Informatica's Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) combines data integration, data quality, a catalog and master data management, metered in Informatica Processing Units; its on-premise predecessor PowerCenter left standard support on March 31, 2026, and Informatica has been part of Salesforce since November 18, 2025 [1][4]. Lima Backbone is the data-movement part of a platform that also carries a catalog, quality rules, lineage and MDM, priced by the tier. The differences that matter are the pricing unit, the SAP extraction paths, packaged planning targets and how bad records and deadlines are handled.
Each row states what each product does in plain words. Where a fact depends on a vendor document, the document is numbered and linked beneath the table.
| Item | Informatica | Lima Backbone |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | IDMC: cloud data integration, application integration, data quality, catalog and MDM services on one platform, with Secure Agents running the work where the data is. PowerCenter: the on-premise integration product it succeeds [1][4][5]. | Lima Backbone: the data-movement part of the Lima platform. Pipelines, orchestration, change capture and write-back, from a nightly copy into a data lake to a full ERP-to-planning integration with results returned to the ERP. |
| Where it runs | IDMC control plane in Informatica's cloud; Secure Agents on-premise or in your cloud. PowerCenter on-premise [5]. | Lima's cloud, your private cloud, or on your own machines; the same software in each (product). |
| How you pay | Informatica Processing Units: a pre-paid credit consumed by scalars such as compute units and events processed, with volume tiers and a Flex IPU option [2][3]. | A subscription sized by the tier your estate needs (32C to 128C); the whole platform is included; the price does not change with rows moved, connections, jobs or questions asked. Fixed-price entry offers (product; see the pricing page). |
| SAP extraction | SAP Table connector (tables, views, CDS views, ADSOs), HANA database triggers, HANA database log-based change capture, ODP with ODQ delta, and OData [5]. BAPI/RFC and IDoc through the SAP Connector [6]. No statement on SAP Note 3255746 for the ODP path was found. | Table reads through a named released function module, BAPIs, released CDS views, change pointers and extractor delta queues. No ODP RFC (SAP Note 3255746), no RFC_READ_TABLE in production (Note 382318), no HANA log reading (Note 2971304). Nothing installed in SAP (product; compliance statement pending sign-off). |
| Oracle extraction | Oracle database and application connectors, with change capture through mass-ingestion services (vendor docs; confirm the mechanism per product). | Partitioned JDBC reads within a cap agreed with the DBA; changed rows by last-update columns; LogMiner where the DBA allows; Oracle Fusion Cloud through BICC extracts and REST (product). |
| Change capture | Database log capture for supported databases; HANA log-based capture is offered [5] (SAP Note 2971304 states SAP does not certify it). | Application-layer change capture for SAP; database-log capture for PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server and Oracle; streams in micro-batches (product). |
| Transformation | Visual mapping designer with pushdown to the target where available [5]. | 150+ visual operators and Python on a parallel engine; ETL, ELT or a mix (product). |
| Orchestration and deadlines | Taskflows with schedules and event triggers (vendor docs). | Runs on Apache Airflow with five trigger modes. A run window with a business deadline; a failed check pauses the run and its clock; resume from checkpoint; ordered replay (product). |
| A bad record | Data quality as a separate IDMC service, with a Data Quality Agent generally available in spring 2026; steward and enrichment agents planned for Q4 2026 [7]. | Incoming = valid + exception records. A failed row is kept, routed to the buyer, planner or steward who owns it with a deadline, and replayed once fixed (product). |
| Write-back | Application integration writes to SAP through BAPI/RFC and IDoc [6]. | To SAP through BAPIs and IDocs, to Oracle through open interface tables and public APIs; each write carries a key and counts as done only when the ERP confirms it; a ledger records every write (product). |
| Planning applications as targets | General connectors; planning applications are not packaged targets (vendor connector list). | Kinaxis Maestro, o9, Blue Yonder, SAP IBP, OMP and Anaplan are packaged targets with their data models described (product). |
| Reconciliation | Job logs and row counts per task (vendor docs). | A report after every run: rows in, rows out, control totals and variance per table; exceptions and their owners; deadline met or missed (product). |
| Standards | CLAIRE agents on the timeline above; Headless CLAIRE generally available spring 2026 [7]. | Airflow-native; OpenLineage, Open Data Contract Standard, MCP server, Iceberg and Delta output on a dated schedule (see the standards page). |
Write-back with confirmation and reconciliation: both products write to SAP; only one records a ledger per write. Informatica writes through BAPI/RFC and IDoc [6]. Lima does the same and, for every write, records the key, the call, SAP's response and the reconciliation, then routes a rejected write to its owner. Test it: send 1,000 planned orders and ask for the ledger.
A comparison is only useful if it says when the other product fits. These are the situations in which each one does.
During a PowerCenter migration the two often run together: PowerCenter keeps the workflows that are not yet moved, Lima runs the converted ones, and the reconciliation report proves each cut-over.
Estates that keep IDMC for the catalog can register Lima's lineage and quality results there through OpenLineage when that output ships (see the standards page).
Lima carries a catalog, quality rules, lineage, access policy and MDM on the same platform as the Backbone, so it can. Many customers start with the Backbone beside an existing catalog and decide later.
PowerCenter 10.5 left standard support on March 31, 2026 [4]. Lima's migration page describes a fixed-scope conversion of the first ten to twenty workflows with a reconciliation report per cut-over.
SAP Note 2971304 states that SAP does not publish or certify an interface for reading the HANA redo log. Lima captures SAP changes at the application layer instead; Informatica offers both application-layer and HANA log-based paths [5].
A two-week bake-off on your estate measures rows per minute, hours to a first load, reconciliation variance, run-window adherence and exceptions routed, plus one confirmed write-back.
