# IBM InfoSphere Information Server Reviews **Vendor:** IBM **Category:** [On-Premise Data Integration Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/on-premise-data-integration) **Average Rating:** 4.1/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 23 ## About IBM InfoSphere Information Server Better understand your data and cleanse, monitor, transform and deliver it. Build confidence in your data Delivers clean, consistent and timely information for your data warehouses or big data projects and applications. Create a flexible governance strategy Helps you adapt a data governance strategy to suit your organizational objectives, while shaping business information in unique ways to meet your needs. Modernize and consolidate your systems Enables you to consolidate applications, retire outdated databases and modernize your infrastructure, as well as automate business processes for improved cost savings. Connect business and IT Provides a unified platform that enables collaboration, which can help you bridge the gap between business and IT and align objectives. ## IBM InfoSphere Information Server Reviews ### 1. Group lead Quality control **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Yeshwanth K. | Group Lead, Quality Control, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 29, 2024 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** IBM InfoSphere Information Server is valued for its comprehensive data integration capabilities, scalability to handle large datasets, and robust features for ensuring data quality, governance, and metadata management. **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** IBM InfoSphere Information Server can be complex to set up and maintain, requiring specialized skills and resources. Additionally, its licensing costs can be prohibitive for smaller organizations. Sometimes, the user interface could be more intuitive, leading to a steeper learning curve for new users **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** IBM InfoSphere Information Server solves data integration challenges by providing comprehensive tools for data quality, governance, and metadata management. This benefits me by streamlining data processes, ensuring data accuracy, and enabling better decision-making through reliable data insights. ### 2. IBM InfoSphere Information Server **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 20, 2023 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Very userful as a Data Governance tool, great tool for transformation an analysis of data. Customer support excelent, easy to implement **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** it has a high price and needs a renovation **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Integration, data management, implement data quality and creation of a data catalog. ### 3. Decent product for mid to large size companies. Too much for small (less than 5b) **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Medical Devices | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 28, 2020 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** scalable and solid integration capabilities **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Pricing on licensing could be cumbersome and expensive **Recommendations to others considering IBM InfoSphere Information Server:** Oracle Agile, SAP **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Transparency for Master Data (Governance) and proactive signaling of data defects. ### 4. Advanced Functionality but not the simplest to use or learn **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** David C. | Data Governance, Integration & Quality Analyst, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 14, 2019 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** I like the spirit of the tool and how Xmeta really ties all the pieces together. **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** The shift in agile development of the tool has made the tool adoption slower that desired. There have been some stability issues. **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Data quality, ETL. Transparency into costs. Centralized IT cost reporting ### 5. Infosphere Information Server Review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 12, 2019 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Single Repository across all the products in the suite which helps us collect repository from various modules and use it for our data driven decision. **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Configuring each of these product to work the first time is always a challenge. **Recommendations to others considering IBM InfoSphere Information Server:** The kind of investments IBM is putting into the Information Server Product is appreciative. It helps the Education Industry which are very lean helps us to multi task our operations **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** THe Data Lineage across multiple products has helped us to manage our data well ### 6. IBM IIS Information Governance Catalog Architecture **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 14, 2019 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** IGC and other IIS components have a flexible event driven architecture and REST API's that allows its components to be extended and fit into a SOA. **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** If you do not use a full IBM Stack (DB2, WAS Load Balancer, etc.) or install ad-hoc patches, then upgrades are not always tested against that infrastructure and have historically caused issues and support to be engaged. **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Governing data so it can be trusted for business decisions and regulatory enablement through data lineage. ### 7. Data Governance with Information Server **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 12, 2019 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Information Server provides a full suite of data governance solutions in one platform **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Installation can be complex and time consuming **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Data lineage from source systems to reports to show traceability of data on reorts to increase confidence in report data ### 8. REview of IBM DataStage **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 13, 2019 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Solid deployment model, robust and easy to support. **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** UI has a lot of customization - so learning curve is high initially. **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Enterprise ETL software. Benefits are standard development and QA process. Easy support from offshore team. ### 9. Info Server is a compelling integration and governance solution **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 12, 2019 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Info Server provides a wide range of products and has a very promising roadmap. **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Learning curve can be intimidating to new users. **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** The product offers