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Ansari Rehman - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Data Architect (AWS-Snowflake-Teradata-Oracle) at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 10
The Redshift Spectrum is the most valuable feature, but the solution needs to be more optimized
Pros and Cons
  • "I have primarily used the Redshift Spectrum feature and found it most valuable."
  • "The solution is unable to work fast."

What is our primary use case?

We use Redshift Spectrum for creating temp tables during the Ignition process.

What is most valuable?

I have primarily used the Redshift Spectrum feature and found it most valuable.

What needs improvement?

During our last office project, Redshift couldn't perform well even for a data size of 6 TB. Thus, compared to Teradata and Snowflake, the solution needs to work faster. They should extend the plan by including better optimization and readability as we get while using Teradata. Also, they should provide zero-copy coding and sharing facilities.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for three months.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution's stability as a seven.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There is no issue with the solution's scalability.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was straightforward as I have a POC. It was a simple process.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is available at a mid-range price as compared to other vendors.

What other advice do I have?

While using Redshift, we need to combine it with Glue to complete the process. Whereas, Databrix offers the same procedure without combining two solutions. Redshift would work well with small businesses if they already use AWS services. They can use Redshift if the database is not that huge. I recommend Snowflake over Redshift. I rate the performance as well as the overall product as a five.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
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Syed Zakaulla - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at Softway
Integrator
Despite the tool's extensive documentation, the setup is relatively fine
Pros and Cons
  • "Though Amazon Redshift is good, it depends on what kind of business you're trying to do, what type of analytics you need, and how much data you have."
  • "If you require a highly scalable solution, I would not recommend Amazon Redshift."

What is our primary use case?

We were using the solution for our data backup, but we wanted to optimize it, so we turned to AWS Glue. Amazon Redshift wasn't really great for us and wasn't working out.

What is most valuable?

Amazon Redshift was used for data storage while moving back from S3 to Amazon. However, it lagged, taking its own sweet time for data backups which also depended on the server location. Because of the aforementioned reasons, we started losing a lot of data that wasn't even real-time data. Ultimately, this affected our analytics at the end of the day. Also, we have been trying to do some work on our AI models, which emit out recommendations based on the live dataset. There were a lot of lagging issues. So, for example, sending out somewhere around 0.1 million or 100,000 emails used to take almost 12-14 working days, and this also includes the process of pulling all the data and sending them to CronJobs. Since we wanted all this work to happen in real-time, we had to get rid of the tool.

What needs improvement?

I would like Amazon Redshift to improve its performance, analytics, scalability, and stability. Other than these points, I am not aware of any other areas to address since Amazon provides a variety of independent services for their customers to choose from, and if one were to express dissatisfaction with Amazon Redshift, Amazon would likely suggest AWS Glue as an alternative. Similarly, if another issue arose, Amazon might recommend Amazon RDS. There are a lot of things they try to upsell to you, each with its own pros and cons and in different packages offering different perks. So, it all depends on your business needs and what you choose for your business. I wouldn't criticize Amazon for this because they have created packages tailored to their customer's needs, which helps to prevent customers from looking elsewhere.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Amazon Redshift as an implementer for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability-wise, it has a lot of issues with threats, and that is why we went for a threat shift optimization. In short, I mean to say that it is not stable at all.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

If you require a highly scalable solution, I would not recommend Amazon Redshift. We currently have 12 clients using Amazon Redshift, and the scalability of the solution is terrible. In terms of scalability, I would rate this solution a three or four out of ten.

How was the initial setup?

Amazon Redshift has a lot of documentation, but the setup is fine. Three years ago, the solution's deployment process took over a month or a month and a half.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Every solution has a cost and comes in different packages. Considering these factors, AWS Glue is on top. Though Amazon Redshift is good, it depends on what kind of business you're trying to do, what type of analytics you need, and how much data you have.

For Amazon Redshift, we pay around INR 60,000 annually. The cost factor also depends on the number of existing customers. In addition to the standard licensing fee paid for AWS, we incur a cloud storage cost of around a quarter million for the amount of data. We also have to bear additional costs for data security and cybersecurity, which are well taken care of by Amazon, hence the premium pricing. There are several other features and services provided by Amazon that justify the premium pricing.

What other advice do I have?

