Ramesh SV - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Lead / Practise Architecht at TEKsystems (ex Aston Carter)
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Simple integration, beneficial data transformation, and user-friendly
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Informatica PowerCenter is data transformation and user-friendliness."
  • "Informatica PowerCenter could improve the data threshold for large sets of data. Additionally, they should add real-time integration."

What is our primary use case?

I am using Informatica PowerCenter as a data integration tool, and for standardization and validations.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Informatica PowerCenter is data transformation and user-friendliness.

What needs improvement?

Informatica PowerCenter could improve the data threshold for large sets of data. Additionally, they should add real-time integration.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Informatica PowerCenter for approximately 11 years.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Informatica PowerCenter is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Informatica PowerCenter application can scale very well.

We have more than 100 users using this solution which includes a mixed variety of work titles or disciplines in the company.

How are customer service and support?

I have used the support from Informatica PowerCenter.

I rate the support from Informatica PowerCenter an eight out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Informatica PowerCenter is easy. The full deployments can take approximately seven hours.

What was our ROI?

Informatica PowerCenter is worth the money to use for its benefits.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are using an annual license for Informatica PowerCenter.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did evaluate other options before choosing Informatica PowerCenter. We selected Informatica PowerCenter because it fits the feature requirements of our customers. Additionally, the customization and integrations are easy compared to any other tool.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others is for them to get used to using the tool and make sure near real-time integrations are less. If they want to keep the configurations and use batch mode data they can do so.

I rate Informatica PowerCenter an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Director at Lolatech
Real User
Top 20
A very efficient tool, that enables us to quickly find our data reports
Pros and Cons
  • "We use Informatica PowerCenter to transfer the transitional database to and from the data warehouse. This is very efficient as it enables us to quickly find our data reports and the data, so we can build AI models."
  • "In the future, I would like to see Informatica PowerCenter integrate a more powerful dashboard."

What is our primary use case?

My experience is in the semiconductor industry with our customers using the Azure supply chain. We have built-in the AIS system, IBM and Db2. We transfer data from SQL Server to MongoDB and transfer the data to Db2.

Security is very important, the solution is deployed to the private cloud. We assigned five people to build the project.

Informatica PowerCenter is built into the technology supply system. I use the solution to transfer the MS data system to the supply chain system.

How has it helped my organization?

We use Informatica PowerCenter to transfer the transitional database to and from the data warehouse. This is very efficient as it enables us to quickly find our data reports and the data, so we can build AI models.

What needs improvement?

In the future, I would like to see Informatica PowerCenter integrate a more powerful dashboard.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Informatica PowerCenter for 3 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In my experience Informatica is stable, however, it depends on our customer's environment.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution is scalable. For example, we have set two data warehouses for one of my customers, we use Informatica PowerCenter to join several PV tables separate to data warehousing. This allows us to divide, separate and exchange our data warehousing to the schema and the people in the schema.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

In my last job, I used Pentaho. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of the solution is easier than Pentaho. Informatica was set up by me with the help of two supply chain consultants, in one day. 

What about the implementation team?

To implement Informatica PowerCenter you need to understand your customer's systems first and what their requirements are. It is important to understand their existing system and find the data. By understanding their logic, you can know how to extract the data and transfer the data to the data warehouse.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Informatica PowerCenter is reasonably priced. It is less expensive than Pentaho.

There is a standard version fee in Taiwan. It is a one-time yearly subscription price that is approximately $3,010 US dollars for three users.

What other advice do I have?

This is my first experience with this kind of tool, I would rate Informatica PowerCenter a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Informatica PowerCenter
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Informatica PowerCenter. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
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Muhammad -Usman - PeerSpot reviewer
Data AI Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
A stable and easy-to-deploy solution that lacks flexibility and scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "Among all the solutions I have used, I found Informatica PowerCenter to be much more stable in terms of application."
  • "Compared to solutions offering similar functionalities, Informatica PowerCenter is not very flexible regarding customized integrations."

What is our primary use case?

Informatica PowerCenter is purely an ETL tool used for data integration.

What is most valuable?

Informatica PowerCenter has many features compared to Talend, DataStage, and Airflow. Among all the solutions I have used, I found Informatica PowerCenter to be much more stable in terms of application. Also, one won't face issues related to bugs when using Informatica PowerCenter.

