AWS Lake Formation vs SAP Business Data Cloud comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and SAP are both solutions in the Cloud Data Warehouse category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.1, while SAP is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 3.2% mindshare in CDW, compared to SAP’s 3.5% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of SAP users who would recommend it.

AWS Lake Formation

Read 21 AWS Lake Formation reviews

2,717 Views
2,119 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

SAP Business Data Cloud

Read 120 SAP Business Data Cloud reviews

20,641 Views
1,445 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

AWS Lake Formation

SAP Business Data Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 15, 2026

AWS Lake Formation and SAP Business Data Cloud are two competing products in the field of data management solutions. SAP Business Data Cloud appears to have the upper hand due to its advanced analytics and business intelligence capabilities.

Features: AWS Lake Formation simplifies data lake creation with features like governance, security management, and seamless data integration within the AWS ecosystem. SAP Business Data Cloud provides advanced analytics, robust business intelligence tools, and comprehensive analytics capabilities that help in extracting deeper insights.

Room for Improvement:AWS Lake Formation could enhance its analytics sophistication and offer broader ecosystem integration outside AWS environments. Increasing flexibility in handling non-AWS data sources could also be beneficial. Similarly, SAP Business Data Cloud might improve in simplifying deployment processes, reducing cost barriers for smaller enterprises, and honing integration with non-SAP systems to enhance usability for diverse businesses.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:AWS Lake Formation offers straightforward deployment for AWS users, benefitting from quick support services. Meanwhile, SAP Business Data Cloud, while having a more complex deployment process, offers exhaustive customer assistance, favoring detailed guidance throughout its setup.

Pricing and ROI:AWS Lake Formation is known for competitive pricing, offering quick ROI due to lower initial costs and efficient scalability. SAP Business Data Cloud, despite higher costs, offers potentially greater long-term ROI by providing a feature-rich environment and superior analytics, appealing to businesses focused on robust data analysis.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Lake Formation vs. SAP Business Data Cloud Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Lake Formation vs. SAP Business Data Cloud

September 2026

Download the complete report

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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

AWS Lake Formation

Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SAP Business Data Cloud

Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

120

Ranking in other categories

Data Integration (7th), BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (3rd), Business Performance Management (2nd), Cloud Analytics (2nd), Predictive Analytics (2nd), Data Governance (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Cloud Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of AWS Lake Formation is 3.2%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Business Data Cloud is 3.5%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Data Warehouse Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SAP Business Data Cloud	3.5%
AWS Lake Formation	3.2%
Other	93.3%

Cloud Data Warehouse

Featured Reviews

Ciro Baldim Guerra

Sr Analytics Engineer at Itau Unibanco S.A.

Has improved data governance by enabling clear ownership and structured access across teams

In my company, Itaú, we don't utilize all AWS offerings due to rigorous security measures. We operate approximately six to eight months behind other available services. I'm uncertain if gaps exist because of this limitation, though the system functions effectively for us. AWS Lake Formation offers column-level access control for databases, but we haven't implemented this feature either because it hasn't been approved by our compliance, governance, or security areas. In our current setup, everyone from my business unit uses the same consumer account. When access is requested for a table, everyone using that business unit account receives access. This could present a security concern, though it benefits new team members who automatically receive all necessary access permissions. However, I struggle to identify specific improvements needed in AWS Lake Formation.

Read full review

Pavlina Pankova

Competence Leader - BI at Sabris CZ s.r.o.

Brings reporting, planning, and prediction together in one seamless workflow

I think the areas of SAP Analytics Cloud that could be improved or enhanced are mentioned by users or companies, and they would definitely mention the price in terms of planning licensing. From a consulting point of view, I don't see any major weaknesses. It is reasonably well-developed, and the perfect strength is that innovations are coming on a quarterly basis. It is slightly behind other tools in terms of the number of graphical outputs. Some tools have it faster, but every increment of innovations contains new features. On the other hand, it is perfectly fitting to the SAP environment, with seamless integration to all SAP modules, not only ERP but also SuccessFactors and other tools from the SAP family, for example, integrated business planning for the production planning. This is really a highlight compared to other tools.

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

"Every solution has its pros and cons, however, for our purposes, this solution works quite well for us."

"There is no doubt that this place exceeded my expectations with its incredible ambiance, attentive service, and mouthwatering menu."

"I can easily move data from cold storage to regular storage."

"AWS Lake Formation has several valuable features that enhance data management, and one particularly beneficial aspect is how it facilitates better collaboration within data teams."

"It is seamlessly integrated within the AWS ecosystem, making it straightforward to manage access patterns for AWS-native services."

"The integration of AWS Lake Formation with the IAM for authentication and authorization is very good; I didn't have any problems in the setup and thought it was simple."

"We have observed measurable benefits in terms of cost savings, time savings, resource savings, and efficiency improvements in our workflows."

"The features and capabilities of AWS Lake Formation that I have found most valuable are that it is really convenient to see all the different data assets that were configured and understand who has and what type of service has or does not have access to those services."

