In 2008, Informatica was the only competitor. However, the price and licensing cost of Informatica was very high. So, we used IBM InfoSphere DataStage. After 2013, several other tools like Talend were launched. Informatica was also revamped. Many tools in the cloud follow the ideologies of DataStage and Informatica. Informatica has always been the most expensive tool, though. DataStage can do everything that Informatica can do.

Before choosing IBM, we evaluated Data Factory from Azure. The main difference lies in DataStage's strength in handling large-scale scenarios for data integration, while Data Factory is more suitable for specific service scenarios and may require complementary tools for broader use cases, like email integration.

Before DataStage, I did not evaluate other options. Our client was already comfortable with DataStage, so that's what we had to use.

The market is indeed filled with numerous solutions. Currently, I am exploring Microsoft's offerings, particularly their integration capabilities. Also, the purpose and functionalities of Azure are pretty interesting. I have been working with Quick Link, and specifically, I have been working with Azure Database.

We currently also use PowerCenter from Informatica as a solution for some clients. It isn't really a previous solution or a solution we evaluated and discarded but it is one that we sometimes use instead of DataStage. It depends on the needs of our customers.

The decision on which product to pick has partly to do with what the client wants to do and what we believe is the better solution for them and their needs. We have some projects where we use PowerCenter simply because our customer wants to use it; we have other projects where we use DataStage because of some of these customers are already using DataStage or they prefer it because it is from IBM.

In a similar way, we sometimes use Microsoft Integration Services, which is a very small part of our business. But again it isn't so much that we evaluated the solution and dismissed it or switched from using it. These products are opportunities for us to choose between in order to provide the best solution for clients. We evaluate the options and choose the best fit for the project.

We did approach other vendors before ultimately choosing IBM.

Have done many ETL tool evaluations based on client requirements. DataStage has always been in the top-three. It may not have been selected due to different weights being used for different sections of the evaluation for different clients, but it has always been in the top-three consistently.

This solution is for larger companies. Smaller businesses use Talend.

From time to time, I evaluate different products for my clients.

Yes, we evaluated other tools, and this tool is competing internally with our PySQL development. It's a battle between code and local.

No other options were evaluated.

Our customer checked AbInitio and Informatica PowerCenter – DataStage was best as it could be delivered quickest.