No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud vs SAP BW4HANA comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (16th)
SAP BW4HANA
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (10th)
 

Featured Reviews

FM
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…
Ritesh Durvasha - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Has supported efficient data processing and streamlined reporting for large-scale sales operations
The capability to handle a large amount of data and perform ETL operations is most valuable. Additionally, sending data out of SAP BW4HANA through Open Hub, which is a free service, is another valuable feature. In contrast, many other products charge for sending data out of their systems, such as Data Sphere or BDC, which charge premium service fees. Regarding advanced analytic tools in SAP BW4HANA, users can directly connect to Analysis for Office without additional charges. It's convenient as users don't have to download data into Excel since it's already connected to the system. From an integration capabilities perspective, it's easy to connect to SAP systems, though integration with non-SAP systems presents more challenges.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The performance is okay as long as the volume of queries is not too high."
"It will be MPP, so performance should improve."
"DashDB is a good product to work with and the extra cost you spend on performance, technical support and tools to work with is worth it."
"Since my company is an IBM partner, it has enabled us to offer cloud data warehouse solutions on a 100% IBM stack."
"The way that it scales will help a lot of customers that are stuck with Netezza boxes that can't grow any larger.​"
"Ease of migration from Netezza DB; IBM ported over all Netezza's functionality and made the warehouse DB/dashDB the best of breed of the two."
"One of the most amazing features of dashDB is how it uses compression to get results in lighting speed."
"It is stable when there is support from IBM."
"The solution's performance is really good. Also, it's easy to operate, easy to administer, and relatively simple to install."
"SAP BW4HANA is very stable."
"The product is stable."
"We like that it is an SAP product, so we can easily connect with the SAP ERP system."
"It is the way forward if an organization is already in the SAP ecosystem."
"The features I find most valuable in SAP BW4HANA include the minimal modeling optics, where earlier in the BW System we had a lot of modeling objects for things like virtualization and data staging, but in SAP BW4HANA they have simplified everything, allowing us to design data by using minimal objects combined into a single object."
"The ability to instantly pull data is the most valuable feature."
"The solution is easier to maintain than traditional SAP products."
 

Cons

"The support channels need to improve."
"There are some limitations in adding data files to table spaces, and improvements are needed for regional support."
"I would like to see improvements in backup and authentication. It needs the ability to increase the number of retained backups to more than 2 days."
"With dashDB, scalability and uptime need more improvement."
"Containers get corrupted very easily. Restoring them using GPFS can result in a lot of issues."
"Db2 is not a solution that I recommend. We have a lot of experience and we are not satisfied with the product or the support that we received."
"Tech support for dashDB is awful. We usually have tickets open for three to four weeks."
"Ultimately, the product itself has challenges and we are not currently satisfied with the support, either."
"For improvement, I think AWS for HANA could be better, but it is an on-premise solution."
"I would like to see easier connectivity with other tools."
"Pricing would be a good improvement. A lot of customers think that it's very expensive and especially support is very expensive."
"One thing that could be enhanced in SAP BW4HANA is the user interface for process chains."
"The cost of the product might be an area that might introduce some restrictions or limitations to customers, making it one of the aspects where improvements are required."
"BW/4HANA could improve query optimization."
"One thing is that it costs more because you have to acquire that license for the product, which itself is a waste."
"Stability is something that needs to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If your going to go with warehouse DB/dashDB, use the cloud or Sailfish version."
"It is an expensive product."
"As an investment, the solution is very expensive."
"SAP BW/4HANA is expensive."
"The SAP HANA application still hasn't been leveraged to the fullest extent, but it's a five-year enterprise license."
"For the on-premises version of the product, the solution offers a perpetual-based licensing model to its users. In general, SAP offers a monthly subscription-based licensing model to its users."
"In general, it's quite expensive."
"We have a broad licensing arrangement, which is expensive but worth it for sizeable businesses."
"We started as early birds from the SAP side. We got this entire suite for free. I cannot really talk about the price because we didn't have to pay anything."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Warehouse solutions are best for your needs.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise30
 

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 needs improvement with SAP BW4HANA?
For improvement, I think AWS for HANA could be better, but it is an on-premise solution. SAP is asking us to move to one client approach and suggested moving to data warehouse cloud, which should h...
What is your primary use case for SAP BW4HANA?
My use cases involve the client I am working with, who already has a BW ON HANA system, and we are currently migrating and redeveloping things in SAP BW4HANA; they are decommissioning the BW On HAN...
 

Also Known As

IBM dashDB
SAP BW/4HANA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Copenhagen Business School, BPM Northwest, GameStop
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud vs. SAP BW4HANA and other solutions. Updated: October 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.