What needs improvement?

Compared to solutions offering similar functionalities, Informatica PowerCenter is not very flexible regarding customized integrations. It's not a very customizable solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Informatica PowerCenter for approximately nine years. So, I work for different consulting companies, and their customers use it. My job role is of a consultant and architect.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Since one does not have to face sudden issues while using the solution, I would say that it is a stable solution compared to similar solutions in the market.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is not a very scalable solution. It is usually used in enterprise-sized organizations.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is easy to deploy and manage. I also usually help my customers to implement and configure the product. The time taken for the implementation process depends upon how big of an implementation process has to be carried out. So, for a single customer, it took around three days to deploy the solution. However, three months were required for the customization part. The solution gets deployed on-premises and on the private cloud.

What other advice do I have?

I rate the overall product a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Practice Head - Advanced Analytics & Cloud at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Reseller
Top 5
Robust, user-friendly, thoroughly documented installation and configuration with responsive technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "It is very comprehensive in terms of connector and transformation capabilities from both a source and target perspective."
  • "Informatica, in my opinion, is very rigid and not very flexible, whereas platforms like Alteryx or Matillion are very flexible and agile."

What is our primary use case?

Informatica PowerCenter is an ETL data integration platform.

It's all part of the data warehouse's extract, transform, and load process. Data is extracted from all source systems, transformed, and loaded into a data warehouse.

What is most valuable?

It is very robust, scalable, and simple to use.

It is very comprehensive in terms of connector and transformation capabilities from both a source and target perspective.

What needs improvement?

I believe that people are shifting to more agile, flexible platforms not only in this era but also in the last two or three years. This is happening not only on data management platforms but also on analytics platforms. Platforms for visualizing data dashboards. We used to have very rigid tools like Cognos and MicroStrategy, but Tableau and Power BI have recently taken over. The same can be said for data management. 

Informatica, in my opinion, is very rigid and not very flexible, whereas platforms like Alteryx or Matillion are very flexible and agile.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have over 15 years of experience working with Informatica tools, and we have worked with Informatica PowerCenter in the last 12 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Informatica PowerCenter is stable. On a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate it a ten.

I haven't had any problems with jobs or projects failing or anything like that.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

You can definitely scale it as the data volume increases. You have many options for scaling up.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is great.

They are responsive and simple to contact.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

While I have not implemented it, I am familiar with Informatica PIM.

We have also used Informatica Cloud in the last 12 months.

How was the initial setup?

The installation and configuration are both well-documented and straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I am not sure about the most recent price, but I think it should be $100,000 or more.

What other advice do I have?

It's obviously the best.

I would rate Informatica PowerCenter a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Senior Oracle Database Administrator at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Good ETL and monitoring tools with excellent reliability
Pros and Cons
  • "It provides monitoring and we can therefore be aware of what is happening when we are handling jobs."
  • "If you want to transfer a ZIP file, it is a pain. You need to use Command-Line. Sometimes we just want to transfer a file. It should be easy to move them from A to B."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution primarily as an ETL.

How has it helped my organization?

It helps with the automation process. We have a lot of requests from the user to create for them data alerts. We have had some success using Informatica. 

What is most valuable?

It is an excellent tool. It covers our needs. 

The solution is used mostly to handle our daily data loads in our data warehouse. We've been successful so far using it. 

It provides monitoring and we can therefore be aware of what is happening when we are handling jobs. 

The ETL and monitoring tools are the most useful for us.

The transformations we need to do, to comply with user requests, is very easy with this product.

The solution is stable.

It can scale. 

What needs improvement?

We also have a data integrator, and if we were to compare the software together, the one thing Informatica doesn't have is the ability to create the script inside the solution. We need to rely on Unix or Windows. We can't do the scripting in Informatica itself. We need better integration potential. 

The FTP tools that the solution has are limited. 

If you want to transfer a ZIP file, it is a pain. You need to use Command-Line. Sometimes we just want to transfer a file. It should be easy to move them from A to B.

I want to eliminate interdependencies on the script. If Informatica could do everything, it would be a more powerful tool.

We'd like to have all of the capabilities available in the cloud available also on PowerCenter.