Amazon Redshift is a horrible solution. I recommend my customer to use AWS Glue since while dealing globally with real-time data, which you need to make decisions, factors like how much cost and data is needed to make a decision should be considered. Apart from this, if customers are paying a huge price for the solution, then probably Amazon shouldn't mind spending on the tool. However, it may not be necessary for small businesses with only a few thousand data points. Although Azure is a better option, some clients prefer AWS, and we had to develop a solution using AWS for our client. Overall, I rate this solution a three or four out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Implementer
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August 2025
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Martin Gregor - PeerSpot reviewer
DWH, BI & Big Data consultant / developer /modeler - independent contractor at Freelancer
Real User
Helps us create SQL ETL procedures in a business system
Pros and Cons
  • "I like it because the usage is very similar to Microsoft SQL server. The structure of the query and the temporary tables are very similar."
  • "The explain panel in the Redshift database could be better."

What is our primary use case?

I use Amazon Redshift for the creation of SQL ETL procedures in a business system. Business people check this in a front-end application, and it helps them plan sales for the next year.

Redshift is being deployed on a Microsoft Azure server.

There are about six people working on this project and using the solution, but there are many similar projects running on Oracle and Redshift.

What is most valuable?

I like it because the usage is very similar to Microsoft SQL server. The structure of the query and the temporary tables are very similar. Until recently, I thought it was the superior database, but now I think that Redshift is better.

What needs improvement?

The explain panel in the Redshift database could be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for 10 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. I haven't had any problems or downfall with the database in the 10 months that I have used the solution.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have also used Microsoft SQL server and Oracle.

How was the initial setup?

Setup was difficult because I had to set up 25 connections with different users and passwords. The connections have been predefined, but there were still problems when trying to connect for the first time. I had some problems with some certifications that were malfunctioning. This might have had something to do with the functionality of my keyboard because if I pushed a random combination on the keyboard, it would delete the certificate from the folder and the connection wouldn't work. I think this is a problem with the remote desktop rather than with Redshift.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution as eight out of ten. I can't give it a higher score because there are some issues with variable character columns in the table. Otherwise, it's a great database.

Some of my former colleagues from a previous job have joined my organization, and they have had some issues with the SQRs because some things work differently in Redshift, like the partition bar. If someone has issues with Redshift, my advice is to check with support.

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
IoT Consultant at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant
Provides one place where we can store data, and allows us to easily connect to other services with AWS
Pros and Cons
  • "The main benefit is that our portal for end users is running in AWS, so we can easily connect it to other AWS services."
  • "For people who struggle with IAM or role-based management, the setup isn't easy."

What is our primary use case?

We use Redshift as a central data warehouse. This data can be consumed directly by AWS services or different applications where we can provision the data via Athena. If we want to create more business intelligence tools and analysis, we write some SageMaker notebooks for deploying machine learning models based on the data.

We have a wide variety of use cases, but we generally use it to have one place where we can store data. We also connect enterprise legacy systems such as SAP systems. I'm mostly connecting shop floor assets and the industrial machinery to store relevant data in one place and make it available. Via Athena, combined data can then be retrieved with easy SQL queries.

Usually, we use the newest version of the solution. If there are new updates available, we try to take them directly.

Our customers usually have a hybrid cloud or full cloud architecture with minimum on-premises data centers.

We have five to ten customer projects per year in our department in which we set up data lake houses using Redshift. Those companies have between 3,000 and 15,000 people. Not everybody has to use Redshift. Depending on the project and the size of the consulted company, there are 2,000 to 3,000 end users who need access to the stored data.

How has it helped my organization?

We are a consultancy company of 1,500 people. Those who use a sophisticated data warehouse architecture tailored to the business requirements, profit a lot since this is the foundation of business intelligence which makes a company more resilient and adaptable to change. We try to select the correct service for our customers, and when using AWS, we usually do data warehousing with Redshift.

What is most valuable?

The main benefit is that our portal for end users is running in AWS, so we can easily connect it to other AWS services. The most important part for us is the connectivity inside AWS.

What needs improvement?

Pricing sometimes depends on the setup (key, etc.) which makes it hard for somebody new to AWS. Detailed research has to be conducted to end up with a competitive solution in terms of pricing and performance.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Redshift for a year and a half.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability as nine out of ten since AWS provides a relatively resilient solution in general due to load balancing and auto scaling capabilities.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability as ten out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

We are a certified partner of AWS, so we have a different level of customer service, but usually, the customer service is fast and efficient even without a direct contact person.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

My company has more than 20 years of experience with SAP in general and the Data Warehouse Cloud is also used for customer projects.

How was the initial setup?

I'm familiar with AWS in general, so the setup is not difficult. For people who struggle with IAM or role-based management, the setup can be challenging.

In cases where there is deep knowledge of creating a microservices architecture using AWS, a project can be executed quite fast. The only reason for using AWS is the aim for AWS Redshift as a data warehouse, the setup is not as easy.

