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Amazon EMR vs IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

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
13th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (3rd)
IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
15th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Cloud Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Amazon EMR is 3.4%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud is 1.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Data Warehouse Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Amazon EMR3.4%
IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud1.6%
Other95.0%
Cloud Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1343079 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Chief Engineer (Enterprise System Presales/Postsales) at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Has simplified ETL workflows with on-demand processing but needs improved cost efficiency and visibility
I have used AWS Glue with S3 for making tables and databases, but regarding Amazon EMR, I do not remember much as we are currently using it very minimally. This is my observation: In EKS, we have had to deploy by ourselves because EKS does not provide the Hadoop framework, Spark, Hive, and everything, but we have completed all the deployment ourselves. Whereas Amazon EMR provides all these things. The cost factor differs significantly. When you run Spark application on EKS, you run at the pod level, so you can control the compute cost. But in Amazon EMR, when you have to run one application, you have to launch the entire EC2. In Qubole, the interface was very good. I could see many details because in Amazon EMR console, very few details are available. In Qubole, at one link, you can get all the details of what is happening, how the processes are running, and the cost decreased by using Qubole. I found Qubole more user-friendly and cost-effective. From the security point of view, we had to open some access rights to Qubole, which might be a drawback in comparison to Amazon EMR which is native to AWS.
FM
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…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is scalable."
"The project management is very streamlined."
"The solution is pretty simple to set up."
"The ability to resize the cluster is what really makes it stand out over other Hadoop and big data solutions."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"Amazon EMR is a good solution that can be used to manage big data."
"When we grade big jobs from on-prem to the cloud, we do it in EMR with Spark."
"We are using Amazon EMR to clean the data and transform the data in such a way that the end-user can get the insights faster."
"The way that it scales will help a lot of customers that are stuck with Netezza boxes that can't grow any larger.​"
"The performance is okay as long as the volume of queries is not too high."
"It is stable when there is support from IBM."
"It will be MPP, so performance should improve."
 

Cons

"The problem for us is it starts very slow."
"Amazon EMR is continuously improving, but maybe something like CI/CD out-of-the-box or integration with Prometheus Grafana."
"The product's features for storing data in static clusters could be better."
"As people are shifting from legacy solutions to other technologies, Amazon EMR needs to add more features that give more flexibility in managing user data."
"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."
"In Qubole, the interface was very good. I could see many details because in Amazon EMR console, very few details are available."
"The product must add some of the latest technologies to provide more flexibility to the users."
"There were times where they would release new versions and it seemed to end up breaking old versions, which is very strange."
"Ultimately, the product itself has challenges and we are not currently satisfied with the support, either."
"Containers get corrupted very easily. Restoring them using GPFS can result in a lot of issues."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Amazon EMR's price is reasonable."
"The product is not cheap, but it is not expensive."
"There is a small fee for the EMR system, but major cost components are the underlying infrastructure resources which we actually use."
"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."
"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."
"The price of the solution is expensive."
"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
22%
Educational Organization
13%
Computer Software Company
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EMR?
I would rate the price for Amazon EMR, where one is high and ten is low, as a good one.
What needs improvement with Amazon EMR?
I feel some lack of functionality in Amazon EMR. I have thoughts on what would be great to see in the product, such as AI/ML features or additional options.
What advice do you have for others considering Amazon EMR?
I find it easy to integrate Amazon EMR with other AWS services like S3 or EC2 for data processing needs. I would rate this review as eight out of ten.
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...
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.
What is your primary use case for IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud?
Our primary use case is data storage and analytics.
 

Also Known As

Amazon Elastic MapReduce
IBM dashDB
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Yelp
Copenhagen Business School, BPM Northwest, GameStop
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon EMR vs. IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.