‍TL;DR: Informatica PowerCenter support is ending. Running it past 2026 introduces real risk. Salesforce’s acquisition only adds pressure. We built a tool to migrate PowerCenter to dbt — here’s what you need to know.

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Informatica PowerCenter has been a workhorse for enterprise data integration — but its era is coming to an end. Extended support for the final version of PowerCenter is approaching its end-of-life, marking a pivotal moment for data platform owners, IT leaders, and executives.

This blog post explores why the end of extended support for PowerCenter matters, the risks it introduces, and how forward-looking teams are responding. We’ll also unpack Salesforce’s recent acquisition of Informatica and what it signals for legacy platform users. Finally, we highlight a pragmatic path forward — including Tropos’ PowerCenter-to-dbt migration tool — to turn this challenge into an outcome-driven opportunity.

The Clock Is Ticking on PowerCenter’s Extended Support

Support for Informatica PowerCenter is winding down, and the timeline is critical. PowerCenter 10.5’s standard support ends on March 31, 2026 — after that date, only extended support will remain (at a premium cost). That extended support buys at most one additional year (until 2027) before entering “sustaining support,” where even critical fixes cease and the product is essentially in retirement. In short, the sun is truly setting on PowerCenter’s decades-long run.

Why does this timeline matter? After an end-of-support date passes, your PowerCenter environment will no longer receive technical support, security patches, or bug fixes. Over time, this lack of updates can lead to performance degradation and compatibility issues as surrounding technologies evolve, posing serious security and operational risks. Data integration pipelines that once “just worked” could break with new source/target systems, and unpatched vulnerabilities may leave your data exposed. Additionally, the cost of relying on extended support is high, and it is only a temporary Solution. After 2027, even that safety net disappears, leaving organizations on their own with an unsupported system.

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Why End-of-Support Is a Business Risk (Not Just IT’s Problem)

When a core platform like PowerCenter hits end-of-support, it’s not merely an IT maintenance issue — it’s a business risk. Leaders must understand the multifaceted impact:

1 — Security and Compliance

No security updates means known vulnerabilities remain unpatched, which can jeopardize compliance with data regulations and open the door to breaches. Auditors and security teams will flag unsupported software as a critical issue.

2 — Operational Stability

As vendors stop fixing bugs, system stability can degrade. Incompatibilities with updated databases, operating systems, or cloud services can cause integration jobs to fail unexpectedly. The result is potential downtime or erroneous data in analytics — outcomes no business can afford.

3 — Rising Costs

Running on extended support (or beyond) often means paying hefty fees for a diminishing level of service. Additionally, maintaining aging infrastructure and finding talent who know legacy ETL tools can inflate operational costs.

4 — Lost Agility

Legacy platforms can hold back innovation. PowerCenter was designed for on-premises, batch-oriented data movement. In today’s cloud-first, real-time world, clinging to old tech can make your data team less agile compared to competitors using modern, cloud-native tools.

In short, doing nothing is risky and expensive. The end of PowerCenter’s support is “more than a routine software lifecycle event” — it’s a pivotal moment requiring careful planning. Forward-looking organizations see this inflection point not as a disaster, but as an opportunity to modernize.

Forward-Looking Teams Are Taking Action, Not Chances

Leading data teams aren’t waiting until 2027 to react — they’re acting now. The looming end-of-support has accelerated plans to modernize data integration platforms. Informatica’s cloud modernization program has already helped current PowerCenter customers move to its cloud platform (IDMC) in recent years. But moving from an on-prem ETL tool to a cloud-native stack can take different forms depending on an organization’s goals.

Common strategies we’ve seen forward-looking teams pursuing:

1 — Migrating to Cloud ETL/ELT Platforms

Some organizations see the natural path as migrating to Informatica’s Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) — a cloud-native successor to PowerCenter. This path allows reusing some existing PowerCenter assets with Informatica’s automated conversion assistance. However, it also introduces a fundamentally different SaaS model that might not suit every scenario.

2 — Adopting Open and Modular Tools

Others take this chance to break free from vendor lock-in. Modern data stack tools like dbt (data build tool) have gained massive traction as lightweight, SQL-centric transformation frameworks. Teams are rethinking whether they need a heavyweight ETL tool at all, or if they can adopt an ELT approach using cloud data warehouses and dbt for transformation logic. The contrast between dbt and older tools often comes down to accessibility and flexibility.

3 — Re-architecting for Flexibility

Rather than a like-for-like tool swap, many are reimagining their data architecture. This could mean embracing a modular pipeline where ingestion, transformation, and orchestration are handled by specialized services (e.g., Fivetran, OpenFlow or Kafka for ingest, Snowflake for storage, dbt for transforms, Airflow for orchestration). The end-of-life of PowerCenter becomes an opportunity to design a more scalable, cloud-friendly architecture aligned to today’s needs.

