A Quick Look

Capabilities

Ascend

Informatica

Pipeline Coverage

Ingest → Transform → Deliver in one platform

Broad capabilities, but many siloed tools

Cloud-Native Architecture

Built for the cloud, no legacy baggage

Not truly cloud-native—legacy patterns persist

Automation

Event-driven, rule-based, built-in automation

Automation often manual or module-dependent

Developer Experience

Git-native, AI-assisted, code + low-code

Limited dev tooling, no AI assistance

Observability

Real-time lineage, logs, and health monitoring

Basic logs, unclear lineage without extra config

Scalability

Elastic scale, simple config

Scaling adds complexity + cost

Time to Value

Start fast, build fast, ship faster

Long setup and configuration cycles

Cost Efficiency

Transparent usage-based pricing, no consultants needed

High licensing + service costs at scale

Where Informatica Falls Short

Informatica was built for an earlier generation of data infrastructure—and it shows. As teams push toward cloud-native architecture, and AI-assisted development, Informatica starts to feel like a legacy system.

Not truly cloud-native

Despite cloud offerings, many workflows and design patterns still feel rooted in on-prem paradigms. 

Slow to iterate

Visual UIs, complex metadata layers, and rigid workflows can slow down development—even for common changes.

Developer experience is outdated

No AI assistance, limited support for version control, and minimal automation make it hard to move fast or shift left.

Cost grows fast with complexity

Enterprise licensing + compute usage + add-on modules = serious overhead, especially as pipelines scale.

Harder to modernize around

Teams looking to embrace open standards, flexible workflows, and event-driven architectures often find Informatica more constraining than enabling.

Included in Every Plan

Every Ascend plan includes full access to the platform — no feature gating, no user limits. Build, automate, and scale with confidence using the entire suite of AI-powered tools.

Data Ingestion

Say goodbye to fragile handoffs and brittle ingest jobs.

Whether you’re moving data from lakes, warehouses, databases, APIs, or legacy systems, Ascend makes it easy. Flexible connectors and dynamic schema handling ensure your pipelines stay reliable as systems evolve.

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Transformation

Transform Data with Speed at Scale

Ascend automates orchestration using rich metadata and event-driven triggers—so pipelines run only when needed, and custom logic is easy to build in.

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Orchestration

Orchestration That Writes Itself

Monitor pipeline performance, trace lineage end-to-end, and debug faster with real-time, metadata-powered insights.

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Observability

See Everything. Fix Anything.

Run faster, spend less—Ascend uses metadata and fingerprinting to cut unnecessary compute without sacrificing performance.

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DataOps

Built-In DataOps for Modern Teams

From Git-backed workflows to access controls and secure deployment environments, Ascend simplifies operational excellence with native support for modern DevOps practices.

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Say Goodbye to Fragile Handoffs and Brittle Ingest Jobs

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Transform Data
with Speed at Scale

From SQL to Python, declarative to imperative, Ascend supports multiple authoring modes — all integrated with version control and modular pipeline design. Build fast, iterate safely.

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Orchestration
that Writes Itself

Ascend’s DataAware engine lets you design intelligent workflows using the metadata you already have — turning your designs into powerful automation. Ascend's Smart Tables process data up to 100x faster.

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See Everything.
Fix Anything.

From real-time monitoring to full lineage and change tracking, Ascend gives you deep visibility into your data flows — so you can spot issues fast and optimize with confidence.

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Built-In DataOps
for Modern Teams

From Git-backed workflows to access controls and secure deployment environments, Ascend simplifies operational excellence with native support for modern DataOps best practices.

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Intelligence at the Core

Ascend's Intelligence Core combines metadata, automation, and AI in a layered architecture that empowers teams to build pipelines 7x faster and cut processing costs by 83%.

Unified Metadata Collection

Ascend tracks data, code, and user actions in a unified metadata layer — powering automation, observability, and auditability through the entire data lifecycle.

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DataAware™ Automation Engine

Ascend’s automation engine uses rich metadata to orchestrate pipelines — managing dependencies, triggering tasks, and supporting custom event-driven workflows.

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Integrated AI Agents

Let AI do the tedious parts of data engineering — Ascend’s context-aware agents suggest code, explain logic, generate docs, and even automate steps on your behalf.

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