The solution is expensive. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for four years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Sometimes we have problems, however, the problems are in the database, not Informatica. The solution is very stable. It's reliable. I'd rate it ten out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We're in the process of moving to the cloud. 

PowerCenter itself can scale. 

How are customer service and support?

I've never contacted technical support. Typically, I will Google an answer to my questions. It's easy to find what I need on their website or online. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I did not use a different solution. This is my first experience working with a data center. I did use the ETL from Microsoft that came with the SQL server. 

How was the initial setup?

I didn't handle the installation. I did practice installing on my workstation to practice, and it was easy. However, for the entire company, it was handled by a third party. 

While it is on-premises right now, we have plans to move everything to the cloud in the short term. We are working on that right now.

What about the implementation team?

The installation process is done by a third party.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't deal with licensing and have never seen an invoice. I am aware it is expensive, however. It's as expensive as Oracle. When you want to use the best brands, you have to pay.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I did not evaluate other solutions. By the time I came to the company, this solution was already in use.

When I was in another bank, we selected Informatica which was a recommendation of a consultant. Informatica at that time was one of the best ETL tools, even though it was expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

I'm an end-user.

The solution is very popular. I'd rate it ten out of ten. It is an excellent tool.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Computer system engineer at Groupe Casino
Real User
Works well, comes with 24/7 support, and is useful for database replication
Pros and Cons
  • "The support is valuable. There are also open-source ETL products, which work very well, but there is no support. When we face a production problem, being able to get support is valuable, and it brings efficiency. With an open-source solution, we can't engage anyone to resolve the problem as quickly as possible."
  • "Some of the conversions are done inside the product. We use work tables that are created by the engine itself, but the names of the work tables are very long, and they don't have any meaning, which makes it a bit difficult to understand and follow exactly what is happening inside."

What is our primary use case?

I'm working for a casino, and we use this solution in our company to replicate different databases, such as from Oracle to Teradata. Most of the time, it is used for replication, but sometimes, it is also used for doing some calculations, additions, or unions for ETL.

It is currently deployed on-premises, but we will be moving to a cloud solution by the end of the year. We are currently doing a proof of concept and evaluating a cloud solution from Informatica.

What is most valuable?

The support is valuable. There are also open-source ETL products, which work very well, but there is no support. When we face a production problem, being able to get support is valuable, and it brings efficiency. With an open-source solution, we can't engage anyone to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.

Its stability is high, and it is also scalable.

What needs improvement?

Some of the conversions are done inside the product. We use work tables that are created by the engine itself, but the names of the work tables are very long, and they don't have any meaning, which makes it a bit difficult to understand and follow exactly what is happening inside.

We would like to be able to communicate with our Google Cloud platform. This feature probably exists, but I'm not sure if we tested it. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. There are no problems. It is only a financial matter. You just need to have more machines. The price changes depending on the number of CPUs that are involved. 

How are customer service and support?

We have 24/7 support because it belongs to the production environment. We just have to open a case, and somebody takes up the case and provides an answer. They also call back, and there is also a knowledge base.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We had Sybase ETL, but it was not exactly for the same use. We also had some homemade solutions between Db2 and Teradata. We switched because to deal with more databases, it was easiest to use a real ETL solution.

How was the initial setup?

It isn't complex. In the beginning, we have to test and try different parameters. Once that is complete, it is done for all the processes. If we have some trouble, we can call support, and most of the time, we can find people to help us in choosing the right parameters from different parameters.

The complete implementation—which includes doing the proof of concept, understanding how it works and what work has to be done, migrating all existing workflows—took over six months.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it ourselves.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it an eight out of 10. It works.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Ravi Kuppusamy - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO and Founder at BAssure Solutions
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A mature tool with lots of provisions but the licensing could be better
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is stable."
  • "It should be more cloud-centric than on-prem-centric."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for the ETL.

What is most valuable?

They know what they're doing, and it's a more mature tool compared to Talend. They really think about every scenario. For example, if you want to write a data cleansing algorithm and all that is probably rules. It's just easier. There are a lot of provisions in PowerCenter. In terms of the transformation algorithms and all that, there are a lot of operations. It's great.

The solution is stable.

It's a scalable product.

What needs improvement?

