We performed a comparison between Azure Data Factory and Informatica Powercenter based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Azure Data Factory and Informatica Powercenter are very comparable to one another. Overall, PeerSpot users found that both solutions have helpful features. However, users found Informatica Powercenter to be more expensive than Azure Data Factory.
"Data Factory itself is great. It's pretty straightforward. You can easily add sources, join and lookup information, etc. The ease of use is pretty good."
"Powerful but easy-to-use and intuitive."
"The security of the agent that is installed on-premises is very good."
"The workflow automation features in GitLab, particularly its low code/no code approach, are highly beneficial for accelerating development speed. This feature allows for quick creation of pipelines and offers customization options for integration needs, making it versatile for various use cases. GitLab supports a wide range of connectors, catering to a majority of integration needs. Azure Data Factory's virtual enterprise and monitoring capabilities, the visual interface of GitLab makes it user-friendly and easy to teach, facilitating adoption within teams. While the monitoring capabilities are sufficient out of the box, they may not be as comprehensive as dedicated enterprise monitoring tools. GitLab's monitoring features are manageable for production use, with the option to integrate log analytics or create custom dashboards if needed. The data flow feature in Azure Data Factory within GitLab is valuable for data transformation tasks, especially for those who may not have expertise in writing complex code. It simplifies the process of data manipulation and is particularly useful for individuals unfamiliar with Spark coding. While there could be improvements for more flexibility, overall, the data flow feature effectively accomplishes its purpose within GitLab's ecosystem."
"I can do everything I want with SSIS and Azure Data Factory."
"The most valuable features are data transformations."
"The most valuable feature is the ease in which you can create an ETL pipeline."
"The most valuable feature of this solution would be ease of use."
"Ease and speed of building integrations, especially integrations between different applications, such as our Hospital Information System."
"Complex transformations can be easily achieved by using PowerCenter. The processing layer does transformations and other things. About 80% of my transformations can be achieved by using the middle layer. For the remaining 15% to 20% transformations, I can go in and create stored procedures in the respective databases. Mapplets is the feature through which we can reuse transformations across pipelines. Transformations and caching are the key features that we have been using frequently. Informatica PowerCenter is one of the best solutions or products in the data integration space. We have extensively used PowerCenter for integration purposes. We usually look at the best bridge solution in our architecture so that it can sustain for maybe a couple of years. Usually, we go with the solution that fits best and has proven and time-tested technology."
"The setup is straightforward."
"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."
"The performance and design of Informatica have been very valuable. I find the performance faster than, say, Oracle Data Integrator or DataStage."
"Reusable definition of data sources and the out-of-the-box availability of a large number maplets for common transformation functions."
"The most complex task, in this case, was to read and transform BLOB data, and Java transformation in Informatica Power Center was a great solution."
"I like the completeness of the way I can build ETL workflows."
"When the record fails, it's tough to identify and log."
"It can improve from the perspective of active logging. It can provide active logging information."
"It's a good idea to take a Microsoft course. Because they are really helpful when you start from your journey with Data Factory."
"It would be better if it had machine learning capabilities."
"It does not appear to be as rich as other ETL tools. It has very limited capabilities."
"Some known bugs and issues with Azure Data Factory could be rectified."
"Occasionally, there are problems within Microsoft itself that impacts the Data Factory and causes it to fail."
"On the UI side, they could make it a little more intuitive in terms of how to add the radius components. Somebody who has been working with tools like Informatica or DataStage gets very used to how the UI looks and feels."
"Compared to solutions offering similar functionalities, Informatica PowerCenter is not very flexible regarding customized integrations."
"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."
"There is a need to buy a separate license if one wishes to connect with some kind of SAP system, such as SalesForce."
"This product is going to decommission in the next couple of years."
"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."
"The only problem with this product is the level of complexity with the number of levels of transformation that you have to go through."
"What needs improvement in Informatica PowerCenter is the cloud experience because, nowadays, other companies, such as AWS, Azure, and Google, have more experience in the cloud. The pricing for Informatica PowerCenter on the cloud is also very expensive for customers, so some customers prefer open-source tools or lower-priced tools, such as Azure. From my point of view, Informatica must work on the pricing policy and review the policy on the cloud for Informatica PowerCenter or propose more tools with lower pricing. Clients want the automatic integration of Informatica PowerCenter with other tools. Currently, the integration process is manual, and you have to add other tools to facilitate the integration, especially with the DevOps methodology. You need scripts and tools for the integration, and you'll need to use other integration tools if you want automatic deployment for Informatica PowerCenter, so this is another area for improvement in the solution. What I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is for the integration with APIs to be simpler, because currently, the API integration feature of Informatica PowerCenter is very difficult. It's not intuitive. You have to facilitate API integration and the real-time streaming of messages in Kafka, for example, so that should be improved."
"Informatica PowerCenter could improve on the documentation for the implementation. The documents provided are not very good for a new user."
Azure Data Factory is ranked 1st in Data Integration with 81 reviews while Informatica PowerCenter is ranked 3rd in Data Integration with 78 reviews. Azure Data Factory is rated 8.0, while Informatica PowerCenter is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Azure Data Factory writes "The data factory agent is quite good but pricing needs to be more transparent". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Informatica PowerCenter writes "Stable, provides good support, and integrating it with other systems is very fast, but its pricing is expensive". Azure Data Factory is most compared with Informatica Cloud Data Integration, Alteryx Designer, Snowflake, Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics and IBM InfoSphere DataStage, whereas Informatica PowerCenter is most compared with Informatica Cloud Data Integration, SSIS, Databricks, AWS Glue and Oracle Data Integrator (ODI). See our Azure Data Factory vs. Informatica PowerCenter report.
See our list of best Data Integration vendors.
We monitor all Data Integration reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
