Informatica PowerCenter Reviews

PowerCenter is the market leader, so more organizations use it than other tools. It's a feature-rich solution, so that's why it's at the top of the market.

PowerCenter has three clients. I wish they would consolidate everything into one GUI, not three. Also, we had a persistent issue with the Informatica Developer tool but it was solved when we migrated to the newest one. 

We've been using PowerCenter for about three years.

I think PowerCenter is stable. Organizations that try Informatica stick with it for a long time. No one uses Informatica and quickly switches to something else. It has been the leader in the market for many years.

Any feature that PowerCenter doesn't provide can be found in IDQ. IDQ covers any missing options, so I think it's PowerCenter's scalability is fine.

There were a few times when Informatica support took a while to solve the issues, but they always fixed the problem in the end. There was only one ticket that took a long time to solve. I rate their support eight out of 10. 

I rate PowerCenter eight out of 10 for ease of deployment. 

I rate Informatica PowerCenter eight out of 10. It provides everything I need. Nothing is missing. PowerCenter is a good tool for on-premise databases. If you're going to implement PowerCenter, you need to think about your requirements to determine what tools to use.

For example, I need the repository to auto-refresh. When I make changes to a project, workflow, mapping, or session, I want everything to refresh automatically. Otherwise, you must disconnect from the repository and reconnect for the changes you made to be reflected in your project.

Informatica PowerCenter is being used for data warehouse development, using ETL and ELT, e.g. Informatica PowerCenter for ETL and Informatica Cloud Data Integration for integration between systems, e.g. with their downstream systems.

What I like most about Informatica PowerCenter is that it enables integration and connection with multiple new systems, both structured and semi-structured. I also find its adapters for multiple source systems valuable. Its features meet industry standards. It is a proven high-performing enterprise-scale ETL solution.

Though I wasn't able to explore all features of Informatica PowerCenter, it would be good if Informatica can also have connectivity with NoSQL compliant, unstructured data sources, e.g. Microsoft Azure Data Factory or Talend.

The cloud-based solution mostly focuses on continuous data stream processing, but not on batch processing. If Informatica enhances this cloud-based solution to also do the batch processing of data, and also integrate semi-structured and unstructured data processing, that will be more beneficial.

I've been working with Informatica PowerCenter for 15 years.

I find this solution very stable.

Informatica PowerCenter is easy to scale.

The support team is responsive. They're able to address our issues.

The initial setup for Informatica PowerCenter was straightforward.

Implementation for this solution was in-house. It was done by our own team.

I evaluated Oracle Data Integrator, Talend, and Microsoft Azure Data Factory.

We are using these solutions: Oracle Data Integrator with different versions, Informatica PowerCenter, Informatica Cloud Data Integration, and Talend. Matillion, we explored, but we don't use it for our company. We are a consulting partner. We are an implementation partner, so our consultants use these to implement solutions to many of our customers. We are an indirect partner through Oracle, and not a direct partner of Informatica.

Informatica PowerCenter is deployed both ways: on-premises and on cloud, but on cloud very recently. In the past two years, we have been using the cloud version. Deployment for this solution could take one to two days, if the person doing it is knowledgeable.

We have a team of 70 members who are data engineers and data analysts, but for the actual installation, setup, and configuration, we have another team made up of system/application administrators. We have a shared service model with 50+ associates who take care of this service. They will take a day or two to complete the deployment. Given all the infrastructure details available from the customer, it wouldn't take more than a day or two, worst case two days on average to set up and start the system, for it to be ready for working on and developing the ETL.

To maintain this solution, in a shared service model, e.g. not dedicated, it requires two to three people, but if it is dedicated, then one person can handle the maintenance.

There are two ways we are using this ETL solution. Number one: as part of Oracle's prepackaged solution, and number two: as an independent solution.

I don't deal with the licensing, but as part of Oracle's pre-packaged analytics solutions, we did use them. There's a one-time fee plus yearly support. That is their model, but I don't know the costs associated.