More AWS Lake Formation pros

"Seamless planning is equal to live data, and when using live data it is very helpful because I get the data up to date, I do not have to manually refresh it, I can perform all sorts of calculations on my presentation or calculation layer, and present it to the client with live data being fetched into the system, which helped greatly for BI capabilities and allowed me to create multiple reports and dashboards to understand the sales-related dynamics of the current business in real time."

"SAP Analytics Hub offers a user-friendly interface with effortless configuration, seamless updates, and real-time availability of information. It avoids the complexities associated with batch processing, providing a smooth and efficient experience."

"What my customers like best about SAP Analytics Cloud is the dashboard because it's pretty good."

"This product provides good reports using a single pane of glass."

"What I appreciate about SAP Analytics Cloud is the AI features, which include interactive dashboards, drill-down capabilities, linked dimensions, and the ability to integrate more than one model in the same story."

"We use it for all our reporting right now, everything is happening in SAP, and all dashboards are there, and all data comes through in real-time."

"SAP Business Data Cloud offers a Data Sphere platform for data orchestration and storage, providing excellent features while being connected with BTP and integrating SAP AI, machine learning, and general integration."

"In the data warehouse, you're free to make changes. You can make everything text, meaning it's always a string. Even numbers appear as text, giving you the flexibility to work with all columns."

More SAP Business Data Cloud pros

Cons

"In our current setup, everyone from my business unit uses the same consumer account. When access is requested for a table, everyone using that business unit account receives access. This could present a security concern, though it benefits new team members who automatically receive all necessary access permissions."

"Athena can be a bit clunky when writing queries, indicating a potential enhancement point for easier user interaction with query tools such as DataGrip using provided driver JARs."

"Information about the pricing, cost, and setup cost of the AWS solutions would be beneficial."

"I think AWS Lake Formation could improve by enforcing the least privilege by design, moving from ad hoc grants to role-based access controls."

"The UI of AWS Lake Formation is not very responsive."

"The main challenge we faced with AWS Lake Formation was related to cross-account sharing. Granting access to other AWS accounts for tables or databases in a different AWS account was somewhat difficult."

"Rather than creating an additional hundred tools, optimizing a tool to have a centralized location to do governance would be beneficial."

"It falls short when it comes to more granular access control, such as cell-level or row-level entitlements which is a significant drawback for organizations that require precise control over who can access specific rows of data."

More AWS Lake Formation cons

"I would like to see reporting to the Analytics cloud directly. As it is now, we can integrate text reports in Analytics Cloud, but every time we create a model then we have to design the reports."

"I rate the scalability as a seven out of ten, as the solution occasionally falls to pieces and requires us to tweak our scripting."

"I would not say the initial setup is straightforward, but the hurdles were expected ones."

"SAC, which is the cloud version, lost some good features from the previous planning product, like BPC or BPS."

"Figuring out how to navigate all of the products around Data Warehouse Cloud and SAP Analytics Cloud and BW for HANA is quite difficult."

"Improvement could be made in the pricing of the product which is very expensive, more than Oracle and Power BI and similar solutions."

"The cost is an area that could be improved."

"SAP has always had one problem with its products, they make them very closed systems that are difficult to integrate."

More SAP Business Data Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"AWS Lake Formation is a bit expensive."

"Its pricing is okay as compared to its competitors."

"The premium option is very expensive at five thousand dollars. I use the nine hundred and ninety-nine dollar option."

"The price is competitive. There is a power user license and normal user license, but the normal user license is reasonable."

"It is not the most expensive one. You have to do the cost-of-ownership analysis and take a lot of things into consideration to come up with the conclusion that it is cheaper or not, but its price is reasonable. It provides value for money."

"The tool's pricing is medium, and licensing costs are yearly."

"It is an expensive solution."

"SAP Analytics Cloud is expensive. The price is a big issue if you compare it with other solutions from different vendors."

"Its licensing is on a monthly basis."

More SAP Business Data Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Media Company

14%

Outsourcing Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	15

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	47
Midsize Enterprise	22
Large Enterprise	79

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Lake Formation?

I don't understand much about the pricing of AWS Lake Formation, but I know how to search for the cost of Glue jobs, and I use the calculator in Amazon. I use a tool to preview the cost based on th...

See all answers

What needs improvement with AWS Lake Formation?

Regarding areas of AWS Lake Formation that could be improved or enhanced, I prefer not to answer, mainly because I do not believe that I would be the most valuable person to ask, as I have not used...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for AWS Lake Formation?

My usual use cases for AWS Lake Formation involved securing and governing the data resources that we configured in AWS, but we did not use the analytics or machine learning capabilities specificall...

See all answers

Which would you choose - Tableau or SAP Analytics Cloud?

Tableau is easy to set up and maintain. In about a day it is possible for the entire platform to be deployed for use. This relatively short amount of time can make all the difference for companies ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Analytics Cloud?

I normally do not deal with the commercials, so I am not aware of the pricing part of it.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAP Analytics Cloud?

