How does MettleCI's Git functionality compare to that of Information Server v11.7?

MettleCI’s Git integration is superior to IBM’s in a number of ways.

Universal Git Compatibility

MettleCI provides integration with any 'flavour' of Git (Bitbucket, GitHub hosted, GitHub Enterprise, GitLab, Azure DevOps, plain old command-line Git, and so on) while IBM have constrained themselves to vendor-specific interfaces, such as GitHub and Bitbucket.

Single ISX with Visualisation Plugins

MettleCI uses the ISX format to package all of the design-time information relevant to a Job when interacting with Git. This is because ISX is the forward-looking format for Information Server. and is the format supported by the broadest variety of Information Server tools. It is also the only format capable of supporting MettleCI's sophisticated Compliance (static code analysis) functionality.

Support for Job Rename and Move

IBM's existing Git integration retains no link between the artefact you checked-in to Git and its DataStage Repository-based source. This means that if checkin an artefact, then rename or move it before performing another check-in you will end up with two versions of the job in Git, which will cause significant problems when trying to deploy a Release from your Git repository.

Historical Support

MettleCI provides Git integration for DataStage versions as far back as 8.X. IBM do not and we believe they never will for any version older than the 11.7 series. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why we can automate upgrades to later versions and IBM has therefore bundled MettleCI into a new UG&I Lab Services (AKA Data & AI Cloud Labs) package called Rapid DataStage Upgrades.

In summary, the IBM Data Flow Designer's Git integration appears lacking in a number of key areas, and fails to provide what existing DataStage developers and release managers actually need to adopt modern SDLC disciplines (and benefits) in a holistic way.