Feature differences between watsonx.data intelligence deployments
IBM watsonx.data intelligence as a Service and IBM watsonx.data intelligence software have some differences in features and implementation. Watsonx.data intelligence as a Service is a service available on IBM Cloud and AWS. Watsonx.data intelligence 2.3 and later is offered as software that you must install and maintain on IBM Software Hub.
Platform differences
IBM watsonx.data intelligence as a Service and IBM watsonx.data intelligence software share a common code base, however, they differ in the following key ways:
| Features | As a service | Software |
|---|---|---|
| Software, hardware, and installation | IBM watsonx is fully managed by IBM on IBM Cloud. Software updates are automatic. Scaling of compute resources and storage is automatic. You sign up at Try IBM watsonx. | You provide and maintain hardware. You install, maintain, and upgrade the software. See Software requirements. |
| Storage | You provision a IBM Cloud Object Storage service instance to provide storage. See IBM Cloud Object Storage service. | You provide persistent storage on a Red Hat OpenShift cluster. See Storage requirements. |
| Compute resources for running workloads | Users choose the appropriate runtime for their jobs. Compute usage is billed based on the rate for the runtime environment and the duration of the job. See Monitor account resource usage. | You set up the number of Red Hat OpenShift nodes with the appropriate number of vCPUs. See Hardware requirements and Monitoring the platform. |
| Cost | You buy each service that you need at the appropriate plan level. Many services bill for compute resource consumption. See each service page in the IBM Cloud catalog or in the services catalog on IBM watsonx, by selecting Services > Services catalog from the navigation menu. | You buy a software license based on the services that you need. For example, the Cloud Pak for Data Enterprise Edition license includes entitlement to services such as watsonx.ai Studio and IBM Knowledge Catalog. See Licenses and entitlements. |
| Security, compliance, and isolation | The data security, network security, security standards compliance, and isolation of IBM watsonx are managed by IBM Cloud. You can set up extra security and encryption options. See Security of IBM watsonx. | Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform provides basic security features. Cloud Pak for Data is assessed for various Privacy and Compliance regulations and provides features that you can use in preparation for various privacy and compliance assessments. You are responsible for additional security features, encryption, and network isolation. See Security considerations. |
| Available services | Most data fabric services are available in both deployment environments. See IBM Cloud services. |
Includes many other services for other components and solutions. See Services. |
| User management | You add users and user groups and manage their account roles and permissions with IBM Cloud Identity and Access Management. See Add users to the account. You can also set up SAML federation on IBM Cloud. See IBM Cloud docs: How IBM Cloud IAM works. |
You can add users and create user groups from the Administration menu. You can use the Identity and Access Management Service or use your existing SAML SSO or LDAP provider for identity and password management. You can create dynamic, attribute-based user groups. See User management. |
Common core functionality across services
The following core functionality that is provided with the platform is effectively the same for services on watsonx.data intelligence as a Service and watsonx.data intelligence 2.3:
- Intelligent search for assets and artifacts across the platform
- The Platform assets catalog for sharing connections across the platform
- Role-based user management within collaborative workspaces across the platform
- Common infrastructure for assets and workspaces
- A services catalog for adding services
- View compute usage from the Administration menu
The following table describes differences in core functionality across services between watsonx.data intelligence as a Service and watsonx.data intelligence 2.3:
| Feature | As a service | Software |
|---|---|---|
| Manage all projects | Users with the Manage projects permission from the IAM service access Manager role for the IBM watsonx.data intelligence service can join any project with the Admin role and then manage or delete the project. | Users with the Manage projects permission can join any project with the Admin role and then manage or delete the project. |
| Connections to remote data sources | Most supported data sources are common to both deployment environments. See Connectors. |
See Supported data sources and Connectors for Data Product Hub. |
| Connection credentials that are personal or shared | Connections in projects and catalogs can require personal credentials or allow shared credentials. Shared credentials can be disabled at the account level. | Platform connections can require personal credentials or allow shared credentials. Shared credentials can be disabled at the platform level. |
| Connection credentials from secrets in a vault | Not available | Available |
| Kerberos authentication | Not available | Available for some services and connections |
| Sample assets and projects from the Resource hub app | Available | Not available |
| Custom JDBC connector | Not available | Available |
| Data source definitions | Available | Available See Data protection with data source definitions. |
watsonx.data intelligence
Check the following sections for differences in features of IBM watsonx.data intelligence as a Service and IBM watsonx.data intelligence 2.3.