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon Redshift vs AWS Lake Formation

Compared 12% of the time

Snowflake vs AWS Lake Formation

Compared 11% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs AWS Lake Formation

Compared 9% of the time

Databricks vs AWS Lake Formation

Compared 9% of the time

BigQuery vs AWS Lake Formation

Compared 7% of the time

More AWS Lake Formation Competitors

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence vs SAP Business Data Cloud

Compared 15% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs SAP Business Data Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs SAP Business Data Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

Databricks vs SAP Business Data Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

Oracle Analytics Cloud vs SAP Business Data Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

More SAP Business Data Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

AWS Lake Formation

October 2026

Download AWS Lake Formation product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP Business Data Cloud

September 2026

Download SAP Business Data Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Digital Boardroom, SAP Analytics Hub

Overview

AWS Lake Formation streamlines data lake organization by integrating seamlessly with AWS services, ensuring robust access control, and facilitating effective data management. Its extensible framework and centralized data handling make it ideal for cloud environments that require scalability.

AWS Lake Formation offers comprehensive data synchronization with AWS, robust security through fine-grained policies, and seamless team collaboration tools. It centralizes data assets, supports analytics with Glue, and enhances data mesh structures. Its IAM integration supports efficient governance, with reliable data storage and retrieval backed by extensive documentation. While highly efficient within AWS ecosystems, Lake Formation faces integration challenges with third-party libraries, and users experience clutter in its interface. Aspects such as automation, policy management, and debugging are areas for improvement. Enhancements in orchestration, cross-account sharing, and integrations with services like SageMaker are user recommendations.

What are the key features of AWS Lake Formation?

Data Synchronization: Integrates with AWS services for seamless data management.
Security Policies: Implements fine-grained access control for secure data handling.
Team Collaboration: Facilitates cooperation through centralized data management.
Analytics Support: Enhances data processing with Glue integration.
Extensibility: IAM integration allows scalable governance.

What benefits or ROI can users expect?

Scalability: Efficiently manages expanding data volumes.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces cloud data management expenses.
Data Security: Ensures compliance with robust policies.
Comprehensive Support: Access to detailed documentation and AWS resources.

Organizations utilize AWS Lake Formation across various industries to build and manage data lakes, ensuring effective data governance and storage solutions. It helps integrate and transform data, control permissions, and support analytics. From e-commerce to healthcare, AWS Lake Formation delivers centralized data repositories for structured and unstructured data, securing information while providing scalable infrastructure and efficient resource management.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

SAP Business Data Cloud (SAP BDC) is a unified, intelligent data platform — part of the SAP Business AI Platform — that governs SAP and third-party data through a business data fabric. As an evolution of our industry-leading data, analytics and planning solutions, Business Data Cloud brings together Datasphere, Analytics Cloud, and Business Warehouse with a unified experience that delivers transformational insights across all lines of business. By harmonizing mission-critical data with the business processes and logic that give it meaning, SAP BDC delivers a trusted foundation for analytics and AI, empowering data teams and business leaders to make faster, more confident decisions.

What are the most important features of SAP Business Data Cloud?

Unified Data Connectivity: Native integration with SAP applications and third-party sources, eliminating data silos
Business-ready data products: Fully managed SAP data products across all business processes, providing immediate access to high-quality, trusted data
Semantic Data Modeling: A business semantic layer ensures data is translated into consistent, business context across the enterprise
End-to-End Data Governance: Built-in lineage tracking, data quality management, access controls, and compliance support
AI-Assisted Analytics and Planning: Go from insights to action instantly with planning and analytics together in one solution
Open Data Architecture: Enable secure and seamless, zero-copy sharing of semantically rich SAP data into existing data platform environments

What benefits or ROI should users look for in SAP Business Data Cloud?

Accelerated Time to Insight: Less time cleaning and validating data means more time analyzing and acting
Reduced Data Management Costs: One platform replaces multiple point solutions, lowering licensing and IT overhead
Improved Data Trust and Quality: Embedded governance reduces the risk of decisions made on inaccurate or inconsistent data
Faster Compliance and Auditability: Built-in lineage and access controls streamline regulatory reporting and audit preparation
Enhanced Business Agility: Real-time data and self-service analytics help teams respond quickly without relying on IT
Maximized SAP Investment Value: Makes existing SAP transactional data fully accessible and analytics-ready
AI Readiness: A clean, governed data foundation accelerates confident AI and ML adoption across the business

SAP Business Data Cloud is a key component of SAP's vision for the autonomous enterprise. By unifying data connectivity, governance, semantic modeling, and analytics in a single cloud-native platform, SAP BDC eliminates fragmentation and complexity — serving as the connective tissue that ties your entire enterprise together and positioning organizations for long-term success in an AI-driven world.

SAP

Sample Customers

bp, Cerner, Expedia, Finra, HESS, intuit, Kellog's, Philips, TIME, workday

Ericsson, Vodafone, Google, Team Liquid, Ryder Cup, Accenture

Buyer's Guide

AWS Lake Formation vs. SAP Business Data Cloud

September 2026

Free Report: AWS Lake Formation vs. SAP Business Data Cloud

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