The amount of time it takes to deploy depends on the project. We try to do our projects incrementally, so we start with one department and deploy all of the relevant data from that. It takes about two to three months to draft a minimum viable product, connect a couple of machines, and use Redshift to work with data consumed by analysis tools or reporting capabilities. It is possible to set up a data warehouse in one or two weeks.

There are different types of projects, and if we do it within a waterfall approach, it can take a long time.

When creating a data warehouse using Redshift, we first analyze the current situation and then sketch the architecture in AWS with the required ETL process to ingest and consume data, including the right processing to aggregate and enrich data according to business requirements. This is where all the customization comes in.

For deployment and maintenance for only one customer, I would say that three to six experienced people can handle the job. For maintenance work, in my opinion, there is only one person required for two or three hours a week maximum.

I would rate the setup as eight out of ten.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost will depend on how you set up your warehouse and what kind of data you store. I would rate the pricing as six out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution as nine out of ten.

My advice is to use a consultant to set it up correctly and to get familiar with data warehousing in general. It's pretty straightforward once you're using the data management console. Anyone could use Google to set it up, but to do it correctly and sketch the perfect architecture, an external consultancy company should handle it because the usual IT departments aren't that experienced.

I think Redshift is worth the money, and there's always some return. Most companies don't have a full solution for business intelligence. AWS provides a pretty good service architecture to implement this. Anyone who uses Redshift or a data warehouse in general will have a return on investment.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
PeerSpot user
VictorSokolov - PeerSpot reviewer
Composition Data Architect at Intellias
Real User
Top 20
A powerful database system that works quickly with huge volumes of data
Pros and Cons
  • "Amazon Redshift is a really powerful database system for reporting and data warehousing."
  • "The product must provide new indexes that support special data structures or data types like TEXT."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to build a data warehouse schema for a target database for analytics. We are uploading data from different transactional databases into Amazon Redshift. We use it for reporting purposes. We use the tool mainly for querying and retrieving the data for analytics.

How has it helped my organization?

The fast querying of a huge amount of data greatly impacts our data workflows. All the queries work pretty fast.

What is most valuable?

Amazon Redshift is a really powerful database system for reporting and data warehousing. I like the product. It works really fast with significant volumes of data. The product covers all the main functionalities required for our data security and compliance needs. It has almost everything we need. It is the main data source for our analytics functionality. We can run our models using the data stored in the database. The ease of use is fine. It is pretty easy to integrate the solution with other products and third-party solutions.

What needs improvement?

The product must provide new indexes that support special data structures or data types like TEXT.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have no complaints about the product’s stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The tool is scalable. About 30 to 50 analysts use the solution in our organization. We need one or two people to administer the solution.

How are customer service and support?

I haven't heard any complaints about the support team from our DevOps engineers.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

My project involves analytics and data warehousing. I use Amazon Redshift. I also use AWS Glue as an ETL tool.

What other advice do I have?

I will recommend the product to others for data warehousing and data analytics. However, I do not recommend the solution for small companies that do not have enough volume of data to analyze. Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Sr BI and Data Engineer at Datacult
Real User
Good for data warehousing but complex setup
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Redshift is its cluster."
  • "The initial setup is a complex process, especially for someone who is not familiar with nodes and configuring terms like RPUs."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for data warehousing. Currently, I'm setting up a data link with Redshift to fetch data from our data lake.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Redshift is its cluster.

What needs improvement?

Redshift's serverless technology needs to improve because not everyone is technically inclined. Organizations want to quickly access and import data into their data warehouse without hassle.

Redshift's ETL tool, Glue, is not seamlessly integrated with Redshift. I've encountered many instances where it couldn't fetch the perfect data type from the source, which should be intuitive. Snowflake's ETL tool, on the other hand, is more intuitive and seamless.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two years. I am working with the latest version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I haven't faced any stability issues because when it works, it runs continuously.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is a complex process, especially for someone who is not familiar with nodes and configuring terms like RPUs. You need to consult the documentation to understand what an RPU is.

Moreover, Redshift can be difficult to maintain, especially the Redshift cluster instance.

What about the implementation team?

When it comes to the initial deployment and implementation process of Redshift, there are two types of nodes to choose from: DC2 and RA3, which are for different requirements based on the load. One is for storage, one is for storage and checking, and one is for the computing center.

First, the user needs to know their exact requirement, unlike Snowflake, which automatically scales up and down based on the requirement using the Retrieval Service tool.

The service has not matured yet, and for the Redshift cluster, scaling has to be done manually. The cluster also needs to be set up manually, which is not ideal, especially when Snowflake is already in the market.

