Dell PowerStore vs SAP IQ comparison

Dell Technologies and SAP are both solutions in the Data Warehouse category. Dell Technologies is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.7, while SAP is ranked #15 with an average rating of 6.8. Dell Technologies holds a 1.4% mindshare in Data Warehouse, compared to SAP’s 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of SAP users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerStore

Read 164 Dell PowerStore reviews

22,645 Views
226 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

SAP IQ

Read 23 SAP IQ reviews

1,362 Views
667 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Dell PowerStore

SAP IQ

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

SAP IQ and Dell PowerStore compete in the enterprise data management and storage solutions category. Dell PowerStore appears to have an upper hand in scalability and integration, particularly excelling in VMware environments.

Features: SAP IQ boasts powerful data compression, leading query speed, and a columnar architecture that is optimized for business intelligence and analytics, supporting flexible schema design and rapid data loading. Dell PowerStore focuses on NVMe support and scalable architecture, which allows for independent scaling of compute and storage. It provides high IOPS and features AI-powered management tools, offering robust integration and performance for VMware environments.

Room for Improvement: SAP IQ's main areas for enhancement include improving its documentation, marketing strategies, and backup support. Challenges also exist in terms of training costs and system stability, along with the need for more modern enterprise features like replication. For Dell PowerStore, improvements are needed in NAS functionality, upgrade stability, and reporting. Additionally, its integration with VMware and pricing transparency should be enhanced, while also addressing the need for better cybersecurity features and customer support.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP IQ is typically deployed on-premises with limited cloud adoption options, and its customer service is often cited as insufficient, with limited expertise available and lengthy resolution times. In contrast, Dell PowerStore offers flexible deployment options, including hybrid configurations. It generally receives better customer service ratings, with reliable global support and higher satisfaction in technical assistance.

Pricing and ROI: SAP IQ is praised for cost-effectiveness compared to other RDBMS solutions and has improved pricing for features such as partitioning that provides value for large databases. Dell PowerStore's pricing is competitive, albeit perceived as high, but deemed cost-effective given its features and deduplication capabilities. Both provide good ROI, with SAP IQ offering savings in hardware costs and Dell PowerStore streamlining licensing processes.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerStore vs. SAP IQ Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerStore vs. SAP IQ

December 2025

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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:

ROI

Sentiment score

5.6

Dell PowerStore users report positive ROI through cost efficiency, reduced infrastructure, enhanced performance, and improved business operations.

Sentiment score

6.2

SAP IQ boasts high ROI with substantial hardware savings, low maintenance costs, though some users lack authorization to confirm it.

If you purchase storage with 300 terabytes, you can easily achieve one petabyte of effective capacity.

AdnanAli Khan

Regional Sales Manager at New Horizon Computers

It's been trouble-free the entire time, with very high performance, as it has been designed and built properly.

reviewer2709102

Storage Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

We have seen a return on our investment in Dell PowerStore; definitely our cost per terabyte has been very good compared to some of the other vendors that we would have been using previously, and our performance benchmarks have exceeded what we were expecting.

Eoin O’Brien

Director of Global Platform at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerStore report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the SAP IQ report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.5

Dell PowerStore users generally praise support, citing quick responses but noting occasional issues with speed and staff experience.

Sentiment score

5.6

Customer service is 24/7 but varies in quality; technical support lacks experts, causing slow escalation and limited advanced assistance.

I would rate the technical support of Dell PowerStore between nine and ten out of ten.

Tiby Thomas

Solution Architect at CDA

They're responsive, knowledgeable, and have a quick turnaround.

reviewer2598762

Systems Engineer at a government with 11-50 employees

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Dell support as a ten, focusing on that aspect alone, because it's what allows me to sleep at night.

Alan Farrely

Head of IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerStore report

It seems very difficult to get proper advanced assistance on advanced or complicated problems.

Reviewer302462

Tech Director at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The quality of support from SAP is very good; if it's a known problem, they will have a knowledge base, so we will get immediate assistance.

Akhilesh Narayanan

Tech Lead, Database Section. at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the SAP IQ report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.8

Dell PowerStore offers exceptional scalability, adapting easily to organizational growth with robust vertical and horizontal expansion capabilities.

Sentiment score

7.4

SAP IQ offers scalable solutions with Simplex and Multiplex architectures, accommodating vast data volumes across PCs or servers.

The solution's scalability is a ten out of ten.

Amjed Antari

Pre-Sales Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

It scales up and scales out both ways, and as our data keeps growing, it is very easy to just keep attaching and keep growing.

Nikhil Desai

Associate Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Scaling up can be done from a single enclosure that already has two controllers to a maximum of four storage units with up to eight controllers, and a massive amount of storage can be added.

KiewietKritzinger

Nutanix at Senior System Engineer

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerStore report

SAP IQ is actually quite effective when it comes to scalability.

Reviewer302462

Tech Director at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

We can span the read and write load into multiple nodes, and that scalability is there.