PowerCenter seems to be a little bit higher side of cost. Customers are thinking about alternatives. Talend seems to be a pure Java-based thing, however, there are some technical hiccups there. There are a few finance companies are probably started using Talend as a competition tool for Informatica. Most of the smaller companies are trying to build open-source-based ETL tools.

It should be more cloud-centric than on-prem-centric. That is where the problem with Informatica.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've used the solution for a couple of years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable product. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. 

We have three or four clients we are working with in terms of Informatica.

How are customer service and support?

In terms of technical support, there is plenty of information is available online, however, their tech support is okay.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Snowflake is something that is surfacing. Every customer is now started asking about Snowflake. They're thinking of it being a viable option. When it comes to data warehousing, it's the kind of a solution that you want to deal with huge among this data processing. 

Most startups and probably smaller companies thinking of building a custom open-source pipeline. It could be Pulsar-based, or Kafka-based. And that is what they're looking at. In enterprises, they don't want to go with a hundred percent, the open-source solutions. They like Informatica or probably Talend or probably some of the ETL tools that are available.

How was the initial setup?

It's not a simple setup. It requires a bit of a learning curve, no doubt about it. For example, if you want an index, a three or four-year engineer would need to handle that. If you want to make them as a utility engineer, there is a learning curve involved. 

It took us three to four months to deploy the solution. 

We have 12 to 14 people working on the deployment and maintenance of the solution. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing could be a bit better. 

For example, if you look at Snowflake, companies are thinking of innovative ways of reducing the price and then transferring the benefit to their customers. 

What other advice do I have?

In terms of innovation, creativity is not there in this solution. It is still an on-prem ETL tool. Informatica is one of the best options today and no doubt about it. However, is it cloud-ready? I don't think so. Therefore, I'd rate the solution a five out of ten.

Beyond cloud readiness (or lack thereof), pricing is an issue. It's relatively high compared to other products on the market. We all have to move from IBM thinking. You sell the customer and then penalize them with the pricing, pricing, pricing. That is where IBM has today become a dead man walking underneath, has become two different companies now. This company should learn from IBM. Pricing cannot be the only way of making money and probably comes with innovation, creativity, making it cloud-ready, and then transferring those benefits in order to sell more licenses. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Director at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Very easy for a person to get acquainted with and very useful for working with different sources
Pros and Cons
  • "The greatest feature is that it is very easy to have someone come in and jump right in. It is one of the nicest tools in terms of getting a person acquainted quickly."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

We are generally using it for ETL systems. 

How has it helped my organization?

We have different sources of files coming, sometimes from the mainframe, and Informatica is very useful for accepting different sources, such as spreadsheets and databases, and doing the transformation. Libraries are also helpful. I also managed to go into the database and create my own transformations for mapping automatically.

What is most valuable?

The greatest feature is that it is very easy to have someone come in and jump right in. It is one of the nicest tools in terms of getting a person acquainted quickly.

What needs improvement?

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. We have Informatica in-house, and we thought it would go with ADF. Microsoft is leaning on us to do that because we're working with Azure. So, I don't know much about cloud features.

The pricing model is a little bit difficult for development tools versus running the system in production. So, it has some shortcomings, but in general, it is not bad.

For how long have I used the solution?

We worked with PowerCenter for a long time, and we have a site license for it.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We haven't had major problems. The issues that we had were more around libraries linking to other places. It was not so flexible there. For example, we used a Java transformation that needed a separate set of libraries, but they collided if a library was used by Informatica. So, we had to stay a version earlier. Although it seemed a little bit rigid on what it can provide in terms of the ability to go into the database and create your own stuff, I wrote a makefile that actually went into the database, and based on the parameters that people put in the makefile, created transformation for them.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I wasn't impressed with its ability to process in parallel. Some of it is inherited in the tool, and there is nothing you can do about it. For example, if you have aggregation, then everything stops, which is okay and I understand that, but for the other things also, I didn't see it scalable. I have heard that it is better in new releases.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I work with Azure Data Factory and Informatica PowerCenter, and we are now considering taking either of them. We did work with PowerCenter for a long time, and we have a site license for it. With ADF, we're just starting.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We have a site license, but we do pay by the division.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it an eight out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Informatica PowerCenter Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Informatica PowerCenter Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.