My advice to new customers of this solution is that if they are looking for an enterprise scale data warehouse and data management solution, Informatica PowerCenter is one of the go-to proven tools. Its limitations are on these two areas: one is that it needs to enable the cloud-based version to do batch processing, e.g. heavy data loads, and two is that it needs to enable connectivity to the NoSQL compliant and unstructured data sources.

Keeping the two product limitations out, e.g. the cloud version has limitations for batch processing and is unable to process unstructured and semi-structured data, my rating for Informatica PowerCenter is an eight out of ten.

Informatica PowerCenter is a data integration tool. We use it as an extract, load, transform tool and we can transfer data from production to test or to any other environment.

We have several use cases. For example,  we use it to create data warehouse applications, which are used for analytics and to help generate business value.

Another use case is to modify a test environment such that it is compliant with GDPR regulations. We can use it to transfer production data to a test environment for the purpose of facilitating our testing. Another use case is that if we are working on a data warehouse application, it can be used to extract data from different sources to load into the target environment.

The most valuable features are that it is quick and easy to use. Anybody can master it in a short time.

The interface is very clean and clear.

This tool integrates with distributed systems.

I would like to see improvements made to the custom transformations. It should be more open for users that want to write their own code and use cases. As it is now, writing custom transformations is not user-friendly.

I have been working with Informatica PowerCenter for approximately two years.

This is a stable product.

Informatica PowerCenter is scalable.

We have one person in the company in charge of administration. 

I am part of a seven-person team that uses it, although there are a lot of other applications in the company that make use of PowerCenter. The number of users overall is huge.

We plan to increase our usage in the future.

Our admin team is from Informatica, and if we have any problems then we contact them. For example, the tool that I work on directly interacts with PowerCenter, where PowerCenter works as a backend for my application. If I have connectivity issues or need special access to PowerCenter, I contact the admin team and they help me to sort out the issues.

Prior to PowerCenter, I used an open-source tool called Talend. It was not very good.

The installation is not complex. It is easy to do because you just need one database, such as Oracle, set up as the backend, and some executable files.

I was not involved in the deployment. Another team in our company was responsible for it.

The licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis.

In summary, this is a good tool and I definitely recommend it. It integrates with distributed systems and if the use cases involve data ETL then this is the best tool to use.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

In the company I work for, we provide a lot of solutions. I've been working with a lot of clients. The last client I worked with was a big hotel company, and we used this solution for integration.

It's a very powerful tool you can use to load data, get data, do the drawing between the tables, and put it into the packet in a very fast way.

So for this client, we are using the MDM (Master Data Management), and the PowerCenter will be very helpful in building data and merging all the data between the different systems they have. They have a lot of systems that contain the same information and we want to put that into a single place. This is the most valuable feature of this solution which has been of great help to us.

To be honest, we didn't find big issues with this tool. All the issues we found, we were able to fix. We don't have any issues with the tool so far.

I would like to see this solution change the way it creates workflows. In Alteryx, for example, it's easier to build the workflow because of the way it was built, while PowerCenter was built in a more complex way to be able to process a large number of roles. The way PowerCenter creates the workflows is much more complex than the others, but nothing big. It's just that it's the old way. It would be good to recreate the entire interface to make it easier for users to build workflows. This is what I'd like to see in the next release.

I've been using it for 10 years.

The solution is stable. No complaints.

I believe this solution is scalable.

That's a tricky question because it's always complex. For the business logic, it's complex. They had a lot of systems and we had to do the integration between the source. I've been working with this solution for a lot of years, so to me it's straightforward. So that's a tricky question. I would say that for professionals, it's straightforward.

I evaluated Alteryx.

It's Informatica PowerCenter I work with a lot of times, but I also have knowledge on Informatica Data Quality. Now on my last project, I'll be working with MDM, but I'm not an expert on MDM, as I've mostly been working with PowerCenter.