a high performing solution for moving large amounts of data. ### 10. The only all-in-one data management platform **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Utilities | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 12, 2019 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** It's got profiling, connectivity, tranformation, and governance **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Needs DevOps features, including testing and better Git integration **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Data integration, transformation, and governance. ### 11. complete data solution **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 12, 2019 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** focus in AI in new products with data profiling and data quality **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** licensing model, integration other tools **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Sales and Architecture ### 12. Robust product for Transformation **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Airlines/Aviation | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 11, 2019 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Transformation capabilities, Hadoop Connectivity **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Clearing locks with jobs........................ **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Transforming business data and loading to warehouse to take business decisions ### 13. experienced iis user **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Insurance | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 15, 2019 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** both infrastructure and developing. advisory **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** routine stuff,lack of funtionality,lack of forum **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** datawarehousing ### 14. IBM InfoSphere **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 03, 2018 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Great product but expensive. IBM InfoSphere is great for large/complex implementations. If your implementation is small, do not bother about using this product due to its complexity and licensing cost. **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** IBM InfoSphere's exclusivity to handle Big Data. It does not process XML well. Licensing cost is too high for small implementations. **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** InfoSphere is allowing our business to solve and utilize ETL, Parallel processing, Address verification using , QualityStage, and Single view of information. ### 15. IGC **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 21, 2018 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** easy to use, no extensive trainning required **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** performance and structure issues plus integration with other IBM products **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** term definition and business rules governance ### 16. Good if you already have IBM licensing, be wary of hidden costs though **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Patrick H. | Lead Integration Developer, Automotive, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 12, 2016 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** IBM InfoSphere offers tools to build integration hubs and services for large scale enterprises. Datastage and Quality step is a competitive ETL/MDM solution and is comparable to informatica. The performance and ease of creating multinode jobs to improve processing speed is impressive. Integrates well with Oracle and IBM DB2 rdms. Has SAP support via plugin, but it leaves much to be desired in this area. If you already have an enterprise license for IBM tools then this should be an obvious choice, especially if you plan on pairing it with tools like Optim for test data management. Works well if you also utilize Sterling Commerce B2B for file transfer management. **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Terrible code version control. Two options: [1] use CVS - really? 1990 called it wants its version control back [2] or use IBM's proprietary version control system that doesn't integrate with your automated build system (such as Jenkins). You can extract code as dsx (txt files) and store it manually in your preferred vault (svn, git, etc) but this is cumbersome and there is NO PLUGIN for these other control systems! While cheaper than Informatica in many instances you will run into documentation/support issues. Sure you can pay for the enterprise support package, but when you need a "quick" solution and just need to scour the web for an answer, good luck. For companies choosing to utilize the Integration technology like Datastage/QualityStep be aware it is extremely hard to find trained Datastage developers. Datastage makes up a small percentage of the US talent pool, meaning it is hard to attract and retain talent. So any savings you may get by going with IBM could very well be eaten away by the higher cost of human capital. **Recommendations to others considering IBM InfoSphere Information Server:** Good for cost savings if you own an enterprise license for all IBM software. Be wary of the lack of quick documentation and online support forums. Be sure before you switch products that you will be able to find talent. Outsourced talent is relatively easy to find for this product, on-shore US talent is extremely rare and expensive for experienced developers compared to the competition. If you heavily use other IBM products you should at least consider this since it integrates well with other IBM tools. It however has lackluster integration with 3rd party tools like version control systems. For a company that sponsors Eclipse, they have chosen not to use it as a basis for this suite of tools leaving its interface frustratingly stuck in 1990 by graphical standards and usability. **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Integration of large datasets for thousands of batch interfaces. (Datastage) Use of Master Data Management with qualitystep and qualitystage. IIB (related technology) is used for real time interfaces. Datastage can do real time interfaces, but does not function well for real time file interfaces since jobs must be scheduled to constantly check for files. ### 17. I used Datastage,Liked it **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kushal R. | Associate, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 23, 2016 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** The InfoSphere Platform provides a data warehousing tool called Datastage which i used. Found it very usefull. Its easy to learn and use. **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** For coders drag and drop can be a little boring.But it gets the job done. **Recommendations to others considering IBM InfoSphere Information Server:** Its a very much trusted and accomplished tool by IBM.Need not think very much if you are considering using it. **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** ETL tool i used has impacted the way data is processed ### 18. Better than most ETL tools **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2016 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Whole suite of data integration products to fit every need. Products integrate well. Technical support is very good and able to resolve most issues in less than one day. **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** No abstraction between logical and physical objects, so it is difficult to create reusable objects. The underlying metadata is in a Universe database, so configuration changes and resolving system problems are cumbersome. **Recommendations to others considering IBM InfoSphere Information Server:** Consider the whole scope of data integration you need for the next five years, including real time heterogeneous data integration, data quality, data lineage, metadata management, and master data management. There are only two products on the market that have the full suite - IBM InfoSphere and Informatica. **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Custom data integration into a data warehouse. ### 19. Metadata management & Data Governance best integration **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Shashi R. | IBM Infosphere(Data Stage) v11.3 Administrator, Financial Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2016 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** One bundle for Metadata management ,Data Governance ,Data Quality ,Dashboard & Data Quality .One shop for Data . **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Frequent change and IBM support for product .Lake of coordination with support team for integration issue with Data Governance ,MetaData & Data Quality . **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Data Governance ### 20. This is a robust and easy to use product **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Edward K. | VP, Manager Enterprise Data Quality Program, Financial Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2016 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** I have used the Information Governance Catalog and Information Anayzer components at several companies and they are user friendly and rich in fucntionality **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Too many rollup patches and frequent updates required **Recommendations to others considering IBM InfoSphere Information Server:** Always have existing use cases. Solve a problem, don't just bring it in and then try to find a use **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Compliance reporting, Enterprise glossary, data quality analysis, ### 21. IBM Infosphere Datastage **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2016 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Datastage, part of the IBM Infosphere Suite is the best (if not one of) ETL tool out in the market. It's able to read from almost all platforms, performs needed transformations very efficiently and load to all target environments. **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** There are parts of IBM Infosphere with redundancies in terms of functionality. It's very easy for new developers to get confused on what tool to use. **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** The tool is mostly used for data integration from different sources, applying needed transformations to fit into a target datamart, later to be used for analytics. ### 22. All in one information management bundle - very comprehensive toolset for Data platform **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bireswar G. | AVP, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 02, 2015 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Very comprehensive tool set - starting from ETL, DQ, MDM, Metadata management and so on, None of the competitors have got this kind of completeness in a cohesive fashion supporting collaboration **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** IBM trying to merge 2 product's (Initiate MDM and DWL/WCC MDM) capability into one product in MDM space - just because they bought 2 companies with similar capabilities; but really it did not helped any one - architecturally it became more complex - hard to explain people - no proper use cases for virtual/ and then questions like why virtual - why 2 different things? Batch processing at MDM is not still clean. **Recommendations to others considering IBM InfoSphere Information Server:** I think I have already provided the best part of this toolset - it's a very comprehensive bundle. **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Single Customer / Party / Entity View. Depends on the engagement and maturity of the customer - but many benefits (direct and indirect). ### 23. Infosphere product catalog **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Venkata K. | Assistant Consultant, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 07, 2015 **What do you like best about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** We use DataStage and Quality Stage, XML processing stages are quiet comfortable **What do you dislike about IBM InfoSphere Information Server?** Minor Bugs in every release that impact most functionality in DB2 Stages, but managable **Recommendations to others considering IBM InfoSphere Information Server:** I recommend this internally within the company for most of the implementation, it saves cost and offer performance **What problems is IBM InfoSphere Information Server solving and how is that benefiting you?** Most of the day migrations and integrations..cost saving and performance are addons ## IBM InfoSphere Information Server Discussions - [What is IBM InfoSphere Information Server used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-ibm-infosphere-information-server-used-for) - [View IBM InfoSphere Information Server pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-infosphere-information-server/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-30+03%3A00%3A13+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=389f7883-51f4-411c-abb7-027d75b21234&secure%5Btoken%5D=711da5722ece1d45db05216336e929068e522ee80854ae1b2d0b760ac44c37ed&format=llm_user) ## IBM InfoSphere Information Server Features **Data Management** - Data Integration - Data Compression - Data Quality - Built-In Data Analytics - In-Database Machine Learning - Data Lake Analytics **Integration** - AI/ ML Integration - BI Tool Integration - Data lake Integration **Deployment** - On-Premise - Cloud **Functionality** - Identification - Correction - Normalization - Preventative Cleaning - Data Matching **Performance ** - Scalability **Management** - Reporting - Automation - Quality Audits - Dashboard - Governance **Security** - Data Governance - Data Security **Generative AI** - AI Text Generation - AI Text Summarization **Generative AI** - AI Text Generation - AI Text Summarization ## Top IBM InfoSphere Information Server Alternatives - [SAP Data Management](https://www.g2.com/products/sap-data-management/reviews) - 4.0/5.0 (31 reviews) - [Snowflake](https://www.g2.com/products/snowflake/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (705 reviews) - [Amazon Redshift](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-redshift/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (369 reviews)