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Amazon RDS vs IBM Db2 on Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 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 RDS
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Db2 on Cloud
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
12th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS is 23.4%, down from 26.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Db2 on Cloud is 1.2%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

Samuel Ebite - PeerSpot reviewer
Ensure high availability with robust encryption and seamless backups
Amazon RDS provides data encryption using services like KMS, crucial for securing high-sensitive data and meeting compliance requirements such as HIPAA or PCI DSS. The best practices we've employed with RDS help design a well-architected framework, encompassing security, encryption, scalability with multi-availability zone deployment, and operational excellence with automated backups. RDS features, such as reserved instances, storage auto-scaling, monitoring with technologies like CloudWatch, and proxies, contribute to cost optimization. The solution enhances security with IAM authentication and offers high availability to end users.
FM
Multi-node architecture and it is good from a security point of view
I would rate the stability a seven out of ten. Most of the issues we faced during troubleshooting were due to specific bugs in the environment, and the only solution was to upgrade the database environment or services. But it is not easy to upgrade the database level when third-party applications are involved, as they are not always comfortable with upgrading. There should be some cumulative solution provided by IBM for their customers, just like other vendors. Upgrading to a certain version doesn't always resolve the issue. It might get resolved at the database level, but what about the other applications integrated with that database that are only compatible with older versions?

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is easy to use, flexible, and powerful."
"The initial setup is straightforward, and technical support is good."
"I use Amazon RDS to support scalability, with multi-AZ support being an essential aspect."
"The product's installation phase is easy."
"It's a fully managed database, so that makes our life easier from the operational standpoint. That is the key, basically."
"It is very easy to set up initially."
"It handles large-scale data migrations perfectly. Amazon RDS's performance is quite good. Charges are incurred after you utilize the service"
"The tool is very easy to use and configure."
"The reliability is the most valuable feature. It is also user-friendly."
"Multiple business departments rely on reports and predictive analysis to make decisions for future business based on their data warehouse and Db2 network analytics tool. It helps our business department make decisions."
 

Cons

"One notable improvement that could enhance the database management experience, particularly during migration scenarios, is the accessibility of the root user."
"The backup and restore processes take more time compared to other providers. For instance, if DigitalOcean takes two minutes to restore or create a backup, AWS will take 2 to 3 minutes."
"Sometimes the interface has many moving parts, which is a concern."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
"The technical support from Amazon could improve. I would rate them a six out of ten as they do not fully meet my expectations."
"One of the challenges of AWS RDS is that it doesn't support performance insight. So we need to write our own script or use third-party tools."
"Amazon cannot guarantee the stability of some extensions, and there is a need for different extensions to meet PCI requirements."
"The solution could improve the administration tools."
"I would give their support a ten if they had more tutorials available."
"In other environments like Oracle or Teradata, they provide their own solutions for troubleshooting issues. They provide built-in AI services or autonomous databases, which I don't see in the Db2 environment."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is manageable because you can see the expense associated with each instance and utilize tools for tagging and cost control."
"The price could be better."
"In my case, MySQL is free, and if there are any costs, then it is much less than other solutions since all such things usually come bundled with the hardware."
"if you don't know how to optimize and use your tool properly, the cost might hurt you."
"On a scale from one to ten, where ten is the most expensive, and one is the cheapest, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"The price of Amazon RDS is reasonable."
"The cost of using this solution is similar to that of having your own data center."
"It is less expensive than SQL Server. We pay based on the usage on a monthly basis."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
14%
University
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon RDS?
The product's installation phase is easy.
What needs improvement with Amazon RDS?
User interface needs improvement for using IPS and cloud watch to scale and utilize read replicas, enabling performance insights to view query formats where the bottlenecks occur, identifying the f...
What needs improvement with IBM Db2 on Cloud?
In other environments like Oracle or Teradata, they provide their own solutions for troubleshooting issues. They provide built-in AI services or autonomous databases, which I don't see in the Db2 e...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Db2 on Cloud?
Since I have worked with almost every product, including IBM, Teradata is far better than any other data warehouse product. It's a separate database with its own features, architecture, and working...
What is your primary use case for IBM Db2 on Cloud?
It's a multi-node logical database clustered in three physical nodes. We use a lot of services already provided in our private cloud environment. It's a multi-node architecture.
 

Also Known As

RDS
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Edmodo
Owens-Illinois, KONE Corp., Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue, Canon Europe, Delhaize America, Wimbledon
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon RDS vs. IBM Db2 on Cloud and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
860,825 professionals have used our research since 2012.