I've been working with this solution since 2010 on a lot of projects which I don't have on top of my head right now. I live in Brazil and I've been working for the government for healthcare where I used this solution. I also worked with PowerCenter for an insurance company. I used this solution during integration where we also created a web API. This is a feature in Informatica that can deploy and make APIs available for third parties or vendors so they can do acquisitions, restore API, and get data. These are what we created in PowerCenter as well.

All the projects were deployed on-premise. I never work on the cloud, but I would love to. Deployment took six months for this project.

We have 30 to 50 people using this solution. If the project goes well, if there are more resources to implement this solution, and more features to improve the analytics of the company, then we will plan to increase usage of this solution.

I'm a PowerCenter guy, so I'm rating this solution a ten.

Our primary use cases of PowerCenter are database regulatory reporting cases. Both sides are suitable for us to net trace metadata and it's easy to develop or hedge, after production as well. It's also easy to understand the steps or ETL. 

I'm working with the latest update, and it's deployed on-prem. 

One of the most valuable features for us is the metadata repository because it can easily understand the lineage of first target mapping. My company and I also find Informatica really easy to use—when a consultant joins our company, in just a few days to a few weeks, they can understand how to use it—so we prefer to use this ETL tool. 

PowerCenter could be improved by having more big data components. Normally, we prefer Informatica as a relational database, but nowadays, companies are trying to understand and use big data components. I think it would be useful if we had more chances to create a hub ecosystem because customers try to use some data integration tasks by SQL, Spark and Spark codes, and Scala, but at the end of the day, the company will understand that we need to trace all the steps. An ETL tool is a must for that company, if we're talking about the regulated industries like finance, telcos, etc. If Informatica's biggest ecosystems feature were okay, I would prefer to use it. 

I have been working with PowerCenter for more than seven years. 

The stability and performance of PowerCenter are good. 

The scalability is fair enough. 

PowerCenter is suitable for large companies. The pricing could be an issue for some companies who want to implement and develop with PowerCenter.

I haven't been in touch with technical support in the last few years, but before that, I contacted them many times. I remember that when we were using PDW, the previous version of Microsoft APS, we contacted Informatica support teams a few times to handle connection problems with the driver of PDW, and they solved it. I was satisfied with the support. 

The initial setup of PowerCenter is a simple process. The first development took just a week—a few days is enough. 

We provide implementation services to customers. We are a consultant company, so we use it for our customers on the customer's side, but we don't have a business relationship with Informatica. 

Compared to other tools, I think PowerCenter is a bit expensive. When I compare it to Oracle, if you want to use Oracle databases, you can easily get an ODI tool, so it's easier to handle. Informatica is a standalone tool—it's an independent company—and there are no databases around them, so it's quite expensive to use. 

Generally, large companies use PowerCenter because of the price. If companies want to expand their usage areas, they try to consider if it's easy to implement and easy to understand the pricing. I think the pricing is a barrier for Informatica. 

I rate PowerCenter a nine out of ten. To those looking into implementing PowerCenter, I would advise evaluating whether they have a large company. If their first criteria is not pricing, I totally recommend Informatica as their first ETL tool, but if there are pricing, performance and support, etc. requirements, maybe they can evaluate ODI and Informatica together. If you have an Oracle ecosystem, I think you can get Oracle or ODI cheaper than Informatica, but if you don't, I think Informatica could be a leading option. It depends on what the customer has. 

Our primary use case is to collect data from different sources and to build it for the house or data hub, or to fill already built-in appliances like Cloudera and Teradata. 

It has helped us meet our monetization needs. 

Real time is amazing. If you have AI use cases, you can predict if it's a threat or if it's a positive or negative transaction. You can use real time with PowerExchange to write data directly to Kafka, to consume, write, or parse data using an AI algorithm to detect if the data is positive or negative and to define what use cases you want. 

It would be nice to move from Windows tools (like Developer, Designer, or Manager) and have everything in one place like DATAQ developer, which is eclipse-based and user-friendly. 

CDC needs more improvement. It's stable and has good features, but it's only easy to develop if you are familiar with Linux. 

