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Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop vs SAP HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.1
Assessing ROI from Cloudera for Hadoop varies, with significant value seen in 30 use cases across departments.
Sentiment score
6.1
SAP HANA users saw financial and speed benefits, but mid-sized businesses faced mixed feelings about integration costs and challenges.
We do not feel we're getting value for the investment due to the additional resources needed for integration and maintenance.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Cloudera's customer support is praised for responsiveness and efficiency, despite occasional challenges with less experienced consultants.
Sentiment score
6.0
SAP HANA customer service is well-received but varies; improvements needed in response speed, solution accuracy, and expert access.
The technical support is quite good and better than IBM.
The community support is better than the official SAP support.
Time to respond to SAP support is an issue, and finding the right person and handling the whole process are problems too.
While issues are resolved eventually, the first level of support is not as good as we would like.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop is scalable, supporting large deployments and user bases despite challenges in cloud scalability and cost.
Sentiment score
7.8
SAP HANA efficiently scales for various user loads, supports growing data, and manages enterprise transactions across industries.
Our operations have grown from a hundred data operations a day to as many in a couple of seconds.
There is enough scalability offered by SAP to meet our deployment needs.
The scalability rating is based on the ability to expand.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cloudera Distribution's stability is debated; some experience issues, while others find it reliable, rating it 8-10 out of 10.
Sentiment score
7.8
SAP HANA is generally stable and reliable, but some users face occasional performance issues linked to external factors.
We recently faced customer data loss during the cluster handover or failover fallback.
We have not had any problems in the last seven to eight years.
Regarding stability, they are using legacy systems and have implemented SAP HANA.
 

Room For Improvement

Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop struggles with performance, integration, security, and cost, needing enhancements in multiple facets and technologies.
SAP HANA faces criticism for high cost, complex deployment, resource limitations, and a challenging interface, affecting adoption and usability.
Integrating with Active Directory, managing security, and configuration are the main concerns.
The main issue is the ecosystem, which lacks the widespread support that SQL enjoys.
The problem is the price; it's too expensive for what it actually delivers.
Many customers still prefer Oracle, possibly due to cost or familiarity, despite SAP mandating that they have to go to SAP HANA.
 

Setup Cost

Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop is costly, complex, suitable for large enterprises, and offers a 60-day free trial.
SAP HANA's high pricing favors larger enterprises, requiring careful budgeting, with some opting for alternatives due to costs.
It can be deployed on-premises, unlike competitors' cloud-only solutions.
It's a recurring subscription model, which is expensive compared to legacy systems with just a maintenance fee.
SAP is not a cheap company, and its licenses are expensive.
I would rate the price for SAP HANA as high.
 

Valuable Features

Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop excels with robust features, security, scalability, AI support, and strong community, surpassing competitors.
SAP HANA offers real-time analytics, integration, scalability, and a user-friendly interface, supporting large enterprises with efficient data handling.
This is the only solution that is possible to install on-premise.
This architecture allows for faster data processing and real-time analytics that were not possible with traditional databases.
The concept enhances speed, allowing the database to serve and move data quickly.
It allows some tables to be stored in a column base, others in a row base, and the In-Memory functionalities are mostly the highlight of SAP HANA, especially compared to disk-based memory users.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cloudera Distribution for H...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (2nd), NoSQL Databases (8th)
SAP HANA
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Embedded Database (4th), Relational Databases Tools (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

Rok Dolinsek - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables on-premise implementation with powerful data processing capabilities
This is the only solution that is possible to install on-premise. Cloudera provides a hybrid solution that combines compute on cloud or on-premises. It includes all machine learning algorithms in the Spark machine learning library. All functionalities needed for a big data platform and ETL are on the platform, eliminating the need for other tools. It is scalable, ready for vertical scaling, and very powerful, offering numerous functionalities and configurations for generative AI.
Dhiraj Jankar - PeerSpot reviewer
Users appreciate the mix of in-memory architecture and ease of backend management
The most valuable SAP HANA features are that, compared to Oracle, there is less administrative work and less complex work to handle, making it very straightforward. The tool itself takes care of the backend work. The main benefits SAP HANA provides to users include its architecture, which combines both column store and row store capabilities. Some places find the row feature important, whereas others find column store important. It allows some tables to be stored in a column base, others in a row base, and the In-Memory functionalities are mostly the highlight of SAP HANA, especially compared to disk-based memory users. This was the main reason SAP HANA was introduced initially.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Educational Organization
15%
Computer Software Company
14%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop?
The tool can be deployed using different container technologies, which makes it very scalable.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop?
The price for Cloudera is average, yet it is very good compared to other solutions. It can be deployed on-premises, unlike competitors' cloud-only solutions.
What needs improvement with Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop?
It is quite complicated to configure and install. Integrating the platform into an information system is always a challenge, especially when starting with on-premise implementation. Integrating wit...
What are the biggest benefits of using SAP HANA?
Based on my work with SAP HANA, the biggest benefit that it can bring to your business is total data management. This product is by SAP - a company that serves almost all needs a client may have co...
Is SAP HANA’s customer and technical support reliable?
We have been using SAP HANA for a fairly short period of time and have only taken advantage of their customer support. So far, we have not had issues that required specialized help from technical s...
Is SAP HANA difficult to set up and start using?
SAP HANA is fairly easy to set up, however, I do not think a complete beginner can do it. You certainly need some preparation - either you need to have experience with similar solutions, or with ot...
 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

37signals, Adconion,adgooroo, Aggregate Knowledge, AMD, Apollo Group, Blackberry, Box, BT, CSC
Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop vs. SAP HANA and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
860,825 professionals have used our research since 2012.