Amazon EMR vs IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM are both solutions in the Cloud Data Warehouse category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.0, while IBM is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 3.3% mindshare in CDW, compared to IBM’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Amazon EMR

Read 23 Amazon EMR reviews

1,423 Views
1,194 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud

Read 7 IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud reviews

145 Views
113 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Amazon EMR

IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Amazon EMR and IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud compete in the cloud-based data processing and warehouse domain. Amazon EMR seems advantageous due to its seamless AWS ecosystem integration.

Features: Amazon EMR is valued for its scalability, integration with Apache Hadoop, and configuration flexibility, making it suitable for big data tasks. IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud stands out with built-in machine learning, advanced SQL analytics, and high availability, which cater to comprehensive data warehousing needs.

Room for Improvement: Amazon EMR could enhance user interfaces for less technical users and reduce complexities in cross-region replication. Additionally, better documentation for complex configurations may boost user experience. IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud could improve integration with third-party services and offer more flexible pricing models. Simplified migration tools would ease transitions from other platforms.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon EMR offers seamless integration with AWS services, making deployment straightforward for AWS users. IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud provides an intuitive deployment process with robust support, suiting businesses that emphasize strong support channels.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon EMR's pricing is often cost-effective for AWS users, optimizing ROI in scalable environments. IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud, despite potentially higher initial costs, provides substantial ROI through efficient complex analytics management, appealing to enterprises seeking reliable insights.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon EMR vs. IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon EMR vs. IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud

April 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EMR

Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse

12th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Hadoop (3rd)

IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud

Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse

16th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Cloud Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Amazon EMR is 3.3%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud is 0.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Data Warehouse

Featured Reviews

Prashant Singh

Vice President -Product Management at Paytm

Seamless data integration enhances reporting efficiency and an easy setup

Amazon EMR has multiple connectors that can connect to various data sources. The service charges are based on processing only, depending on the resources used, which can help save money. It is easy to integrate with other services for storage, allowing data to be shifted to cheaper storage based on usage.

Read full review

FarhanFarhan

Database Engineer at Meezan Bank

Enhancing analytics with seamless data dumping and reliable support

Our primary use case is data storage and analytics The organization has decided to purchase a full stack solution from IBM due to positive responses, which helped them upgrade from the previous version. The data dumping into the raw zone and the feature of BigQuery is quite attractive. There…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"In Amazon EMR it is easy to rebuild anything, easy to upgrade and has good fault tolerance."

"The solution helps us manage huge volumes of data."

"The ability to resize the cluster is what really makes it stand out over other Hadoop and big data solutions."

"Amazon EMR has multiple connectors that can connect to various data sources."

"One of the valuable features about this solution is that it's managed services, so it's pretty stable, and scalable as much as you wish. It has all the necessary distributions. With some additional work, it's also possible to change to a Spark version with the latest version of EMR. It also has Hudi, so we are leveraging Apache Hudi on EMR for change data capture, so then it comes out-of-the-box in EMR."

"The project management is very streamlined."

"The solution is scalable."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

More Amazon EMR pros

"It will be MPP, so performance should improve."

"The performance is okay as long as the volume of queries is not too high."

"It is stable when there is support from IBM."

"The way that it scales will help a lot of customers that are stuck with Netezza boxes that can't grow any larger."

Cons

"There were times where they would release new versions and it seemed to end up breaking old versions, which is very strange."

"The initial setup was time-consuming."

"There is room for improvement with respect to retries, handling the volume of data on S3 buckets, cluster provisioning, scaling, termination, security, and integration between services like S3, Glue, Lake Formation, and DynamoDB."

"The product must add some of the latest technologies to provide more flexibility to the users."

"We don't have much control. If we have multiple users, if they want to scale up, the cost will go and increase and we don't know how we can restrict that price part."

"Amazon EMR can improve by adding some features, such as megastore services and HiveServer2. Additionally, the user interface could be better, similar to what Apache service provides, cross-platform services."

"The solution can become expensive if you are not careful."

"The problem for us is it starts very slow."

More Amazon EMR cons

"Ultimately, the product itself has challenges and we are not currently satisfied with the support, either."

"There are some limitations in adding data files to table spaces, and improvements are needed for regional support."

"Right now, we are implementing on ESX VMware 6.0. Support for this platform is poor. Also, one of the backup/recovery options is broken and IBM is not addressing the issue."

"Tech support for dashDB is awful. We usually have tickets open for three to four weeks."

"Containers get corrupted very easily. Restoring them using GPFS can result in a lot of issues."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You don't need to pay for licensing on a yearly or monthly basis, you only pay for what you use, in terms of underlying instances."

"There is a small fee for the EMR system, but major cost components are the underlying infrastructure resources which we actually use."

"I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten. It can be expensive since it's a managed service, and if you are not careful, you can run into unexpected charges. You can make a mistake that costs you tens of thousands of dollars. That's happened to us twice, so I'm sensitive to it. We're still trying to work on that. Our smallest client probably spends a hundred thousand dollars yearly on licensing, while our largest is well over a million."

"The price of the solution is expensive."

"The cost of Amazon EMR is very high."

"There is no need to pay extra for third-party software."

"Amazon EMR is not very expensive."

"The product is not cheap, but it is not expensive."

More Amazon EMR pricing and cost advice

"If your going to go with warehouse DB/dashDB, use the cloud or Sailfish version."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

26%

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon EMR?

Amazon EMR is a good solution that can be used to manage big data.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EMR?

Compared to others, Amazon seems efficient and is considered good for Big Data workloads. Costs are involved based on cluster resources, data volumes, EC2 ( /products/amazon-ec2-reviews ) instances...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon EMR?

There is room for improvement with respect to retries, handling the volume of data on S3 ( /products/amazon-s3-reviews ) buckets, cluster provisioning, scaling, termination, security, and integrati...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud?

Organizations of all sizes, especially those who are in need of powerful and elastic cloud data warehouse solutions that can help administrators maximize the efficiency of their data-based operatio...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud?

There are some limitations in adding data files to table spaces, and improvements are needed for regional support.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud?

Our primary use case is data storage and analytics.

See all answers

Comparisons

Snowflake vs Amazon EMR

Compared 37% of the time

Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop vs Amazon EMR

Compared 27% of the time

Amazon Redshift vs Amazon EMR

Compared 8% of the time

Apache Spark vs Amazon EMR

Compared 7% of the time

AWS Lake Formation vs Amazon EMR

Compared 6% of the time

More Amazon EMR Competitors

Oracle Exadata vs IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud

Compared 34% of the time

IBM Netezza Performance Server vs IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud

Compared 34% of the time

Amazon Redshift vs IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud

Compared 32% of the time

More IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon EMR

April 2025

Download Amazon EMR product report

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Data Warehouse

April 2025

Download IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud product report

Also Known As

Amazon Elastic MapReduce

IBM dashDB

Overview

Amazon Elastic MapReduce (Amazon EMR) is a web service that makes it easy to quickly and cost-effectively process vast amounts of data. Amazon EMR simplifies big data processing, providing a managed Hadoop framework that makes it easy, fast, and cost-effective for you to distribute and process vast amounts of your data across dynamically scalable Amazon EC2 instances.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

IBM dashDB family offers private and public cloud database solutions for transactional and analytic workloads, with IBM fully managed or client managed options with a Common SQL engine across all deployment options.

IBM

Sample Customers

Yelp

Copenhagen Business School, BPM Northwest, GameStop

Buyer's Guide

Amazon EMR vs. IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud

April 2025

Free Report: Amazon EMR vs. IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud

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