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IBM Netezza Performance Server vs Oracle Exadata vs SAP BW4HANA 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
7.1
IBM Netezza Performance Server improves data query speed and efficiency, enhancing business performance and cost savings through compression.
Sentiment score
6.3
Oracle Exadata offers early break-even, reduced costs, increased performance, and significant savings despite complex licensing challenges.
Sentiment score
7.7
SAP BW4HANA centralizes data, enhances productivity and insights, with ROI expected in three to five years.
The investment is good, which is why people choose this hardware.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
IBM Netezza Performance Server praised for knowledgeable support; mixed feedback on resolution speed post-acquisition, yet communication remains consistent.
Sentiment score
6.5
Oracle Exadata support praised for expertise, but critiques focus on delays and process efficiency improvement needs.
Sentiment score
5.6
SAP BW4HANA support receives mixed reviews, praised for technical assistance but criticized for variable response times and delays.
Technical support is very costly for me, accounting for twenty-five to thirty percent of the product cost.
This involved creating blueprints for integrating Oracle products into client systems, followed by technical presentations to Oracle teams and stakeholders.
Exadata comes with a platinum gateway and comprehensive support, which often gets immediate attention with severity one cases.
In the meantime, I found solutions independently and provided two solutions to my client.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.1
IBM Netezza struggles with scalability, requiring extra hardware for expansion, prompting users to consider cloud alternatives for growth.
Sentiment score
7.5
Oracle Exadata offers efficient scalability with flexible configurations, easy expansion, and high costs; ensure compatible hardware generations.
Sentiment score
7.1
SAP BW4HANA provides strong scalability through horizontal and vertical scaling, with positive user feedback despite budgeting challenges.
It is provided as a pre-configured box, and scaling is not an option.
Within a site, scalability is excellent.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
IBM Netezza Performance Server is stable, offering high uptime and reliable performance, with occasional issues due to maintenance or compatibility.
Sentiment score
7.8
Oracle Exadata is praised for reliability and stability, with improved models offering redundancy and high availability, minimizing downtime.
Sentiment score
7.6
SAP BW4HANA is stable and reliable but faces scalability challenges with large datasets and needs more cloud-orientation.
Once installed, Exadata is very stable.
 

Room For Improvement

IBM Netezza struggles with scalability, user interface, query performance, big data support, and high costs, needing better tools and integration.
Oracle Exadata needs cost management, simplified patching, improved support, better customization, enhanced security, and third-party integration.
SAP BW4HANA struggles with complexity, integration issues, high costs, a steep learning curve, and limited customization and support.
The cloud version is only available in AWS, and in the Middle East, it is not well-developed in the Azure environment.
I cannot create an extended rack cluster with one node on one site and another node on a different site.
There are minor areas where improvement is needed, such as making the user interface more user-friendly and enhancing configuration and customization options.
Integration needs improvement.
 

Setup Cost

IBM Netezza offers high performance and low maintenance but is considered costly, especially for mid-sized organizations, with significant licensing fees.
Oracle Exadata's high costs are justified by its performance and reliability, offering value through reduced operational expenses.
SAP BW4HANA is costly, with high migration and certification fees, affordable for large enterprises but expensive for smaller ones.
I would rate the price an eight on a scale from one to ten, indicating it is fairly expensive.
The certification cost for SAP BW4HANA in 2025 is expected to be one lakh forty thousand.
 

Valuable Features

IBM Netezza Performance Server delivers fast analytics, ease of use, robust support, and efficient data warehousing with minimal maintenance.
Oracle Exadata enhances performance, handles large databases efficiently, and simplifies management with advanced features and intelligent storage capabilities.
SAP BW4HANA offers flexible, efficient data management and real-time analytics, featuring user-friendly interfaces and strong integration with SAP ERP.
It operates as a high-speed data warehouse, which is essential for handling big data.
It also offers high backend speed between self-storage units and servers, which is beneficial for processing.
The most valuable features of Oracle Exadata are its high availability and cluster environment.
The best features include the ability to create data sources directly on tables, and perform mapping without creating info objects.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of IBM Netezza Performance Server is 4.4%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Exadata is 14.1%, down from 18.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP BW4HANA is 3.9%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Oracle Exadata14.1%
SAP BW4HANA3.9%
IBM Netezza Performance Server4.4%
Other77.6%
Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

