Google Cloud Datalab vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence comparison

Google and SAP are both solutions in the Data Visualization category. Google is ranked #15 with an average rating of 9.0, while SAP is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.3. Google holds a 1.2% mindshare in DV, compared to SAP’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of SAP users who would recommend it.

Google Cloud Datalab

Read 6 Google Cloud Datalab reviews

1,794 Views
682 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

SAP BusinessObjects Busines...

Read 114 SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence reviews

9,322 Views
2,703 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Google Cloud Datalab

SAP BusinessObjects Busines...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 15, 2026

SAP BusinessObjects and Google Cloud Datalab are competing in business intelligence and cloud analytics. SAP BusinessObjects dominates structured enterprise reporting, while Google Cloud Datalab stands out in flexibility and cloud-based computations.

Features: SAP BusinessObjects is equipped with dynamic scheduling, semantic layer for robust data analysis, and a comprehensive dashboard for enterprise-level reporting. Google Cloud Datalab offers sophisticated data visualization tools, machine learning integration, and seamless connection with various Google Cloud services to enhance big data processing.

Room for Improvement: SAP BusinessObjects could benefit from simpler integration with non-SAP data sources, enhanced real-time analytics capabilities, and more intuitive user interfaces. Google Cloud Datalab might improve by enhancing user-friendly interfaces, expanding support for non-Google Cloud services, and making machine learning tools more accessible to users with less technical expertise.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP BusinessObjects is known for its intricate on-premises setup requiring significant IT resources, complemented by thorough enterprise-level customer service. Google Cloud Datalab, in contrast, offers an efficient cloud-based deployment with quick setup and proactive Google Cloud support, streamlining the client experience.

Pricing and ROI: SAP BusinessObjects involves considerable initial costs for infrastructure, with long-term ROI through stable enterprise reporting. In contrast, Google Cloud Datalab’s pay-as-you-go pricing model reduces initial expenditures, providing cost-effective solutions for organizations prioritizing cloud-native scalability and quick ROI in dynamic environments.

To learn more, read our detailed Data Visualization Report (Updated: April 2026).

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Data Visualization

April 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

Google Cloud Datalab

Ranking in Data Visualization

15th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Science Platforms (16th)

SAP BusinessObjects Busines...

Ranking in Data Visualization

5th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

114

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Data Visualization category, the mindshare of Google Cloud Datalab is 1.2%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence is 3.1%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Visualization Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence	3.1%
Google Cloud Datalab	1.2%
Other	95.7%

Data Visualization

Featured Reviews

LijomonJose

System Architect at UST Global EspaÃ±a

dashboards are good and data visualization is more meaningful for the end-user

Access is always via URL, and unless your network is fast, it would be a little tough in India. In India, if we had a faster network, it would be easier. In a big data environment, like when forcing your database with over a billion records, it can be tough for the end-user to manage the data. You need to have a single entity system in each environment. It's not because of GCP, but it would be great to have options like MongoDB or other similar tools in GCP. Then, we wouldn't always need to connect to the cloud and execute SQL queries. Even if your application is always connected to its database, the processing can be cumbersome. It shouldn't be so complicated. Once the data is collected, it should be easily sorted.

Read full review

EmmanuelOladinrin

Data Analytics Manager at Dangote Industries Limited

Solution empowers self-service reporting and delivers comprehensive performance insights

Empowering business users means they should be able to work independently without depending on the developer. One advantage of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is self-service capabilities, allowing users to do drag and drop to build their own reports and perform analyses without needing technical know-how.The platform has many drivers that I can use to connect to virtually all available databases, making it easy to integrate with Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and many others. With the cloud version, I can fetch data on-premises and to the cloud for analysis easily. It is so flexible that I can make choices for fetching data. For authentication in an SAP environment, I can choose to integrate with SAP logon for SSO or use AD authentication for convenience, along with the flexible integration options.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"All of the features of this product are quite good."

"The infrastructure is highly reliable and efficient, contributing to a positive experience."

"For me, it has been a stable product."

"In MLOps, when we are designing the data pipeline, the designing of the data pipeline is easy in Google Cloud."

"Google Cloud Datalab is very customizable."

"All of the features of this product are quite good."

"The APIs are valuable."

"Has features that can be leveraged to scale out and scale up."