Akhilesh Narayanan

Tech Lead, Database Section. at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the SAP IQ report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.6

Dell PowerStore is praised for stability and support, with minor issues usually resolved quickly and efficiently.

Sentiment score

6.0

SAP IQ is stable, effectively managing complex transactions despite occasional issues, making it a reliable choice for implementations.

When I removed all the cables, it failed over within five minutes.

reviewer2707638

Consultant

It's quite stable and reliable in general.

reviewer2794212

Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

I have not experienced any downtime, bugs, or glitches, and it's much better than previous technologies.

Mohammed Ajmal

Storage Backup Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerStore report

It's usually something external, such as lack of disk space or problems arising from the integration to other systems.

Reviewer302462

Tech Director at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the SAP IQ report

Room For Improvement

Users suggest improvements in Dell PowerStore's integration, stability, cost, support, cybersecurity, scalability, usability, and enterprise features.

SAP IQ faces challenges with high costs, inadequate training, stability issues, and integration limitations, impacting performance and adoption.

Something needs to be done with the caching to ensure that if some issue occurs, there needs to be an ability to disable caching during maintenance to make it static, safe, and good.

reviewer2402940

CISO Admin at a analyst firm with 51-200 employees

Pricing must also be considered, as Dell PowerStore is quite expensive compared to competitors in the market like HPE Alletra, Huawei Dorado, or Hitachi storage, for example.

Kashif-Naseer

Unit Head - Technology Services at Shahnawaz Ltd

The main reason why people move to Pure Storage is because it's simplified.

Kevinsa Heng

IT Director at a recreational facilities/services company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerStore report

When there is an issue, the error messaging we get is not always sufficient to do a fast and solid fix.

Reviewer302462

Tech Director at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It is easy to deploy SAP IQ; the implementation and installation are easy.

Akhilesh Narayanan

Tech Lead, Database Section. at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the SAP IQ report

Setup Cost

Dell PowerStore is competitively priced with comprehensive licensing, though expansion costs may lead to higher overall expenses.

SAP IQ is cost-effective with various licensing models, though price understanding and negotiation are essential for optimal implementation.

Likely the cost is $400,000 whereas IBM may be $250,000.

Hamed Mohamed

Adv. Service Manager at ECC Solutions

Based on my experience, the cost of Dell PowerStore for around 500 GB of capacity is very competitive compared to any other platform in the market.

SachinSharma4

Deputy General Manager at HCLSoftware

I asked for a new quotation on a server, and it is quite expensive; it is really expensive.

Nicolas Philippe

Responsable Plateformes Et Cloud at a media company with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerStore report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the SAP IQ report

Valuable Features

Dell PowerStore offers flexible deployment, high performance, efficient storage, scalability, and security, making it ideal for diverse storage needs.

SAP IQ features column-based architecture, high compression, rapid queries, large-scale data handling, and integration with SAP BusinessObjects.

This includes storage sharing, adding servers to the service, and the wireless host connection on the network side.

Naresh K

Senior System Administrator at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees

Dell PowerStore offers good integration capabilities, especially since it helps with backup, which is an important aspect.

reviewer2402997

CISO at a construction company with 10,001+ employees

In terms of whether my company could reduce the power consumption with Dell PowerStore, I would say that my company had a use case with a customer around three weeks ago where their old Dell EMC VNX Storage System used to draw about 2500 watts compared to Dell PowerStore which drew about 800 watts, which is a really a big saving looking at the twenty-four hours and seven days of usage of the system.

Lukas Rueckerl

Data Center Consultant at a retailer with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerStore report

The feature I appreciate the most about SAP IQ is the compression, which is very good; we cannot compare with any other type of EDW.

Akhilesh Narayanan

Tech Lead, Database Section. at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

The most valuable feature of SAP IQ for us is that it works very effectively with the SAP BusinessObjects which we use it with.

Reviewer302462

Tech Director at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the SAP IQ report

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerStore

Ranking in Data Warehouse

4th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

164

Ranking in other categories

NAS (1st), Enterprise SAN (1st), All-Flash Storage (1st), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (1st)

SAP IQ

Ranking in Data Warehouse

15th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Relational Databases Tools (24th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Dell PowerStore is 1.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP IQ is 2.4%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Warehouse Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Dell PowerStore	1.4%
SAP IQ	2.4%
Other	96.2%

Data Warehouse

Featured Reviews

reviewer2304864

Vmware Windows Senior Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Resilience has supported proactive management and secured audit readiness across multiple sites

The resilience in Dell PowerStore benefits my company from an auditing perspective because we know we have that resilience in place. I see Dell PowerStore playing a bigger role in the future because we are starting to use it more, and that is pushing it. The biggest return on investment for me when using Dell PowerStore is scalability. Scalability is key. I can amplify that scalability is the biggest return on investment because we have redundancy between two sites; if something goes down, we have to manage it, but we want to do it proactively.

