IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud vs SAP Business Warehouse comparison

IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud vs. SAP Business Warehouse

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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

IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud

Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse

16th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SAP Business Warehouse

Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse

14th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Cloud Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud is 0.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Business Warehouse is 1.2%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Data Warehouse

Featured Reviews

FarhanFarhan

Database Engineer at Meezan Bank

Enhancing analytics with seamless data dumping and reliable support

Our primary use case is data storage and analytics The organization has decided to purchase a full stack solution from IBM due to positive responses, which helped them upgrade from the previous version. The data dumping into the raw zone and the feature of BigQuery is quite attractive. There…

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JavedKhan1

SAP Security/GRC Manager at Tata Consultancy

Offers powerful analytics and integration capabilities but requires improved upgrade processes

SAP Business Warehouse could have been better. There is room for improvement from a technical perspective. So, from a technical perspective, when we are upgrading a Business Warehouse server or we are migrating from one place to another, the capability required for this upgradation has many manual activities. It took us around a month to streamline our server. Let’s say there are some transaction codes. Transaction code is a set of programs, and when you want to run a program from the backend, you need to hit the transaction code. It is called a T-code. So during the upgrade, many transaction codes get affected, and as a security consultant, it is my responsibility to recheck those transaction codes which are affected. Sometimes more than 100 codes may get affected, sometimes 500, and sometimes more as well. So, it takes a hell lot of time to integrate them again. That is a limitation or defect within the SAP Business Warehouse. SAP Business Warehouse should come up with proper solutions. Upgradation is an automatic activity. It should happen by itself. We just need to initiate it, and the backend SAP server is automatically upgraded. But it should handle the transactional code as well. They should not get absolutely, and any authorization object should not get deleted from the transaction codes. So, that functionality SAP Business Warehouse should come up with.

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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

"The way that it scales will help a lot of customers that are stuck with Netezza boxes that can't grow any larger."

"It will be MPP, so performance should improve."

"It is stable when there is support from IBM."

"The performance is okay as long as the volume of queries is not too high."

"SAP Business Warehouse is a scalable solution."

"The warehouse is the solution's most valuable feature."

"The key element in this solution is its rapid response. If you have a question about prices, buyers, customers, providers, or services, you need the answer in a minute or two. That's the key benefit for us that a solution like BW gives us."

"The real-time information is great."

"Now, because of the HANA integration, the hard disk and RAM are together, and because of that, the output is very quick and very fast actually."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the advanced structuring of data capabilities. You can get different structures of data to suit your needs."

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

"The most valuable feature of SAP Business Warehouse is its hybrid functionality, allowing users to leverage both SQL-based data warehouse capabilities from HANA and feature-based data warehousing from BW."

More SAP Business Warehouse pros

Cons

"Right now, we are implementing on ESX VMware 6.0. Support for this platform is poor. Also, one of the backup/recovery options is broken and IBM is not addressing the issue."

"There are some limitations in adding data files to table spaces, and improvements are needed for regional support."

"Ultimately, the product itself has challenges and we are not currently satisfied with the support, either."

"Tech support for dashDB is awful. We usually have tickets open for three to four weeks."

"Containers get corrupted very easily. Restoring them using GPFS can result in a lot of issues."

"SAP Business Warehouse could integrate better with other ETL tools."

"The solution could offer better connectivity with other databases."

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

"They should reduce the product’s installation package size for easier downloading."

"The way the data is stored is kind of rigid in SAP BW as a product. It could be more flexible so that when we are designing a solution, we can design our own data structures and try to improve performance."

"The solution should be more open to the cloud."

"The advanced structuring can be complicated and the interface is not very intuitive."

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

More SAP Business Warehouse cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If your going to go with warehouse DB/dashDB, use the cloud or Sailfish version."

"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."

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

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

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

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

"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."

"The solution is quite expensive."

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

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850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What advice do you have for others considering IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud?

Organizations of all sizes, especially those who are in need of powerful and elastic cloud data warehouse solutions that can help administrators maximize the efficiency of their data-based operatio...

What needs improvement with IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud?

There are some limitations in adding data files to table spaces, and improvements are needed for regional support.

What is your primary use case for IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud?

Our primary use case is data storage and analytics.

What do you like most about SAP Business Warehouse?

Out-of-the-box reports are very useful.

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

The solution is quite expensive. We paid a yearly subscription fee.

What needs improvement with SAP Business Warehouse?

Over a period, we realized that the license and maintenance costs were quite expensive. Every day, we had to run the background job ODS. Eventually, we moved away from SAP Business Warehouse and bo...

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Comparisons

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Compared 34% of the time

Amazon Redshift vs IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud

Compared 32% of the time

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Amazon Redshift vs SAP Business Warehouse

Compared 23% of the time

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs SAP Business Warehouse

Compared 19% of the time

Snowflake vs SAP Business Warehouse

Compared 17% of the time

Databricks vs SAP Business Warehouse

Compared 14% of the time

BigQuery vs SAP Business Warehouse

Compared 13% of the time

More SAP Business Warehouse Competitors

Product Reports

Cloud Data Warehouse

Download IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud product report

SAP Business Warehouse

Download SAP Business Warehouse product report

Also Known As

IBM dashDB

No data available

Overview

IBM dashDB family offers private and public cloud database solutions for transactional and analytic workloads, with IBM fully managed or client managed options with a Common SQL engine across all deployment options.

IBM

Reporting, analysis and interpretation of business data are crucial to preserve and enhance the competitive edge of companies by optimizing processes and enabling them to react quickly and in line with market needs. SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) provides tools and functions that enable companies to attain these goals. In SAP BW, you can integrate, transform, and consolidate relevant business information from productive SAP applications and external data sources. SAP BW provides you with a high-performance infrastructure that helps you evaluate and interpret data. Decision makers can make well-founded decisions and identify target-orientated activities on the basis of the analyzed data.

SAP

Sample Customers

Copenhagen Business School, BPM Northwest, GameStop

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

IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud vs. SAP Business Warehouse