"It has got great flexibility; as a reporting tool, it has a great deal of flexibility for numerous data resources that you can bring into it, it allows you to write your SQL query directly within the product so you can do server-side joins instead of pulling all the data into Crystal Reports to aggregate that data, it has great visualization, and for the most part, it operates quite efficiently."

"The features which the solution has been awesome, and the way the data is fetched from the database and the queries are executed is unique using the Universe of Business Objects."

"I chose Business Objects because it's easy to use."

"It gives you a lot of flexibility in designing your dashboards."

"The product works well, but is only as good as the servers it uses."

"The SAP BusinessObjects product suite is made of different products; this review refers to the Web Intelligence product, whose user-friendly interface enables non-IT-literate persons to create their own queries without needing SQL knowledge, and that has been the case for a very long time."

"Web Intelligence has evolved into a one-stop shop for BI reporting, ad-hoc query and analysis that just keeps getting better."

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence pros

Cons

"The product must be made more user-friendly."

"We have also encountered challenges during our transition period in terms of data control and segmentation. The management of each channel and data structure as it has its own unique characteristics requires very detailed and precise control. The allocation should be appropriate and the complexity increases due to the different time zones and geographic locations of our clients. The process usually involves migrating the existing database sets to gcp and ensure data integrity is maintained. This is the only challenge that we faced while navigating the integers of the solution and honestly it was an interesting and unique experience."

"There is room for improvement in the graphical user interface. So that the initial user would use it properly, that would be a good option."

"The interface should be more user-friendly."

"Even if your application is always connected to its database, the processing can be cumbersome. It shouldn't be so complicated."

"Connectivity challenges for end-users, particularly when loading data, environments, and libraries, need to be addressed for an enhanced user experience."

"There are a lot of stability related issues with all SAP BI products, especially compared with similar Oracle, Cognos or QlickView tools."

"Technical Support: Fair to Poor..Business Objects sometimes gets lost in the quagmire of SAP"

"There are areas of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform that need improvement, particularly in licensing, which can make it complex and expensive for users."

"The platform's pricing needs improvement."

"The biggest area for improvement would be the dashboarding capabilities due to the recent change from Xcelsius to Dashboard Designer."

"The foreground handling is disastrous."

"It would be good if they could integrate the possibility for end users to create end models for themselves that they can use, especially for site operators, and if they could provide the end user not only the self-service BI, but also the self-service analytics, based on a predefined model, the same way that Oracle did."

"The solution can improve by having more analytical features."

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is affordable for us because we have a limited number of users."

"The product is cheap."

"The pricing is quite reasonable, and I would give it a rating of four out of ten."

"SAP is losing market to its competitors because of its costly user license and licensing model. They can do much better on the licensing side. That's what Microsoft has been doing, and that's why Power BI is gaining market share at the moment. SAP needs to relax a little bit on the licensing part. If Microsoft is giving people a solution that is half of the cost of SAP, people will definitely go with Power BI."

"It is not cost-effective. It is expensive."

"Just work with SAP to make sure you have enough licenses but don't go overboard."

"The platform's pricing needs to be revised."

"The product's pricing falls on the spectrum's cheaper side, excluding its licensing cost. The product's pricing is good compared to other tools in the market. My company makes payments towards the licensing costs of the product on a yearly basis."

"We purchase licenses through Epic. So, we get an Epic price as opposed to the SAP price. If we were going to use other products like Webby that they offer or exclusively use BI Launch Pad, it would cost a lot because half of our employees would touch it in some fashion. So, we use Epic-Crystal integration to keep the licensing cost down. I believe the BI Launch Pad licensing is something like $800 for each, and the Crystal Report licensing is something like $500 for each, but that's not what we pay."

"Its price is fair."

"It is not a subscription model, but you must purchase a perpetual license for this."

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user6663

BI Expert at a transportation company with 51-200 employees

May 25, 2013

SAP Business Objects vs. Microsoft BI

A quick look at the whole idea on another weblogs gives you a sense that all of them just talked about very brief things like report refresh feature in BO or cube feature in MS Analysis Service. I choose MS BI and I want to share my reasons and opinions on why I choose it and give you another quick…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

22%

Construction Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	32
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	68

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Google Cloud Datalab?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Datalab?

It's for our daily data processing, and there's a batch job that executes it. The process involves more than ten servers or systems. Some of them use a mobile network, some are ONTAP networks, and ...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Google Cloud Datalab?