Read full review

Akhilesh Narayanan

Tech Lead, Database Section. at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Compression performance gets high marks but user-friendly interface needs improvement

The downside of SAP IQ, from what I understood from the management side, is that the front end for the DBA, for the admin, is not that user-friendly. If you compare it with SQL Server Management Studio, it is not that user-friendly GUI for the admin. But the engine is very strong and powerful. It is easy to deploy SAP IQ; the implementation and installation are easy. The downside I see is that it doesn't allow most integrated backups; many of the marketplace players such as NetBackup, those software integrated backups are not available. So, if you want to take a backup, you need to take it locally, and then only you can back it up to any storage or anything. Those features such as integrated backup, which would allow it to stripe into an appliance or something similar, are not present. One thing I notice as a downside is that if the CPU utilization is very high, there is no direct way we can find out which query is taking the most CPU. In any other RDBMS, there are DMVs available to find out which query is taking most of the CPU, but those features are not present in SAP IQ. If our CPU is hitting at 100%, it is not easy to identify which connection is taking the most CPU.

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

36%

Comms Service Provider

Outsourcing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	54
Midsize Enterprise	34
Large Enterprise	81

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	16

Questions from the Community

What do you think about Dell EMC PowerStore? Is it actually a new product?

PowerStore is flexible, scalable, simple, and performant with market-leading economics for a wide range of legacy and next-gen apps. It is only Flash and can support many workloads from today's app...

See all answers

How does Dell's EMC PowerStore compare with its EMC Unity XT?

Dell EMC PowerStore is a unified storage platform that has the added benefit of being scalable. The automated management of resources feature provides a more simple administration. I found the flex...

See all answers

What's the difference between DELL EMC Powerstore and Powermax NVMe?

Dell PowerStore is an all-solid-state midrange storage system. It has many internal elements taken from other Dell offerings and integrated into the PowerStoreOS. The installation and setup have a ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP IQ?

IQ implementation costs about three thousand dollars. It's less expensive compared to alternatives like Teradata Base in terms of transactional efficiency.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAP IQ?

When it comes to SAP IQ, the areas that could be improved or enhanced include the error messaging and the locking capabilities, as that's where we often encounter problems. When there is an issue, ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SAP IQ?

Our usual use cases for SAP IQ is that we have a Software-as-a-Service architecture where this database is the foundation for our SAP BusinessObjects platform. This is where it's getting its data f...

See all answers

Comparisons

HPE Alletra Storage vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 14% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 11% of the time

Dell PowerVault vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 9% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 8% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 7% of the time

More Dell PowerStore Competitors

SQL Server vs SAP IQ

Compared 11% of the time

SAP HANA vs SAP IQ

Compared 9% of the time

Snowflake vs SAP IQ

Compared 9% of the time

Oracle Database vs SAP IQ

Compared 8% of the time

OpenText Analytics Database (Vertica) vs SAP IQ

Compared 6% of the time

More SAP IQ Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerStore

January 2026

Download Dell PowerStore product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP IQ

January 2026

Download SAP IQ product report

Also Known As

PowerStore

Sybase IQ

Overview

Dell PowerStore is a scalable, high-performance platform supporting both modern and traditional workloads, enhancing IT operations with AI-driven automation and advanced data reduction features.

Designed for flexibility, Dell PowerStore integrates seamlessly with VMware, providing robust security and high IOPS. Users benefit from fast NVMe storage, intelligent data management, and scalable performance to handle diverse workload demands. However, improvements are needed in replication, enterprise functionalities, and UI complexity. Stability and support issues highlight the need for enhanced monitoring and pricing strategies.

What are the key features of Dell PowerStore?

Advanced Compression: Optimizes storage capacity effectively.
Data Deduplication: Reduces redundant data, improving efficiency.
Scalability: Easily adjusts to growing business needs.
VMware Integration: Enhances virtualization performance.
AI-Driven Management: Simplifies IT operations.
NVMe Storage: Provides fast, reliable access to data.
Robust Security: Ensures data protection.

What benefits does Dell PowerStore offer?

High Performance: Supports demanding applications with high IOPS.
Flexible Design: Adapts to changing workload requirements.
Cost Efficiency: Promotes ROI through data reduction and scaling.
Enhanced Management: Streamlines operations with AI and integrations.
Improved Data Handling: Efficiently manages databases and storage.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and IT, Dell PowerStore is critical for VMware virtualization, high-performance databases, and backup storage. It supports hosting virtual machines, mirroring storage, and handling SAP and Oracle databases effectively. Its role in hybrid and on-premises setups showcases its adaptability and integration capabilities for mission-critical tasks.

Dell Technologies

SAP® IQ software delivers speed and power for extreme-scale enterprise data warehousing and analytics. Its column-oriented, grid-based massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture and patented data compression and indexing technologies enable companies to exploit the value of huge amounts of data at the speed of business.

SAP

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

ASR Group, Citrix, State of Indiana, PocketCard Co. Ltd.

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerStore vs. SAP IQ

December 2025

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