It is easy to deploy if you already know how to use Redshift. But if I were a new customer, I might need assistance.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Redshift is a bit less costly than Snowflake, but the effort justifies the cost for Snowflake.

What other advice do I have?

I would suggest starting with a three-cluster that is DC two large, especially if you are setting up a cluster-based search. We offer a three-month or one-month trial, which will allow you to see if you can handle the manual scaling up, scaling down, and maintenance of Redshift. If not, then you can switch to a serverless data solution.

Overall, I would rate it a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator
PeerSpot user
Beverly R. Jamison - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Solutions Architect / Computer Scientist at Practical Semantics
Real User
Scalable, reliable, and simple implementation
Pros and Cons
  • "The stability of Amazon Redshift is good."
  • "The solution could improve in handling more data formats and more native support for RDF."

What is our primary use case?

I have used DBeaver to connect to SAP Amazon Redshift and my main use case is for SQL. I map data from a graph database into SQL.

How has it helped my organization?

Amazon Redshift has benefited the company by allowing us to scale. 

What needs improvement?

The solution could improve in handling more data formats and more native support for RDF.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Amazon Redshift for approximately one and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Amazon Redshift is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Amazon Redshift is a scalability solution.

How are customer service and support?

I have not used technical support. If I need support I ask my colleagues.

How was the initial setup?

The initial implementation of Amazon Redshift is simple. There was not anything difficult about getting started with the solution.

What other advice do I have?

It's important to have a grasp of the environment you're working in, including a basic understanding of Amazon AWS. Additionally, when selecting an interface to work with, it's essential to choose wisely, as you'll likely be using it for an extended period of time.

I rate Amazon Redshift an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2002689 - PeerSpot reviewer
VP, Data and Insights at a tech company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Secure and reliable data warehouse for transactional and clickstream data
Pros and Cons
  • "If the analyst knows SQL, which is comfortable and easy to use to go between all of these tool stacks, I think it's reliable. It's a secure and reliable data warehouse."
  • "There are physically too many pipelines for a company of this size to maintain. For a data scientist, it's very difficult to learn the data in all of these different environments."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for production and customer data for one of the lines of the business, which is basically one of the warehouses. I oversee the whole architecture infrastructure.

What is most valuable?

The price isn't bad for the performance for a cloud data warehouse. It's also connected to Databricks but uses SQL. It's comparable to BigQuery. If the analyst knows SQL, which is comfortable and easy to use to go between all of these tool stacks, I think it's reliable. It's a secure and reliable data warehouse.

The performance is good, and it's pretty fast. We also have Looker and MOLE connected to it for visualization, which works seamlessly. We're storing a lot of data. There's a lot of transactional data, clickstream data, and telemetry about the customer, what they're purchasing, call logs, and marketing data.

The analysts are familiar with SQL, and they're able to do this. Even the data scientists who aren't that savvy in Python, because they are very strong in SQL, are able to interact with it very quickly. I'm able to bring in more analysts for support.

What needs improvement?

There are physically too many pipelines for a company of this size to maintain. For a data scientist, it's very difficult to learn the data in all of these different environments. It's easier to train people in just one environment to start with, like Snowflake or Databricks. It's difficult to have so many technologies that are very comparable, and each comes with a price tag.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for seven months in my current company, but I have also used it in a couple of my previous companies.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good. For a mid-size company, it's very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's very scalable.

How are customer service and support?

I would rate the technical support as 10 out of 10.

We had one or two tickets, and they responded extremely quickly. Technical support is good, but that's because we aren't running into many issues. The solution is pretty stable. The individuals who set it up did a very good job.

How was the initial setup?

It wasn't too complex because only a few people were needed to set up the solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's not very pricey compared to other tools. I would rate the price as 5 out of 10.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

In my organization, we also use GCP, Amazon EC2, Databricks, and Snowflake. We also have Delta Lakehouse. I'm going to move everything into the Delta Lakehouse. For a company of this size, it's a lot of tools to physically maintain with a small data engineering team.

I think Snowflake has a few more features. In Redshift, you need to write a bit more SQL in some instances, but it's very user-friendly and fast. It can be used as a data warehouse solution as well. It can also do some analytics.

Redshift is comparable to other solutions. I wanted to go with Amazon EC2 because we also have Databricks, and I think I can cover some of those features with the combination of that.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution as eight out of ten. It's a very strong solution.

My advice is to do your research and see if it makes sense for you. You can always request a demo from Redshift.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Updated: August 2025
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Download our free Amazon Redshift Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.