No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Apache Hadoop vs IBM Db2 Warehouse 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

Apache Hadoop
Ranking in Data Warehouse
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Db2 Warehouse
Ranking in Data Warehouse
13th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Apache Hadoop is 3.3%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Db2 Warehouse is 3.2%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Apache Hadoop3.3%
IBM Db2 Warehouse3.2%
Other93.5%
Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

NR
Financial Advisor at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Reliable performance maintained but requires ongoing management and support
Hadoop was used for years, but there were problems since the people who originally set it up left the firm. The group that owned it later didn't have the technical resources to properly maintain it. Although there was nothing wrong with Hadoop itself, issues arose without proper management and upgrades.
Sherpard  Muzuva - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Manager- IBM Enterprise Systems at SYSTEMS INTEGRATED LTD (SYMPHONY)
Advanced features enhance business intelligence, but complex management calls for improved user guidance
While my experience with IBM Db2 Warehouse is somewhat limited, when compared to other databases such as Oracle, there are areas for improvement. They need to enhance the database to make it more user-friendly and easier to master. They should implement a more comprehensive graphical user interface with additional features. For instance, when users encounter problems, the system should provide better guidelines and troubleshooting directions, except for hardware-related issues. They need to implement tools that would help users perform basic troubleshooting rather than solely relying on support. Other databases have features where users can investigate specific issues using error codes. From my experience, many minor issues could be resolved before escalating to support.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features are the ability to process the machine data at a high speed, and to add structure to our data so that we can generate relevant analytics."
"If the data volume is too big, it's IoT data, or the stream of data is too much, this solution can handle it and I would definitely recommend Apache Hadoop."
"It is a file system for data collection. There are nodes in this cluster that contain all the information, directories, and other files. The nodes are based on the MySQL database."
"Because we're able to process in parallel, we don't have to wait for the big data warehouse engine, we process down what the data is and then build it up to an answer, and we can have an answer in an hour rather than 10 hours."
"The scalability of Apache Hadoop is very good."
"The Distributed File System, which is the base of Hadoop, has been the most valuable feature with its ability to store video, pictures, JSON, XML, and plain text all in the same file system."
"I recommend it for the telecom sector. I know it well, and it's a good fit."
"The performance is pretty good."
"Provides good security and reliability."
"IBM Db2 Warehouse is more resilient when dealing with business intelligence applications."
"If you have good people designing how the data is stored, it's a marvelous tool."
"I think it scales really well and as long as you take enough time to learn a little bit about it, it works really well."
"The most valuable features of IBM Db2 Warehouse include its availability, easy integration, ability to deal with a large size of data, excellent performance with no delays, powerful security mechanisms, and effective support."
"The analytics engine is not bad at forecasting predictions."
"The solution is stable."
"It can scale effectively as long as resources are available."
 

Cons

"Apache Hadoop's real-time data processing is weak and is not enough to satisfy our customers, so we may have to pick other products."
"Once we had an issue with stability, due to a complete shutdown of a cluster."
"It could be more user-friendly."
"We would like to have more dynamics in merging this machine data with other internal data to make more meaning out of it."
"The solution needs a better tutorial."
"Based on our needs, we would like to see a tool for data visualization and enhanced Ambari for management, plus a pre-built IoT hub/model. These would reduce our efforts and the time needed to prove to a customer that this will help them."
"We have plans to increase usage and this is where we've realized that when we have all these clusters and we're running queries and analyzing, we are facing some latency issues."
"I think more of the solution needs to be focused around the panel processing and retrieval of data."
"On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the technical support as a five. It is fairly bad."
"I previously used DataStage, which I think is better than InfoSphere Warehouse."
"Responding to support tickets takes a lot of time. It can range from two to four days, even for critical issues."
"The biggest problems we have is when the backup solution is failing or slow and we run out of log space, which has happened probably a couple of times in the last four years."
"In terms of improvement, IBM Db2 Warehouse should be more scalable."
"IBM Db2 Warehouse needs to improve its interface."
"The areas of the solution that is needing the most improvement are separating compute from storage, elasticity, which means scaling up and then retracting."
"There were some initial challenges with IBM Db2 Warehouse about eight months ago when I worked in this environment. When I coordinated with IBM support, they mentioned that the memory was insufficient for our needs. Our business environment required significantly more memory than the previous cluster could provide. Consequently, we have worked closely with on-site IBM technical personnel to address this issue."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For any big enterprise the costs can be handled, and it is suitable for big enterprises because the scale of data is large. For medium and small enterprises, the tool is on the high-price side."
"We just use the free version."
"The price could be better. Hortonworks no longer exists, and Cloudera killed the free version of Hadoop."
"We don't directly pay for it. Our clients pay for it, and they usually don't complain about the price. So, it is probably acceptable."
"The product is open-source, but some associated licensing fees depend on the subscription level."
"The price of Apache Hadoop could be less expensive."
"It's reasonable, but there's room for improvement in cost-effectiveness."
"This is a low cost and powerful solution."
"In a traditional on-prem database, in a data warehouse, the solution is probably on the expensive side."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Warehouse solutions are best for your needs.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
28%
University
6%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
27%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Apache Hadoop?
It's primarily open source. You can handle huge data volumes and create your own views, workflows, and tables. I can also use it for real-time data streaming.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Hadoop?
The product is open-source, but some associated licensing fees depend on the subscription level. While it might be free for students, organizations typically need to pay for their subscriptions. Th...
What needs improvement with Apache Hadoop?
The problem with Apache Hadoop arose when the guys that originally set it up left the firm, and the group that later owned it didn't have enough technical resources to properly maintain it. This wa...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Db2 Warehouse?
The pricing for medium and large environments is almost the same as Oracle. I rate the pricing as six out of ten.
What needs improvement with IBM Db2 Warehouse?
While my experience with IBM Db2 Warehouse is somewhat limited, when compared to other databases such as Oracle, there are areas for improvement. They need to enhance the database to make it more u...
What is your primary use case for IBM Db2 Warehouse?
The main advantages of IBM Db2 Warehouse become apparent when dealing with business intelligence applications. I worked with it when it was installed for one of our customers, a utilities company, ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
InfoSphere Warehouse, IBM InfoSphere Warehouse
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Amazon, Adobe, eBay, Facebook, Google, Hulu, IBM, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Spotify, AOL, Twitter, University of Maryland, Yahoo!, Cornell University Web Lab
Alameda County Social Services Agency, Sui Southern Gas Company Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Hadoop vs. IBM Db2 Warehouse and other solutions. Updated: May 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.