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Infobright DB vs Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

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

Infobright DB
Ranking in Data Warehouse
20th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (34th)
Microsoft Parallel Data War...
Ranking in Data Warehouse
12th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Infobright DB is 2.1%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is 2.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse2.4%
Infobright DB2.1%
Other95.5%
Data Warehouse
 

Q&A Highlights

it_user104457 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Apr 13, 2014
 

Featured Reviews

it_user708987 - PeerSpot reviewer
MySQL DBA at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Excellent reporting server that is compatible with MySQL
We ran into some quirks that Infobright had. We interacted with Infobright's support and were able to resolve them. There still are issues with data replication - Infobright is currently for one server (unless you buy the Infobright appliance). This would mean that redundancy is something you need to implement yourself.
HassanFatemi - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Smart Data-Driven Solutions
Has handled large volumes of data effectively but still needs cost flexibility
There could be improvements on the cost side of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse because it is still considered to be quite expensive by a lot of users, and many companies are not interested in solutions with parallel data warehousing due to this expense. Addressing the cost would be the number one area for improvement. Additionally, I have not worked recently with it, so I don't know if this feature already exists, but if it doesn't, having an elastic feature that adjusts the service's power dynamically based on the workload would be beneficial instead of fixing the power at a specific level.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The performance of ad hoc aggregation queries is superior to any RDBMS that I have used and I have used them all."
"The high compression and the relatively fast load for a free product."
"Infobright allowed us to reduce the number of moving parts and complexity that we had while providing good performance to produce our reports."
"It has very amazing smart grid query feature for very fast aggregate queries across millions of rows"
"We now have multiple times faster queries in comparison to MS SQL."
"Infobright gave us the ability to avoid significant changes in our data structure and just use Infobright like BigDataMySql."
"ICE helped us improve the speed for the “group-by” query by 10x."
"It is very straightforward and easy to work with."
"It is a very stable database."
"The data transmissions between the data models is the most valuable feature."
"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
"It is not a pricey product compared to other data warehouse solutions."
"It performs very well overall."
"The stability and ease of use of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse are valuable features."
"This is a great product for big data analytics as it can challenge other MPPs quite well."
"Overall, I rate Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse a nine out of ten."
 

Cons

"There still are issues with data replication - Infobright is currently for one server (unless you buy the Infobright appliance)."
"MPP, distributed processing!!! And better integration with Hadoop."
"There was no scalability at all. Infobright didn't permit any changes in tables."
"Only the data from the columns that reached 2GB will actually decrease. Other columns below 2GB in size do not leave the disk."
"After all the re-work to our product to remove as much reliance on Infobright, and the extra hardware costs we had to absorb, there was definitely a negative return on investment."
"When running a complex subquery, the system hangs without giving the user any response."
"On the contrary, we have switched back to the MS SSAS Tabular Model, because of pricing policy."
"We didn’t purchase the Enterprise Edition because it was too expensive for a product that wasn’t going to replace our main DWH database (Oracle), but was, somehow, only an addition for it."
"Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is excellent but very expensive. Working on the pricing could make it a better solution."
"The product scalability needs improvement."
"We find the cost of the solution to be a little high."
"The solution is expensive and has room for improvement."
"The product does not have all of the features that the native products have."
"If the database is large with a lot of columns then it is difficult to clean the data."
"They need to incorporate a machine learning engine."
"I think that the error messages need to be made more specific."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our pricing was based on server instances and it was actually very cheap compared to Oracle. I guess you get what you pay for."
"The tool could be expensive if we need to manage a lot of data."
"I think the program is well-priced compared to the other offerings that are out in the market."
"The solution's pricing is fairly decent for organizations with huge data sizes."
"All the features that we use do not require any additional subscription or yearly fees."
"Technical support is an additional fee and is expensive."
"Microsoft has an agreement with the government in our country, so our customers get their licensing costs from the Ministry. Whenever we work with any government, company, or government institute, which is mainly what we are doing, that license comes directly from the Ministry of Technology and Information."
"The solution is cost-effective."
"They offer an annual subscription. The pricing depends on the size of the environments."
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Answers from the Community

it_user104457 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Apr 13, 2014
Apr 13, 2014
I think hands down it's Exadata since for the front end apps it's just another Oracle database which means everything under the sun is compatible with it.
2 out of 3 answers
it_user89046 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sales at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Apr 10, 2014
Given we partner with many or all of the above, or can get to them as we access all data, I have the following opinion - InfoBright is very new and probable to be sold long term. It is also an expensive subscription so presents highest risk to me. Exidata is Oracle - if you like Oracle and their style, it maybe ok, but then it is Oracle. Microsoft is Microsoft - tends to be cheap to acquire and expensive to implement and maintain. Teradata is pricey but of the group presents the least risk and the greatest number of front end partners. The product I represent is unique as it is designed for high complexity large numbers of users and data and runs inside Teradata taking better advantage of the architecture. Disclosure: I work for Information Builders
it_user3309 - PeerSpot reviewer
Presenter at a consultancy
Apr 10, 2014
You are asking about front end tools but you do not mention which ones. What you have are "database backends" and each has different features. The utilization will depend on what kind of expertise you have available else you will end up trying to implement say, Teradata on Exadata which may not give you the best solution. What are your criteria for success? Based on these you will have to evaluate each solution -- I am sure each vendor will be happy to set up the environment and work with your set of sampl,e data to show you have they evaluate against your criteria.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Marketing Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Performing Arts
8%
Insurance Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise22
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse?
The pricing could be better; I think it actually just went up.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse?
The basic use case for us is virtual machines. In real estate, we use it for our operations. They handle large data sets well, and the performance is good during those times.
 

Also Known As

Infobright
Microsoft PDW, SQL Server Data Warehouse, Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse, MS Parallel Data Warehouse
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

REZ-1, SonicWALL, IntegriChain, Fuseforward International Inc., Polystar, Live Rail, Mavenir Systems, JDSU Partners, Bango
Auckland Transport, Erste Bank Group, Urban Software Institute, NJVC, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Tata Steel Europe
Find out what your peers are saying about Infobright DB vs. Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.