Informatica PowerCenter Reviews

I like the completeness of the way I can build ETL workflows. It's not one feature that stands out. Rather, it's the way everything is working together.

On the matter of data lineage and data catalog and metadata, in particular, several new developments are embedded as options you could use or could buy. The modular structure is very helpful.

What is not that clear, is the usability in the cloud, for example. That's a little bit fuzzy.

The reputation of Informatica is that it is expensive. There are some things which could improve for the customer so that they have the perception that they get more for their money.

I would say that the transparency towards the cloud is a big area for improvement. For example, Microsoft and Oracle, make it easy since they create a cloud and then integrate all the stuff that way that you always have the possibility to work to optimize with. Informatica is a little bit different.  

On-premise should not be eradicated.

I've used the solution for 20 years. 

The solution is expensive.

I'm a developer and architect. I'm not reselling the product.

I'd rate the product eight out of ten.

Informatica PowerCenter is outdated and would benefit from modernization. They should have a very good migration strategy from Informatica PowerCenter to AACF. Informatica PowerCenter there is no point in using it, you have to use a cloud version.

I have been using Informatica PowerCenter for approximately 17 years.

The technical support for Informatica PowerCenter is good.

I rate the support from Informatica PowerCenter a four out of five.

I would not recommend anyone use this solution.

I rate Informatica PowerCenter a one out of ten.

This product is primarily used with an Oracle product called OBI EE, Oracle Business Intelligence. It is used for integration and data visualization.

This is the best tool that we have.

The most valuable features are the metadata repository and the data warehouse application console.

The only problem with this product is the level of complexity with the number of levels of transformation that you have to go through. I would say that's the biggest issue.

We have been working with Informatica PowerCenter for about seven years.

I think that PowerCenter is pretty stable.

We have three different instances of this running. There is one for development, one for pre-production, and one for production. As far as having to scale linearly, we haven't had the need by putting additional nodes for high availability or load balancing. It's not something that we've necessarily needed. We have not scaled up, either. So, no vertical and no horizontal scaling. It was pretty much used out of the box.

We have two people who are using this solution and they are developers.

Oracle came in and they implemented a lot of the functionality that we needed. Beyond what we received from Oracle, there were very few times where we needed support.

Most of the time, the only thing we needed technical support was with Oracle patches and we ran into a problem, something broke.

Initially, we were doing a custom PL/SQL ETL type of procedure.

We just decided to go to an automated tool, something that was more visual.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. I don't think that there were any problems with it.

We had a lot of assistance from Oracle and the implementation took less than a week.

It's much more expensive, almost three times more expensive than most other solutions.

Oracle put Informatica into their product line. They use Informatica fo do the integrations.

The one benefit is that you reduce your administrative overhead by implementing this tool, and you get more functionality out of it versus most other tools. 

With a lot of other tools, you have to do a lot of hacking in order to get things to work properly for you, whereas with Informatica, you have a lot of flexibility.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

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.

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. 

Informatica PowerCenter is a very good ETL tool. 

The solution's commercial cost is very high. Other open-source tools can do the tool's functions for free. The world is moving to the cloud, but the solution hasn't updated its drivers. I presume that its downfall will start soon. The tool is trying to cross-sell or upsell without helping customers derive benefits from the existing products. They have multiple tools and licenses. It is better to bring the smaller tools in one umbrella. 

Informatica PowerCenter's technical support varies. 

Neutral

I rate the solution's pricing a four out of ten. The price is very high, and it doesn't understand the market now. 

I rate Informatica PowerCenter a six out of 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. 

It is easy to use, and it is quick for developing things. It is fairly powerful, and it can integrate with a lot of different platforms without much hassle.

Its interface can be modernized. It is an old product. I have been working with it for 14 years, and it still looks the same. It hasn't been modernized much. 

It also needs to handle more modern formats, such as JSON files. It works with the old text files and databases, but it does not always work with the newer, modern stuff. You need to make your own programs to support that kind of stuff.

Support is also a kind of difficult with Informatica. They don't do direct support and rely on using their distributors around the globe for support, which means that you kind of have to go through this layer of different companies before you get help.

I have been using this solution for about 14 years.

It is stable.

It has a cluster repository kind of thing where you can add multiple server nodes.

That's actually one of the parts that are kind of difficult with Informatica. They don't do direct support. They rely on using their distributors around the globe for support. In Norway, there is a specific company that has the license to sell Informatica, and they also provide the support, which means that whenever there is a problem, you kind of have to go through this layer of different companies before you get help.

It requires consultants. I won't be able to do it by myself. I would need some help to do it.

Whenever we need to do an upgrade, we need to call a consultant to do it. It takes about a week for the preparation and all other stuff.

I would recommend this solution to others depending on whether they are on-prem based or cloud-based. If most of their data is on-prem, I would recommend this solution. If they are not on-prem, I would recommend looking for another tool that is more suitable.

I would rate Informatica PowerCenter an eight out of ten.