How do you compare Informatica PowerCenter with IBM DataStage?
One of our members asks: What are the differences between Informatica PowerCenter and IBM Data Stage? How do I decide which solution to use? What are the pros and cons of each solution?
Deputy Team Lead at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
MSP
Jun 16, 2019
My experience with both of these tools is that differences are not that meaningful.
Informatica has nicer UI but that's it. For 95% of projects one will not feel a difference nor from a performance point of view nor from development speed (assuming that you have developers experienced equally in both tools).
So I would take into consideration the following factors:
1. Do you have specific requirements that can be addressed by each of these tools (you can check it by conducting PoC)
2. What will be a cost of the tool:
2.1 What technology is known to your developers? (training costs, time required to master technology by your developers, resources availability )
2.2 What is the license cost?
I do not want to diminish both technologies, but from a cost perspective, I know that it is worth to consider them only when you have daily more than 200 GB data with high to medium transformation complexity.
Director, Industry Analyst Relations at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
MSP
Jun 14, 2019
In short, Informatica PowerCenter has tighter integration across its portfolio for a better user experience. In data quality, Informatica supports non-technical audiences such as data stewards more than IBM.
Because the data management landscape has a number of applications (see note 1) that apply to different use cases, I recommend that you talk with Informatica to discuss your requirements. That conversation can provide insights into which tool - or more likely tools or solutions - that will help inform your next phase of product research. Please contact my colleague Bill Campbell (bicampbell@informatica.com, +1 512.813.2894) to schedule a call.
--- Note 1 ---
Data management applications include (but are not limited to) data integration, data quality, master data management, data governance and stewardship, data catalog, and more. In addition to the basic tools, there are:
* Variations that are on-premise, cloud, or hybrid (Informatica offers all three)
* Point products doing single task versus out-of-the-box solutions that incorporate various tools integrated together (Informatica has both products and solutions)
* Vendors that have only a single point product versus vendors that have a complete portfolio of products that can be sold standalone or "better together" in a solution (Informatica has the complete portfolio with products and solutions - built on the Intelligent Data Platform )
Gartner has five Magic Quadrants for the data management market. Besides the famed 2x2 graphic for each tool category, the research notes provide good foundational information about each market. Download complimentary copies of all five MQs for at this link: www.informatica.com/lp/gartner-leadership.html
My experience with these products is telling me that:
- Informatica is much more flexible, it has more points, where different types of codding and tuning are available. If the landscape is heterogeneous and complex - it’s the right choice. On the other hand, it works more slowly.
- IBM DS is very strong in code efficiency and flows parallelism. If the landscape is IBM-oriented or not so complex, but data volumes are huge - it’s the right choice. On the other hand, coding and tuning abilities are more ascetic.
- Informatica needs dedicated admin in the project team, IBM DS - does not.
- Informatica has an evolving cloud version, IBM DS hasn’t yet.
- Informatica is not proper working with Hadoop, IBM DS is.
Informatica PowerCenter and IBM InfoSphere DataStage compete in the data integration tools category. IBM InfoSphere DataStage has the upper hand in features, whereas Informatica PowerCenter is preferred for cost efficiency.Features: Informatica PowerCenter offers advanced data transformation, real-time data integration, and extensive connectivity. It supports a range of metadata management options. IBM InfoSphere DataStage provides strong parallel processing, high-volume data handling, and...
My experience with both of these tools is that differences are not that meaningful.
Informatica has nicer UI but that's it. For 95% of projects one will not feel a difference nor from a performance point of view nor from development speed (assuming that you have developers experienced equally in both tools).
So I would take into consideration the following factors:
1. Do you have specific requirements that can be addressed by each of these tools (you can check it by conducting PoC)
2. What will be a cost of the tool:
2.1 What technology is known to your developers? (training costs, time required to master technology by your developers, resources availability )
2.2 What is the license cost?
I do not want to diminish both technologies, but from a cost perspective, I know that it is worth to consider them only when you have daily more than 200 GB data with high to medium transformation complexity.
Otherwise, there are cheaper tools on the market.
In short, Informatica PowerCenter has tighter integration across its portfolio for a better user experience. In data quality, Informatica supports non-technical audiences such as data stewards more than IBM.
Because the data management landscape has a number of applications (see note 1) that apply to different use cases, I recommend that you talk with Informatica to discuss your requirements. That conversation can provide insights into which tool - or more likely tools or solutions - that will help inform your next phase of product research. Please contact my colleague Bill Campbell (bicampbell@informatica.com, +1 512.813.2894) to schedule a call.
--- Note 1 ---
Data management applications include (but are not limited to) data integration, data quality, master data management, data governance and stewardship, data catalog, and more. In addition to the basic tools, there are:
* Variations that are on-premise, cloud, or hybrid (Informatica offers all three)
* Point products doing single task versus out-of-the-box solutions that incorporate various tools integrated together (Informatica has both products and solutions)
* Vendors that have only a single point product versus vendors that have a complete portfolio of products that can be sold standalone or "better together" in a solution (Informatica has the complete portfolio with products and solutions - built on the Intelligent Data Platform )
Gartner has five Magic Quadrants for the data management market. Besides the famed 2x2 graphic for each tool category, the research notes provide good foundational information about each market. Download complimentary copies of all five MQs for at this link: www.informatica.com/lp/gartner-leadership.html
My experience with these products is telling me that:
- Informatica is much more flexible, it has more points, where different types of codding and tuning are available. If the landscape is heterogeneous and complex - it’s the right choice. On the other hand, it works more slowly.
- IBM DS is very strong in code efficiency and flows parallelism. If the landscape is IBM-oriented or not so complex, but data volumes are huge - it’s the right choice. On the other hand, coding and tuning abilities are more ascetic.
- Informatica needs dedicated admin in the project team, IBM DS - does not.
- Informatica has an evolving cloud version, IBM DS hasn’t yet.
- Informatica is not proper working with Hadoop, IBM DS is.
The pricing of both is more or less equal.