Sometimes a new monitor will not be accurate in logging or you'll open a log and get a misleading error message. The connection parameter is sometimes inaccurate, or the parameter will not load. Proactive Monitoring doesn't work very well with all of the Informatica processes. The latest version came out five years ago and there has been no enhancement since then. It doesn't make sense for a product to be ranked number one but have no enhancements. The product hangs and you can lose control for several hours. It works, but it hangs. 

I have been using PowerCenter and PowerExchange for around 7 to 8 years. 

It's stable and we rarely have any issues. During the setup, when developers tried to connect, there were some issues, but it ran smoothly once it was configured and fixed. Sometimes, there is conflict between servers (like Analytics, Data Quality, or PowerCenter) and we have problems with loading libraries.

It's easy to scale, but it has a limit. For high availability or for service on the grid, it's okay, but it has a limit. If we had the option to enable scalability based on big data architecture, like Adobe or MongoDB, it would be easier. In Enterprise Data Catalog (EDC), you can extend them by adding nodes to the cluster, but currently, to maintain scalability in both centers, you'll add a node, join the domain after that to distribute work, but fortunately, this works well. We also got a complaint, when adding a node, that the session failed without recovery. 

For technical support, there are levels. The first level of support is called TechAccess and it's between Informatica and other vendors. TechAccess takes time and their response is often delayed. After that, we escalate and go to the Informatica level of support. Once we reach them, they proceed to explain the solution. 

We've tried SSIS and DataStage, but we prefer PowerCenter for stability and monitoring. 

The set-up was simple and I did it myself. If you try it one time, it'll be easy the next time. The one product that does need improvement in installation is Enterprise Data Catalog, EDC. It's very difficult and all my colleagues hate communicating with and installing EDC.

I implemented it myself and with my team. We have expertise, so there was no need to engage Informatica Professional Services. 

The pricing is a little expensive, but in the same range as IBM and other competitors. There is not a big difference in pricing between its main competition. The pricing is mostly the same between other vendors. 

PowerCenter is good for large enterprises and good for ETL purposes, but not for ELT. If you need to go with ELT, Informatica has another package called Data Streaming that's more stable and recommended for a larger environment. 

I would rate Informatica an eight out of ten. 

PowerCenter has yet to announce additional features. The face that it has not made improvements is fine, as it is very easy to integrate. We are in touch with the vendors of products other than Informatica PowerCenter. 

The reason I chose to rate the solution as a nine out of ten is because there is a need to buy a separate license if one wishes to connect with some kind of SAP system, such as SalesForce. 

I've been using Informatica PowerCenter for more than 16 years.

The technical support is excellent.

The initial setup is easy.

The price is mostly reasonable. 

I am satisfied with the solution. 

I rate Informatica PowerCenter as a nine out of ten. 

We use the solution for businesses that wish to analyze their raw data. The solution allows us to do data cleansing and to transform the raw data into useful, insightful information.

Informatica PowerCenter is a very strong tool which offers a host of features. We can use heterogeneous data to easily merge and derive the useful information. Also, flag files processing is very useful.

An issue which should be addressed is that the solution only allows us to do structured, as opposed to unstructured, data processing. Also, the EPA related data processing should be improved. 

Processing capabilities should be streamlined.

I prefer a third party scheduler tool to that of Informatica scheduler, since the latter is not one which is very physical. The solution is not so helpful if one wishes to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. 

We have been using Informatica PowerCenter for nearly eight years.

Scalability could be improved, as it is of an intermediate level. 

We have plans to increase usage. 

Technical support is really great.

Deployment was simple and straightforward. 

Licensing costs are excessive and pose an obstacle to someone who lacks familiarity with the solution and wishes to have a proper understanding of it. 

We have a team of around 40 to 50 people who use the solution.

I would, for sure, recommend the solution to others, since I feel it to be a really strong tool. It is very robust and has complex capabilities. It allows one to accomplish tasks with ease. We are talking about a strong ETL for those who are undertaking ETL related tasks.