Azure Data Factory vs SAP Business Warehouse comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Microsoft and SAP are both solutions in the Cloud Data Warehouse category. Microsoft is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.0, while SAP is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.0. Microsoft holds a 5.1% mindshare in CDW, compared to SAP’s 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of SAP users who would recommend it.

Azure Data Factory

Read 97 Azure Data Factory reviews

15,321 Views
2,758 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

SAP Business Warehouse

Read 26 SAP Business Warehouse reviews

2,775 Views
1,610 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Azure Data Factory

SAP Business Warehouse

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

SAP Business Warehouse and Azure Data Factory are competing in the data integration and management category. Azure Data Factory seems to have the upper hand due to its feature set and scalability advantages.

Features: SAP Business Warehouse specializes in comprehensive analysis, built-in warehousing, and structured data management. Azure Data Factory excels in seamless cross-platform integration, handling complex ETL processes, and scalable cloud-based solutions.

Room for Improvement: SAP Business Warehouse could enhance ease of deployment, reduce setup complexity, and improve integration with non-SAP systems. Azure Data Factory might focus on expanding community support, enhancing user training resources, and simplifying certain advanced configurations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP Business Warehouse requires substantial deployment resources but offers excellent support and detailed installation guidance. Azure Data Factory provides a quick, cloud-based setup with extensive Microsoft documentation, relying more on community resources for support.

Pricing and ROI: SAP Business Warehouse has a higher initial cost, potentially affecting early ROI, yet offers significant returns through data optimization. Azure Data Factory provides a flexible pricing model with lower entry costs, allowing scalability and yielding favorable ROI by aligning with varying data volumes.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Data Factory vs. SAP Business Warehouse Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Data Factory vs. SAP Business Warehouse

September 2026

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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

Azure Data Factory

Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse

6th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Integration (6th)

SAP Business Warehouse

Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse

15th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Cloud Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Azure Data Factory is 5.1%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Business Warehouse is 2.4%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Data Warehouse Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Azure Data Factory	5.1%
SAP Business Warehouse	2.4%
Other	92.5%

Cloud Data Warehouse

Featured Reviews

Kunal Das

Test Engineer at Happiest Minds Technologies

Drag-and-drop pipelines have saved days of work and now automate data movement and backfilling

If the AI features were more improved so that I don't have to provide each and every detail, Azure Data Factory could be improved in a much better way by improving the AI features. For example, if I want to fetch any data from a raw source, I need to provide each and every detail. But if I am just uploading my raw data and if AI will sync with that data, it can analyze that data and give me proper suggestions on how that should be done in a proper way. Automatic suggestions could improve in a much better way. As I have mentioned, the AI features as well as more drag-and-drop activities could be improved. If I am making a pipeline, it should give me suggestions, such as which activity should be used, so that I don't have to remember each activity. If I have used one activity, I shouldn't have to remember what activity should I use next. It should give auto-suggestions. That is why I have given a nine out of 10. Currently, I don't know about its governance and security, but in view of its improvement, I think Azure Data Factory should improve in these areas. As I already mentioned, the AI features should be improved. Also, the auto-suggestion features should also improve.

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VishnuReddy2

Consulting Enterprise Architect at R2V2.ai

Have encountered complexity with programming language while working on large-scale data integration and have experienced improved governance and reporting

The only complexity I find with the product is the programming language; people find it harder, but once you know the language, it's not that difficult. Regarding the future of SAP Business Warehouse, I would to see added features that simplify the product very well now. They are coming up with a terminology called SAP BDC where they are consolidating their tools, SAP Data Sphere for integration and SAP BW for the ETL and warehousing parts, and SAP Analytics Cloud. They are packaging these three features and calling it Business Data Cloud; they are fully coming on the cloud. We have to wait and watch; they have been speaking about BW/4HANA for quite some time now, but the customers or clients I work with are not finding great interest and it was seen as a candidate for evaluation. I have seen people looking at the latest technologies who are already on cloud who started building from scratch on cloud, such as Snowflake or Databricks, which can process very huge amounts of data and also address unstructured data, where SAP lags behind in cases where there is a need to bring in unstructured data. I have worked with SAP Data Intelligence, which earlier used to be called SAP Data Hub. The unstructured data is not greatly handled in SAP at this point in time.

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

"The reason that we implemented this product is for the full integration with the whole Azure environment."

"The most valuable feature of this solution would be ease of use."

"I value the integration capabilities with other platforms and software in Azure Data Factory the most."

"I am one hundred percent happy with the stability."