4 — Incremental Modernization

Forward-looking teams also plan pragmatically. Rather than big-bang replacements, they phase migrations to minimize disruption. For example, some retain certain on-premise integrations via intermediate solutions (or Informatica’s “PowerCenter Cloud Edition” to run legacy mappings in the cloud temporarily) while gradually rebuilding critical pipelines on the new stack. This phased approach buys time and spreads out risk.

The key is that these teams are not treating the end of PowerCenter support as just an upgrade project — they view it as a chance to align their data infrastructure with future business needs. Rather than simply replacing one tool with another, data teams can use this transition to reassess their architecture, rethink data movement strategies, and consider new solutions that truly align with organizational needs. In other words, it’s a strategic reset button.

Salesforce’s Acquisition of Informatica: A Sign of the Times

On May 27, 2025, Salesforce announced an $8 billion deal to acquire Informatica. For those tracking PowerCenter’s end-of-life, this news was significant. Salesforce’s move sends a clear signal: Informatica’s future is being steered deeper into the Salesforce ecosystem and its SaaS-first priorities.

For legacy platform users, especially PowerCenter customers, Salesforce’s acquisition raises important considerations:

1 — Cloud-First Emphasis

Salesforce is a cloud software powerhouse. It’s safe to assume that under Salesforce, Informatica will double down on cloud services and integration with the Salesforce platform. In practice, this likely means on-premises capabilities (like traditional PowerCenter) will be deprioritized in favor of cloud offerings. Salesforce has little incentive to prolong or invest in old on-prem ETL tools, and is unlikely to extend PowerCenter support further given its focus on SaaS delivery.

2 — Platform Consolidation

Salesforce has a track record of tightly integrating acquisitions into its ecosystem. That can be powerful if you’re all-in on Salesforce, but if you rely on Informatica in a broader, heterogeneous environment, you might lose flexibility. Vendor consolidation often means less flexibility — organizations with hybrid or multi-cloud data strategies could find a Salesforce-centric Informatica portfolio at odds with their needs.

3 — License and Cost Uncertainty

Big acquisitions sometimes lead to changes in licensing models or bundled pricing. Salesforce may look to bundle Informatica services into its Customer 360 and Data Cloud offerings. PowerCenter users already face pressure to migrate; now they must also wonder if licensing will shift to usage-based or Salesforce-bundled models, making cost predictability harder. The possibility of new pricing structures is yet another wildcard for executives to consider.

4 — Strategic Direction

Salesforce bought Informatica largely to bolster its AI and data infrastructure capabilities. The company highlighted how Informatica will help “supercharge Salesforce’s Data Cloud and AI initiatives”. This underscores that the focus will be on data integration for AI, likely privileging cloud pipelines feeding Salesforce’s AI-driven services. Legacy ETL might not fit into that forward-looking vision, beyond being a source to migrate from.

For PowerCenter customers, the Salesforce-Informatica deal is essentially a nudge (if not a shove) toward modernizing. It adds urgency: you can’t count on the status quo nor count on Informatica pivoting to rescue on-prem users. As we’ve noted, “the move adds another layer of risk for PowerCenter users already navigating end-of-support — Salesforce has little incentive to reverse course on Informatica’s SaaS-only trajectory.” In plain terms: the safest bet is to plan your own future, rather than hoping the vendor will accommodate legacy needs.

Pragmatic Steps to Modernize

Given the risks and signals, what should organizations do? Here’s a pragmatic, outcome-driven game plan for data leaders facing PowerCenter’s end-of-life:

1 — Assess Your Current State

Take an inventory of your PowerCenter jobs, mappings, and workflows. Identify what systems they touch and which ones are mission-critical. This is the ideal window to assess your ETL workloads and technical debt while you still have support to reference. Determine which processes could be retired, which need one-for-one replacement, and which might be redesigned entirely for efficiency.

2 — Define Your Future Data Platform Requirements

Don’t default to any particular tool without aligning to your business needs. Consider key questions: Do you need real-time integration or is batch enough? Are there strict data residency or governance requirements that dictate an on-prem or hybrid solution? How important is cost predictability? What skills does your team have or plan to acquire (e.g., Python, SQL)? By clarifying requirements on deployment, security, latency, cost, and team skillset, you can weigh options objectively.

3 — Explore Modern Options (Beyond Like-for-Like)

With requirements in mind, survey the modern landscape. This might include Informatica’s cloud (IDMC) if you favor continuity, but also alternative ETL/ELT platforms or open-source solutions:

• If you need to retain on-prem control, consider tools that support hybrid deployments rather than SaaS-only.
• If cloud-native is your goal, evaluate cloud ELT services (e.g., Fivetran, Azure Data Factory, etc.) or the combination of a cloud data warehouse + dbt for transformations. Many organizations find that dbt’s software engineering approach to data transformations increases collaboration and transparency compared to black-box ETL jobs.
• Look at the total cost of ownership for each option. Beware of purely usage-based pricing surprises — some SaaS ETL tools can be hard to predict cost-wise at scale. Ensure you’re comfortable with the pricing model of whichever platform you choose.