Data catalog, governance, and quality
The following features are effectively the same for watsonx.data intelligence as a Service and IBM watsonx.data intelligence 2.3:
- Collaboration in projects and catalogs
- Project import and export by using a project ZIP file
- AI powered search in catalogs
- Rating and reviewing assets in catalogs
- Data Refinery tool in projects
- Categories with collaborator roles
- Predefined and custom classifications
- Predefined and custom data classes
- Governance rules
- Policies
- Data protection rules
- Data quality SLA rules
- Manual profiling of individual relational data assets in a project or a catalog
- Automatic profiling of relational data assets added to a governed catalog
- Metadata enrichment tool in projects for running profiling, term assignment, quality analysis, and key or relationship analysis on large sets of data assets
- Enhanced enrichment using generative AI
- Automatically generate and run data quality checks as part of metadata enrichment
- Custom asset types, custom properties for assets, and custom relationships between assets in catalogs
- Monitor workflow tasks
- Detailed data quality information for data assets in projects and catalogs, and as part of metadata enrichment results
- Remediation workflows for data quality issues
- Create connected data assets and segmented data assets with SQL queries
- Run metrics dashboard and execution windows for metadata enrichment jobs
- Administrative reports
- Relationship explorer
This table describes the differences in features between watsonx.data intelligence as a Service and watsonx.data intelligence 2.3, differences between offering plans, and whether additional services are required. For more information about feature differences between offering plans on IBM watsonx, see watsonx.data intelligence service plans.
| Feature | As a service | Software |
|---|---|---|
| Organize assets in projects with folders | Available (beta) | Available |
| Metadata import tool in projects - discovery | Import data assets into projects or catalogs. Support for a subset of project and catalog connections. See Supported data sources for curation and data quality. | Import data assets into projects or catalogs. Most supported connections are the same in both deployment environments. |
| Metadata import tool in projects - lineage | Limits per plan. | Import lineage of data assets into catalogs. |
| Metadata enrichment tool in projects - advanced analysis (advanced profiling and key or relationship analyses) | Available. Requires the DataStage service or the watsonx.data integration service. |
Available. Requires the DataStage service. |
| Data quality rules in projects | Available in Trial, Standard, and Premium plans. Requires the DataStage service or the watsonx.data integration service. |
Available. Requires the DataStage service or the watsonx.data integration service. |
| Add multiple assets to a catalog with a file | Available. | Available. |
| Business terms | Limits for some plans. | Available. |
| Generative AI-powered glossary generation | Available. | Available. |
| Reference data sets | Limits for some plans. | Available. |
| Custom relationships for governance artifacts | Available in some plans. | Available. |
| Knowledge Accelerators | Limits for some plans. Download from Resource hub. |
Provided with the platform. |
| Custom workflow configurations for governance artifacts and requests | Available for governance artifacts. | Available. |
| Export and import data protection rules | To export data protection rules from any system and import the rules into the same system or a different system, you can use APIs. For details, see Migrating data protection rules. | To export data protection rules from any system and import the rules into the same system or a different system, you can use either APIs or cpd-cli commands. For details, see Migrating data protection rules. |
| Gen AI powered term generation | Available in Trial and Premium plans. | Not available. |
| Unstructured data curation | Available in Trial and Premium plans. Requires these services: • Watson Machine Learning • watsonx.ai Studio • watsonx.data as a Service • watsonx.data integration |
Available. |
| Data Intelligence Assistant | Available in Trial and Premium plans. | Not available. |
Data lineage
The following data lineage features are effectively the same for watsonx.data intelligence as a Service and watsonx.data intelligence 2.3:
- Column-level lineage
- Scheduling of lineage imports
- Lineage flags
- Alias assignments
- Import of supplemental source code
- Import with external input
This table describes the differences in data lineage features between watsonx.data intelligence as a Service and watsonx.data intelligence 2.3, differences between offering plans, and whether additional services are required. For more information about feature differences between offering plans on IBM watsonx, see watsonx.data intelligence service plans.
| Feature | As a service | Software |
|---|---|---|
| Lineage versioning | Available in some plans. | Available. |
| Manta agents | Available. | Available. |
Data product sharing
The data product sharing features are effectively the same for watsonx.data intelligence as a Service and watsonx.data intelligence 2.3. For more information about feature differences between offering plans on IBM watsonx, see watsonx.data intelligence service plans.