"The platform excels in data transformation with its user-friendly interface and robust monitoring capabilities, making ETL processes seamless."

"The best part of this product is the extraction, transformation, and load."

"It's extremely consistent."

"The data is more scalable."

More Azure Data Factory pros

"The features that I have found most valuable are its capabilities to connect to Excel and to slice and dice."

"We switched to SAP because the solution is more comfortable to work with."

"The fact that it can integrate with Microsoft Excel is the solution's most valuable feature."

"The most valuable aspect of the solution is the integration with SAP ERP."

"Predominantly, our company uses SAP Business Warehouse for reporting purposes across various departments, especially for managers to gain a quick understanding of their current standing and make informed decisions."

"In terms of stability, comparatively, the solution is quite stable."

"SAP Business Warehouse is a scalable solution."

"Technical support is good, and they were able to assist us in some specific issues we were experiencing."

More SAP Business Warehouse pros

Cons

"When the record fails, it's tough to identify and log."

"It's essentially just a black box. There is some monitoring that can be done, but when something goes wrong, even simple fixes are difficult to troubleshoot."

"The initial setup is not very straightforward."

"Azure Data Factory uses many resources and has issues with parallel workflows."

"The need to work more on developing out-of-the-box connectors for other products like Oracle, AWS, and others."

"I wouldn't consider it to be stable since it fails at times."

"The pricing model should be more transparent and available online."

"The Microsoft documentation is too complicated."

More Azure Data Factory cons

"More integration with Microsoft Office products (not just Excel) would be helpful."

"In the next release, my suggestion would be to have user-friendly interfaces and performance issues be addressed."

"People are getting frustrated as they have to spend lots of time - 10 minutes to 15 minutes - generating the report."

"One of our requirements is the ability to easily get answers regarding trends and exceptions. In BW, it is not that easy to get such information. I expect better trend and exception detection, better pattern detection."

"What I'd like to improve in SAP Business Warehouse is its data structure, that's a little bit rigid. It could be a bit more flexible, so you can design your data structure and improve performance when creating a solution. Currently, the way data is stored in SAP Business Warehouse is rigid."

"There are a lot of things that could be improved especially in terms of data cleansing, data management, data lineage, etc. The solution needs to offer more flexibility in terms of formulas and the query designer."

"I get all the information quickly, but it is one day old."

"The visualization should be improved, as well as the dashboards and advanced analytics."

More SAP Business Warehouse cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing is a pay-as-you-go model, where you pay for what you consume."

"Pricing appears to be reasonable in my opinion."

"The price is fair."

"Data Factory is expensive."

"In terms of licensing costs, we pay somewhere around S14,000 USD per month. There are some additional costs. For example, we would have to subscribe to some additional computing and for elasticity, but they are minimal."

"The pricing is a bit on the higher end."

"The pricing model is based on usage and is not cheap."

"Data Factory is affordable."

More Azure Data Factory pricing and cost advice

"Overall, the pricing is not fixed and is expensive."

"SAP Business Warehouse licensing is a bit expensive compared to other products in the market."

"The solution is quite expensive."

"It's moderately expensive, but definitely has its branding and price value for it."

"I would not recommend it to small-scale companies. The price is too much."

"The licensing cost for SAP Business Warehouse depends on your revenue. Its licensing structure is a little bit complicated. The more your revenue is, the higher the price, but SAP does have different pricing structures for various companies. For small businesses, licensing isn't based on revenue, but for big companies, it's revenue-based. There's some agreement regarding pricing for huge companies, so it's different, and SAP Business Warehouse pricing isn't fixed. On a scale of one to ten, I'm rating the licensing cost for SAP Business Warehouse as five because it's very high. As your revenue grows, your licensing cost also increases, so you have to factor that in when calculating your cost."

"It's quite pricey. SAP changed its pricing policy, so they give you one engine and then you have to buy everything next to it, like MSS, the BPC licenses, and everything else."

"The license for SAP Business Warehouse is paid yearly, and there's no extra cost in addition to the standard licensing fees."

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915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

12%

Construction Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	31
Midsize Enterprise	21
Large Enterprise	64

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	15

Questions from the Community

How do you select the right cloud ETL tool?

AWS Glue and Azure Data factory for ELT best performance cloud services.

See all answers

How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica PowerCenter?

Azure Data Factory is flexible, modular, and works well. In terms of cost, it is not too pricey. It offers the stability and reliability I am looking for, good scalability, and is easy to set up an...

