We performed a comparison between Informatica PowerCenter and SAP Data Services based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: SAP Data Services wins out in this comparison. The main difference between the two solutions is that Informatica PowerCenter cannot do batch processing and users also consider it to be expensive.
"Has a good visual tool for data mapping."
"The setup is straightforward."
"The most valuable features are the dynamic reading of the file metadata profile, and the ability to define business rules that are used to verify and validate the uploaded files."
"Once you figure it out, it is a powerful and simple ETL tool. Its stability has been very satisfactory."
"It's a complete package, which is why we use this solution."
"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."
"It's very easy to use it to develop mappings and workflows."
"It has a Data Catalog that uses the Model repository."
"The feature of SAP Data Services has enhanced our company's business processes because we are able to run around 800 jobs in areas like data extraction and transaction objects."
"The maintenance of data services is the solution's most valuable feature."
"The most valuable feature is the logging capability."
"The user interface is ok."
"The BA reporting tools, such as Data Services, and ETL tool in SAP Data Services are the most valuable. When we had in-memory requirements, we used HANA. HANA is most preferably for most the customers for in-memory. SAP is the first company that created the in-memory concept."
"The solution offers very good integration capabilities."
"The logic is also simple. It makes it easy to build your extraction."
"I have worked with Data Services for a long time, and currently, I find the dashboarding and reporting part to be the most valuable function."
"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 I didn't like about it is that the platform itself is not great at distributed processing. When you need high parallel processing, it has some inherent issues. We had to use Java transformation, and it did not go very well. I have heard that it is going to the cloud, but we haven't tried that."
"If we could have the option of performance improvement within Informatica, and if it could have more features, that would be ideal."
"Informatica are very rigid when it comes to cloud migrations which discourages customers in moving their solution to the cloud."
"In terms of performance improvement and tuning, there should be a bit more guidance and documentation."
"Include more instruments for LOGs analysis, interpretation, and job corrections."
"Informatica PowerCenter could improve on the documentation for the implementation. The documents provided are not very good for a new user."
"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."
"With SAP Data Services, the problem arises when I try to connect to Azure Databricks."
"At the integration level, there could be certain set of improvement to connect to various other systems."
"The solution could improve the overall features. There is a lot that can be done in the solution, therefor there are areas where it can improve. Additionally, there is a need to make it easier for one to create connections to other non-SAP systems. The flexibility to connect to other non-SAP systems is needed."
"The description of error messages isn't extensive, although they point to the problem. With other solutions, like Talend, I was able to use the debugger to get directly to the problem, but with SAP Data Services the debugger is not working. I'm not sure if it's a problem with the version specifically, but I'm using it in an enterprise environment and I can't do an upgrade."
"Newer feature integration is lagging behind the company acquisitions and the product could do more to service a broader range of devices."
"Integration with other products could be improved."
"The solution shows a lack of cloud support data services."
"Scheduling of jobs in the sequence is not available. It's a very tedious process to do that particular task. If there was a tool to schedule in the sequence that would be extremely helpful."
Informatica PowerCenter is ranked 3rd in Data Integration with 78 reviews while SAP Data Services is ranked 10th in Data Integration with 45 reviews. Informatica PowerCenter is rated 8.0, while SAP Data Services is rated 8.0. 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". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SAP Data Services writes "Responsive support, scalable, and beneficial integration". Informatica PowerCenter is most compared with Informatica Cloud Data Integration, Azure Data Factory, SSIS, Databricks and Talend Open Studio, whereas SAP Data Services is most compared with Azure Data Factory, Syniti Data Quality, SAP Process Orchestration, Palantir Foundry and SSIS. See our Informatica PowerCenter vs. SAP Data Services report.
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