erwin Data Modeler

Score10 out of 10

24 Reviews and Ratings

What is erwin Data Modeler?

erwin Data Modeler by Quest is a data modeling tool used to find, visualize, design, deploy and standardize high-quality enterprise data assets. It can discover and document any data from anywhere for consistency, clarity and artifact reuse across large-scale data integration, master data management, metadata management, Big Data, business intelligence and analytics initiatives, accomplishing this whil esupporting data governance and intelligence efforts.

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Sean Zef

Data Admin in Information Technology at Zef Enterprises, LLC (1-10 employees employees)

Pros

ERD diagrams
Publishing those ERDs for end-user consumption either on the web or PDF.

Cons

The GUI is a little clunky, even on the 2020 version
Overwhelming amount of options, which is good eventually

Return on Investment

Would be painful to map databases without it, would likely be whiteboard otherwise.
It's kind of expensive, but licensing options are flexible and allow concurrent users.

Rina Falkovich View profile

Data Architect in Information Technology at Western Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC) (201-500 employees employees)

Pros

Creation of logical data models
Reverse engineering
Excellent communication tool in conversations with Developers and BAs
As a company, Erwin provides lots of tutorials and how-tos.

Cons

The main con I can think of is cost.
It takes time to setup and learn which is an adoption barrier.

Return on Investment

It is difficult to assign a monetary value to it. The initial learning curve was fairly long.
It allows us to have better support documentation.
It allows ease of communications between functional units.

Alternatives Considered

IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer

Other Software Used

Microsoft Visio, Oracle Database 12c, Qlik Sense

Ravinder Gupta View profile

Senior Oracle Database Administrator in Information Technology at CGI (10,001+ employees employees)

Pros

Reverse Engineering: I love the way we can import an SQL file containing schema meta data and generate ER diagram out of it. This is specifically useful if you are implementing erwin Data Modeler for an existing database.
Forward Engineering: We use this feature very frequently. Where we do database changes in our physical and logical data models and then generate deployment scripts for the changes made.
Physical vs Logical Models: I like to have my database model split into physical and logical models and at the same time still linked to each other. Any changes you make to logical model or physical model shows up in the other.

Cons

For large models, it gets tedious to print the diagram in a single pdf. I have to often make adjustment and if i use the fit model feature, it kind of changes the alignment of entities in my ER diagram. Erwin may let us make pdf of the model as is.
I have used reverse engineering using for Oracle schemas. It will be very good if it supports reverse engineering for more vendors, so i can use erwin data modeler for database conversion activities too.

Return on Investment

erwin Data Modeler had been a great tool for our database development and application DBA teams. The thorough data modeling and release control helps us to back trace any issues which are pointed to us at a later stage in the development cycle.
Initially, some of the team members saw it as an extra effort to maintain data models while they can simply create scripts without models. But overtime, people have realized how it avoids problems and discrepancies over time.

Alternatives Considered

Toad Data Point

Other Software Used

Google Authenticator, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Database, Cisco Webex Teams (formerly Cisco Spark)

Usability

Verified User

Employee in Information Technology (10,001+ employees employees)

Pros

Easy to reverse engineer existing databases to bring them into the model or account for drift.
Intuitive interface for developers just starting out with the tool.
Large number of options on how to display a data model visually, which is critical when dealing with very large models.

Cons

Cost is the single largest barrier to entry with this tool.
Would like to see a greater variety of export options available for use outside of the tool, for example as a vector graphic.
Support has been uneven at times.

Return on Investment

Reduced rework from when models were maintained individually.
Reduced the amount of time to generate and compare models during development.
Massively reduced the amount of time to reverse engineer 3rd party data models for analysis.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Visio and Lucidchart

Other Software Used

Microsoft Visio, Lucidchart

Verified User

Director in Professional Services (10,001+ employees employees)

Pros

Generation/management of DDL.
Enforces standard naming conventions.
Builds logical and physical data models.

Cons

User interface
Many options available to learn.

Return on Investment

Standardization of Data Models
Generate Data Dictionaries

Toad Data Modeler

ER/Studio Data Architect

SAP PowerDesigner

erwin Data Modeler

What is erwin Data Modeler?

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