Overall, I would rate it a nine out of ten. Google Cloud is very good. Once you go through the features of Google Cloud, it's a good idea to get a GCP certification so you have an idea of how it ca...

See all answers

Seeking lightweight open source BI software

There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I would recommend as follows: 1) If you have legacies of SAP, Oracle - look for SAP...

See all answers

Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualization and analysis?

Both tools have their positives and negatives. First, I should mention that I am relatively new to Tableau. I have been working on and off Tableau for about a year, but getting to work on it consta...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform?

SAP BTP is an expensive solution.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

Dataiku vs Google Cloud Datalab

Compared 8% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Google Cloud Datalab

Compared 7% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Google Cloud Datalab

Compared 7% of the time

More Google Cloud Datalab Competitors

SAP Business Data Cloud vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

Compared 23% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

Compared 7% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle OBIEE vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

Compared 5% of the time

Oracle Analytics Cloud vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

Compared 3% of the time

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Datalab

April 2026

Download Google Cloud Datalab product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

April 2026

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence report

Download SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence product report

Also Known As

No data available

SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform, SAP BusinessObjects, Business Objects, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio

Overview

Google Cloud Datalab offers an integrated environment for seamless data processing and analysis. It combines robust infrastructure with free call-up features to enhance user experience, making it a go-to choice for data-driven tasks.

Google Cloud Datalab is geared towards users seeking efficient data handling solutions. It provides a seamless setup with robust infrastructure, focusing on enhancing APIs and offering meaningful data visualization through its dashboards. Notable AI capabilities include auto-completion and data logging, although some minor configuration challenges exist. While transitioning from AWS can be complex, the platform supports dynamic data pipeline design that suits Python development, offering an end-user friendly environment.

What are the key features of Google Cloud Datalab?

Robust Infrastructure: Provides seamless setup with strong backend support.
Free Call-Up: Allows use without extra costs, enhancing accessibility.
Data Visualization: Dashboards offer meaningful insights into data trends.
AI Capabilities: Features auto-completion and data logging for efficiency.
Customizable Architecture: Adapts to different data handling needs effectively.

What benefits should users expect from Google Cloud Datalab?

Efficient Data Analysis: Streamlines exploratory data analysis in machine learning.
Enhanced API Value: API integrations add significant value to data handling.
Friendly Python Environment: Suitable for end-users looking for ease in Python development.
Adaptive Pipeline Design: Supports complex data transitions from AWS.
Global Availability: Helps overcome time lag issues with server location selection.

In specific industries, Google Cloud Datalab is instrumental in managing data analysis, machine learning exploration, and dataset preprocessing. It facilitates the transfer of workloads from AWS and ensures efficient daily data processing. Organizations benefit from its capability to provision machine learning models into Vertex AI, bolstering research and development efforts. The global availability feature plays a significant role in selecting optimal server locations, addressing time lag and connectivity challenges.

Google

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform offers powerful tools for enterprise reporting and data visualization, enhancing strategic decision-making through robust integration and secure analytics capabilities.

Designed for comprehensive enterprise reporting, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform integrates seamlessly with SAP ERP, supporting organizations in creating detailed financial, operational, and academic reports. The platform allows data manipulation across multiple sources using a semantic layer and provides intuitive tools like Web Intelligence and Lumira for user-driven report creation. It features centralized management, versatile connectors, and supports large-scale data analytics critical for business forecasting.

What are the key features of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform?

Integration Capabilities: Seamless connection with SAP ERP and various data sources.
Dynamic Scheduling: Automate report generation for timely insights.
Robust Security: Protects data with stringent security measures.
Semantic Layer: Simplifies data manipulation across sources.
Intuitive Tools: Facilitates user-driven report creation with Web Intelligence and Lumira.

What benefits should be considered in reviews?

Comprehensive Reporting: Enables detailed and accurate enterprise reports.
Decision-Making Support: Enhances strategic decisions with reliable data.
Scalability: Efficiently manages large-scale and complex data analytics.
Versatility in Analysis: Offers flexibility for ad hoc analysis and KPI monitoring.

Organizations across sectors like healthcare, education, insurance, and retail leverage SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform for its capability in facilitating detailed reports and integrating dashboards for key performance indicators. Its extensive reporting features support in-depth analytics vital for business prediction and decision-making processes.

SAP

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

SRAM, Kennametal, Fairfax Water, British American Tobacco, Velux, and FedEx.

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