4 — Develop a Phased Migration Plan

A rush migration can be as risky as doing nothing. Plan out phases: perhaps migrate a few pilot pipelines to the new platform to gain confidence and measure performance. Ensure you have overlap time where PowerCenter and the new system run in parallel for critical processes, so you can validate results side by side. Importantly, set an aggressive but realistic timeline that beats the support deadlines by a safe margin — you want cushion for unexpected hiccups.

5 — Invest in Skills and Partners

Modernizing data infrastructure often means adopting new paradigms (e.g., SQL-based ELT in dbt, or Python-based data flows). Invest in training your team or bringing in experts. Consider engaging a specialized partner if you have many complex mappings to convert. The right partner can accelerate migration and avoid pitfalls, as well as share best practices for the new environment.

Case Study: Embracing a Modern Data Stack

Many organizations are discovering that moving away from PowerCenter isn’t just about risk avoidance — it’s an opportunity to unlock efficiency and agility. A prime example is the shift toward dbt for data transformations. dbt, an open-source tool, enables analysts and engineers to build data pipelines with software engineering best practices (version control, testing, modular code) in the SQL they already know. This resonates with teams that want more transparency than legacy ETL and a thriving community rather than vendor lock-in.

How do you migrate complex PowerCenter workflows to dbt (and a cloud warehouse) without starting from scratch? This is where Tropos’ solution comes into play. Tropos has developed an automated migration accelerator (code-named Kali) designed to convert legacy ETL pipelines into modern dbt projects. It works by automating the three most time-consuming stages of migration:

• Pipeline Audit — the tool scans your existing PowerCenter mappings and code to assess how best to translate them.
• Code Conversion — it then converts the logic of your PowerCenter workflows into dbt SQL models and projects (targeting cloud data warehouses, e.g., Snowflake). Unlike simplistic code translators, this approach transforms entire workflows into optimized, production-ready dbt code with built-in tests to ensure nothing breaks.
• Output Validation — after conversion, Kali automates the validation of results, comparing outputs between the old system and the new dbt-generated system for each pipeline. This catches any discrepancies and provides root-cause analysis, so the migrated pipelines are trusted before cutover.

Tropos’ migration tool dramatically reduces manual effort and risk in a PowerCenter-to-dbt migration. In fact, it’s already been used in complex real-life scenarios (even while Informatica PowerCenter support is a newly added feature in private preview).

For example, Sanoma Learning, a leading European education company, engaged Tropos to streamline their data infrastructure and move to a unified dbt-based environment. Tropos first delivered a tailored roadmap for the migration, then used their in-house tool to accelerate conversion of existing code to dbt Cloud, automatically validating that the new system’s outputs matched the old. During this process they uncovered and fixed hidden issues in the legacy codebase, improving data quality.

The outcome? A successful migration in a fraction of the time a manual rebuild would take. According to Sanoma’s analytics team, “Tropos helped us prioritize improvements effectively and streamline our data processes with a robust dbt project architecture. Thanks to their guidance, we accelerated the migration to dbt Cloud, enhancing our operational efficiency and establishing a stronger foundation for further growth.” This kind of result — improved efficiency, standardization, and a future-proof platform — is exactly what forward-looking teams are aiming for by moving on from PowerCenter.

Turning Legacy Risk into Future Opportunity — Next Steps

As PowerCenter’s extended support window inches closer to shut, the message for IT leaders and executives is clear: don’t view this as just a problem, but as a catalyst. The end-of-life of a legacy platform is the beginning-of-life for your next-gen data platform. By approaching the situation with a pragmatic, outcome-driven mindset, you can not only mitigate risk, but also deliver new value to your organization:

• Lower Total Cost & Higher Productivity: Modern cloud data platforms and tools like dbt can reduce infrastructure and license costs while increasing developer productivity. Teams spend less time babysitting legacy jobs and more time delivering insights.
• Greater Agility: You’ll be positioned to adopt new analytics and AI capabilities faster. (Imagine having your data in a cloud warehouse with well-defined models — it becomes much easier to plug into machine learning workflows or self-service BI).
• Future-Proofing: Aligning with open standards and cloud technologies ensures you’re not left in the lurch by any one vendor’s decisions. It future-proofs your data strategy against the kind of scenario you face today with PowerCenter.

The road ahead should be driven by outcomes, not fear. By proactively crafting a migration strategy and leveraging available tools and expertise, you can transform a looming support deadline into a successful data infrastructure transformation.

Call to Action: Let’s Future-Proof Your Data Platform

If your organization is staring down the end of PowerCenter support, now is the time to act. Tropos has helped enterprises like yours navigate this journey with a clear roadmap, automation accelerators, and deep expertise in modern data stacks. Don’t wait until the last minute — turn this moment into an opportunity to leap forward.

Take the first step towards a future-proof, efficient data platform. Learn more about our automated migration offering or get in touch to discuss your PowerCenter migration strategy and see how Tropos’ PowerCenter-to-dbt migration tool can de-risk and accelerate your path to a modern data stack. Let’s ensure your next chapter is not just about avoiding risk, but achieving new levels of data-driven success.

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