Ascential Line of products and SAP / XI (MDM)

PilotBaha · Post by **PilotBaha** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 6:01 pm

I have a client that is using the SAP - DS Enterprise suite combination. They are being approached by SAP about using MDM (SAP XI) for the ETL work by the same logic of Ascential (Why not take care of data work through a single vendor?)

I just started to read about this SAP product and looks like it has features similar to DS and QS (initial load, CDC, matching, etc.). One of my concerns is the ability of SAP to work with other major software. The client is using PeopleSoft for their HR work and they have SQL server stuff laying around in different parts of enterprise.

I am not experienced in SAP, so I was wondering if anyone has similar stories. I am not trying to sell a certain product to the client, but I am trying to make them see that DS is not a product that moves data from point A to point B. Any ideas, any comparisons will be appreciated.

Thanks..

vmcburney · Post by **vmcburney** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:59 pm

Last I heard SAP was still a reseller of DataStage and were still recommending it. Sounds like they in NetWeaver they are trying to shut out 3rd parties and do it all in SAP components.

The Master Data Management product was first introduced in Sep last year so it will not be a very mature product. It's part of SAP Netweaver, the web service driven replacement of SAP on the mainframe. It sounds like it overlaps with Ascential ProfileStage, DataStage, QualityStage and MetaStage (all in a single product). I am dubious as to whether a product with such a wide scope does any part of it well. Ascential have spent years trying to get ETL, metadata and cleansing integrated and SAP claim to have done it in one hit.

You have to question whether you would be a guinea pig for SAP. An example is that the SAP discussion group for the entire Netweaver suite has just 60 odd posts while the DataStage forum here gets 100+ a day. Your client may get more value at evaluating DataStage RTI so they can combine the web services functionality of NetWeaver with DataStage web services and leverage all the DataStage IP they already have.