Informatica Axon Reviews

I'm a freelance consultant, so I work for a few different clients on different projects. Sometimes I do system integrations, and sometimes it's more of the deployment of the tool itself. 

Informatica Axon is mainly used for master data management because it's quite a powerful tool. Lots of clients are struggling because Collibra is not an MDM tool. Azure has some possibilities in the data factory for MDM, but in the end, it doesn't have the engine that Informatica has. I see quite a few clients bring Informatica into the architecture for ETL processes. They use it to extract, transfer, and load data, in addition to MDM, since they're a bit restricted with other tools.

I think definitely what my clients find strong about the solution is all of the processes that it can do. You can extract and transfer your data as you wish it to be consumed later. I definitely hear that this adds value to the tool. 

Another thing I hear clients say is that you can use the MDM modeling functionality as a kind of engine to do data cleansing before you consume the data.

Also, for example, Collibra works closely together with Azure, which works closely together with Informatica and Google because the clients have needs that can't be fulfilled all by one platform. Solutions needs to fit into that architecture, and Informatica can fit in there, and that's appreciated in the market.

There is always room for improvement in making the look and feel more user-friendly. There are also some technical issues sometimes with integrations because clients have a lot of different types of data sources.

One thing I miss with Informatica is the sandbox environment. I do freelance consulting, meaning I give trainings, and sometimes clients ask me to give a training in my own environment, my sandbox environment. 

I have an environment that Collibra provides me with for certifications of training, so I can use a kind of sandbox to actually show a few things to clients.  I have the same thing with Microsoft. With Informatica, it's a bit more difficult. They're not that willing to provide the sandbox to an individual consultant, so I'm just on my own. That's a bit of a pity because sometimes if a client has something that is not configured, I can quickly configure it in my own environment and then show it in a demo. I don't have that opportunity with Informatica. I have to work on the client's system, which then sometimes causes security problems.

I don't have complaints about the stability, and I don't see it as a big issue coming up with my clients. The app sometimes had issues for some clients but it was not business critical or actually impacting them.

I think it is scalable, but that is not really the focus of my work. There are a lot of reasons I can give that the scalability might be affected, but they are actually not really related to the tool itself, but just how you build it in.

If I have a problem with the client and I'm a bit stuck, the support is really good. I can fall back on the people from support and they're quite willing to help. 

It can also help the client because I do a project for six or twelve months, and then I'm gone. If the client has a question after that, they can talk to the support and it's really good. 

From what I have experienced, I would give the technical support an eight out of ten. 

Positive

I think the setup is quite easy if you are data-minded. If you don't have any clue about data management or don't have that background, you're not going to be able to do it. You need to have a bit of technical understanding to do it in the correct way. If you're completely new and you don't have that background of experience, then it's a bit harder, and you'll need to follow a step-by-step plan.

I see clients starting to set it up from scratch and it takes three years. If a client says they want to deploy it within their whole organization, then, in general, you need to count about three years because it's not only the tool. You also need to set up your governance and your organization on it. All of your processes need to be aligned with the tool, so it's a three-year program in general.

Both for the business end users and for the technical people, the maintenance is more on the technical side. For example, for the API connections, the batch processes, and the real-time processes, it's not always easy. One of the things that I always say to my clients is that they need to document everything, and that helps. I tell them to build into their project a documentation pillar where they document everything that they do, like their MDM and rules. It's easier if they have good documentation, but it's still a challenge. Without documentation, it's hard.

I think definitely starting it up gradually, meaning don't buy the tool and then start trying to put everything in from the beginning. First, think about: What do I want to bring into the tool? Which sources do I want to go integrate with the tool? Which data, which business areas do I want to cover with that? You need to do a modeling exercise. You need to do some preparation work first and take it slow. Start small, take a specific business unit or data domain, and then show the value for your business. Then the budget will come, and you can do more with the tool. 

I rate this solution as an eight out of ten.

Our use cases were related to the financial and banking sectors. We created data and transferred it to the enterprise level. 

The most valuable feature of Informatica Axon is features, interfaces, and data mapping. It represents clusters nicely. 

The solution should improve its integration. 

 I have been using the product for three years. 

Informatica Axon is stable. 

The product is scalable. 

The tool's support is fine. 

Informatica Axon's deployment is straightforward. 

I rate the product an eight out of ten. 

We use Informatica Axon for MDM purposes.

The most valuable feature of Informatica Axon is that it is flexible and user-friendly.

Informatica Axon needs more integration connectors so that it can connect to systems and different kinds of datasets.

I have been using Informatica Axon for two years.

I rate Informatica Axon an eight out of ten for stability.

Ten engineers are using Informatica Axon in our organization. I rate Informatica Axon an eight out of ten for scalability.

Informatica Axon's installation, configuration, and user access take two to three days.

Informatica Axon eliminates all MDM-related problems quickly.

Informatica Axon is a costly solution. I rate Informatica Axon a four out of ten for its pricing.

I am using the latest version of Informatica Axon. I recommend Informatica Axon to users as it is a good and flexible tool that gets the work done.

Overall, I rate Informatica Axon a seven out of ten.

We use the solution for mass data management. 

The tool's most valuable feature is bulk upload. We upload files in CSV or Excel format. 

Informatica Axon needs to improve its interface. 

I have been working with the solution for three years. 

Informatica Axon's support is good. 

Positive

I rate the product an eight out of ten. 

Axon is a tool for data governance that lets you define personas of people who can define policy and implement those policies and have a check on them. So it's part of a data governance solution.

It is a very good tool. So there is Informatica Axon, Informatica EDC, and Informatica Data Quality, which are the best solutions in the market for data governance. Many customers prefer the solution.