Shiv Subramaniam Koduvayur - PeerSpot reviewer
Parallel data processing streamlines operations while cost and cloud integration challenge adoption
The cost of the solution is on the more expensive side, which is a concern for me. Additionally, its promotion and interaction with cloud applications are limited. The cloud version is only available in AWS, and in the Middle East, it is not well-developed in the Azure environment. For the cost to be reduced, it should match competitors. Many features need to be incorporated on the cloud.
Ahmed-Yehia - PeerSpot reviewer
Exceptional database performance with high availability and good reliability
The major use of Exadata is for running databases, big databases, and also for backing them up. It provides high availability and high performance specifically for databases, and not for applications, just Oracle databases High availability and high performance are very valuable aspects of the…
Csaba Grünblatt - PeerSpot reviewer
Performs all necessary data warehouse tasks and offers additional functionalities
SAP BW4HANA improved data reporting processes significantly. Performance on HANA database is good. Well-built data models ensure consistent and fast reporting. Reusable models enhance efficiency, even for SaaS services. In-memory computing, especially since HANA, has greatly improved performance in data analysis tasks. It eliminates the need for complex optimizations like creating indexes or aggregates. Queries that once took minutes now run in seconds, enabling real-time reporting, especially for SAP ECC on HANA. SAP BW4HANA's integration capabilities are streamlined with a simplified architecture and more virtual layers. You can directly load data into optimized layers, reducing the need for extra storage. The introduction of Open ODS Views allows for additional logic and master data inclusion, making integration faster and simpler. The learning curve for SAP BW4HANA is much faster now compared to ten years ago, thanks to abundant free resources like documentation, videos, blogs, and learning journeys provided by SAP. It is simpler to learn with these resources available compared to the past when you had to attend courses and rely on books. I would recommend SAP BW4HANA to users looking to implement it, especially if they want to keep their systems on-premise and already have SAP systems. Those with BW on HANA have two choices: BW4HANA or DataSphere, depending on their cloud strategy. If they are advanced in their cloud strategy and want to migrate off-premise, DataSphere is a good choice. However, for a robust solution on-premise or in a private cloud, BW4HANA is an excellent option. Overall, I would rate BW4HANA as a nine out of ten. It performs all necessary data warehouse tasks and offers additional functionalities. We use it traditionally, with complex transformations and models but with less emphasis on real-time processing and third-party sources.
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Comparison Review

it_user232068 - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 5, 2015
Netezza vs. Teradata
Original published at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/should-i-choose-net Two leading Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) architectures for Data Warehousing (DW) are IBM PureData System for Analytics (formerly Netezza) and Teradata. I thought talking about the similarities and differences…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Insurance Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
32%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Manufacturing Company
17%
Retailer
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise33
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business47
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise86
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM Netezza Performance Server?
The cost of the solution is on the more expensive side, which is a concern for me. Additionally, its promotion and in...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Netezza Performance Server?
The solution has generally received positive feedback from me and is recommended for continued use by end users. Howe...
What do you like most about Oracle Exadata?
It is the best solution for OLTP and data warehousing.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Exadata?
The cost of Oracle Exadata is substantial, particularly in terms of maintenance costs and licensing. This pricing str...
What needs improvement with Oracle Exadata?
Patching Oracle Exadata can be challenging due to its numerous components including network, blade, CPU, storage, and...
What do you like most about SAP BW4HANA?
One significant advantage of SAP BW/4HANA is the direct integration with the SAP HANA database, providing seamless ac...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP BW4HANA?
The certification cost is extremely high. I completed certification for $40,000. The certification cost for SAP BW4HA...
What needs improvement with SAP BW4HANA?
Integration needs improvement. In reporting, I am not comfortable with the creation of variables, and some calculatio...
 

Also Known As

Netezza Performance Server, Netezza, Netezza Analytics
No data available
SAP BW/4HANA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Seattle Childrens Hospital, Carphone Warehouse, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Battelle, Start Today Co. Ltd., Kelley Blue Book, Trident Marketing, Elisa Corporation, Catalina Marketing, iBasis, Barnes & Noble, Qualcomm, MediaMath, Acxiom, iBasis, Foxwoods
PayPal, EBS, Organic Food Retailer, Garmin, University of Minnesota, Major Semiconductor Company, Deutsche Bank, Starwood, Ziraat Bank, SK Telecom, and P&G.
Information Not Available
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