Astera Data Pipeline Builder (Centerprise) vs. Talend Open Studio

Astera Centerprise is specific to EDI files. From what I've seen it can be used on EDI files across multiple industries. We use it specifically for healthcare EDI files. We do not create any files using this software because we do not have that need at CCHP, but I know the software could be used for that. CCHP uses the software to correct EDI errors and to import EDI data to our SQL data warehouse. EDI files have a layered structure so they need to be broken down in order to be loaded into the data warehouse. Without this tool we would not be able to import the files. Also, with the layered structure, fields, segments, dependencies and hierarchy, making changes manually is both risky and time consuming. Centerprise reduces the amount of time used to correct files and removes the possibility of creating other errors.

It is certainly suitable for agile and innovative projects. For developments that require particular steps and with a simple debug. On the other hand, it is not very suitable for producing flows that move large amounts of data and that require a lot of resources and great stability.

Incentivized

• Allows for integration of custom functions.
• Allows us to easily migrate data to and from any data source. Our department has become the go-to for automated data extracts.
• We use emails from jobs we run in Centerprise to ensure all jobs run successfully.

• It does provide a lot of predefined functionality out of the box along with providing the facility to use complex java code for developers.
• Mainly like it for small data utilities. It does provide a lot of control for developers.
• Pricing is, of course, a major plus :)

Incentivized

• We have several support calls that have been labeled as to be done in the future. One is the reading of the File Definition in AcuCobol with the sign trailing in a numeric field. The handling of this would help us in several areas but we have been able to develop a work around at this point.
• Some of the child/overlap configuration for the "RMD" seems awkward.

• The community is not that up to date and forum is not that great in response. Probably we should make people aware of the tool more on how to use and its implementations.
• Talend crashes when transforming a lot of data (millions of rows).
• Proper training documentation is a must for talend which is currently lagging. This will help users to learn more about Talend and use it effectively.

Incentivized

We've been using Astera Centerprise application for the last 6 years and we've already added EDI connect to it. Both applications are working really well for our enterprise needs so far with no issues, so we'll continue renewing the licenses.

There is no licence requirement for Talend Open Studio. So, this is not relevant question. However, if you are asking whether we will use Talend in future. Yes. We will continue to use it. It's very powerful free tool which caters to all our extra, transform, load capabilities. We just love Talend for it's great functionality and ease of use.

Incentivized

It's very intuitive and visually descriptive. The interface is standard windows drag and drop although cut and paste are not universally available depending upon what function you're trying to do. You see the ETL and what it's doing. You can inspect the data elements the transformations and perform data previews incrementally along the data flow. You actually SEE what the results are and you can make adjustments without black box testing

Talend Open Studio is based on Eclipse and is full of redundant procedures to do one thing, like when installing libraries. Sometimes I cannot manually download the libraries that it can't find.

In most cases Astera is stable. However, our client experiences the error from time to time. Mostly they are related to cdc file and ServerAdminConfig.xml file.

Incentivized

I think the performance for Astera is great when compare with other similar software.

Incentivized

Many times, Talend freezes. When you give a cancel command, it takes several minutes to stop. It also takes a great toll on our PC with 16 GB of ram and I7 CPU, even in idle status. If you are downloading Maven Jar/Libraries, you cannot do anything and have to wait until the task is finished.

Support is great! No matter if you need technical assistance or you have general questions about the tool - the support is very responsive and provides solutions quickly. They are available via various channels, which makes it very convenient to get in touch with them (Support portal, direct email contact, LinkedIn).

Incentivized

There is only one support staff on a forum created by Talend, which hides behind a nickname and does not show his name. They only ask base questions like: -Talend version - Are you in a proxy? -Do you have all the libraries installed? -It is a Jar missing? (how could I know?) -Follow this link on our site or "please ask your administrators" They then wash their hands of my issues.

Astera support provided us implementation/installation tutorial and we were able to perform all the activities. Also one of the support was there to shadow us to make sure the process was smooth with no issues

We looked at continuing to use SSIS as an alternative. Although we own SSIS as part of our SQL licensing, we found that it takes a much higher skill level to create solutions. It also does not have the ability to parse unstructured data the way that Centerprise Data Integrator can. We also looked at Datawatch Monarch as a possibility but found it over-all to be cost-prohibitive. We also looked at a cheaper alternative called SimX but did not have a strong confidence in the product as we evaluated it. We landed on Centerprise Data Integrator as it met all of our business requirements and we know we could leverage it for many uses across our enterprise.

Informatica has a limited number of components that you can use. This places a heavy limitation on the capabilities of Informatica. On the other hand, Talend allows you to create your own custom components using Java. For businesses that need to perform a wide variety of data operations, it can be quite useful to have the option of creating your own custom components to satisfy business needs.

Incentivized

I think Astera can do multiple things. However, we are not sure what it can do. We only know the basic features. If they can give us some kind of training, then we maybe able to benefit for it. We are planning to use their Azure connection in the future. If they can provide the training for it, it will be wonderful.

Incentivized

• It is tough to say on how Centerprise would have helped us with ROI. Unfortunately our project (after 3 years) was scrapped (put on hold) due to the impromptu purchase of another Crop Insurance company. But with that, Centerprise was huge in getting our warehouse loaded for our BI Team to make important decisions about our policies.

• Being Open Source, your costs on the IDE side are zero.
• There are a lot of programmers with knowledge in Eclipse, they will be comfy using TOS. The development process will be faster.
• Once you develop your Service Bus using TOS, you can connect easily with other Talend products, like DTS, Big Data analysis tools, etc.

Incentivized