Datastage vs. Alteryx: Comparative Pros & Cons

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billbisco
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Datastage vs. Alteryx: Comparative Pros & Cons

Post by billbisco »

Hi all,

My company uses both Datastage and Alteryx software. We have internal clients who will often ask which software they should use for their particular project and I need to give them a good answer.

What are the things Datastage is better at than Alteryx? What are the things that Datastage is worse than Alteryx? I'll ask a similar question to the Alteryx community.

Datastage better than Alteryx:
Datastage can interact with back-end servers more easily than Alteryx
Datastage can partition queries for faster runtime whereas Alteryx cannot

Datastage worse than Datastage:
Datastage lacks many of Alteryx's predictive tools
Datastage has a less modern user interface

Any additions or disagreements to the above?

Thanks,
Bill
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PaulVL
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Post by PaulVL »

Does Alteryx provide an Address Validation mechanism?
eostic
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Post by eostic »

...or an ability to be deployed as a web service?
...parse and write XML?
...parse and write JSON?
...perform partitioning for massive data volumes?
...run directly on hadoop, under full control of YARN?
...provide simple patterns for concurrent and multiple runs of the same Job?
...provide a detailed Operations Console for tracking usage, CPU, etc.?
...establish queues for managing workloads based on CPU, # of Jobs, etc.?
...provide a command line for process control and execution?
...provide an API for the same?
...enable development of a single generic Job to move (say) 10000 different tables from one system to another, or from an EDW into Hadoop?
...provide immediate data lineage across all jobs/projects?

.....and that's just getting started.... ; )

We see Alteryx more frequently as a departmental recipient of files that DataStage prepares --- so that users can do some of the interesting dynamic shaping functions that Alteryx also nicely provides....and at least one site I know of that has started prototyping capture of Alteryx metadata to be displayed "in lineage" along with what DataStage provides.

Ernie
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qt_ky
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Post by qt_ky »

I heard that the long-rumored web-based DataStage Designer is coming soon...
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chulett
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Post by chulett »

I guess I need to check out Alteryx to see what a "more modern user interface" looks like.
-craig

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UCDI
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Post by UCDI »

usually modern UI means slower and in a browser that ignores standard keyboard shortcuts and lacks a right and middle click interface. Browser UI are largely poorish, though the industry seems bent on making things this way.

Datastage also fails in many places with consistency and availability of standard keyboard operations and keyboard shortcutting in general. You cannot use the tool without a mouse, and mice slow down users in general.

No idea what the other tool uses.

I am a simple person. let me move around with arrow keys and copy/paste/save/run/drop to canvas / etc without the mouse.
PaulVL
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Post by PaulVL »

qt_ky wrote:I heard that the long-rumored web-based DataStage Designer is coming soon...
It's here now. My IBM guy is going to set up a demo for me next week.

I'll post my comments once I see it.
chulett
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Post by chulett »

8)

Create a new post for that, please.
-craig

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ray.wurlod
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Post by ray.wurlod »

Beate Porst (IBM worldwide offering manager for Information Server) demonstrated it in Australia two weeks back. Some distance to go before it's ready for GA, but it will add interesting features from the cognitive space that IBM's talking up.

Curiously, the principal interface looks a bit like Alteryx, particularly with the curved links.
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Any contribution to this forum is my own opinion and does not necessarily reflect any position that IBM may hold.
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