We're end-users.

We are not using the latest version of the solution. We are using one of the previous versions. It's around version 10. I don't know the EMEA number.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. 

I'm using it in my company, in the sense that some of our clients use it as their tool for their day-to-day development.

It has good standard features for ETL development. I mostly like the transformation simplicity, which is very good. It has common features that are very similar to all similar tools.

It is stable and reliable. 

Technical support is good.

This product is going to decommission in the next couple of years. Therefore, I don't have anything specific to say something has to be improved.

The pricing is pretty high.

I've worked with the solution for more than eight years. 

The solution is stable. It's reliable, and the performance is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

Scalability is limited since it's on-premise. PowerCenter is mostly implemented on-premises only, so it's all based on how we configure it, the number of nodes, et cetera. Few people can even deploy it in the cloud VMs, where they can scale up and scale down in the background. For Informatica, the license is based on the number of cores. You have to scale within the number of cores only.

We have more than ten people working on the solution currently.

The technical support is very good. 

I have used other solutions in the past. For example, I've used SSIS, Talend, and SnapLogic.

It's a use-case question, which solution would make the most sense. We cannot say straight away which will fit in, or which is the best product. However, both PowerCenter and SnapLogic are very good compared to SSIS and Talend.

The initial setup has a moderate level of difficulty.

If it is a simple first-time implementation, no one will face issues. However, when people keep upgrading from one version to another, there can be some compatibility issues. It all depends on how you write the code. For example, a few of the code migrations when we were upgrading did or did not work, and that's where we faced some challenges.

The product can be costly. Price can change according to negotiations, so it may be a bit flexible. However, a basic setup can be from $100,000 and up annually.

I'm not a partner or reseller.

I've worked with various versions, from 8.6 to 10.1.

PowerCenter is going to be decommissioned by 2025. Already, people have started migrating from PowerCenter to Informatica Cloud. 

It may be better not to implement that right away. It is better to go straight away with Informatica Cloud or any other tool like SnapLogic. Even Informatica Cloud has some issues in terms of migrating PowerCenter to Informatica Cloud. At this point, however, every solution gives similar output. Regarding cost, you can go with some other tools like SnapLogic that may be less expensive.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Informatica PowerCenter is used for data integration.

To me, what's most valuable in Informatica PowerCenter is the flexibility in building the integration pipeline. Usually, you need to have a platform to be able to integrate with different technologies, including legacy data such as the mainframe. The platform should also be rich enough to transform the data per your business requirement, with no restrictions.

Rich integration and rich transformation capabilities are the two key capabilities in Informatica PowerCenter. The solution also offers ease of use.

Another valuable feature of Informatica PowerCenter is the drag-and-drop integration because it's GUI-based, similar to IBM and Oracle.

Areas for improvement in Informatica PowerCenter include scalability and high availability or the clustering configuration because that's still very basic. The elasticity or scaling of the platform needs a lot of improvement. For example, when it comes to DR handling or building an active-active or active-passive cluster, Informatica PowerCenter is still not that powerful.

Automation also needs improvement in the solution. Improving automation leads to some improvement in the stability of Informatica PowerCenter and other aspects related to it.

What I'd like to see in the next release of Informatica PowerCenter is real-time capability because the solution is mainly for patches, and to have real-time integration, you need to count on some additional components from Informatica. I would expect more integration and a complete platform in terms of real-time capability or patching with minimal interventions or minimal components to be aligned together.

I've been using Informatica PowerCenter for six or seven years.

I'm still using it as my company has many solutions that leverage Informatica PowerCenter, though the solution isn't that active nowadays because Informatica has a different strategy to promote the cloud-based data integration offering.

Informatica PowerCenter is still in the market, and what my company is using is the on-premise version.

Informatica PowerCenter is a stable solution, and I would rate its stability seven out of ten. There's a small improvement needed in terms of stability because it's linked to the clustering and high availability. Somehow you'll need a lot of automation to get Informatica PowerCenter to handle the workload, and in certain situations, there could be failures.

I found the technical support for Informatica PowerCenter brilliant. I'm even giving it a rating of four out of five just because I can't give it a five. Informatica support is even awarded for customer satisfaction if I remember correctly.

The initial setup for Informatica PowerCenter was simple. It was a straightforward setup, and it wasn't complicated at all.

Pricing for Informatica PowerCenter isn't cheap, but if I compare it with IBM, it's as expensive as IBM, however, Informatica PowerCenter is more innovative, especially when compared to a giant company such as IBM that has thousands of products.

Informatica PowerCenter is limited only to data management, but it has new features that come out every quarter. Points for ease of use and flexibility go to Informatica PowerCenter, but price-wise, IBM and Informatica are equal because they're both expensive.

I evaluated Talend, which is an open-source data engineering and data integration platform. Comparing the two solutions, Informatica PowerCenter is still more robust and has an extendable platform. You can add other capabilities, such as data quality and so on, but if you'll be focusing only on data integration, Talend, especially coming from an open-source mindset, would be a good competitor.

My preference, because I had experience with IBM and Talend, would be Informatica PowerCenter because of the ease of use, flexibility, and features that come with it.

Informatica PowerCenter is an on-premise data integration solution, but two or three years ago, Informatica introduced a new, intelligent data platform. That new platform is the equivalent of Informatica PowerCenter in terms of capability, but the only difference is that it's a fully on-cloud solution.

Informatica PowerCenter is best for big enterprises. Technically, you can use it for any scale, but practically you will get the most output when you're dealing with high volumes and heavy processing. This is from a technical aspect. Price-wise, it's not a cheap platform, so only enterprises with a bigger data management budget will be able to afford to invest in a data management platform such as Informatica PowerCenter.

My rating for Informatica PowerCenter is eight out of ten. Eight is a fair rating because it's a very stable and very mature product.

My company has a partnership with Informatica and other vendors. I'm a system integrator.