All the functionalities of the solution that are currently available on the on-prem version should be made available on the cloud. The on-prem version's functionalities may not be available on the cloud version. So, Informatica is working on it, and it may take some time. In short, adopting the functionalities of the solution's on-prem version could be faster in the cloud.

I work with an SI company, and my company is also a cyber-security value-added distributor. I have been selling Informatica products, including Axon, for years.

It is a very stable solution. I rate its stability a ten out of ten.

It is a scalable solution. I have six to seven customers using the solution.

Informatica Axon's technical support is good. So, like all the US companies, the support ticket moves from one support team to another.

The initial setup process depends on the complexity of the customers' requirements. So, it can be simple or complex. Usually, data governance projects are a minimum of six to eight months.

Regarding the deployment process, the first step is to conduct a discovery session to understand the customers' problems. This involves identifying the stakeholders involved in the data governance process, determining who owns the data, and identifying the layers of governance that need to be implemented at various levels, including the persona and solution levels.

Two to three people, including a data analyst, a data engineer, and a data quality or data assurance person, are required to deploy and maintain the solution.

A yearly subscription is paid based on the number of people using the solution. Price-wise, it falls under the medium range since it is neither very costly nor too cheap.

It's a very good solution. And for any customer embarking on our data governance journey, Axon is the right tool to choose, along with ECD and Data Quality. I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.

My company works with our different customers to implement and install the solution.

The workflow in Informatica Axon is intelligent and good. Informatica Axon provides good data collection and good search criteria. In Informatica Axon, workflow and business glossary are good.

There are some limitations with Informatica Axon when one tries to connect or integrate it with Jira. For example, I can't delete any workflows after the integration process. There are issues with the integration capabilities of the tool with third-party solutions, specifically Jira.

I have experience with Informatica Axon for two to three years.

It is a very stable solution.

It is a scalable solution.

I recommend the solution to big companies because its functions are suitable for high-end companies.

The P1 support offered by the solution's technical support is very fast. If it is not P1 support, the support a user might get will be slow as it takes time. I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

For data governance, I work with Informatica Axon only. I prefer Informatica Axon for enterprise metadata management at an enterprise level, data quality, and integration. I only recommend Informatica Axon, mainly for data governance.

The product's initial setup phase is very easy.

For each of our company's customers, with an installation scope in place, it doesn't take much time. The product's implementation scope differs from the installation scope. I usually help our company's customers implement the tool.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

Informatica Axon is a very good product with an easy implementation phase and a lot of information about the tool available online on the internet.

I rate the overall tool an eight out of ten.

We use the product to define policies and for data discovery management.

It is complicated to establish the lineage in EDC using PowerCenter mappings. We have to do the process manually every time. This particular area needs improvement.

We have been using Informatica Axon for five years.

It is a stable platform. However, we need to raise the ticket even for the smaller issues. There needs to be proper documentation available. They should provide enough information.

We have eight to ten customers for Informatica Axon. It is a scalable product.

The technical support team takes time to complete the debugging process.

The initial setup process is fine, but there are a lot of infrastructure issues. It includes errors on the node cluster for EDC. Deployment is easy, but debugging is time-consuming. Whenever we raise the ticket to the support team, they take two to three days to evaluate the issue.

The licensing price of the product depends on the organization's requirements. It is less costly than Collibra.

I recommend Informatica Axon to others and rate it a seven out of ten.

The organizations I work with often have trouble getting buy-in from business users and understanding how data governance relates to them or where the data lineage is. We use Axon in two key areas. 

The first is automating data governance processes, policies, and roles in terms of data stewards, data owners, etc. Those process flow charts are typically stored in a PowerPoint, Excel, or board document. Everyone involved in data governance would have to send emails manually and such. Axon allows them to automate all that. So if there's a data owner that needs to update a definition, a request that needs to be flagged, or a data quality error, all that is embedded into the Axon system. That's one reason our clients go with it. 

The use case is embedding the data or the business glossary into the day-to-day workflow. For example, we could integrate it with Tableau. When people are looking at a Tableau report, they understand exactly what the data lineage is and where this data is coming from. They'll also know exactly what those business glossary terms mean, so they can more accurately interpret and analyze the report.

Axon does one interesting thing that I don't think other tools do as well. It lets you rate data and incorporates Informatica's data quality feature into it. There are little indications and graphics that show you how good the data quality is, and you can drill into it to see where potential issues lie. 

Users can comment on the data, tag people, and ask questions or rate the data one to five based on their experience, which helps eliminate data silos. You have all your information right there, and it's easier for future users to know which data to draw from.

The cloud version of Axon is far behind the on-prem, and many of my clients want to go fully to the cloud. However, Axon has to be an on-prem installation. I would like to see their cloud products catch up with their on-prem capabilities. 

I would like to see Informatica add more automation and AI. Some of that is already there, but it would be helpful to have some automation to speed up the process of manually tagging and moving components of your IT setup into your business glossary and the front end.

We started our first Axon implementation at one of our clients in the fall of 2021. Two of my other clients are about to purchase the technology and start using it.

Axon is stable. 

Axon is scalable.

Informatica support has been good. These data governance and metadata products are some of the newer products on the market technology-wise, so I've been impressed with their responsiveness and the tool's maturity.

Installing Axon is straightforward. If the cloud version were more robust it would be easier, but it's just fine for the on-prem solution. Two people should be enough to deploy and support it. 

I rate Informatica Axon nine out of 10. If you're planning to implement Axon, I recommend having an identified data governance lead. I think the most difficult part of implementing this is getting your people and processes aligned, so you know what you're putting into the system. Having a clear data governance manager is the most helpful data governance practice for an organization.