See all answers

How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica Cloud Data Integration?

Azure Data Factory is a solid product offering many transformation functions; It has pre-load and post-load transformations, allowing users to apply transformations either in code by using Power Q...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Business Warehouse?

The pricing for SAP Business Warehouse is on the expensive side. I am not sure about the current costing model as such. In my experience on cloud, I did not use BW HANA Cloud. I used the cloud prod...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAP Business Warehouse?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SAP Business Warehouse?

I am using SAP Business Warehouse in my organization for data warehousing as well as an ETL tool. Integration with SAP Business Warehouse's ETL tools is not straightforward. Integration with SAP ER...

See all answers

Comparisons

Snowflake vs Azure Data Factory

Compared 4% of the time

Databricks vs Azure Data Factory

Compared 4% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs Azure Data Factory

Compared 3% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs Azure Data Factory

Compared 3% of the time

SnapLogic vs Azure Data Factory

Compared 3% of the time

More Azure Data Factory Competitors

Snowflake vs SAP Business Warehouse

Compared 16% of the time

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs SAP Business Warehouse

Compared 11% of the time

BigQuery vs SAP Business Warehouse

Compared 9% of the time

SAP Business Data Cloud vs SAP Business Warehouse

Compared 6% of the time

SAP BW4HANA vs SAP Business Warehouse

Compared 6% of the time

More SAP Business Warehouse Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Data Factory

October 2026

Download Azure Data Factory product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP Business Warehouse

September 2026

Download SAP Business Warehouse product report

Overview

Azure Data Factory efficiently manages and integrates data from various sources, enabling seamless movement and transformation across platforms. Its valuable features include seamless integration with Azure services, handling large data volumes, flexible transformation, user-friendly interface, extensive connectors, and scalability. Users have experienced improved team performance, workflow simplification, enhanced collaboration, streamlined processes, and boosted productivity.

Microsoft

SAP Business Warehouse integrates real-time data access via HANA, with Microsoft Excel and SAP ERP for enhanced data transformation and reporting. Known for its speed and hybrid features, it meets diverse data governance needs.

SAP Business Warehouse is designed to streamline data access and transformation with its integration capabilities. Its speed and efficiency are complemented by advanced reporting features and a robust authorization model. Users benefit from drag-and-drop reporting and alert systems that enhance operational efficiency. Despite its strengths, improvements are necessary in user friendliness, data integration, and reporting speed. Users require better trend analysis tools, increased visualization capabilities, and a more flexible configuration to optimize use. Real-time data access remains an area for development.

What features define SAP Business Warehouse?

HANA Integration: Enables real-time data access
Excel and ERP Integration: Seamless interaction with popular tools
Advanced Reporting: Delivers high-quality reporting capabilities
Hybrid Functionality: Offers versatile use cases
Drag-and-Drop: Simplifies reporting and analysis tasks
Authorization Model: Ensures secure data handling

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Operational Efficiency: Enhanced by alert and monitoring tools
Data Governance: Robust models meet diverse needs
Centralized Data: Comprehensive data storage and access
Decision-Making Support: BI tools inform strategic planning

SAP Business Warehouse plays a crucial role in industries like finance and supply chain, leveraging data warehousing, ETL processes, and powerful BI applications to enhance decision-making with tools like Business Objects, Tableau, and Power BI. It serves as a central data repository, facilitating extensive reporting and analysis capabilities.

SAP

Sample Customers

1. Adobe 2. BMW 3. Coca-Cola 4. General Electric 5. Johnson & Johnson 6. LinkedIn 7. Mastercard 8. Nestle 9. Pfizer 10. Samsung 11. Siemens 12. Toyota 13. Unilever 14. Verizon 15. Walmart 16. Accenture 17. American Express 18. AT&T 19. Bank of America 20. Cisco 21. Deloitte 22. ExxonMobil 23. Ford 24. General Motors 25. IBM 26. JPMorgan Chase 27. Microsoft (Azure Data Factory is developed by Microsoft) 28. Oracle 29. Procter & Gamble 30. Salesforce 31. Shell 32. Visa

Medtronic, Cirque du Soleil, Antarc, B&G Manufacturing, EarlySense, eBay, Ferrero, James Austin Company, Lenovo, Sagem, RAK Ceramics, Vodafone

Buyer's Guide

Azure Data Factory vs. SAP Business Warehouse

September 2026

Free Report: Azure Data Factory vs. SAP Business Warehouse

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Data Factory vs. SAP Business Warehouse and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.

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